Still Live

The still life style did not reach its freedom until the 17th century by Italian and Dutch artists. During that century, they explored the possibilities of the object to its maximum, this one being the representative of ideological concepts in a hidden way, but in the 18th century the symbolic load is abandoned for a more formal search to satisfy the aesthetic needs of the time. Within this scene, Luis Melendez, the author of this piece, makes a great example. The main role of this work is a bright and round cantaloupe- a type of melon-, over a wooden surface, behind it, wood and glass containers, and a basket with bread, plates and a bundle of fabric, all elements that are clearly outlined over the painting's background. The treatment of light as well as the quality achieved with the fruits, the roughness of clay and the realism of the objects show as a result a sober and elegant composition in its simplicity, with a precise and suggestive color range. The work had to belong to an extensive series of still life of the Royal Collection that was used to decorate the palace of Aranjuez and that was originally part of a Natural History study in El Escorial to reproduce, in the painter's words "the four seasons of the year, and more appropriately, the four elements in order to create a fun study with all the food that the Spanish climate produces", within the Rationalist frame of the 18th century.