Garland of Flowers with a Landscape
Arellano, Juan de
Arellano, Juan de
Santorcaz, Madrid, 1614 - Madrid, 1676
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On display elsewhere
Flower painting experienced its greatest development in the Netherlands -there were both Flemish and Dutch schools- and in the different regions of Italy. Both Northern and Mediterranean artists produced works that became known throughout Europe -especially in Spain, where they had a decisive influence on local artists. The present painting and its pendant (P2508) magnificently exemplify the dependence on Flemish models and the high quality achieved in this sort of work. Their author, Juan de Arellano, was 17th-century Spain’s most brilliant and reputed flower painter. These works correspond to a very popular and widespread style that uses floral motives to draw the viewer into what was customarily a religious scene. Here, however, we are presented with landscapes framed by sinuous cartouches with rich and complex stone moldings, all of which clearly denote the artist’s debt to the contrived, magnificent and stunning art of the Flemish school.
Both of these works date from the beginning of Arellano’s mature period, when he was thirty-eight years old. As such, they already contain the excellent qualities that, along with his skill at crafting agreeable creations, insured his lasting fame. His elegant and firm lines constitute excellent images of all elements. As was his custom at that time, he used primary colors in both canvases, especially intense reds and blues, as well as soft yellow and a very pure white that he combined with other tonalities to produce extraordinary decorative results. The cartouches, a group of moldings that serve to frame the landscapes, are drawn from Northern mannerism, while the beautiful panoramas they contain are thought, hypothetically, to be the work of a different painter, more expert at this sort of work. The top of a pillar or pilaster appears in the foreground. Finely molded with decorative classical motifs, it bears a group of complex architectural forms topped, in turn, by two scallop shells and other equally well delineated elements. In each work, an irregularly shaped opening among these elements offers a glimpse of the vague details of a remote but pleasing landscape with luminous horizons. The lighting helps create a sense of depth, with a vanishing point that draws the viewer’s glance. And, of course, there are flowers everywhere: luminous and colorful garlands as well as branches and buds that have fallen from above and are distributed with calculated carelessness. Following Flemish practice before Rubens, both compositions are divided into three successive planes, each with its own predominant color: ocher, green and blue, successively.
The upper part of the cartouches is hidden by flowers and leaves artfully arranged according to their shape and size. These include roses, carnations, wallflowers, jasmines, lilies, anemones, mallow, English dogwood, pansies, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, daisies and irises whose iridescent colors are brought out by the directed light that also shines on the intensely green leaves. The abundant insects and butterflies that flutter and land on the flowers are rendered with a precision that recalls the work of miniaturists, emphasizing the previously mentioned technique determined by Flemish painting’s fondness for exactitude. In terms of composition and execution, both canvases are clearly influenced by Jesuit artist Daniel Seghers (1590-1661), a specialist in flower paintings whose works are frequent in Spanish collections and must have been familiar to Arellano. We should add that the presence of insects and the most minute details of each plant, including skilled and believable drawings of thorns and stems, recall this genre’s inventor, Jan Brueghel de Velours (1568-1625), many of whose works were in Madrid. Other elements point to that court’s growing appreciation of Italian models, perhaps due to the arrival of paintings by Mario Nuzzi (1603-1673) at the Buen Retiro Palace.
Luna, Juan J., El bodegón español en el Prado: de Van der Hamen a Goya, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p.100-103
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Tags
1652 Canvas Oil Painting
RDF
RDF
Technical data
Related artworks
- Inventory number
- P002507
- Author
- Arellano, Juan de
- Title
- Garland of Flowers with a Landscape
- Date
- 1652
- Technique
- Oil
- Support
- Canvas
- Dimension
- Height: 58 cm; Width: 73 cm
- Series
- Colección León Adolfo Laffitte
- Provenance
- Legacy of Xavier Laffitte y Charlesteguy, 1930
Bibliography +
Cavestany, Julio, Floreros y bodegones en la pintura española, Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte, Madrid, 1936, pp. 82.
Bergstrom, Ingvar, Bodegones y Floreros del Siglo XVII, Insula, Madrid, 1970, pp. 62.
Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier, Museo del Prado. Catálogo de las pinturas, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1972.
Pita Andrade, José Manuel, Ob el Grieka Ob Goje, Narodni Muzei, Belgrado, 1981, pp. 24.
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E., Pintura española de bodegones y floreros de 1600 a Goya, Ministerio de Cultura, Madrid, 1983, pp. 119, nº83.
