Juan Van Der Hamen Y Leon and the Court of Madrid

the long version

"This examination of the life and work of Juan van der Hamen y Leon (1596-1631) serves as a powerful lens for viewing the 1620s from a novel perspective, one that opens new vistas and invites further investigation. Van der Hamen is well known to lovers of Golden Age painting in Spain as one of the most famous and prolific still-life painters of the seventeenth century. He was much more than that. In this book William B. Jordan examines the artist's entire output of still lifes, but he also has a larger aim: to study for the first time the complete Van der Hamen, the painter esteemed by his peers above all for his versatility - for his portraits, allegories, landscapes, flower paintings and large-scale religious works executed for churches and convents in the environs of Madrid and Toledo." "The product of forty years of research, this study is underpinned by copious archival documentation and analysis of contemporary sources. Recent restoration has also transformed many paintings long familiar only in a compromised state, making a true assessment of their quality possible for the first time."--Jacket.