Still Life (Rabbit)

Among the manufactured objects, we can find metallic ones: hammered copper pots, strainers, tureens, and brass pitchers, a pestle, and bronze candelabra… The live animals in Arrieta’s alacenas play an important role, not only for standing-out within the painting’s composition, but also as a boast of his mastery in execution. He portrayed some of the aforementioned animals ready to be prepared by the cook into scrumptious dishes, such as fish, dead hens or chickens, still with feathers or without them, and some even headless. Arrieta sometimes used animal parts like pig and deer heads. Occasionally, he painted animals that are still alive, like the rabbit, animals that gaze at the spectator…
Cfr. Efraín Castro Morales en "Homenaje Nacional. José Agustín Arrieta (1803-1874)", Catálogo de la exposición, Museo Nacional de Arte, México, 1994.