This pair of canvases constitutes a characteristic example of the work of Gabriel de la Corte, a specialist in the floral sub-genre in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. When they entered the Banco de España Collection, they were both still attributed to this master from Madrid, but a deficient state of conservation, with considerable dirt accumulated on the surface, oxidised varnishes and the distorting effect of previous restorations, made it difficult to view the picture and catalogue it correctly. These difficulties were compounded by a scant knowledge of this artist, on whom there had been virtually no new information since the seventeenth century, and by the limited production attributed to him. All this, together with a typology clearly inspired by the vases painted by the more famous and extensively studied Juan de Arellano, led to doubts on the old attribution. The set was therefore prudently reassigned to an anonymous follower of Arellano, and was given a broad dating (1660- 1690) on the basis of the recognition of formal coincidences with Italian artists of the end of the century.

The works have remained with this assignation in the successive editions of the catalogue of the Banco de España Collections, as has Gabriel de la Corte’s consideration as an “almost unknown” artist. However, their restoration in the workshops of the Museo Nacional del Prado in 2020 has necessitated a complete revision of this approximate classification. Similarly, advances in the study of the pictorial corpus of Gabriel de la Corte have contributed new pieces for comparison which allow his technique to be more precisely defined in the twenty-first century.

The restoration has revealed work of considerable quality, allowing both canvases once more to be properly read. The loose and spontaneous brushwork, the luminous colouring that accentuates the fresh appearance of the plants depicted, and the impression of movement and organicity are now fully recognised as features of this artist from Madrid, and all are detectable in the Banco de España pictures. So too is the dense impasto, occasionally far from meticulous, with which he sought to capture the effect of life rather than the taxonomic details of the flowers. This did not detract from the material quality of the work, as examination has detected a careful superimposition of brushstrokes and transparencies with which he suggested the varied tactility and body of the flowers. Other coincidences include certain technical details like the use of canvases with a broad weft. All this makes it possible to include the paintings without any doubt in the catalogue of Gabriel de la Corte.

The lifting of the varnishes allows us to discern a restrained looseness in the brushwork rather than unkemptness and a vivid colouring that approximate both vases to what are accepted as De la Corte’s most outstanding compositions, two floral garlands signed in 1687 (Madrid, Universidad Complutense). They also coincide with them in their measurements, practically the same.

The same is not the case of the compositional organisation, which here depends on the traditional typology of the vase as the base of a radial arrangement of flowers. There is an evident debt in this case to Juan de Arellano, whose repertory abounds with flowers arranged on plinths or cubes of worn stone, like the pair preserved in the Banco de España Collection. Strongly lit against a neutral dark background, glass or metal receptacles are shown with exuberant bouquets of flowers springing from them. The combination of colours and vegetable forms reaches the edges of the canvas, and leaves and flowers sometimes even hang down to rest on the stone base. On the basis of this pattern, the works were often designed to form groups of two or even four paintings, as demonstrated both by preserved sets and by archive references to collections in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Madrid.

In his brief biography of Gabriel de la Corte, Antonio Palomino mentioned that he painted “many sets in different houses, both of baskets and vases of flowers, and of plaques and garlands.” To avoid the monotony of a repetitive pattern and make the images more suggestive, it was common in pairs of canvases to introduce variations in the types of vase and in the repertoire of botanical species, also a frequent practice of Arellano’s.

Such an intention is appreciable here in the representation of two glass vases with different bronze attachments, in whose globular interiors it is possible to make out the straight stalks of the flowers submerged in water. De la Corte repeated this pattern in a well-known and securely attributed pair of vases whose concept and measurements are analogous to this one. These are two canvases in the Abelló Collection which have been dated to the last decade of the artist’s life. Their generally warmer and earthier tones justify this late date, unlike the Banco de España paintings, which are closer to the aforementioned garlands at the Universidad Complutense.

