Colnaghi Foundation Journal 03 - Magazine - Page 43
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Too many cooks…; Cerezo, Barranco, De Leito, and the kitchen still life in Madrid
Too many cooks…; Cerezo, Barranco, De Leito, and the kitchen still life in Madrid
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The painting was bought from Sucesores de
Rodríguez y Jiménez S.L. Antigüedades for 1.500.000
pesetas (reduced from 2.000.000 pesetas when first
offered in December 1969) and recommended for
purchase by the state by Diego Angulo (17 June 1970),
then director of the museum. See Madrid, Archivo
Museo Nacional del Prado: Caja 108, Legajo 13.10,
Expediente 27. The author wishes to thank the
following colleagues for their help in the preparation
of this article: Juan Abelló, Irene Brooke, María
Cruz de Carlos Varona, Jan Depuyt, Jaime García
Maíquez, José Gómez Frechina, Enrique Gutiérrez de
Calderón, Nicola Jennings, William B. Jordan, Beatriz
Moreno de Barreda, Edward Payne, Rafael Romero
Asenjo, Alice Thomson, and José Antonio de Urbina.
Xavier de Salas, ed., Museo del Prado: Catálogo de las
pinturas (Madrid: Museo Nacional de Prado, 1972),
p. 908, where the subject matter was given as lamb,
cock, halved head of beef and a thrush, (“cordero,
gallo, cabeza de ternera partida, un tordo ...”).
Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, D. Antonio de Pereda (1611-1678)
y la pintura madrileña de su tiempo, exh. cat. (Madrid:
Palacio de Bibliotecas y Museos, 1978-1979), no. 110.
Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, Pintura Española de bodegones y
floreros de 1600 a Goya, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo del
Prado, 1983), no. 76; nos. 74, 75 for the Cerezo still
lifes from Mexico.
“Su atribución a Mateo Cerezo se confirma por su
identidad de técnica con los bodegones firmados
de éste, conservados en el Museo de San Carlos de
México,” Alfonso Pérez Sánchez in Museo del Prado:
Catálogo de las pinturas (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura,
1985), pp. 142-143.
Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, Carreño, Rizi, Herrera y la pintura
madrileña de su tiempo: 1650-1700, exh. cat. (Madrid:
Palacio de Villahermosa, 1986), no. 134. Pérez
Sánchez claimed that there was unanimous acceptance
of the painting as a highly significant example of
Cerezo’s work as a still-life painter. Comparing it with
Cerezo’s still lifes in Mexico, he said that the mastery
of representation of bloody meat, the copper vessels,
and the bread on white cloth “son absolutamente
definitivas del modo de Cerezo.” He said that the
artist knew the “técnica suntuosa y sensual” of the
Flemish still-life painters Snyders and Fyt, especially in
the treatment of feathers, and that the “complejidad
y madurez” of the painting placed it at the end of
Cerezo’s brief life. The picture had been included the
year before in Pérez Sánchez’s exhibition Juan Carreño
de Miranda y la pintura barroca madrileña (Oviedo: Museo
de Bellas Artes de Asturias, 1985), no. 25.
Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, La nature morte espagnole (Paris:
Vilo, 1987), pp. 121,124, fig. 111, as Cerezo, 16601665. The painting is also discussed in Alfonso Pérez
Sánchez, Pintura barroca en España, 1600-1750 (Madrid:
Cátedra, ed. 2010), p. 319, as the work of Cerezo.
José Rogelio Buendía and Ismael Gutiérrez Pastor,
Vida y obra del pintor Mateo Cerezo (1637-1666) (Burgos:
Diputación Provincial, 1986), no. 69.
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Alfonso Pérez Sánchez and Xavier de Salas, The
Golden Age of Spanish Painting, exh. cat. (London: Royal
Academy, 1976), no. 78. The painting was included
in the version of the exhibition in Paris, La peintre
espagnole du siècle d’or, de Greco a Velázquez, exh. cat.
(Paris: Petit Palais, 1976), no. 74.
Eric Young, “New Perspectives on Spanish Still-Life
Painting in the Golden Age,” The Burlington Magazine
118 (1976): pp. 202-224, esp. pp. 212-213.
William B. Jordan and Peter Cherry, Spanish Still Life
from Velazquez to Goya, exh. cat. (London: National
Gallery, 1995), no. 35.
See, for instance, Javier Portús Pérez, Guía de pintura
barroca española (Madrid: Museo del Prado, 2001), pp.
260-261.
