Still Life with Box of Jelly, Bread, Salver with Glass, and Cooler

1770

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

This painting is from a renowned set of almost forty still lifes by Meléndez on display at the Prado ever since the museum opened in 1819. In these masterpieces of descriptive realism, which Picasso and Gris certainly saw, the space is shallow, the background featureless, and the crowded table or shelf brought so close to the frontal picture plane that the objects projecting over its edge appear to penetrate the viewer’s space. The acute appeal to the senses is offset by the refined geometry of Meléndez’s carefully plotted compositions.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Still Life with Box of Jelly, Bread, Salver with Glass, and Cooler
Artist: Luis Meléndez (Spanish, Naples 1716–1780 Madrid)
Date: 1770
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 19 1/2 × 14 9/16 in. (49.5 × 37 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art