Still-Life with Flowers with a Garland of Fruit and Flowers

In this unusual painting, the artist has represented an octagonal framed painting of a still-life with flowers within a rustic garland of fruit and flowers. The picture is a witty trompe-l’oeil that delights the viewer with its play on the idea of the “imitation of nature”, an idea that in the 17th century constituted the very raison d’etre of still-life painting. In the well-known story of the ancient painter Zeuxis - whose painted grapes were so realistic that birds tried to eat them - the pictorial values of illusionism and naturalism were linked together from the very beginnings of the genre in classical antiquity. This painting was also probably directly inspired by the precedent of Zeuxis’s grapes.

The painting within the painting represents one of Espinosa’s own small still-lifes. This is the painting that is signed by the artist, who painted a number of other still-lifes in which a shell acts as a vase for flowers.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 7 minutes):

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