In 1602 Cotan created a minimal still life that referred to space, time & preservation, mathematics, and temperance. In the context of lockdown and within the ‘only buy what you need’ mantra, I’ve created my 21^stC response of plastic wrapped vegetables in my wonky Wilko vegetable rack.

The is my contemporary version of the Juan Sanches Cotan painting Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber, (1602), currently on show at San Diego Museum of Art. This is my all-time favourite still life painting.

In my painting I approach the work with contemporary materials, such as Acrylic and acrylic glazing medium to create my Covid 19 ‘lockdown’ painting. Although minimal in my approach, there are subtle nods to the excesses of modern life, such as the shiny packaging that attempts to preserve the contents yet stifle the planet in one fell swoop. Cotan was responding (possibly) to the scientific breakthroughs of his day, through the mathematics of the hyperbole, time and space. Cotan was also preserving his pantry by hanging the vegetables to protect them from bruising, whilst at the same time depicting the movement of the planets; moving, rotating vegetables would have been a nightmare to paint. I did not have such problems; these discoveries had already been made. For me for me the context of the everyday was far simpler. My bargain basement Wilko trolley had to be elevated at least within the treatment of the subject matter; chiaroscuro lighting, dramatic colour, and attention to detail. The painting does not faithfully replicate real life; it’s still an artifice, made grander by my choice of colour. In real life, the scene is far more mundane.  I wonder what Cotan would have made of today’s wasteful, dystopian world through my dumbed down Druids Heath still life? Cotan looked through the lens of wonder; would he look through my lens and wonder?

Here’s a link to a video by The San Diego Museum of Art about Spanish artist Juan Sánchez Cotán, Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber