This book accompanies the National Gallery's exhibition of Spanish still-life painting from its origins to Goya and is the first major publication in English on the subject. Richly illustrated and beautifully produced, it is written by two of the foremost authorities in this field and contains much new research. In the first chapter the authors examine the circumstances which led to the creation of the earliest still lifes - the challenge of the imitation of nature and the revival of the ancient lost genre of still life - and discuss such topics as the influence of botanical studies, the symbolic dimension of still life, and early collectors of the genre.

There follows a chronological overview of the development of still-life painting in Spain, beginning with Sanchez Cotan, a painter turned monk from Toledo, whose stark and extraordinary representations of fruit and vegetables carefully displayed in window frames are among the earliest European still lifes, and Velazquez, whose scenes of everyday life include prominent still-life elements. The authors trace the development of still life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through Juan van der Hamen's exquisite 'courtly' still lifes of precious glassware and candied fruit, the Vanitas paintings of Pereda and Valdes Leal, the works of Velazquez's Sevillian contemporaries, Francisco de Zurbaran and his son Juan, and the flower pictures of Juan de Arellano. They consider works by Melendez - characterised by a thrilling verisimilitude and a heightened pictorial intensity and richness - and lesser-known artists such as Paret and Romero, and, finally, still-life paintings by Goya whose disturbing simplicity and directness recall some of his more sinister works and suggest a new departure for the genre. The authors describe the character of each artist's oeuvre, their relationship with other artists, interpret particular pictures, describing the circumstances of the commission, and give biographical information. Full colour plates illustrate the exhibited works, accompanied by informative catalogue entries.