Circle of BARTOLOMÉ PÉREZ DE LA DEHESA (Madrid, ca. 1634-1698).
Spanish school of the 17th century.
"Flowers.
Oil on panel.
Measurements: 23,5 x 33,5 cm (frame).
Judging by the style and technique of this floral composition from the Baroque period, the aura of influence of Bartolomé Pérez Dehesa can be appreciated. Specialising in the floral genre, in which he achieved unusual mastery, this Madrid painter received numerous court commissions. In the present painting, which belongs to the circle of Bartolomé Pérez, the wide range of pearly and reddish tones that emerge from a dark background convey an impression of freshness and chromatic subtlety. The petals of the tulips and the corollas of the roses are modelled with dense brushstrokes of pigment, using fine transparent glazes.
Bartolomé Pérez Dehesa trained with Juan de Arellano, who later became his father-in-law when he married his daughter Juana in 1663. He specialised in painting flowers and garlands, the latter including religious scenes and depictions of saints. The Museo del Prado possesses twenty-three works of this type from the royal collection, the Museo de la Trinidad and the donation of the Duchess Dowager of Pastrana in 1889. He excelled as a decorative painter, taking part in the ornamentation of the ephemeral arches made for the entry of Queen Maria Luisa of Orleans, the first wife of Charles II, in 1679 and in the stage designs for the theatres of the Alcázar and the Buen Retiro. These works earned him the appointment of painter to the king on 22 January 1689. Months later he began to execute fifty-five paintings of flowers on the panels with gilded backgrounds on the walls and ceiling of the so-called "Camón dorado" of Charles II in the Alcázar in Madrid, of which only one painting remains in a private collection.