Tomás Yepes

TOMÁS YEPES (Valencia, ca. 1610-1674).
"Couple of still lifes with quinces".
Oil on canvas. Relined (x2).
Works exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts of Murcia.
Works reproduced in the catalog "Masters of the Spanish Baroque, Granados Collection, Unpublished Work. Museum of Fine Arts of Murcia. 2020-2021. p. 94 and Gómez Frechina, J. Masters of the Spanish Baroque. Museo de BB. AA. de Murcia, Murcia 2020, cat. no. 21 and 22 p. 88. 88.
They present Repainting and restorations on the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 55 x 75.5 cm (x2); 71.5 x 91.5 cm (frames, x2).
Following the words of the study of Gómez Frechina "this pair of still lifes with fruits offers the typical characteristics of the painter Tomás Yepes, with a taste for symmetry in both compositions, distributing the fruits in the center on two tables with blue tablecloths and the typical tips of Italy in the edges. As in other examples of Yepes, the fruits appear with some branches and leaves. The corporeality achieved in the fruits with an exquisite play of light and shadow and the importance of the glazes, not always preserved, in the way of composing and modeling of the Valencian painter stand out.
These canvases, companions with fruits, perhaps respond to two still lifes quoted by Orellana in property of Pare Ambrosi Esteve: "One, basket of pears and the other, of apples". The scholar notes that the realism of the fruits deceived the painter's daughter, who was going to restore them... Another pair of still lifes, signed on the back as Thomas Yepes and dated 1642, from the Museo Nacional del Prado, formerly from the Naseiro collection, Frutero de Delft y dos floreros (67 x 96 cm; inv. P.7909) and Dos fruteros sobre una mesa (67 x 96 cm; inv. P.7910), present tablecloths with similar embroidery. The same can be seen in Yepes' Still Life with Sweets and Dried Fruits (76.5 x 112 cm) and Still Life with Desserts and Flowers (76.5 x 112 cm) in the Arango collection. Yepes' realism and expertise in capturing from reality the inanimate objects sometimes close to trompe l'oeil was already praised by the aforementioned Orellana:"And I said (sic) in writings, because otherwise, it is very trivial and frequent (sic) his name with applause, and I keep from his hand with esteem a basket full of ubas (sic), whose grains, diaphanous and transparent, with their branches, could deceive the birds, like those ubas (sic) works so celebrated by Zeuris (Biografia Pictorica Valentina o Vida de los pintores, arquitectos, escultores y grabadores valencianos, edited by Xavier de Salas, Valencia 1930 and 1967)". The incorporation now of this pair of still lifes with fruits, to the pictorial corpus of Yepes contributes to a greater knowledge of the production of one of the most interesting and versatile still life painters of the Spanish XVII century".
Tomás Yepes is currently considered the most outstanding still life painter of the Valencian Baroque, and in fact to him we owe the greatest interest in this genre in the Valencian sphere. Although he was born around 1610, Yepes began his artistic production in the second half of the century, and continued working until the seventies, although his painting does not present great stylistic changes throughout his production. In his work we can appreciate a search for geometry and symmetry through the composition of the flowers, which he places in a radial arrangement, in the manner of the early Spanish baroque, as we see in this canvas. His aesthetic language is characterized by several features that we can observe in this work. Among them are the importance of naturalism, detailed and precise technique especially visible in the qualities of the objects, chromatic range mainly warm, typically Valencian; influence of the Neapolitan still life in the brightness and the sumptuousness of some elements and a certain tenebrist character in the lighting. Regarding the biographical data that allude to Tomás Yepes, there is no extensive bibliography that can establish his entire artistic career. It is known that his works were signed between 1642 and 1674, the year of his death. Currently his works are kept in different private collections and in relevant artistic centers among which the Prado Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia and the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales of Madrid, among other public and private collections, stand out.