Bartolomé Pérez de la Dehesa

BARTOLOMÉ PÉREZ DE LA DEHESA (Madrid, ca. 1634-1698).
"Still life of flowers".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 118 x 95 cm; 136 x 112 cm (frame).
This painting follows a compositional scheme that was very popular during the baroque period. In the way of resolving the diversity of flowers of joyful colors, in which a dense brushstroke of brilliant pigment has been used, the taste of the Italian school is recognizable. The chromatic juiciness of the floral piece advances rococo solutions, which tend to horror vacui. The painter has frozen the moment of maximum maturity of the flower, prior to its decay. The dark background highlights the light of the still life, extracting a wide range of tonalities.
The still life or still life occupied the lowest rung of the hierarchy of genres in the history of art, however, it became increasingly popular among buyers. In addition to the independent theme of still life, it addressed other types of painting themes by using prominent, usually symbolic, elements and images that were based on a multitude of elements of nature apparently to reproduce a part of life. It is worth noting that within the still life, the representation of flowers, or vases was established as a subgenre highly appreciated among collectors, who saw in these paintings the perfect element for the decoration of their extensive properties.
Specializing in the floral genre, Dehesa achieved unusual mastery in this type of work. This painter from Madrid received numerous court commissions. Bartolomé Pérez Dehesa trained with Juan de Arellano, who later became his father-in-law when he married his daughter Juana in 1663. He specialized in painting flowers and garlands, the latter including religious scenes and depictions of saints. The Prado Museum has twenty-three works of this type from the royal collection, the Museum of the Trinity and the donation of the duchess widow of Pastrana in 1889. He excelled as a decorative painter, participating in the ornamentation of the ephemeral arches made for the entrance of Queen Maria Luisa de Orleans, first wife of Charles II, in 1679 and in the scenographies for the theaters of the Alcazar and the Buen Retiro. These works earned him the appointment of painter of the king on January 22, 1689. Months later, he began to execute fifty-five paintings of flowers on the panels with gilded backgrounds of the walls and ceiling of the so-called "Camón dorado" of Charles II in the Alcázar of Madrid, of which only one painting is preserved in a private collection.