As regards the species depicted, they also refer us to those frequently painted by Arellano. Nevertheless, as we have indicated, their spongier and looser formal execution distances them from the precise definition of the master from Santorcaz. The latter is also evoked by the strategic distribution of the colour masses, concentrating the lighter flowers – white or pale pink – in the centre of the arrangement, while the darker and contrasted tones, like reds and greens, are situated on the edges of the radial structure. In this case, for want of technical corroboration, but in view of other works by De la Corte, it is quite possible that some pigments in this area have darkened owing to their composition.

In the first of the canvases, the receptacle gains prominence only through its voluminous decorative foot, above which there rises a bouquet centred on some white roses combined with others in subtle pink or yellow shades. Arranged around them are anemones, white and red tulips and yellow daffodils together with a blossom of the same colour, perhaps broom. Finally, the outer circle is formed by a succession of carnations, red roses and some peonies, together with more anemones and small bunches of orange flowers. Some of these flowers surround the richly gilded stem of the recipient and brush the plinth, like the carnations, the blue iris and the belle-de-jour hanging to the right of the viewer. Although the treatment is delicate and very attractive, the main interest is in the idea of a set rather than the individuality of each specimen, sometimes making specific identification difficult. De la Corte concentrated more on dynamic and colourful softness, which in the terms of the Spanish Baroque, as reported by Palomino in his biography, would have been the “gentil bizarría”, or “charming extravagance”, which attracted his public so much. The treatise writer mentioned that the models for his flowers varied, as some were copied directly from life while others reproduced those already painted by Juan de Arellano or Mario Nuzzi.

The second vase is more reminiscent in its forms of the models most frequently used by Juan de Arellano. The structure of a turned bronze foot supporting a spherical glass body, itself embraced by a second chased metal ring, was used by him on many occasions, most notably in the pairs belonging to the Naseiro (1664) and Abelló (1667) Collections, both in Madrid. As regards the arrangement of the bouquet, it repeats the rhythm of its companion, though with a greater predominance of white and some variations in the species. Among those identifiable in this case are mock orange and white narcissus. Like its pair, the lack of extreme detail does not detract from the credibility of the motifs, as the artist uses different applications of the oil for a skilful rendering of the different textures or reliefs of the petals. Short or paint-laden strokes are used to simulate stiffening, while lushness is suggested by broader and flatter strokes. This aligns him with European artists of his time like the Milanese Margherita Caffi (1648-1710), and where the vibrant orchestration of a motley floral arrangement is concerned, with the Neapolitan Andrea Belvedere (1652-1732).

Both compositions were designed as a complementary whole with a clearly decorative purpose, being objects where nature was brought indoors and isolated from the urban environment. Arranged and illuminated as though in small painted theatres, effigies of flowers arranged in fictional compositions now started to adorn courtly mansions and palaces.

Ángel Aterido

When these two paintings were acquired by the Banco de España, they were attributed to Gabriel de la Corte (1648-1694), an almost unknown painter from Madrid who was active in the second half of the 17^th century. It cannot be stated for sure that they are his, as hardly anything is known about his activity with certainty. The few signed works known (such as set of flower still-lifes in the Museo del Prado, from the San Felipe el Real convent in Madrid) are similar but show nuances of character, technique and colour that keep the debate going as to who painted the two workd held by the bank. These two discrete canvases, which show signs of poor restorations, certainly seem to be Spanish works from Madrid in the wake of Juan de Arellano. Their relative severity and the darkness of their colours are undoubtedly what brought Gabriel de la Corte to mind, but it would be more prudent to consider them as painted by unknown Spanish artists from Madrid or painting in the city at that time – between 1660 and 1690 -, when Italian influence was very strong. This would explain certain coincidences with the art of Roman painter Mario Nuzzi – known as Mario dei Fiori, master of all the ‘floral artists’, who owes his pseudonym to his trailblazing work in painting flowers – and with the output of Andrea Belvedere from Naples, whose works began to reach the Spanish court in rather large numbers.

Commentary updated by Carlos Martín.

Alfonso Pérez Sánchez