Luna, Juan J., Guia Actualizada del Prado, Alfiz, Madrid, 1984, pp. 88.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Catálogo de las pinturas, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1985, pp. 21.
Duque Oliart, Matilde, Pintura de flores. La obra de Juan de Arellano, Goya: Revista de Arte, 191, 1986, pp. 272.
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E., La nature morte espagnole du XVII siècle a Goya, Office du Livre; Vilo, Friburgo, 1987, pp. 130 / lám. 121.
Pita Andrade, José Manuel (com.), La pintura española en su siglo de oro, Madrid, 1989, pp. nº34.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Museo del Prado: inventario general de pinturas (I) La Colección Real, Museo del Prado, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1990, pp. nº1539.
Pintura Mexicana y Española de los Siglos XVI al XVIII, Lunwerg Editores, Barcelona, 1991.
Urrea, Jesús, Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV, Museo del Prado-Caja de Ahorros de Navarra, Madrid, 1994, pp. 76-77; nº22.
Jordan, William B., El bodegón español de Velázquez a Goya, Ediciones el Viso, Madrid, 1995, pp. 132.
Museo Nacional del Prado, La belleza de lo real: floreros y bodegones españoles en el, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1995, pp. 90-91.
Jordan, William B., Spanish Still Life From Velazquez To Goya, National Gallery, Londres, 1995, pp. nº49.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Los cinco sentidos y el arte, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1997.
Agulló y Cobo, Mercedes, Juan de Arellano : (1614-1676), Caja Madrid, Madrid, 1998.
Cherry, Peter, Arte y naturaleza: el bodegón español en el siglo de oro, Ediciones Doce Calles, Aranjuez, 1999, pp. 293-294.
Portús, Javier, Pintura barroca española: guía, Museo Nacional del Prado Aldeasa, Madrid, 2001, pp. 258.
De Tiziano a Goya. Obras maestras del Museo del Prado., Tokio - Osaka, 2006.
Luna, Juan J., El bodegón español en el Prado: de Van der Hamen a Goya, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2008, pp. 100-103.
In the presence of things: four centuries of European still-life painting, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 2010, pp. 69-117.
Other inventories +
Inv. Nuevas Adquisiciones (iniciado en 1856). Núm. 1539.
Autor: Arellano / 1539. Asunto: Florero y Paisaje. / Lienzo: 73x58 cm / Nº de Catálogo: 2507/ Legado por D. Xavier Laffitte en 1930...
Inscriptions +
Juan de Arellano, 1652
Signed and dated. Front, lower left corner
T-1524
Inscribed in blue. Front, lower left corner
Exhibitions +
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Shanghái
23.04.2024 - 01.09.2024
Ages of Splendor. A History of Spain in the Museo del Prado
Lujiazui (Shanghái), China
23.04.2024 - 01.09.2024
El bodegón español en el Prado
Alcoi
24.03.2011 - 26.06.2011
El bodegón español en el Prado
Murcia
11.03.2010 - 06.06.2010
El bodegón español en el Prado
Valladolid
12.10.2009 - 14.02.2010
El bodegón español en el Prado
25.06.2009 - 20.09.2009
El bodegón español en el Prado
31.03.2009 - 31.05.2009
El bodegón español en el Prado
24.09.2008 - 30.11.2008
De Tiziano a Goya. Obras maestras del Museo del Prado
Osaka
14.07.2006 - 15.10.2006
De Tiziano a Goya. Obras maestras del Museo del Prado
Tokio
24.03.2006 - 02.07.2006
Juan de Arellano
Madrid
01.04.1998 - 01.06.1998
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
Toledo
03.11.1995 - 03.12.1995
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
Sevilla
28.09.1995 - 29.10.1995
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
Murcia
02.06.1995 - 02.07.1995
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
Valencia
28.04.1995 - 28.05.1995
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
Zaragoza
24.03.1995 - 23.04.1995
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
Pamplona
17.02.1995 - 19.03.1995
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
Vitoria
13.01.1995 - 12.02.1995
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
Santander
02.12.1994 - 08.01.1995
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
León
28.10.1994 - 27.11.1994
Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV
Vigo
22.09.1994 - 23.10.1994
La pintura española en su Siglo de Oro
Sofía
16.03.1989 - 16.05.1989
Location +
Shanghái - Museum of Art Pudong (MAP) (Temporary Exhibition)
Update date: 09-05-2024 | Registry created on 28-04-2015
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