Cuatrocientos años de pintura española, exh. cat. (Caracas:
Museo de Bellas Artes, 1981), no. 57.
José Manuel Pita Andrade, Bartolomé Bennassar,
and Julián Gállego, De Greco a Picasso. Cinq siècles d’Art
Espagnol, exh. cat (Paris: Petit Palais, 1987-1988), no. 74.
Claude Gaume, Du Greco a Goya. Chefs d’oeuvre du Prado
et des collections espagnoles, exh. cat. (Geneva: Musée
d’Art et d’Histoire, 1989), no. 50.
Fernando Checa Cremades, Luci del secolo d’oro spagnolo,
exh. cat. (Bologna: Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna,
1998), no. 76.
Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, Kokuritsu Seiyo Bijutsukan,
and Nagoya-shi Bijutsukan, Pintura Española de bodegones
y floreros, exh. cat. (Tokyo and Nagoya: National
Museum of Western Art and City Art Museum,
1992), no. 35; Trinidad de Antonio Sáenz and
Mercedes Orihuela Maeso, La belleza de lo real. Floreros y
bodegones españoles en el Museo del Prado, 1600-1800, exh.
cat. (Madrid: Museo del Prado, 1995), no. 14.
Akira Kinoshita, Obras maestras del Museo del Prado, exh.
cat. (Tokyo: National Museum of Western Art, 2002),
no. 55.
José Milicua, ed., El bodegón español de Zurbarán a Picasso,
exh. cat. (Bilbao: Museo de Bellas Artes, 1999-2000),
no. 38.
Juan J. Luna, El bodegón español en el Prado. De Van der
Hamen a Goya, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Nacional del
Prado, 2008), no. 26, pp. 94-95.
Cheryl Hartup, José Alvarez Lopera, and Pablo Pérez
d’Ors, Del Greco a Goya. Obras maestras del Museo del
Prado, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado,
2012), no. 22.
Ángel Aterido, ed., Il silenzio sulla tela. Natura morta
spagnola da Sánchez Cotán a Goya, exh. cat. (Turin:
Galleria Sabauda, 2018), no. 33.
Joaquín Gómez Cano, Las aves en el Museo del Prado
(Madrid: SEO/BirdLife, 2010), p. 108, had difficulty
in identifying this bird; its size and the size of its beak
identified it as belonging to the limicola genus, but no
species of this group is known with a red head.
Nina Ayala Mallory, Del Greco a Murillo. La pintura
española del Sigo de Oro, 1556-1700 (Madrid: Alianza,
1991), pp. 237-238, esp. p. 238 noted the troubling
effect of its bloody theme.
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Pérez Sánchez in Milicua, El bodegón español de Zurbarán a
Picasso, p. 182, wrote of “la terrible cabeza y costilla de
ternera – que parecen anticipar efectos goyescos ...”
See José Ubaldo Bernardos Sanz, “No sólo de pan.
Ganadería, abastecimiento y consumo de carne
en Madrid (1450-1805)” (PhD diss., Universidad
Autónoma de Madrid, 1997), esp. pp. 103-58, 209-21,
256-69, on the preparation, sale, and consumption of
meat in Madrid in these years. This author makes the
point that the principal meat was carnero (ram, mutton)
over two years old, and that all parts of the animal
were sold at the same price.
See, for instance, Catalina Heroven et al., El
Siglo de Oro: The Age of Velázquez, exh. cat. (Berlin:
Gemäldegalerie, 2016), no. 40, Master of the
Amsterdam Still Life, Kitchen Scene.
See Peter Cherry, Arte y naturaleza. El bodegon español en
el siglo de oro (Aranjuez: Doce Calles, 1999), pp. 89-90,
fig. XIII, for a pair by Loarte which include vignettes
with kitchen scenes and the preparation of foods.
See Jordan and Cherry, Spanish Still Life, p. 87.
Ángel Aterido, El bodegón en la España del Siglo de Oro
(Madrid: Edilupa, 2002), p. 73. On the collection
of Flemish pictures of the Marquis of Leganés, see
José Juan Pérez Preciado, “El marqués de Leganés
y las artes” (PhD diss., Universidad Complutense de
Madrid, 2008).
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, inv. P7922.
Cherry, Arte y naturaleza, pp. 236-237; Portús, Guía de
pintura, no. 23.
