Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber
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| Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Artist | Juan Sánchez Cotán |
| Year | c. 1602 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 67.8 cm × 88.7 cm (26.7 in × 34.9 in) |
| Location | San Diego Museum of Art |
Still Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber, commonly known as Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber, is a c. 1602 oil on canvas painting by Spanish painter Juan Sánchez Cotán. It is a still life painting of various fruits and vegetables. It is considered to be Cotán's masterpiece, and is on display at the San Diego Museum of Art.
Juan Sánchez Cotán was a wealthy Spanish still life painter, active in Toledo in the early 17th century. His best paintings are considered to be of fruits and vegetables.[1][2][3] He later abandoned still lifes for religious figures after joining a Carthusian monastery.[2]
Composition and analysis
Still Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber, commonly known as Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber,[1][4][5] was painted around 1602. It is an oil on canvas painting.[6][7] In the painting, the titular food items are displayed on a window ledge, left to right. The quince and cabbage are suspended above the ledge by a thread, which was a common way of preserving food in the 17th century.[8][9][10][11] The ledge is classified as a bodegón.[12]
The painting is notable for its sculpture-like rendering of the food,[10] as well as its illusory perspective; the cabbage and quince seem to be pushed backward from the melon, and the cucumber in front of it. Author Hanneke Grootenboer notes a strong contrast between the detail of the objects and the black background; even without any depth portrayed in the background, the depth can still be felt.[3] Author Norman Bryson notes how the objects seem to be divorced from their purpose as a means of people's nourishment, which is derived from the objects' motionlessness and weightlessness, relative to other still lifes. The order of the geometric shapes are used in the painting not as a tool to help illustrate the subject, but rather, the geometrical order seems to be "explored for [its] own sake".[13] The separation between the objects and their purpose as nourishment may be intentional, as fasting was practiced by the Carthusians in an attempt to distance the human body from the material world; the black background may add to this idea. As author Siri Hustvedt writes, "This space can't be seen as a reference to any actual space. It is intentionally unreal and abstract, and it [the background] represents not a solid wall but infinity. This is food as sacred gift shining inside a system of precise relations ordained by God". Cotán joined the Carthusians in 1603 or 1604, yet they are still seen as an influence.[2][14][11]