Still Life with Sweets
1622
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1622
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Still Life with Sweets is a 1622 unspecified by Juan van der Hamen, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
The painting shows a variety of sweets and objects on a stone ledge. It includes a wooden box, a dark glass bottle, and some walnuts. The arrangement is bold and playful, with different shapes and textures. The artist experimented with contrasts and harmonies of colors and textures. The sweets, called turrones, are made from pine nuts, honey, almonds, and hazelnuts. To learn more about this style, check out the technique of chiaroscuro.
Placed on a simple stone ledge, this bold arrangement includes a wooden box, a dark glass bottle, some walnuts, an elaborate Venetian glass, and several sweets called turrones. These delicacies are a mixture of pine nuts, honey, almonds, and hazelnuts. The picture may not represent an actual meal or snack. Rather, the artist played with contrasts and harmonies of shapes, textures, and colors. During his short career van der Hamen, whose father was from the Netherlands, worked at the Spanish royal court and created biblical pictures, history paintings, allegories, and landscapes. He is best…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Juan van der Hamen y (Gómez de) León (baptized 8 April 1596 – 28 March 1631) was a Spanish painter, a master of still life paintings, also called bodegones.
See the richer artist page
