Taking on Acrylics Pt. 1

Still Life with Game Fowl

By Juan Sanchez Cotan, 1600

Timelessness in art means that its effect is either perpetual or metamorphic. This piece is both pleasantly fleeting in its archaic practicality and a marvel in its unintentionally modern bearing. Caught in a Mannerist-Baroque stasis one could only hope to have extended, the artist here demonstrates what has kept his work in the public eye – a slant on the en vogue.

In his own ‘bodegon’ or ‘tavern’ style, Cotan uses an open, geometric background in addition to contrasting lights and darks of budding Tenebrism to accentuate his objects’ eerily lifelike appearance. Each item is meticulously worked to the curve of every leaf and feather in an austere realism later to thrive in Spain. To see this level of devotion in every feature carries a weight founding each element’s standalone quality.

Here in still life did Cotan shine and deliver mundane nature that transcends itself to fantastic results. What it provides is a slice of historic life and also a lesson in the sheer immensity of classical craft technique.

Oddly and fitting enough, Still Life subtly evokes Rene Magritte in how the flora and fauna – practically sculptural in two dimensions – seem superimposed on a comparatively flat, bizarre location.

Though not as recognized in terms of his other work, Cotan nonetheless proves himself a formidable creative mind in any age. His signature pieces are still only in that they may take a short breath while preserving the life within them.