DÍAZ, Diego Valentín - b. 1586 Valladolid, d. 1680 Valladolid - WGA

DÍAZ, Diego Valentín

(b. 1586 Valladolid, d. 1680 Valladolid)

Spanish painter and collector. He was the son and pupil of the painter Pedro Díaz Minaya (c. 1555-1624), who worked in Valladolid, the location of Philip III’s court from 1600 to 1606. For more than 50 years, Diego Valentín Díaz was Valladolid’s most important painter, producing a great number of religious works and portraits containing colourful imagery; many of these are widely dispersed in collections and churches throughout Spain. However, he is likely to have painted still-life and flower paintings over his long career, too. A number of flower paintings mentioned in his post-mortem inventory of 1661 were probably his own work.

Although his early works were executed in a style of late Mannerism, he gradually introduced more naturalistic elements, resulting in paintings with precise drawing, a varied but rather dull colouring, an emphasis on decorative details and a sweet expression on the faces of his religious figures. His earliest surviving works are the altarpiece (1608) of the convent of S Catalina, Valladolid, and the Martyrdom of St Sebastian and the Penitent St Peter (both 1610; Zamora, Hospital de la Encarnación).

In 1612, with his father and his brothers Francisco Díaz and Marcelo Martínez Díaz, he formed a family workshop. The Holy Family (c. 1621; Museo de la Pasión, Valladolid) is reminiscent of the work of Rubens, while the paintings (e.g. of Martino de San Lorenzo) for the altarpiece of S María de la Corte, Oviedo, use strong chiaroscuro and a naturalistic style. In 1647, by then a well-established artist in Valladolid, he acquired the patronage of Ninas Huerfanas (d. 1653) and helped in the promotion of the fraternity of S Lucas, obtaining commissions to paint their altarpieces. As a portrait painter, he worked for the nobility of Valladolid and painted some of the bishops of the city (e.g. Don Juan Vigil de Quinones, c. 1632; Valladolid Cathedral).

He also kept himself well informed about events in Seville and Madrid through his correspondence with Velázquez and Francisco Pacheco and was involved in other preoccupations such as collecting; his collection included engravings by Raphael. His last painting (the Immaculate Conception, c. 1660) was the altarpiece of the Palacio de Campos, Palencia. It was executed mostly by his pupil Bartolomé Santos (fl. 1661), as Díaz died in 1660, the year the contract was drawn up.

Still-Life

Most of the earliest examples of flower paintings that arrived in Spain - especially in court circles - from the Flemish school at the beginning of the 17th century were executed by Jan Brueghel. The first Spanish painter to incorporate flower paintings into still-life scenes was Juan van der Hamen, but the artist who established them in their own right, independently of still-life scenes of foodstuffs, animals and pots and pans, was Juan de Arellano, the most influential practitioner of flower painting in the Iberian Peninsula during the central years of the century.

These themes, whether depicted singly, in pairs or in series, were designed to decorate the homes of noble and wealthy families who wished to embellish their residences with decorative, pleasant and colourful paintings, as the main purpose of these pictures was ornamental. D�az, who was active in the rich and noble city of Valladolid, which had been the seat of the court at the beginning of the century, must have had a clientele who commissioned paintings of this kind. Although in his main area of activity, religious painting, he was conservative and showed little evolution when it came to incorporating the novel features of the Baroque language into his style, his flower paintings reveal his knowledge of Flemish art and of the new genres in vogue during the period.

The present still-life depicts a a wicker basket containing a bunch of flowers - roses, tulips, irises, hyacinths, daffodils, among others - on a table. The rich and varied colours, which stand out against a somewhat darkened neutral background, and the movement of the forms emphasise the decorative nature of the paintings.

Send Postcard Learn More

Vase of Flowers

Diego Valentin D�az enjoyed a great local reputation as a painter of religious subjects in his native city of Valladolid. The pair of charming flower paintings in the Museo Diocesano y Catedralicio in the Cathedral of Valladolid are the best-known paintings of this type by him. His large collection included a number of prints of flower pieces, which the artist may have used as sources for paintings. His testament also mentioned a still-life painting of sweetmeats by Juan van der Hamen in his possession, reflecting his interest in the works of artists at the court of Madrid.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 7 minutes):

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

Send Postcard Learn More

Vase of Flowers

The Spanish flower pieces flower pieces of the period originally hung in a religious context. They functioned as surrogates of real flowers used to decorate the altars of churches and chapels in the 17th century, just as they do today. It is not surprising, then, that flower pieces by many of the major Spanish flower painters, including Juan de Arellano, Bartolome Perez and Pedro de Camprob�n, are recorded as originally having decorated sacred places.

Send Postcard Learn More