Still life with a bowl of fruit, birds and a view of the window
on the left the painting from 1621, on the right the one from 1623
Still life with a bowl of fruit, birds and a view of the window is the title of two paintings by the Spanish painter Juan van der Hamen y León , created in 1621 and 1623 respectively . The still lifes , each 56 cm × 74 cm, painted in oil on wood , are designed as a pair of pictures and are in the painting collection of the Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial . The older of the two paintings is a copy of a picture of the same name by the Flemish painter Frans Snyders and the first known still life by Juan van der Hamens.
description
The Still Life with Fruit Bowl, Birds and Window View from 1621 shows a ceramic bowl heaped with blue and white grapes , pears , hazelnuts , plums , apples and peaches on a table covered with a red damask cloth . In front of the peel is a halved peach, on the half of which a fly has settled with the core. In the lower left corner of the picture there is a vine leaf hanging from a vine stalk protruding from the bowl. On the right side of the table there are three grapes on a stem, around which a sparrow and goldfinch are flocking. Three other birds are sitting on the fruit in the bowl, a tit is on the approach. In addition, there are other flies on the white grapes and pears. Through the window you can see a landscape with trees, a river and a tower in the background, which is animated with deer and hares. The birds and grapes in the picture are the ecphrastic reference to Zeuxis , which was also taken up again in the decor of the bowl with a garland of grapes occupied by birds.
The counterpart created two years later shows the same subject in mirror image. In the porcelain bowl there are grapes, apples and pears, as well as a grapevine and grape leaves. Flies sit on one of the apples and a grape leaf, a moth on one leaf in the bowl . On the left front corner of the table is an open pomegranate , which is surrounded by a goldfinch and a titmouse. The landscape in the upper left window is in a darker mood compared to the first picture.
Frans Snyders, 1610s
46 cm × 64 cm
oil on wood
background
The still life with a bowl of fruit, birds and a view from the window from 1621 is the first known still life by Juan van der Hamen y León. and is a copy of the painting Still Life with Fruit Bowl, Birds and Window View by the Flemish painter Frans Snyders , which Van der Hamen also included in several other works. The art historian Felix Scheffler , who did research on Spanish still life, also saw the first in the picture direct allusions to the ekphrasis of the Zeuxis legend in autonomous still lifes.
literature
- William B. Jordan : Juan van der Hamen y León & The Court of Madrid . Yale University Press, New Haven 2005. ISBN 0-300-11318-8 .
- Ira Oppermann: The Spanish Still Life in the 17th Century. From the windowless room to the light-flooded landscape . Reimer, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3496013686 .
- Felix Scheffler: The Spanish still life of the 17th century: theory, genesis and development of a new pictorial genre . Vervuert, Frankfurt am Main 2000. ISBN 9783893545155 .