Exhibition offers a glimpse into the variety and opulence of Spanish still life paintings

Eighty works by Spanish masters are arranged in a chronological overview, from the 1600s to the present-day. The still life paintings of great and universally acknowledged artists, such as Cotán, Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Miró and Dalí are shown alongside works by their predecessors and contemporaries, providing the most comprehensive picture possible of this genre and its evolutions. The still life has been known since time immemorial, but only flourished from the seventeenth century onwards, coming into its own as a separate genre. Spanish still life holds a particular position in the European context. While the connection with the Flemish and Italian models is unmistakeable, the early Spanish specialists of the still life developed a visual language of their own. The plain and simple style of the seventeenth-century ‘bodegones’ represents a peak in the genre’s history.