Juan Sánchez Cotán
Encyclopedia
Juan Sánchez Cotán
was a Spanish Baroque
painter, a pioneer of realism in Spain
. His still life
s, also called bodegones
were painted in a strikingly austere style, especially when compared to similar works in Netherlands and Italy.
, near Toledo, Spain
. He was a friend and perhaps pupil of Blas de Prado
, an artist famous for his still lifes whose mannerist
style with touches of realism, the disciple developed further. Cotán began by painting altar pieces and religious works. For approximately twenty years, he pursued a successful career in Toledo as an artist, patronized by the city’s aristocracy, painting religious scenes, portraits and still lifes. These paintings found a receptive audience among the educated intellectuals of Toledo society. Sánchez Cotán executed his notable still lifes around the turn of the seventeenth century, before the end of his secular life. An example (seen above) is Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber (1602, in the San Diego Museum of Art
).
On August 10, 1603, Juan Sanchez Cotan, then in his forties, closed up his workshop at Toledo to renounce the world and enter the Carthusian
monastery Santa Maria de El Paular
. He continued his career painting religious works with singular mysticism. In 1612 he was sent to the Granada Charterhouse
, he decided to become a monk, and in the following year he entered the Carthusian
monastery at Granada as a laybrother. The reasons for this are not clear, though such action was not unusual in Cotán’s day.
Cotán was a prolific religious painter whose work, carried out exclusively for his monastery, reached its peak about 1617 in the cycle of eight great narrative paintings which he painted for the cloister of the Granada Monastery. These depict the foundation of the order of St. Bruno, and the prosecution of the monks in England
by the Protestant
s.
Although the painter’s religious works have an archaic air, they also reveal a keen interest in the treatment of light and volume, and in some respect are comparable with certain works by the Italian Luca Cambiaso whom Cotán knew at the Escorial. While Cotán's religious works are unexceptional, as a still-life painter he ranks with the great names of European painting.
In spite of his retreat from the world, Cotan’s influence remained strong. His concern with the relationships among objects and with achieving the illusion of reality through the use of light and shadow was a major influence on the work of later Spanish painters such as Juan van der Hamen
, Felipe Ramírez
, the brothers Vincenzo
and Bartolomeo Carducci and, notably, Francisco de Zurbarán. Sánchez Cotán ended his days universally loved and regarded as a saint. He died in 1627 in Granada
.
, with Venetian influence, and his works can be placed in the transition from Mannerism
to Baroque
. He was an early pioneer of Tenebrism
at the beginning of the golden age of Spanish painting. Although his religious paintings have a primitive sensitivity and a peaceful rhythm, Cotán's high stature in art history rests exclusively on his still lifes, of which only a few are extant. Their severe naturalism has little in common with the artistic style then prevalent.
Sánchez Cotán established the prototype of the Spanish still life, called a bodegón
, composed mainly of vegetables. Characteristically, he depicts a few simple fruits or vegetables, some of which hang from a fine string at different levels while others sit on a ledge or window. The forms stand out with an almost geometric
clarity against a dark background. This orchestration of still life in direct sunlight against impenetrable darkness is the hallmark of early Spanish still life painting. Each form is scrutinized with such intensity that the pictures take on a mystical quality, and the reality of things is intensified to a degree that no other seventeenth century painter would surpass.
Some art historians describe Sánchez Cotan’s spare representations as abstemious images and link his work to his later monastic life. They are supposed to express a monastic denial of worldly pleasure and richness. However, his fruits and vegetables are arranged in beautiful ballet
like compositions. The Carthusians are vegetarian, but many of his works contain game bird.
He depicted few artifacts, other than the strings from which vegetables and fruits dangle, this being the common means in the seventeenth century of preventing food and vegetables from rotting. Even if the objects are arranged so that they seem close enough to touch, they are nevertheless distanced. For all the realism with which they are depicted, the isolation of each object, heightened further by the black background, lends them a monumental, almost sculptural gravity.
was a Spanish Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
painter, a pioneer of realism in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. His still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...
s, also called bodegones
Bodegón
The term bodega in Spanish can mean "pantry", "tavern", or "wine cellar". The derivative term bodegón is an augmentative that refers to a large bodega, usually in a derogatory fashion...
were painted in a strikingly austere style, especially when compared to similar works in Netherlands and Italy.
Life
Sánchez Cotán was born in the town of OrgazOrgaz
Orgaz is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2006 census , the municipality has a population of 2732 inhabitants. El Greco's painting "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" features Don Gonzalo Ruíz, native of Toledo and Señor of the town of...
, near Toledo, Spain
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
. He was a friend and perhaps pupil of Blas de Prado
Blas de Prado
Blas de Prado, or Del Prado, was a Spanish painter, who was born in the vicinity of Toledo, about 1540, and was a scholar of Alonso Berruguete. There are some of his works in the chapel of St. Blas at Toledo, but they are much injured by time and the dampness of the situation...
