{"data":{"id":84709,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/84709","is_boosted":true,"title":"Still Life with Game Fowl","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBwAFAPUAABcUEx0bFx4cGB8fGCUhGyciGyUiHigkHysmIDIrIDAsIjMuJDQvJDUwJTUxJjg0Iz03Jzw3KTw2LEY6KUY9LUc+Lkg+LkdGL0tEM0hCNEtCNFFHNVNKNFFJOFVLOFRMOFpQO2BWPnRqUgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAHAAUAAAYhwEVDYDgEOgxIATEheByXAcCioSgeEZEkk8BwQJ9NqBIEADs=","width":11148,"height":8546,"alt_text":"Still life painting of dead waterfowl and vegetables in windowsill."},"main_reference_number":"1955.1203","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1600,"date_end":1603,"date_display":"c. 1600\u20133","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Juan S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n (Spanish, 1560\u20131627)","place_of_origin":"Spain","description":"<p><em>Still Life with Game Fowl<\/em> is the Art Institute\u2019s earliest European still-life painting. Still life emerged as an independent genre in European art in the sixteenth century, when artists began to specialize in such categories as landscape, portraiture, and scenes of everyday life. Some, like Juan S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n, became interested in displaying their skill at depicting inanimate objects, in part as an expression of the order and variety of the natural world. The painter\u2019s focus changed in 1603, however, when he left a successful, two-decade artistic career in the Spanish city of Toledo to become a lay brother of the Carthusian order at the Charterhouse of Granada. Accordingly, he changed his focus from still lifes to religious images.<\/p>\n<p>This painting was executed just before S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n left Toledo. It follows the conventional format of his still lifes: precisely rendered forms displayed in a shallow niche. In some works, he depicted few objects; in others, such as this example, he \ufb01lled the space with them. The artist rigorously organized the composition so that the complex symmetry of the objects echoes the elegant geometry of the spherical quince, cabbage, and melon and the conical birds. A strong, raking light creates a lively play of brightness and shadow over each shape. This arrangement is further enlivened by a subtle compositional device\u2014the hanging objects form a diagonal from the top-left to bottom-right corners of the niche. In these ways, S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n infused simple objects in a minimal setting with great presence.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"67.8 \u00d7 88.7 cm (26 11\/16 \u00d7 34 15\/16 in.); Framed: 86.4 \u00d7 108 \u00d7 7 cm (34 \u00d7 42 1\/2 \u00d7 2 3\/4 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":88,"height":67,"diameter":null,"clarification":null},{"depth":7,"width":108,"height":86,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Framed"}],"medium_display":"Oil on canvas","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"August L. Mayer, Geschichte der spanischen Malerei, Leipzig, 1922, p. 361.\n\nDie Weltkunst 2, no. 49 (December 3, 1933), p. 5.\n\nAugust L. Mayer, Historia de la pintura espa\u00f1ola, Madrid, 1942, p. 384.\n\n\u201cAccessions of American and Canadian Museums: July-September, 1955,\u201d The Art Quarterly 19 (1956), p. 73, 76 (ill.).\n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 50 (1956), p. 37 (ill.).\n\nJuan Antonio Gaya Nu\u00f1o, La Pintura Espa\u00f1ola fuera de Espa\u00f1a (Historia y Cat\u00e1logo) (Madrid, 1958), p. 300, no. 2611.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 409.\n\nPontus Grate, Spanska M\u00e4stare: En Konstbok fr\u00e5n Nationalmuseum (Stockholm, 1960), p. 115, ill.\n\nRam\u00f3n Torres Mart\u00edn,  Zurbar\u00e1n: El Pintor G\u00f3tico del Siglo XVII (Seville, 1963), p. LXXX, fig. 28.\n\nWilliam Jordan, \u201cJuan van der Hamen y Le\u00f3n: A Madrilenian Still-Life Painter,\u201d Marsyas 12 (1964\u20131965), p. 63, fig. 18.\n\nIngvar Bergstr\u00f6m, Maestros espa\u00f1oles de bodegones y floreros del siglosXVII (Madrid, 1970), pp. 20-21.\n\nJohn Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York, 1970), p. 256 (ill.).\n\nRam\u00f3n Torres Martin, La Naturaleza Muerta en la Pintura Espa\u00f1ola (Barcelona, 1971), p. 48, fig. 8. \n\nDiego Angulo I\u00f1iguez and Alfonso E. P\u00e9rez S\u00e1nchez, Historia de la pintura espa\u00f1ola: Escuela toledana de la primera mitad del siglo XVII (Madrid, 1972), p. 97, no. 204, pl. 72. \n\nJos\u00e9 Gudiol Ricart, \u201cNature mortes de S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n (1561\u20131627),\u201d Pantheon 35 (1977), pp. 311\u201318, fig. 1.