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拍品专文
These striking works by Juan van der Hamen y León reflect the strong influence of Juan Sánchez Cotán, the artist who revolutionised the genre of still-life painting in Spain at the start of the seventeenth-century. The balanced compositions with their carefully arranged elements and over-hanging fruit are characteristic of van der Hamen’s work in the early 1620s, before he started to employ the stepped stone plinths and asymmetrical formats which secured his reputation as ‘one of the most original and sophisticated still-life painters of his age' (W.B. Jordan, Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age 1600-1650, exhibition catalogue, 1985, p. 142).
Celebrated in his day as one of the greatest painters of his generation, van der Hamen was descended from a historic Flemish noble family. His father, Jehan van der Hamen, was a Flemish courtier who had moved from Brussels to Madrid before 1586. His mother, Dorotea Whitman Gómez de León, was half-Flemish and half-Spanish, and was similarly descended from two important noble families from Toledo. In addition to serving as unsalaried Pintor del Rey, van der Hamen was a member of the Flemish Royal Guard of Archers (Archeros del Rey), a distinguished position previously held by his father. As official guardians of the monarch, the members of this exclusive group of nobles accompanied the king in full regalia on all public and ceremonial occasions and as such, enjoyed direct access to the Palacio Real. It was in part thanks to this privileged position that van der Hamen was able to secure some of his most important commissions. Although he was a talented painter of religious subjects and an accomplished portraitist (in 1626, Cassiano dal Pozzo famously preferred van der Hamen’s portrait of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, to one by Velázquez), it was as a still life painter that he found fame. Van der Hamen had already distinguished himself in this field by 1619, when he was commissioned to paint a still life with fruit and game for the hunting palace of El Pardo, to the north of Madrid. Though this royal commission is now lost, documents reveal that it was intended to hang alongside five other still lifes, possibly by Sánchez Cotán, for the south gallery of the newly reconstructed palace. As Cherry and Jordan have observed, this early exposure to Sánchez Cotán’s work must have had a formative influence on the young artist, who adopted the older artist’s 'window-frame format and strive for a lucid portrayal of space' (W.B. Jordan and P. Cherry, ‘Van der Hamen and Still-Life Painting in Castile', in Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya, exhibition catalogue, London, 1995, p. 47). Yet van der Hamen modified Sánchez Cotán’s style, moving beyond the Toledo painter’s astonishing realism and remarkable spatial illusionism to focus more on geometric purity and the plasticity of his forms.
It is difficult to overstate the extent to which van der Hamen’s paintings were admired during his lifetime. His still-lifes inspired early 17th-century Spanish authors to write more encomiums in prose and verse than the work of any of his contemporaries, including Diego Velázquez (J. Brown, The Golden Age of Painting in Spain, New Haven, 1991, p. 103). Poets and critics such as Lope de Vega and Francesco Pacheco hailed him as the new Apelles, whose art surpassed that of Nature and was unrivaled in his short lifetime. Indeed, when the artist died at the tragically young age of 35, the writer Juan Perez de Montalván lamented that 'if he were living, he would be the greatest Spaniard his art had ever known' (quoted in Jordan and Cherry, 1995, op. cit., p. 56). Van der Hamen’s pioneering paintings helped to establish an enduring tradition of still life paintings in Spain that would extend through the following centuries, finding its culmination in the 20th century with the revolutionary works of Pablo Picasso.
Celebrated in his day as one of the greatest painters of his generation, van der Hamen was descended from a historic Flemish noble family. His father, Jehan van der Hamen, was a Flemish courtier who had moved from Brussels to Madrid before 1586. His mother, Dorotea Whitman Gómez de León, was half-Flemish and half-Spanish, and was similarly descended from two important noble families from Toledo. In addition to serving as unsalaried Pintor del Rey, van der Hamen was a member of the Flemish Royal Guard of Archers (Archeros del Rey), a distinguished position previously held by his father. As official guardians of the monarch, the members of this exclusive group of nobles accompanied the king in full regalia on all public and ceremonial occasions and as such, enjoyed direct access to the Palacio Real. It was in part thanks to this privileged position that van der Hamen was able to secure some of his most important commissions. Although he was a talented painter of religious subjects and an accomplished portraitist (in 1626, Cassiano dal Pozzo famously preferred van der Hamen’s portrait of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, to one by Velázquez), it was as a still life painter that he found fame. Van der Hamen had already distinguished himself in this field by 1619, when he was commissioned to paint a still life with fruit and game for the hunting palace of El Pardo, to the north of Madrid. Though this royal commission is now lost, documents reveal that it was intended to hang alongside five other still lifes, possibly by Sánchez Cotán, for the south gallery of the newly reconstructed palace. As Cherry and Jordan have observed, this early exposure to Sánchez Cotán’s work must have had a formative influence on the young artist, who adopted the older artist’s 'window-frame format and strive for a lucid portrayal of space' (W.B. Jordan and P. Cherry, ‘Van der Hamen and Still-Life Painting in Castile', in Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya, exhibition catalogue, London, 1995, p. 47). Yet van der Hamen modified Sánchez Cotán’s style, moving beyond the Toledo painter’s astonishing realism and remarkable spatial illusionism to focus more on geometric purity and the plasticity of his forms.
It is difficult to overstate the extent to which van der Hamen’s paintings were admired during his lifetime. His still-lifes inspired early 17th-century Spanish authors to write more encomiums in prose and verse than the work of any of his contemporaries, including Diego Velázquez (J. Brown, The Golden Age of Painting in Spain, New Haven, 1991, p. 103). Poets and critics such as Lope de Vega and Francesco Pacheco hailed him as the new Apelles, whose art surpassed that of Nature and was unrivaled in his short lifetime. Indeed, when the artist died at the tragically young age of 35, the writer Juan Perez de Montalván lamented that 'if he were living, he would be the greatest Spaniard his art had ever known' (quoted in Jordan and Cherry, 1995, op. cit., p. 56). Van der Hamen’s pioneering paintings helped to establish an enduring tradition of still life paintings in Spain that would extend through the following centuries, finding its culmination in the 20th century with the revolutionary works of Pablo Picasso.