Vase of Flowers

While paintings of flowers in a vase represented the most conventional type of flower piece in the 17th century, in the pair of Vase of Flowers, now in the same private collection, Arellano has depicted particularly rich arrangements in remarkably ornate bulbous glass vases with gilt mounts. The paintings could be surrogates for actual flower arrangements in the homes of wealthy contemporaries.

The apparently natural floral arrangements seen in these paintings were the result of Arellano’s careful ordering of the flowers. He derived this type of composition from his study of earlier Flemish flower paintings and prints, and varied it little throughout his career. It is hard to distinguish the flowers he painted from nature from those deriving from other pictures, graphic sources, memory and practice.

While the repetitive nature of Arellano’s still-lifes would not have been noticed in his own time, when his works were dispersed among different collections, this factor is augmented in pictures united by photography and exhibitions.