Lot 283: Francisco Barranco (active Seville 1640-1660)

Francisco Barranco (active Seville 1640-1660)
Still life with a ram's head, game, an earthenware jug, bowls and other objects in a kitchen interior
oil on canvas
26¾ x 35¾ in. (68 x 90.8 cm.)

This still life can be added to the small but growing number of works now ascribed to the highly skilled Andalusian painter, Francisco Barranco, who is recorded to be working in Seville in the 1640s and 1650s. The humble setting and everyday objects depicted here are painted with a fluid efficiency, well suited to their function and telling of the sublime beauty that can be found in the simple and pure. The painting reflects Barranco's close study of Francisco Zurbarán, who was also workingin Seville at this time. The earthenware vessels and game birds appear again in a fine signed and dated work by Barranco from 1647, Still life with chocolate service and dead birds (see W. B. Jordan and P. Cherry, Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya, exhibition catalogue, London, 1995, pp. 110, fig. 83).

We are grateful to Dr. Peter Cherry for suggesting the attribution to Francisco Barranco, from photographs (private communication, 1 December 2009).