Vase of Flowers

Antonio Ponce was an apprentice and, probably, an assistant of Juan van der Hamen who enjoyed a long career at the court of Madrid as a specialist painter of still-lifes and flower pieces. This flower painting, and its pendant in the same private collection, representing glass vases of flowers standing on a stone ledge, follows the most conventional of formats for flower paintings. As flower paintings became important decorative features in the homes of the period, they were increasingly conceived as pendant paintings and, indeed, as decorative series of works. Moreover, the stone ledges on which the flowers rest enter the pictures from opposite sides, a feature that would have permitted their owner to hang them on either side of a central element, such as a window, a painting or piece of furniture, with the perspective of the ledges appearing to converge on a central point.

Ponce has meticulously studied the play of light on the petals of the flowers, carefully tracing their edges with thin strokes of white paint and applying highlights as a series of hatched brushstrokes in light paint. Personal factors probably explain the depth of Van der Hamen’s influence on Ponce’s flower paintings: the older artist was a pioneer in this genre in Madrid and had taught the younger artist to paint. Ponce’s faith in the aesthetic principles of Van der Hamen appear to be in direct contrast with the spirited touch exemplified in the works of his younger contemporaries, such as Juan de Arellano and Gabriel de la Corte.