National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Still Life with Sweets and Pottery
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

Canvases like this one earned Van der Hamen his reputation as the greatest Spanish still-life painter of the seventeenth century, when that form was revived as a worthy subject in and of itself rather than as an adjunct to a symbolic or narrative work. Concerned simply with the harmonious arrangement of objects and the accurate representation of texture and light, Van der Hamen established the ringlike stoneware bottle as the center of the composition around which other circles and spheres play. Marzipan boxes foreshortened into ovals, spherical jars of honey and preserved cherries, a circular tray of round, sugared donuts, serpentine cakes, and plump, glazed figs -- delicacies found on the refined tables of the aristocracy in Spain -- contrast with the geometric severity of the setting. The artist arranged the objects on stepped stone ledges, thus varying their distances from the light source. Braided straw, wood, terra cotta, and crystal are masterfully described. These carefully rendered textures reach a pinnacle in the water-filled glass finger bowl that casts a shadow and, at the same time, reflects the light. The calculated distribution of a single color, red in various tones, weaves the forms into a harmonious whole whose simplicity, at first glance, belies its careful structure.

Inscription

lower right: Juan vanderHamen i Leon / fat 1627

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Possibly Diego de Messía Felípez de Guzmán, Marquès de Leganés, Madrid, 1655.[1] Private collection, Florence, by 1950.[2] (Victor Spark, New York), at least 1952 to 1954.[3] (David M. Koetser Gallery, New York, London, and Zurich);[4] purchased 1955 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] William B. Jordan, Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age 1600-1650 (exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1985: 135), raises the possibility that this painting is identical to one owned by Leganés at his death in 1655. The marquis owned several still lifes by van der Hamen, including one described in his inventory (no. 97) as "otro banquete de la misma mano y tamaño (i.e. 2 baras poco mas o menos de alto y una y media de ancho), con cajas de conserbas, an carastillo de diferentes dulces y brearos" (another banquet of the same hand and size, with boxes of conserves, a basket of varied sweets and drinking cups). As Jordan notes, the dimensions are significantly different from those of 1961.9.75 (84.2 x 112.0 versus c. 167.2 x 135.4). He suggests that a scribe's error may be responsible for the discrepancy. Certainly the vertical dimensions seem excessive for a still life of this type.

[2] Roberto Longhi, "Un momento importante nella storia dell 'Natura Morta,'" Paragone 1 (1950): 34-39, pl. 16.

[3] Recorded as owner in the exhibition catalogue La nature morte de l'antiquité a nos jours, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, April-September 1952, no. 72, and in Allan Gwynne-Jones, Introduction to Still-Life (London, 1954: 66-67, no. 59).

[4] Letter from David Rust to William Jordan, 6 June 1969, in NGA curatorial files.

Exhibition History

1952
La Nature morte de l'antiquité à nos jours, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1952, no. 72, pl. 28.
1985
Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age 1600-1650, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, 1985, no. 17, color pl. 17.
1995
Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya, The National Gallery, London, 1995, no. 13, repro.
1999
El Bodegón Español [De Zurbarán a Picasso], Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1999-2000, no. 12, repro.
2005
El Alma de España [The Soul of Spain], The Albuquerque Museum, 2005, no. 21, repro.
2008
El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, 2008, no. 63, repro.
2010
In the Presence of Things: Four Centuries of European Still Life Painting. Part One: 17th-18th Centuries, Fundaçäo Calouste Gulbenkian, Exhibition Gallery, Lisbon, 2010, no. 28, repro.

Bibliography

1950
Longhi, Roberto. "Un momento importante nella storia della `Natura Morta'." Paragone 1 (1950): 34-39, pl. 16.
1954
Gwynne-Jones, Allan. Introduction to Still-Life. London, 1954: 66-67, no. 59.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Colllection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 104, no. 37, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 126, as Still Life.
1958
Gaya Nuño, Juan Anotonio. La pintura española fuera de España; historia y catàlogo. Madrid, 1958: 209, no. 1454.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 272, repro., as Still Life.
1959
Kubler, George, and Martin Soria. Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and Their American Dominions, 1500-1800. Baltimore, 1959: 235, pl. 122a.
1959
Soria, Martin. "Notas sobre algunos bodegones españoles del siglo XVII." Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 32 (1959): 273-280.
1960
Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 22, color repro., as Still Life.
1964
Jordan, William B. "Juan van der Hamen y León: A Madrilenian Still-Life Painter." Marysas 12 (1964-1965): 52-59, fig. 16.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 66, as Still Life.
1967
Jordan, William B. "Juan van der Hamen y León." Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1967: 333, no. 16, fig. 34.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 58, repro., as Still Life.
1970
Bergström, Ingvar. Maestros españoles de bodegones y floreros. Madrid, 1970: 36.
1971
Angulo Iñiguez, Diego. Pintura española del siglo XVII. Ars Hispaniae, 15. Madrid, 1971: 29.
1974
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. "Caravaggio y los Caravaggistas en la pintura española." In Colloquio sul tema Caravaggio e i Caravaggeschi. Rome, 1974: 57-85, fig. 12.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 172, repro., as Still Life.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 206-207, fig. 202.
1979
Held, Jutta. "Verzicht und Zeremoniell: zu Stilleben von Sánchez Cotán und van der Hamen." Stilleben in Europa. Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte. Munster, 1979-1980: 390-394, repro. 391.
1983
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. Pintura española de bodegones y floreros. Exh. cat. Prado, Madrid, 1983: 42, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 247, no. 311, color repro., as Still Life.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 198, repro., as Still Life
1990
Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 84-87, color repro. 85.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 83, repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: v, 152-153, 166-167, no. 127, color repros.
2006
Cherry, Peter. Luis Meléndez: Still-Life Painter. Madrid, 2006: 95, 96, fig. 78.

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