Still Life with a pot, pan and bread roll
Technical details
Description
The Still Life with a cooking pot, ladle, hunk of bread and spices in a paper wrapping on a table, the work of the great 18th-century Spanish still life artist Luis Egidio Meléndez and signed and dated 1776, was painted at a later date than the other still lifes on display. It is the simplest of the more than one hundred still lifes painted by this artist between 1759 and his death in Madrid in 1780. It is an example of the greatest austerity. It does not depict a kitchen filled with poultry, meat, fish, fruit, and boxes of sweets or kitchenware; rather, it is the kitchen of a simple house. The contents of the pot on the stove formed the main meal of Spanish homes at the time, and often the only meal eaten throughout the day. The brown and ochre hues enhance the sense of simplicity.