581 - ATTRIBUTED TO ALEJANDRO DE LOARTE

ATTRIBUTED TO ALEJANDRO DE LOARTE (Madrid?, 1590/1600 - Toledo, 1626) "Hanging Fruit, Basket of Peaches and Fruit Bowls with Quinces and Apples" Oil on canvas. Baroque-style frame in polychrome and gilt wood. This splendid still life follows the naturalist aesthetic of the Toledo school, initiated by the painter Juan Sanchez Cotan (1560-1627), although the manner in which it is executed, with more diluted pigments and an apparent immediacy, is more representative of the manner of Alejandro de Loarte. In its composition one also sees one of the essential characteristics of this painter's output, namely that he tends to fill the picture surface with different objects, arranging them symmetrically around the central basket. Also very characteristic of Loarte is the way of showing some hanging objects, as happens in this case with the apples, the melon and the pomegranates; a series of fruits that appear suspended, tied by cords to the hooks of a wooden strip running across the whole upper part. Cotan and Juan van der Hamen (1596-1631) also used this device, but, unlike Loarte, preferred to hide the means of suspension, which in this painting are perfectly visible. Characteristics similar to those of this still life are also found in the output of the Master of the Still Life of the Stirling-Marwell Collection, who shares with Loarte a more immediate and realistic type of painting, although in the works attributed to him he also tends to dispense with Loarte's aforementioned predilection for showing the ways in which objects are suspended. His repertoires of fruit, vegetables and objects differ slightly in their textures and qualities. In its general composition, formal repertoire and technical aspects, this painting finds its closest parallel in an oil held in a private collection titled Hanging Fruit, measuring 49.5 x 70 cm, in which we find two ceramic fruit bowls with peaches, pears and a melon suspended on the central axis of the composition. A similar conception, though much more animated thanks to the presence of some birds, can be seen in the canvas Still Life of a Basket with Grapes and Fruit. Signed and dated 1624, this work belonged to the Arango Collection, but is today in the Museo Nacional del Prado. Measurements: 59.5 x 75 cm.