Antonio Palomino, El museo pictórico y escala óptica
(1724), 3 vols. (Madrid: Aguilar, 1988), III, p. 306,
“Hizo también bodegoncillos con tal excelencia, que
ningunos le hacen ventaja, según los que yo he visto
en casas particulares.” Although he did not mention
any of these collectors by name.
“Pintó también bodegoncillos, con tan superior
excelencia, que ningunos le aventajaron, si es que
le igualaron algunos; aunque sean los de Andrés
de Leito, que en esta Corte los hizo excelentes.”
Palomino, El museo pictórico, III, p. 333.
The pictures were published by Diego Angulo
Íñiguez, “La Academia de Bellas Artes de Méjico
y sus pinturas españolas,” Arte en América y Filipinas
(Universidades de Sevilla) 1 (1935): pp. 1-75, esp. pp.
69-71, figs. 21 & 23, in black and white photographs.
He gave a transcription of the signatures on both: “D.
Matheo Zer …” in the bottom right corner of the
meat still life and “D. Matheo Zerezo fac. 166 …”
on the fish piece, and gave their sizes as 84 x 104 cm.
The number “4” is now favoured as the most likely
digit for the completion of the date on the last picture.
Angulo’s excitement at his discovery is evident; he said
of the meat still life, “hasta me atrevería a calificarlo
como una de las obras más perfectas que en este
género ha producido la pintura española.” Julio
Cavestany, Floreros y bodegones en la pintura Española, exh.
cat. (Madrid: Palacio de la Biblioteca Nacional, 19361940), pp. 40, 83, recognized the importance of the
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paintings and cited Angulo’s enthusiastic appraisal of
them, while complaining that deficient photographs
did not allow him to see their aesthetic quality.
As noted above (n. 4) they were included in Pérez
Sánchez’s show Pintura Española de bodegones y floreros de
1600 a Goya in Madrid in 1983 and were illustrated in
good-quality colour illustrations in his follow-up book
La nature morte espagnole du XVIIe siècle à Goya, pp. 122124, figs. 108 & 109. To the best knowledge of the
present writer, the paintings have not been conserved,
nor a technical study undertaken.
Offered at Sotheby’s, New York, 21 May 1998, no.
291, as School of Madrid. See Cherry, Arte y naturaleza,
p. 235, fig. LXXV; Rafael Romero Asenjo, El bodegón
español en el siglo XVII (Madrid: I&R, 2009), pp. 368375. Unfortunately, the technical study of the last does
not analyze the inscriptions on these paintings.
Cherry, Arte y naturaleza, p. 235, fig. LXXIV.2. It
has been paired with a painting of game birds,
pomegranates and utensils. A still life depicting a
turkey, duck and partridge on a shelf (Alcalá Subastas,
Madrid, 4 December 2003, no. 360, 81 x 110 cm),
bears a stylistic similarity to this painting. Its style is
unlike the painting of gamebirds with which Still Life
with Bread, Squid, Lobster, Fish, and Utensils is paired.
Another version of Still Life with Bread, Squid, Sepia
Lobster, Fish, and Utensils, perhaps a copy, was offered
at Sotheby’s, Monte Carlo, 17 June 1988, no. 1057,
attributed to the Circle of Giuseppe Recco.
Romero Asenjo, El bodegón, p. 357, did not find
discrete paint layers in these works.
Romero Asenjo, El bodegón, p. 384, notes the
similarities between the last motifs.
Romero Asenjo, El bodegón, pp. 376-377.
Romero Asenjo, El bodegón, pp. 367-385, on their
techniques. A fish still life was attributed with some
reservations to Cerezo’s workshop by Alfonso Pérez
Sánchez, Colección Santamarca. Pinturas restauradas en
1983 (Madrid: Fundación Banco Exterior, 1984), no.
17; this was given to De Leito by Fernando Collar de
Cáceres, “Andrés de Leito: revisión pictórica,” Anuario
del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte 20 (2008): pp.
77-90, esp. p. 96.
“Donde hay firmados de su mano varios
bodegoncillos, que estan pintados con verdad y buen
colorido.” Juan Augustín Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario
histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las bellas artes en
España, 6 vols. (Madrid: Real Academia de Nobles
Artes de San Fernando, 1800), I, p. 93. For Barranco,
see Jordan and Cherry, Spanish Still Life, pp. 108110; Cherry, Arte y naturaleza, pp. 261-262; Enrique
Valdivieso, Pintura barrocca sevilliana (Seville: Ediciones
Guadalquivir, 2003), pp. 384-388; Romero Asenjo, El
bodegón, pp. 191-201.
