A certain still life painting I have been waiting for will come to Japan for the first time.
That work is Juan Sánchez Cotán’s “Still Life with Marmelo, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber” (c. 1602, oil on canvas, collection of the San Diego Museum of Art).
The National Museum of Western Art will be exhibiting the work in “European Master Paintings from The San Diego Museum of Art and The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo : Emulation and Admiration: Two stories of Collecting European Art Western Paintings, from March 11 to June 8, 2025.
Painted by Juan Sánchez Cotán, pioneer of Spanish realism and founder of bodegón (kitchen painting), this work is considered a masterpiece of Spanish Baroque still life, characterized by tenebrism (a painting technique with strong contrasts). What's more, as an important work that could be seen as the face of the San Diego Art Museum, this exhibition is truly an opportunity not to be missed.
This painting was very different from Flemish and Dutch still lifes of the same period and stood out in the book of still lifes I had. What is the rectangular space in the background? A niche or a pantry? Why are the vegetables and fruits hanging from strings like game? And more than 20 years ago I've decided to make a still life in black and white with the pinhole camera, based on this painting. I'm hoping that if I take a closer look at the painting, I might discover something new...
Miniature fruits and vegetables were purchased at the market near the Hôtel de Ville de Paris, but it was difficult to obtain all the ingredients at the same time, with the exception of melon and cucumber. I decided to replace the marmelo with an apple and the cabbage with frizzy one. Paper leaves were made for the apple, the irregular cuts of the melon were faithfully executed, and the lighting was carefully studied for the cabbage, which would wither if exposed closely to strong light.
However, the most difficult thing was surprisingly not the long exposure time for a large format pinhole camera (eight by ten inches), but the apple and cabbage suspended on strings which, if accidentally touched, would spend nearly half an hour - almost the same length of time as the shooting time - spinning around on themselves! I wonder if Juan Sánchez Cotán, paintbrush in hand, would have had the same kind of problem?
My still life, which I finally managed to produce after so much time, was far from the Spanish painter's colorful and contrasting work, but in monochrome, which looked more like a Flemish or Dutch still life, with the characteristic softness of pinhole photography. After the shot, I cooked the vegetables and fruits in the kitchen next door and put them in my mouth. A bodegon my way!
This original print will be on view in the photography exhibition “LIFE - Life with Photography IV” at gallery bauhaus in Ochanomizu, around the same time as the exhibition at the National Museum of Western Art.
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