ARELLANO, Juan de

This impressive still-life represents one of the finest achievements by the pre-eminent flower painter of 17th century Spain, Juan de Arellano. The painting was produced at the height of the artist’s career and is remarkable for the quality of execution. This florero belongs to a small but coherent group of paintings of flowers in a wicker basket on a stone ledge, all of almost identical dimesions, painted by Arellano during the first few years of the 1670’s.

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Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, ballet suite, op. 71, Waltz of the Flowers

During the 1640s, flower paintings from Antwerp and Rome began to be collected in Madrid and, by 1650, Arellano was producing distinctive versions of this pleasing subject. In later years he became a brilliant practitioner of the genre, taming the exuberance of his Flemish models by concentrating his formidable powers of observation on individual species.

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Franz Schubert: Blumenlied (Flower Song) D 431

Throughout his career, Juan de Arellano executed flower pieces of a horizontal format that represent bouquets in open weave wicker baskets. During the last decade of his career, he painted a number of these works on a large scale that constitute the apogee of his flower pieces of this type, of which this is a particularly imposing example.

In fact, Arellano’s style changed little during the last twenty years of his career. However, the flowers in this painting are the product of many years of experience in this field and are modelled with considerable fluency and freshness of touch.

This still-life belongs to a small but coherent group of paintings of flowers in a wicker basket on a stone ledge, all of almost identical dimesions, painted by Arellano during the first few years of the 1670’s. It depicts a still-life of roses, irises, morning glory, hyacinths, chrysanthemums and carnations in a wicker basket, set upon a stone ledge, together with a stem of lilies, butteflies, dragonflies and a snail.

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Giacomo Puccini: Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums), elegy for string quartet

The pair of Basket of Flowers on a Plinth, signed and dated 1664, now in the same private collection, was executed when Arellano was at the height of his powers and exemplifies the decorative and stylistic characteristics of his art that made his works so sought after by collectors in the 17th century.

Arellano was able to maintain the interest of his admirers by varying the formats of his pictures. In the case of these works, he transformed one of his most popular picture types, the basket of freshly picked flowers, by perching the basket on the edge of semi-ruined classical style entablatures that act as plinths. In creating this architectural fantasy, Arellano borrowed the motifs from the prints of the classical architectural orders of Marcantonio Raimondi (1475-1539), representing in one painting a simplified version of a Corinthian entablature and in the other, an even more simplified version of this, without its frieze. These architectural features enter the pictures from opposite sides, thus allowing the works to flank a central element in a decorative scheme, and endow them with certain grandeur.

The combination of ruins and flowers in these paintings heralds a picture type that became particularly popular in the following century.

The pair of Basket of Flowers on a Plinth, signed and dated 1664, now in the same private collection, was executed when Arellano was at the height of his powers and exemplifies the decorative and stylistic characteristics of his art that made his works so sought after by collectors in the 17th century.

Arellano was able to maintain the interest of his admirers by varying the formats of his pictures. In the case of these works, he transformed one of his most popular picture types, the basket of freshly picked flowers, by perching the basket on the edge of semi-ruined classical style entablatures that act as plinths. In creating this architectural fantasy, Arellano borrowed the motifs from the prints of the classical architectural orders of Marcantonio Raimondi (1475-1539), representing in one painting a simplified version of a Corinthian entablature and in the other, an even more simplified version of this, without its frieze. These architectural features enter the pictures from opposite sides, thus allowing the works to flank a central element in a decorative scheme, and endow them with certain grandeur.

The combination of ruins and flowers in these paintings heralds a picture type that became particularly popular in the following century.

This painting shows a still-life of narcissi, daffodils, tulips, hollyhocks, hyacinths and other flowers in a glass vase on a stone ledge, with butterflies.

This still-life was painted in the middle of the 17th century, in the golden age of the Baroque still-life painting. In the 1630s and 1640s many paintings (hunting scenes, animal paintings, bodegones) were commissioned for the palaces in the Buen Retiro Park and Torre de la Parada. These paintings exerted a great influence on Spanish painting in the following years. This influence can be seen in this painting, too.

The painting depicts a still-life of roses, carnations, anemonies, syringa, peonies and hyacinths in a glass vase, upon a stone plinth. It is signed on the stone plinth lower centre: Juan, de, Arellano.

While paintings of flowers in a vase represented the most conventional type of flower piece in the 17th century, in the pair of Vase of Flowers, now in the same private collection, Arellano has depicted particularly rich arrangements in remarkably ornate bulbous glass vases with gilt mounts. The paintings could be surrogates for actual flower arrangements in the homes of wealthy contemporaries.

The apparently natural floral arrangements seen in these paintings were the result of Arellano’s careful ordering of the flowers. He derived this type of composition from his study of earlier Flemish flower paintings and prints, and varied it little throughout his career. It is hard to distinguish the flowers he painted from nature from those deriving from other pictures, graphic sources, memory and practice.

While the repetitive nature of Arellano’s still-lifes would not have been noticed in his own time, when his works were dispersed among different collections, this factor is augmented in pictures united by photography and exhibitions.

While paintings of flowers in a vase represented the most conventional type of flower piece in the 17th century, in the pair of Vase of Flowers, now in the same private collection, Arellano has depicted particularly rich arrangements in remarkably ornate bulbous glass vases with gilt mounts. The paintings could be surrogates for actual flower arrangements in the homes of wealthy contemporaries.

The apparently natural floral arrangements seen in these paintings were the result of Arellano’s careful ordering of the flowers. He derived this type of composition from his study of earlier Flemish flower paintings and prints, and varied it little throughout his career. It is hard to distinguish the flowers he painted from nature from those deriving from other pictures, graphic sources, memory and practice.

While the repetitive nature of Arellano’s still-lifes would not have been noticed in his own time, when his works were dispersed among different collections, this factor is augmented in pictures united by photography and exhibitions.

In this painting, a bulbous glass vase of flowers stands on a bare rock outcrop, a feature that links the bouquet with the outdoors, despite the fact that it is viewed against a nondescript background of a light, neutral colour.

Arellano’s flower pieces are carefully orchestrated in terms of colour. His arrangements are usually composed of flowers in the primary colours - red, yellow and blue - with white blooms. The artist also habitually painted with high quality pigments and achieved saturated hues of considerable intensity, which gave his paintings great impact and a high degree of legibility when they shared the wall with other works in the richly decorated interiors of contemporary collectors. Unusually among Spanish flower painters, he frequently employed the expensive mineral pigment lapis lazuli in his blue flowers.

Although Arellano absorbed some of the lessons of Italian and indeed Flemish flower painting, this mature work demonstrates that he developed a style that was entirely his own. The existence of a simplified replica of this painting (Madrid, Caja Madrid) demonstrates that the painter repeated successful compositions for the wide market to which his art appealed.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes):

Franz Schubert: Blumenlied (Flower Song) D 431