See Jordan and Cherry, Spanish Still Life, p. 195, n.
6, for these “bodegones” listed in the dowry of the
widow of a surgeon, Bartolomé Ría.
See Santiago Alcolea i Blanch, Ángel Aterido, and
Rafael Romero Asenjo, La colección Rosendo Naseiro
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56.
(Madrid: Icono I&R, 2014), pp. 132-141, for a
kitchen still life of modest aesthetic quality, inscribed
“Herrera” on the reverse, and which these authors
attribute to Herrera the Elder.
The possibility that Barranco may have used an
Hispanicized form of an equivalent Flemish surname
was thought unlikely by colleagues in Belgium
consulted by the author.
Peter Cherry, Tres siglos de pintura (Madrid: Caylus
Anticuario, 1995), pp. 140-143; Jordan and Cherry,
Spanish Still Life, pp. 108-110; Cherry, Arte y naturaleza,
pp. 261-262, fig. LXXXVI.2; Romero Asenjo, El
bodegón, pp. 191-195.
See Zahira Véliz et al., En torno a Velázquez. Pintura
española del Siglo de Oro, exh. cat. (Oviedo: Museo de
Bellas Artes de Asturias, 1999), pp. 132-137; Romero
Asenjo, El bodegón, pp. 191, 403-404.
Romero Asenjo, El bodegón, pp. 191-192, for the
preparation of the panels of figs. 11 & 12, which is
found to be consistent with practices in Spain.
See, for instance, Juan de Zurbarán’s Still Life with
Chocolate Service, signed and dated 1639, Kiev, Museum
of Western and Oriental Art.
Cherry, Tres siglos de pintura, p. 142. Romero Asenjo, El
bodegón, pp. 241-245, for a still life of game birds by
Cornelio Schut, signed and dated 1665.
A relevant example from Seville is Pedro de
Camprobín’s Still Life with Bowl of Fruit (Private
Collection), signed and dated 1656. This is painted on
panel and follows the works of Jacob van Hulsdonck
(1582-1647) and Isaac Soreau (1604 – ca. 1645), and
with a concomitant high degree of meticulousness.
See Cherry, Arte y naturaleza, p. 261-265; Romero
Asenjo, El bodegón, pp. 204-206.
Oil on canvas, 50 x 80 cm. The last digit of the date
(165[?]) is missing. See Cherry, Arte y naturaleza, p. 261,
fig. 187; Romero Asenjo, El bodegón, pp. 195, 197-198,
200. Pedro de Medina’s later Still Life with Crabs and
Shrimps (Naseiro Collection) may have been, in turn,
inspired by Barranco.
A pair of over doors representing fruit and vegetables
in one picture and meat, game, and fish in the other
were offered at Subastas Segre, Madrid, 23 May 2017,
no. 92, as the works of Mateo Cerezo (see Buendía
and Gutiérrez Pastor, Vida y obra, nos. 34 and 35;
Pérez Sánchez in Milicua, El bodegón español de Zurbarán
a Picasso, nos. 39 and 40). An editorial in Ars Magazine
35 (2017): pp. 12-14, noted that experts at the auction
preview considered them paintings by Barranco. The
brushwork is a little flatter in these paintings than is to
be expected in the work of Barranco, but the present
writer is unaware of the pictures’ condition.
Romero Asenjo, El bodegón, pp. 195-200.
Romero Asenjo, El bodegón, p. 197.
Still Life with Fish, Squid, Barrel, and Pans (see fig. 16)
and its unpublished pendant, representing a bowl
of prepared game birds, wine, cheese, a lemon,
and receptacle, oil on canvas, 62 x 80 cm, have an
Andalusian provenance.
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59.
No technical analysis has been undertaken in the
museum.
Cherry, Arte y naturaleza, p. 235, fig. LXXVI. The
pictures measure 50.2 x 80.2 cm. They are studied
in Romero Asenjo, El bodegón; Blanch, Aterido,
and Romero Asenjo, La colección Naseiro, pp. 77-88.
They are stylistically very different from the still-life
paintings by Cerezo in the Academia de San Carlos,
Mexico.
Another painting, seemingly by a different hand
again, reuses these elements from Still Life with
Butchered Lamb, Ham, and Receptacles (fig. 18) and
collages them back into a larger composition (104 x
124 cm) of an equivalent size to the original in the
Prado. See Blanch, Aterido, and Romero Asenjo, La
colección Naseiro, p. 81, fig. 3.
