Aleandro de Loarte Circle

Circle of ALEJANDRO DE LOARTE (1598/1599 - Toledo, 1626), XVII century.
"Still life of birds and fish".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 44 x 60 cm; 56 x 72 cm (frame).

Still life of Baroque style and period composed of birds overflowing from a wicker basket and several fishes gasping on the table. They have been worked in detail and with great attention to quality. With a relatively simple structure, however, a dynamic composition unfolds thanks to the twisting of the bodies. The dynamism is enhanced by the use of bright, metallic colors on the scaled bodies and plumage. These are colors that in turn cause a great contrast with the rest of the tenebrist tonality of the canvas. The light treatment of this work reflects the painter's interest in an incipient chiaroscuro, an example of the international mannerism of the beginning of the century in which Alejandro De Loarte was trained, an author in whose area of influence this painting can be placed.

There is little biographical information available on Alejandro de Loarte and most of the dates of his life are approximations. We do know that his father, a painter named Jerónimo de Loarte, was probably his first teacher and survived him. At his death, he was in charge of a prestigious studio in Madrid and, shortly before his death in Toledo, he named the artist Pedro Orrente as his executor. His religious paintings varied in quality; some were even copies. His style is closely related to that of Luis Tristán, and Orrente's influence is evident. A large canvas of "St. Bernard with his monks", in the convent of the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande, once believed to be the work of Francisco Pacheco, has been reattributed to him. Still lifes make up the bulk of his work and he seems to have developed his style from the works of Juan Sánchez Cotán, but with a lighter touch that seems to follow Venetian examples. Many of them also contain human figures; in the style of Bartolomeo Passerotti. His composition is very symmetrical and somewhat crowded.