PEREDA, Antonio de

One of the important allegorical compositions of Pereda. Another noteworthy allegorical composition, entitled the Knight’s Dream and Vanity, is in the Academy of Madrid.

The painting is signed at the right bottom. There is a smaller version in Gothenburg, and another painting of the same subject from 1665 in the Hispanic Society in New York. An interesting part of the painting is the angel represented from the back on the right side. it shows a resemblance to Murillo’s representations.

During the seventeenth century the school of Madrid, lead by the inspired Vel�zquez and Cano, developed a number of other lesser, but still interesting painters. One of them is Antonio de Pereda, author of a number of noble religious paintings, such as the Immaculate Conception, in the Ponce Museum, Puerto Rico. Especially noteworthy are his allegorical compositions.

The painting represents one of Pereda’s noteworthy allegorical compositions.

In this still-life, Pereda revives the time-honoured composition of objects arranged on a shallow ledge, illuminated by a strong light. Yet the granular textures and warm colours are new, distinctive elements in Spanish still-life painting. Pereda was able to find employment into the 1660s but by the time he died in 1678 his compromise style had become archaic.

In early 17th-century Madrid, Antonio de Pereda was one of the most successful still-life painters, in a period in which this particular genre was becoming more and more popular. He trained at the studio of his father before moving from Valladolid to the Spanish capital, becoming a prot�g� of Giovan Battista Crescenzi, a Roman artist who was Superintendent of the Royal works in Spain. Through Crescenzi, de Pereda absorbed the style of post-Caravaggian naturalism, which combined a taste for simple compositions with great attention to detail with a tendency to accumulate symbolic items in which the significance is not always obvious.

The painting was originally larger and it was probably the crowning section of a large altarpiece.

The repertoire of objects in a vanitas still-life is confined to external power symbols: crowns - including the papal tiara and mitres, as well as kingly crowns - and a knight’s armour were always part of such still-lifes, as was the globe as a symbol of worldwide expansion and a craving for conquests. These ‘elements of vanity’ are of central importance in this painting by Pereda.

A young nobleman has fallen asleep in an armchair on the left, his head, pale with sleep, supported by one hand. The content of his dream - the world and its vanity - is displayed on the table on the right, against a pitch-black background. Other objects of vanity, apart from the power insignia mentioned above, are books, music, coins, jewellery, weapons and a mask (as a symbol of Thalia - the theatre). These are all considered futile. Transience is symbolized by two skulls - one of them rolled over so that we can see inside - as well as by a burnt candle and a clock. The flowers in the vase, too, are symbols of vanity. A winged angelic creature has come flying to the scene, opening up a banner which reads ‘Aeterne pungit, cito volat et occidit.

Objects of vanity are books, music, coins, jewellery, weapons and a mask (as a symbol of Thalia - the theatre). These are all considered futile. Transience is symbolized by two skulls - one of them rolled over so that we can see inside - as well as by a burnt candle and a clock. The flowers in the vase, too, are symbols of vanity.

Antonio Pereda devoted himself to religious painting, but after a promising start at the court (evidenced by his large Relief of Genoa, painted for the Sal�n de Reinos), he had to renounce his brilliant future on the death of his protector, Juan Bautista Crescenzi, Marquis of La Torre.

In 1630 the count-duke of Olivares decided to initiate a lavish program of artistic display by the construction of a new pleasure palace on the eastern border of Madrid which came to be known as the Buen Retiro. Here theatrical plays and spectacles would be staged, tournaments and jousts would be organized, and painting, sculpture, and tapestry would be displayed. Beginning in 1630 with a modest renovation of the royal apartment in San Jer�nimo, the project was expanded in 1632 and again in 1633, culminating in a sizable complex of buildings surrounded by enormous gardens adorned by fountains, alleys and hermitage chapels. Once the structure was finished, Olivares faced with the mammoth problem of decorating the new palace, a problem that was solved by hundreds of pictures from Italy and Flanders and by commissioning as many works from local artists as they could paint. As for the works by royal artists and their disciples, the decoration of the Retiro was the major event of the 1630s and thus is a microcosm of court painting during the decade.

The Hall of Realms was the principal ceremonial room in the Buen Retiro Palace. Spanish palace decoration during the reign of Philip IV tended to be loosely programmed in comparison with Italian examples. However, the paintings in the Hall of realms, executed in 1634-35, offer an exception to the rule, for her the count-duke Olivares and his advisers invented a coherent, if straightforward program designed to magnify the power of the Spanish monarchy.

The principal element are twelve paintings of important military victories of Philip IV’s reign, which demonstrate the invincibility of Spanish arms. These are complemented by ten scenes of the life of Hercules, who was claimed by the Spanish Habsburgs (and virtually every other ruling house of Europe) as the founding ancestor of the dynasty. The final component is a group of equestrian portraits of Philip III and Margaret of Austria, Philip IV and Isabella of Bourbon, and the heir to the throne, Baltasar Carlos, which embodies the idea of dynastic legitimacy and succession. From the 27 paintings the largest share went to Francisco de Zurbar�n, who painted the Hercules scenes and the Defence of Cadiz. Vel�zquez obtained all five equestrian portraits and the Surrender of Breda. Vicente Carducho obtained the commission for three battle painting, while his pupil F�lix Castelo was awarded one. Eugenio Caj�s and his assistants and followers were given four subjects. The two remaining works fell into the hands of Juan Bautista Maino and Antonio de Pereda. The The Relief of Genoa is Pereda’s contribution.

Pereda had an extraordinary facility in the genre of still-life. In certain passages of the battle painting, particularly in the silvery reflections of the pikemen’s armour, he employs the same microscopic vision as in his still-lifes. However, the rest of the composition falls into the pattern used by the older court artists working on the decoration of the Buen Retiro. In fact, there is a marked similarity between the figure styles of Pereda and Carducho.

The term Vanitas derives from “vanus”, literally “empty” or “fleeting”, and in painting, it is used to refer to a representation that aims to make us reflect on the precarious nature of existence, on the inexorable passing of time, and the ephemeral nature of worldly goods.

This still-life by Antonio de Pereda, a Spanish painter and expert in the genre of Vanitas, presents all of the symbols alluding to the theme: skulls, fading flowers that are past their bloom, playing cards, luxury items and weaponry. The beautiful and contemplative figure of the angel, points to them, inviting to renounce them and to apply the right values in view of achieving salvation. Even the vast empire ruled by the great Charles V – whose portrait hangs above the model of the globe - is destined to vanish in time, while the holy kingdom and its eternal justice will triumph definitively, as revealed in the large painting of the Last Judgement, unveiled by a drape in the background.