Still-Life with Figs

still-life

In 1753, after four years in the Eternal City, Meléndez was recalled by his father to assist with a prestigious commission from Ferdinand VI to illuminate a new set of choir books for the Royal Chapel, to replace those lost in the fire of the Alcázar in 1734. Despite the high acclaim which his illuminations (which show early signs of his skilful depiction of inanimate objects) received at court, Luis' subsequent four petitions to be appointed royal painter were declined by Charles III. It seems likely that Meléndez's archaic miniaturist style and lack of experience beyond that specialised work counted against him, at a time when the royal court required artists adept in producing large-scale works in fresco and canvas (such as Corrado Giaquinto) to decorate the new Palacio Real, as well as proven portrait painters to promote the recent accesion of Charles III in 1759.

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About the Artist

Luis Meléndez

1716 – 1780

Spanish still-life painter, active mainly in Madrid. He is regarded as the finest Spanish painter in his speciality in the 18 th century continuing the austere traditions of the 'bodegón' established by Sanchez Cotán, as well as Velázquez and Zurbarán. He is sometimes called 'the Spanish Chardin' but he spent much of his life in poverty. He was trained by his father and L. M. van Loo in Spain. He was van Loo's assistant 1742-48. He worked in Madrid and revisited Italy before 1775. His work is rare outside Spain, but there is an example in the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris has a striking self-portrait, signed and dated 1746. The self-portrait is his earliest known work, in which he looks younger than thirty.

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