Still Life with Watermelon, Pastries, Bread and Wine
1770.Room 088
Luis Meléndez distinguished himself as the greatest bodegón, or still-life, painter in late eighteenth-century Spain. By this time, the popularity of the genre had declined in Spain and was not practiced by any of Meléndez’ contemporaries at court. Even so, Meléndez painted over one hundred bodegones in his lifetime, leading art historians to infer that he took a personal interest in the subject. He was unsuccessful in finding royal patronage for history paintings and portraits, so still-life painting offered an alternative genre that could be pursued for the general market. As Meléndez no doubt discovered in the process of painting this body of work, still-life painting, despite its lowly status within the hierarchy of genres, required rigorous artistic discipline, suited his aesthetic goals, and provided a means toward a deeper meditation on the relationship between visual perception and the human body.
Between 1759 and 1774, Meléndez painted 44 still-lifes for Charles, Prince of Asturias (the future Charles IV), many of which are now in the Museo Nacional del Prado. Still Life with Watermelon, Pastries, Bread, and Wine was once part of the royal collection in the Aranjuez Palace, a gift by Meléndez to Charles and his wife María Luisa of Parma. In 1771, Meléndez received a commission to continue his series of still-life paintings on the theme of the natural history of Spain for the prince’s Gabinete de Historia Natural, or Cabinet of Natural History.
Still Life with Watermelon, Pastries, Bread, and Wine displays the hallmarks of Meléndez’ approach to the bodegón. A few objects occupy an old wooden table whose edge runs parallel to the picture plane. Dripping with juice, the luscious red watermelon is the focal point of the composition. Like the majority of Meléndez’ still-lifes, the objects of this composition occupy an indoor space.
Light falls from the left, illuminating the freshly cut watermelon surrounded by four azaroles (an edible Mediterranean fruit which resembles a tiny apple), three pastries, a loaf of bread, and a glass of wine. The black background provides a strong contrast with the pastries and bread, intensifying their color and material presence.
Within a narrow range of object choices, Meléndez created an endless variety of original works. Still Life with Watermelon, Pastries, Bread, and Wine is one of only three paintings featuring cut pieces of watermelon as a focal point, while a similar type of cloth appears relatively often in baskets, though rarely as it is displayed here, under the melon. The distinctive conical pastries appear in the foreground of Still Life with Pastries, Jug, and Receptacles, which may have been painted after this work. The ceramic plate from Talavera, with its characteristic undulating rim (popularly called a plato de castañuela [castanet plate)], is found in several of the artist’s other canvases.
In this work, Meléndez continues the tradition of the early seventeenth-century still-life, with an objective rendering of the fruits, bread, and wine glass using chiaroscuro, a balance of light and shadow, to create a naturalistic image. With the exception of a few highlights, the brushwork is nearly invisible. Each object is carefully delineated with sharp contour lines. Meléndez labored over his compositions, sometimes changing objects or their positions to produce harmony and balance. Originally, this painting included chestnuts and a wine bottle. The low viewpoint and the scale of the objects within the frame give the sensation that the objects painted are within reach not only of our eyes, but also of our fingers. Folds of the cloth project into our space, a common device in still-life painting. Nearly hidden in the shadow of the watermelon is a knife, whose blade is barely visible.
The melon appears so recently cut that the fruit retains its chromatic vibrancy. Beside the single seed, a drop of juice lies on the top of the cloth. Meléndez uses all his skill to convince the viewer that these delectable foodstuffs are within reach not only of our gaze, but also of our touch. As we are looking at the object, we imagine how it would feel not just on our fingers, but also on our tongues. Through vision, we can imagine tasting the sweet succulent flesh of the watermelon or taking a sip of the red wine (Lipinski, L.: El Greco to Goya. Masterpieces from the Prado Museum, Museo de Arte de Ponce, 2012, pp. 132-133).
