Juan de Espinosa, (active 1628 and 1659), Spanish Baroque painter specializing in still life painting. There is a great deal of confusion in the documentation of de Espinosa's life and works because there are a number of artists using the same name who also painted still lifes around the same time.

Early life

Juan de Espinosa, gilder of

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

s, was documented in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

between 1608 and 1613, married Maria de Aranda in the parish of

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

. The second son of this marriage, born in 1610 and also named Juan, might be the better known of the two still-life painters of this name. The greatest of still-life painters Espinosa was signing his works ''Joanes Bapta. Despinosa faciebat Anno D’1624''. A still life of silver pieces, using the same formula he used in 1612, was submitted to join the brotherhood of the Sacrament of the parish of San Sebastian in Madrid. In uncertain date valued the altarpiece of the parish of

Alcaudete de la Jara Alcaudete de la Jara is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2018 census (INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research ce ...

. Little else is known about him except that he had died already in 1641 when his widow made a will. Stylistically a painter closely associated with the work of

Juan van der Hamen 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 bodegón, bodegones. Prolific and versatile, he painted allegories, landscapes, and large-scal ...

, with the same sense of order and symmetry. The second, younger, still active in 1659, Juan de Espinosa signed the letter of dowry the painter Francisco de Burgos Mantilla in 1645, the same date wearing a still life of flowers and fruits,

The Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Museum, signed in the same way. This is a free painter of bright colors and strong lighting applied to complex compositions. In the same hand as the Louvre are two separate oil fruit still life

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

and the dead bird life with the Museum of Córdoba, from three of the royal collections, all of which shows the same precious treatment of grapes, made based glazes, clear red and intonation. More complex is the relationship established between the individual parts still life with grapes octagonal, signed in 1646, entered in 2006 at the Museo del Prado, which again appears a dead bird, but now in a diagonal, between bunches of grapes, pears, apples, some dried fruit and Mexican red clay pileup similar to that used in the still life of the Louvre. The detailed treatment and also fresh fruit, particularly grapes, which seem to receive the light from within, and the use of back to profile branch leaves, approximates stylistically the work of this painter to the work of Juan Fernández, Labrador.

Other same name

Still another Juan de Espinosa was a known contemporary painter who died in 1653 in

San Millán de la Cogolla San Millán de la Cogolla () is a sparsely populated municipality in La Rioja, (Spain). The village is famous for its twin monasteries, Yuso and Suso (Monasterio de San Millán de Yuso and Monasterio de San Millán de Suso), which were declared a ...

, while working on the paintings of the cloister, painter of religious works discreet respect for tradition

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

References

* Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. (1983). Spanish Painting still life and vases from 1600 to Goya. Catalogue of the exhibition. Madrid: Ministry of Culture. . * Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. (1992). Baroque Painting in Spain 1600–1750. Madrid: Ediciones Chair. . * The real faked. Spanish Still Life Naseiro collection purchased for the Prado, exhibition catalog by Javier Portus, Madrid, 2006, Museo Nacional del Prado. * The beauty of the real. Vases and Spanish Still Life at the Museo del Prado 1600–1800, exhibition catalog, Madrid, 1995, Museo Nacional del Prado. {{DEFAULTSORT:de Espinosa, Juan Spanish bodegón painters 17th-century Spanish painters Spanish male painters Spanish Baroque painters