A Pair: Still-life With A Bowl Of Peas

Medium: Oil On Canvas
Size: 58.8 x 94.4 cm (23.1 x 37.2 in)

The particular characteristics of Spanish still life painting in the 17th century usually strike the viewer immediately, even when they display the influence of Italian painting as does this double celebration of matrimony. The abundance of fruit suggests the influence of Rome; the splendidly decorated grape filled bowl, the simple pewter dish and tightly woven basket are unmistakably Spanish in type. Professor William Jordan, one of the leading authorities on Spanish still life painting and the author of several exhibition catalogues, monographs and articles on Spanish painting, has proposed that this pair was produced in Valencia, in the third quarter of the 17th century.

Federico Zeri, the foremost authority in his day, determined that the two works here were undoubtedly Spanish, though he also thought them influenced by the early 17th century Roman painters, such as Verochius. Though he did not know of other works by the same hand, Zeri believed that the paintings were not commissioned by an aristocrat for public display due to the overt, sexual symbolism of the figs and peas, divided by jasmine flowers.

These elements each have a clear traditional meaning. The figs unsubtly represent the female sex, as the jasmine flowers near do romantic love. The ferret is emblematic of fidelity, and in this case domesticated, or the domestic fidelity of a wife. The tree branch and peaches are shockingly phallic, and the small parrot a sign of regeneration, as, if plucked, the bird’s feathers grow back. The butterfly represents the soul or psyche. At the painting’s center rests an enormous basket of sweet peas, a symbol of pleasure.

The pair contains a bacchanal of grapes, peaches, plums, and melon, all luscious summer fruits and their abundance here symbolic of fecundity.