Fictions of Abundance in Early Modern Madrid: Hospitality, Consumption, and Artistic Identity in the Work of Juan van der Hamen y Leon

Authors

Carmen Ripollés, Portland State UniversityFollow

Published In

Renaissance Quarterly

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Subjects

Juan Van der Hamen y León 1596-1631, Spanish painting -- 17th century, Renaissance Art, Renaissance -- History

Abstract

This article examines how still-life painting contributed to the creation of a distinct urban aristocratic culture in seventeenth-century Madrid. Focusing on a group of paintings by Juan van der Hamen, the article situates these images within the context of the picture gallery and the practice of aristocratic hospitality. By giving visual form to this new urban mode of magnificence, Van der Hamen’s still lifes created a fiction of abundance that glossed over Madrid’s economic realities. At the same time, Van der Hamen concealed signs of manual craftsmanship and commercial interest in order to advance and ennoble his own artistic identity.

Description

Copyright 2016 Renaissance Society of America. Archived here with publisher permissions.

DOI

10.1086/686329

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/17229

Citation Details

Ripollés, C. (2016). Fictions of Abundance in Early Modern Madrid: Hospitality, Consumption, and Artistic Identity in the Work of Juan van der Hamen y León. Renaissance Quarterly.