Juan Sanchez Cotan. Juan Sánchez Cotán was a Spanish Baroque painter, a pioneer of realism in Spain.
His still lifes, also called bodegones, were painted in an austere style, especially when compared to similar works in the Netherlands and Italy. Sánchez Cotán was born in the town of Orgaz, near Toledo, Spain.
He was a friend and perhaps pupil of Blas de Prado, an artist famous for his still lifes whose mannerist style with touches of realism the disciple developed further. Cotán began by painting altarpieces and religious works.
For approximately twenty years, patronized by the city's aristocracy, he pursued a successful career as an artist in Toledo painting religious scenes, portraits and still lifes. These paintings found a receptive audience among the educated intellectuals of Toledo society.
Sánchez Cotán executed his notable still lifes around the beginning of the seventeenth century, before the end of his secular life. An example is Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber. On August 10, 1603, Sanchez Cotán, then in his forties, closed up his workshop at Toledo to renounce the world and enter the Carthusian monastery Santa Maria de El Paular. He continued his career painting religious works with singular mysticism. In 1612 he was sent to the Granada Charterhouse; he decided to become a monk, and in the following year he entered the Carthusian monastery at Granada as a lay brother. The reasons f
His still lifes, also called bodegones, were painted in an austere style, especially when compared to similar works in the Netherlands and Italy. Sánchez Cotán was born in the town of Orgaz, near Toledo, Spain.
He was a friend and perhaps pupil of Blas de Prado, an artist famous for his still lifes whose mannerist style with touches of realism the disciple developed further. Cotán began by painting altarpieces and religious works.
For approximately twenty years, patronized by the city's aristocracy, he pursued a successful career as an artist in Toledo painting religious scenes, portraits and still lifes. These paintings found a receptive audience among the educated intellectuals of Toledo society.
Sánchez Cotán executed his notable still lifes around the beginning of the seventeenth century, before the end of his secular life. An example is Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber. On August 10, 1603, Sanchez Cotán, then in his forties, closed up his workshop at Toledo to renounce the world and enter the Carthusian monastery Santa Maria de El Paular. He continued his career painting religious works with singular mysticism. In 1612 he was sent to the Granada Charterhouse; he decided to become a monk, and in the following year he entered the Carthusian monastery at Granada as a lay brother. The reasons f
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