Gabriel de la Corte

Attributed to GABRIEL DE LA CORTE (Madrid, 1648 - 1694).
"Allegory of time with a border of flowers".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Work reproduced in Peter Cherry, "El bodegón español en el siglo de Oro. Foundation for the Support of the History of Hispanic Art. 1999.p. 46.
Measurements: 32 x 40 cm; 40.5 x 52 cm (frame).
We see in this canvas a typical composition of the baroque period inherited from the Low Countries. It is a scheme that combines a garland with an allegorical representation of devotional type in the interior. The author combines the genres of painting in search of greater sumptuousness and a sense of theatricality, almost trompe l'oeil, very much to the taste of Baroque painting. It should be noted that, in this type of composition, the flowers are not simply a secondary or accessory element, but are worked with the same care and quality as the central image. In fact, sometimes they even show a more skilled hand, as these works were often the result of the collaboration of a painter of flowers and another specialized in the human figure. In this particular work a great mastery can be appreciated, both in the floral composition and in the scene depicted inside. An image in which the Eucharist is glorified.
The aesthetics of the work resembles the stylistic patterns of the Baroque painter Gabriel de la Corte, specialized in the realization of vases, he was the son of the painter Lucas de la Corte, also from Madrid, although his paternity has been the subject of debate among important scholars such as Antonio Palomino or Cean Bermudez. During his lifetime, De la Corte's success was scarce, which led him to eke out a meager living by painting at low prices and even completing the works of other artists by inserting flowers in their works. The work presented here follows, therefore, the basic characteristics of Gabriel de La Corte, presenting a pair of paintings of flowers arranged in vases, originating an overloaded composition in which the freedom of the invoice and the spontaneous and vigorous touch of the brush loaded with matter prevail. De la Corte's style is influenced by those of Arellano and anticipates the still lifes of flowers that, later on, will be crowded with complicated compositions on tremendously elaborated cartouches. Thus, we are faced with two mature works by De la Corte, in which the vases are filled with dense and varied bouquets of brightly colored flowers, made from dense brushstrokes. Of marked verticality, these are imaginative compositions that prelude the arrival of rococo, in which symmetry is broken with and tends to horror vacui. In them, the flowers still appear full, voluminous, in all their splendor, as will be typical of the baroque (in the rococo, however, the flowers will be preferred half-open, not so full). However, the vases are placed in the strict center of the painting, contained in elaborate vases, on pedestals finished in rocaille and before a dark background on which the flowers are cut out, vividly illuminated. However, the arrangement of the flowers has already lost the strict rigor and austerity of the naturalistic baroque. From a luminous point of view, the fact that De la Corte has concentrated the light-colored flowers in a single point, thus turning the luminous flowers into chromatic highlights that stand out in the composition and attract the viewer's attention, stands out. His intuitive technique, based on the realization of works painted on wet, through which the artist intends -and achieves- to transmit the impression of a wide range of tonalities, stands out. Some important works by De la Corte are preserved in the Prado Museum, among other important institutions.