Antonio PONCE (Valladolid 1608-after 1662 ?) Hare... Lot 39

Antonio PONCE (Valladolid 1608-after 1662 ?) Hare with a mallard (female), a teal and a woodpigeon with a basket of fruit on an entablature Canvas Trace of signature and dated on the right (slightly enhanced): P ... f /1646 Restorations Hare with a mallard (female), a teal and a wood pigeon with a basket of fruit on an entablature, canvas, trace of signature and dated on the right (slightly heightened): P ... f / 1646, restorations 94 x 120 cm - 37 x 471/4 in. PROVENANCE Inventoried on 14 January 1668 in the collection of Ana de Criales, born in Madrid in 1631 and married to Don Gaspar de la Herrán y Ezcaray, who was a councillor of Madrid : Quatro fruteros yguales de Vara y quarta de largo y bara poco mas de ancho de mano de Antonio fonte El Uno con Una liebre y Unas anades y una çesta de frutas El otro con Un garrafon con nueve Diversas dulses y Vidrico El otro con una Jarra de diversas flores Unas alcachofas y una çesta con zerezas ; El otro con dos çestas de ubas y diversas frutas y Unas aves tassazonse en Veinte ducados cada Uno 880. (Peter Cherry, Archivo Histórico de Protocolos, Madrid, Prot. 8.142). Our painting was one of a series of four. It is the first one described in the 1668 inventory of Ana de Criale: Four fruit bowls of one and a quarter meters in length and one meter more or less in width by the hand of Antonio fonte (sic). One with a hare and ducks and a basket of fruit. Another with a jug with nine assorted sweets and a glass jar. Another with a vase with several flowers, artichokes and a bowl of cherries. The other with two baskets of grapes and several fruits and some birds, valued (taxed) at twenty ducats each. One might be tempted to think that this was a set on the four seasons, as van der Hamen did, and that our painting would then represent Autumn: it is the season for hunting small game in Madrid. It is the season of the grape harvest. Pomegranates and apples are fruits of this time of year. In 1624, Antonio Ponce entered the studio of Juan Van der Hamen, the most famous still life painter of the time. The influence of his master can be seen in his early paintings, with their arrangement on sometimes overlapping stone entablatures and the strong Caravaggesque chiaroscuro lighting. As a still life painter, he tackled a wide range of subjects and formats, from fruit and vegetables to game and flowers, from month series to small cabinet paintings. From 1637 to 1638, Ponce worked at the Buen Retiro Palace (Madrid), built by King Philip IV. In July and August 1649, he collaborated with a group of artists in the ephemeral decoration of the stands in the plaza and stairs of the church of San Felipe el Real as part of the festivities surrounding the entry of Marianna of Austria. In the 1640s, he adopted lighter, brighter backgrounds that gave a better sense of atmosphere, nuanced by gentle contrasts, and a chromatic range tending towards grey.