\n\nIngvar Bergstr\u00f6m et al., Stilleben.  Die grosse Zeit des europ\u00e4ischen Stillebens, Zurich, 1979, p. 212 (ill.). \n\nGerhard Langemeyer and Hans Albert Peters, eds., Stilleben in Europa, exh. cat. Westf\u00e4lisches Landesmuseum f\u00fcr Kunst-und Kulturgeschichte M\u00fcnster and Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 1979, p. 386.\n\nG. Fern\u00e1ndez Bayton, Inventarios Reales, testamentaria de Rey Carlos II (1701-1703), vol. 2, Madrid, 1981, pp. 144, no. 132.\n\nPintura espa\u00f1ola de bodegones y floreros de 1600 a Goya, exhib. cat. (Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1983-84), pp. 28-29. \n\nBetty Dietz Krebs, \u201cMystery Part of Toledo Art Museum Exhibit,\u201d Dayton Daily News (September 1, 1985), p. 2\u2013D (ill.).\n\nFritz Koreny, Albrecht D\u00fcrer und die Tier- und Planzenstudien der Renaissance, exh. cat., Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, 1985, p. 43, fig. 6.\n\nNina Ayala Mallory, \u201cMuseum News: Spanish Still-Life in the Golden Age, 1600-1650,\u201d Art Journal 45 (1985), p. 354.\n\nAlfonso E. P\u00e9rez S\u00e1nchez,  La nature morte espagnole du XVIIe si\u00e8cle \u00e0 Goya, Fribourg, 1987, p. 21, fig. 6. \n\nJames N. Wood and Katherine C. Lee, Master Painting in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1988), p. 25 (ill.).\n\nWilliam B. Jordan, \u201cA Newly Discovered Still Life by Juan S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n,\u201d Burlington Magazine 132 (1990), pp. 96\u201399, fig. 19.\n\nPeter Cherry, \u201cMadrid. S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n at the Prado,\u201d Burlington Magazine 135 (1993), pp. 164-66, fig. 118.\n\nEmilio Orozco D\u00edaz, El Pintor Fray Juan S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n (Granada 1993), pp. 368-9, ill. p. 193.\n\nJohn W. Smith, \u201cThe Nervous Profession: Daniel Catton Rich and the Art Institute of Chicago, 1927-1958,\u201d The Art Institute of Chicago: Museum Studies 19, no. 1 (1993), p. 69, fig. 15.\n\nBodo Vischer, \"'La transformac\u00edon den dios': zu den Stilleben von Juan S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n, 1560-1627,\" Zeitchrift f\u00fcr \u00c4sthetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft 38 (1993), p. 280, pl. 2.\n\nClaus Grimm, Stilleben:  Die italienischen, spanischen und franz\u00f6sischen Meister (Stuttgart and Zurich, 1995), p. 93, pl. 37.\n\nEvaristo Baschenis e la natura morta in Europa, exh. cat., Galleria d\u2019arte moderna e contemporanea, Bergamo, 1996, p. 23, fig. 9.\n\nPeter Cherry, \u201cThe Hungry Eye: the Still Lifes of Juan S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n,\u201d Konsthistorisk Tidskrift 65 (1996), pp. 82\u201383, 85, 90, 94, fig. 6.\n\nWilliam B. Jordan, \u201cS\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n, Juan\u201d in Dictionary of Art, vol. 27 (New York, 1996), p. 706.\n\nWilliam B. Jordan, An Eye on Nature: Spanish Still-Life Paintings from S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n to Goya, exh. cat., Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd., (London, 1997), pp. 30\u201334, under cat. 1.\n\nPeter Cherry, Arte y Naturaleza: El Bodeg\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ol en el Siglo de Oro (Aranjuez, 1999), pp. 32\u201334, pl. 8.\n\nGeorges Herzog, Albrecht Kauw (1616-1681): Der Berner Maler aus Strassburg (Bern 1999), pp. 83-4, fig. 43.\n\nFelix Scheffler, Das spanische Stilleben des 17. Jahrhunderts: Theorie, Genese und Entfaltung einer neuen Bildgattung (Frankfurt, 2000), p. 249, fig. 132.\n\nMar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Terrada, \u201cHern\u00e1ndez and Spanish Painting in the Seventeeth Century\u201d in Searching for the Secrets of Nature: The Life and Works of Dr. Francisco Hern\u00e1ndez, Stanford, California, 2000, pp. 155, 167, fig. 4.\n\nDavid Hockney,\u00a0Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, London, 2001. p. 107, ill.\n\nOld Master Pictures, auction cat., Christie\u2019s, London, December 8, 2004, under lot 94, pp. 174\u20135, fig. 3.\n\nMatthias Weniger, \"Verzeichnis der spanischen Gem\u00e4lde in deutschen Sammlungen\" in Matthias Weniger et al., Greco, Vel\u00e1zquez, Goya.  Spanische Malerei aus deutschen Sammlungen, exhib. cat. Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 2005, pp. 242-43, ill.  \n\nWilliam B. Jordan, Juan van der Hamen y Le\u00f3n and the Court of Madrid, exh. cat., Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, and Meadows Museum, Dallas, 2005, pp. 54-58, 300, fig. 3.6.\n\nLisa Wainwright,\u00a0Things of Nature and the Nature of Things: John Wilde, exhib. cat., Chazen Museum of Art, 2006, pp. 14-15, 22, fig. 9.