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Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560 - 1627) had a rather unusual artistic career. He began by apprenticing with Toledo artist Blas de Prado and ran a successful workshop in Toledo for about twenty years, painting portraits, still lifes, and religious scenes, before deciding to enter a monastery at the age of forty-three. He seems to have been successful and it is not known precisely why he chose to leave the secular world. When he closed his workshop in 1603 to enter the monastery, an inventory was drawn up of the pictures in his studio, listing sixty works: in additional to the typical figurative work were copies of Italian masters and twelve still lifes. 

It is the still life paintings, only six of which are known today, upon which his claim to fame rests. They are notable as some of the earliest still lifes painted in Europe, and are original both in their elegant composition and in their naturalism, which stands unique from his other paintings. His figurative work, though charming, is done in the mannerism of the late Renaissance tinged with a somewhat naive realism quite unlike the intense observation of his still lifes. Perhaps the fact that the religious narratives and portraits were the common visual vocabulary of the day resulted in more formulaic work, while the fresh ground of still life demanded a more careful observation. Cotán is not the first Spanish artist recorded as painting still life – his teacher Blas de Prado is said to have done fruit paintings, and a few other previous artists are recorded as doing still-life subjects – but his paintings are certainly the earliest prototypes of what would become the classic Spanish kitchen still life, the bodegon, made famous by artists like Francisco Zurbaran, Luis Melendez, and Velazquez. His sophisticated, spare compositions, intense observation, and strong lighting are hallmarks of the genre that were carried on by later painters, and his work represents an important development in still life painting.

After closing his workshop, he continued to paint as a lay brother in the Granada Monastery, focusing naturally in these later works on religious narratives. It is not known that he painted any more still lifes after this time. For more research on Cotán’s life and times you can read this excellent essay from Christie’s here. 

Juan Sánchez Cotán, Still Life with Game Fowl, oil on canvas, c. 1600-1603

Juan Sánchez Cotán, Quince, Cabbage, and Cucumber, oil on canvas, 1602

Juan Sánchez Cotán, Still Life with Fruit and Vegetables, oil on canvas, 1602

Juan Sánchez Cotán, Bodegon with a cardoon and francolin

Juan Sánchez Cotán, Saint Beatrice of Silva, oil on canvas

Juan Sánchez Cotán, Saint Ildefonso receiving the Chasuble, oil on canvas, c. 1600

Juan Sánchez Cotán, Brigida del Rio, the Bearded Lady of Penaranda, oil on canvas, 1590