Born in Madrid around 1634 and died in 1698, Bartolomé Pérez de la Dehesa specialized in flower painting. His first training remains poorly documented, but his proximity to Juan de Arellano is essential: critics consider him his student and Pérez married his daughter Juana in 1663. He took up the master's ornate bronze vases, baskets and large bouquets while observing the Italian painters Mario Nuzzi, Paolo Porpora, Giuseppe Recco, Giovanni Paolo Spadino and Margarita Caffi. His flowers are not a simple botanical inventory. They construct volumes, distribute colors and direct the gaze through the alternation of roses, tulips, carnations and foliage. In the garlands, this natural architecture surrounds a sacred image. Saint Anthony of Padua, a late work after 1689, bears in his signature the reference to the king's office as painter obtained that year. Saint Camille de Lellis belongs to a series of six religious compositions, five of which are preserved: the central medallion and the plant crown articulate devotion and magnificence. The Basket of Flowers, on the contrary, focuses all attention on the precarious balance of stems and corollas. The Basket of Flowers, on the contrary, focuses all attention on the precarious balance of stems and corollas. The Basket of Flowers, on the contrary, focuses all attention on the precarious balance of stems and corollas. The Basket of Flowers, on the contrary, focuses all attention on the precarious balance of stems and corollas. The Basket of Flowers, on the contrary, focuses all attention on the precarious balance of stems and corollas. The Basket of Flowers, on the contrary, focuses all attention on the precarious balance of stems and corollas. The Basket of Flowers, on the contrary, focuses all attention on the precarious balance of stems and corollas. The Basket of Flowers, on the contrary, focuses all attention on the precarious balance of stems and corollas. The Basket of Flowers, on the contrary, focuses all attention on the dorado" by Charles II, structure surrounding the royal bed. He had already participated in the ephemeral arches at the entrance of Marie-Louise d'Orléans in 1679 and in the theaters of the Alcazar and Buen Retiro. At home, still life therefore becomes at the same time an autonomous image, a sacred setting and an architectural decor. The "Bartolomé Pérez" selection notably compares Garland of Flowers with Saint Anthony of Padua and Basket of Flowers. His reading favors space.
Bartolomé Pérez does not place flowers in space: he builds with them, to the point of making a corolla a court ornament and a garland a threshold towards the sacred.