, an artist famous for his still lifes whose mannerist
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
style with touches of realism, the disciple developed further. Cotán began by painting altar pieces and religious works. For approximately twenty years, he pursued a successful career in Toledo as an artist, patronized by the city’s aristocracy, painting religious scenes, portraits and still lifes. These paintings found a receptive audience among the educated intellectuals of Toledo society. Sánchez Cotán executed his notable still lifes around the turn of the seventeenth century, before the end of his secular life. An example (seen above) is Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber (1602, in the San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego Museum of Art
The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed its name to the San...
).
On August 10, 1603, Juan Sanchez Cotan, then in his forties, closed up his workshop at Toledo to renounce the world and enter the Carthusian
Carthusian
The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns...
monastery Santa Maria de El Paular
Santa Maria de El Paular
The Monasterio de Santa María de El Paular is a former Carthusian monastery located just northwest of Madrid, in the town of Rascafría, located in the Valley of Lozoya below the Sierra de Guadarrama. Supposedly construction begun in 1390 by orders of Henry II of Castile, and construction proceeded...
. He continued his career painting religious works with singular mysticism. In 1612 he was sent to the Granada Charterhouse
Granada Charterhouse
Granada Charterhouse is a Carthusian monastery in Granada, Spain. It is one of the finest examples of Spanish Baroque architecture.The charterhouse was founded in 1506; construction started ten years later, and continued for the following 300 years. While the exterior is a tame ember in...
, he decided to become a monk, and in the following year he entered the Carthusian
Carthusian
The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns...
monastery at Granada as a laybrother. The reasons for this are not clear, though such action was not unusual in Cotán’s day.
Cotán was a prolific religious painter whose work, carried out exclusively for his monastery, reached its peak about 1617 in the cycle of eight great narrative paintings which he painted for the cloister of the Granada Monastery. These depict the foundation of the order of St. Bruno, and the prosecution of the monks in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by the Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
s.
Although the painter’s religious works have an archaic air, they also reveal a keen interest in the treatment of light and volume, and in some respect are comparable with certain works by the Italian Luca Cambiaso whom Cotán knew at the Escorial. While Cotán's religious works are unexceptional, as a still-life painter he ranks with the great names of European painting.
In spite of his retreat from the world, Cotan’s influence remained strong. His concern with the relationships among objects and with achieving the illusion of reality through the use of light and shadow was a major influence on the work of later Spanish painters such as Juan van der Hamen
Juan van der Hamen
Juan van der Hamen y ' León was a Spanish painter, a master of the still life paintings, also called bodegones. During his lifetime, he was prolific and versatile, painting allegories, landscapes, and large-scale works for churches and convents. However, today he is remembered mostly for his...
, Felipe Ramírez
Felipe Ramírez
Felipe Ramírez was a Spanish painter of Seville , active as a still-life painter during the 17th century. He probably a relation of Gerónimo Ramírez , and was active at the same period. He painted hunting-pictures, dead game, birds, and various other subjects. He also painted a Martyrdom of St....
, the brothers Vincenzo
Vincenzo Carducci
Vincenzo Carducci was an Italian painter.He was born in Florence, and was trained as a painter by his brother Bartolomeo, whom he followed to Madrid as a boy....
and Bartolomeo Carducci and, notably, Francisco de Zurbarán. Sánchez Cotán ended his days universally loved and regarded as a saint. He died in 1627 in Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
.
Style
Sánchez Cotán stylistically falls within the school of El EscorialEl Escorial
The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 45 kilometres northwest of the capital, Madrid, in Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and...
, with Venetian influence, and his works can be placed in the transition from Mannerism
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
to Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
. He was an early pioneer of Tenebrism
Tenebrism
Tenebrism, from the Italian tenebroso , is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image...
at the beginning of the golden age of Spanish painting. Although his religious paintings have a primitive sensitivity and a peaceful rhythm, Cotán's high stature in art history rests exclusively on his still lifes, of which only a few are extant. Their severe naturalism has little in common with the artistic style then prevalent.
Still lifes
Sánchez Cotán established the prototype of the Spanish still life, called a bodegón
Bodegón
The term bodega in Spanish can mean "pantry", "tavern", or "wine cellar". The derivative term bodegón is an augmentative that refers to a large bodega, usually in a derogatory fashion...
, composed mainly of vegetables. Characteristically, he depicts a few simple fruits or vegetables, some of which hang from a fine string at different levels while others sit on a ledge or window. The forms stand out with an almost geometric
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
clarity against a dark background. This orchestration of still life in direct sunlight against impenetrable darkness is the hallmark of early Spanish still life painting. Each form is scrutinized with such intensity that the pictures take on a mystical quality, and the reality of things is intensified to a degree that no other seventeenth century painter would surpass.
Some art historians describe Sánchez Cotan’s spare representations as abstemious images and link his work to his later monastic life. They are supposed to express a monastic denial of worldly pleasure and richness. However, his fruits and vegetables are arranged in beautiful ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
like compositions. The Carthusians are vegetarian, but many of his works contain game bird.
He depicted few artifacts, other than the strings from which vegetables and fruits dangle, this being the common means in the seventeenth century of preventing food and vegetables from rotting. Even if the objects are arranged so that they seem close enough to touch, they are nevertheless distanced. For all the realism with which they are depicted, the isolation of each object, heightened further by the black background, lends them a monumental, almost sculptural gravity.