\n\nEdward J. Sullivan, The Language of Objects in the Art of the Americas, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 25, fig. 18.\n\nWilliam B. Jordan, \u201cLa Galler\u00eda del Mediod\u00eda de El Pardo y los or\u00edgenes de la naturaleza muerta en Madrid\u201d in Los pintores de lo real, Fundaci\u00f3n Amigos del Museo del Prado, Madrid, 2008, pp. 126-37.\n\nJohn B. Ravenal, \u201cNotes on Black,\u201d in Carter Ratcliff,\u00a0Donald Sultan: The Theater of the Object, New York, 2008. p. 25, ill.\n\nCristina Marinas, \"L'Am\u00e9rique dans la nature morte espagnole\" in Tomate et chocolat.  Usages alimentaires et cr\u00e9olisation culturelle, ed. Pascale Budillon Puma, Paris, 2008, pp. 27-28, 37, ill.\n\nPeter Cherry, \u201cIntroduction: In the presence of things. Two centuries of still-life painting,\u201d\u00a0in In the presence of things: Four Centuries of European still-life painting, exhib. cat., Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, 2010, vol. 1, pp. 25, 41, n. 47.\n\u00a0\nPeter Cherry , \u201cThe golden age of still-life painting in Spain and Italy,\u201d in In the presence of things: Four Centuries of European still-life painting, exhib. cat., Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, 2010, vol. 1, pp. 69, 72-73, 78, fig. 37.\n\nLeticia Ruiz Gomez in El Siglo de Oro: Die \u00c4ra Vel\u00e1zquez, exh. cat. (Munich: Hirmer cop., 2016), 94-95 cat. 6.\n\nJames Rondeau, ed., Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the collection (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2025), 34 (ill.).","exhibition_history":"Los Angeles, UCLA Art Galleries, Dickson Art Center, Spanish Masters, January 25\u2013March 6, 1960; traveled to Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, March 25\u2013May 1, 1960, cat. 8.\n\nCaracas, Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, Grandes Maestros de los Siglos XV, XVI,  XVII y XVIII, November 5\u2013December 17, 1967, cat. 6. \n\nForth Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age 1600\u20131650, catalogue by William Jordan, May 11\u2013August 4, 1985; traveled to Toledo Museum of Art, September 8\u2013November 3, 1985, cat. 4.\n\nMadrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, La Imitaci\u00f3n de la Naturaleza: Los Bodegones de S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n, November 17, 1992\u2013January 17, 1993, cat. 2.\n\nChicago, Art Institute, Chicago\u2019s Dream, A World\u2019s Treasure: The Art Institute of Chicago 1893\u20131993, November 1\u2013January 9, 1994, no cat. \n\nLondon, The National Gallery, Spanish Still Life from Vel\u00e1zquez to Goya, February 22\u2013May 21, 1995, cat. 2.\n\nBoston, Mass., Museum of Fine Arts, El Greco to Vel\u00e1zquez, April 20-July 27, 2008, cat. 52; Durham, North Carolina, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, August 21-November 9, 2008.\n\nBerlin, Gem\u00e4ldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, El Siglo de Oro: Die \u00c4ra Vel\u00e1zquez, 1 July - 30 October 2016; Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, 25 November 2016 - 26 March 2017, cat. no. 6.","provenance_text":"Probably in the artist\u2019s possession, Toledo, before he retired to a Carthusian monastery, in August 1603 [inventory 1603, no. V, (\u201cUn lienzo de frutas adonde est\u00e1 el \u00e1nade y otros tres p\u00e1jaros ques de Diego de Valdivieso\u201d; Jordan in Madrid 1992, pp. 41\u201343); probably Diego de Valdivieso, Toledo, 1603 [see 1603 inventory cited by Jordan 1992].  Cardinal Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas, archbishop of Toledo and primate of Spain, Toledo or Huerta de Sandoval, near Madrid (died 1618); acquired from his estate with 4 other still lifes for the decoration of the Galer\u00eda del Mediod\u00eda in the royal hunting lodge of El Pardo, the series completed by an additional still life commissioned for this purpose from Juan van der Hamen [according to a note of 10 September 1619 in the accounts of the royal household; see Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda de Azc\u00e1rate, \u201cAlgunas noticias sobre pintores cortesanos de siglo XVII\u201d Anales de Instituto de estudios Madrile\u00f1os, 6 (1970), p. 60; see also Jordan 2006, pp. 54-58,]; royal inventories of 1653, no. 145 (\u201c145.  Un frutero Peque\u00f1o Con su marco de oro y negro y un Melon abierto en medio\u201d, A small fruit still life with its black and gold frame with an open melon in the middle; an inventory number 145 is inscribed in the lower left corner of the painting; see Jordan 2006, pp. 58, 300, n. 24) and 1701\/03, no. 132 (Fern\u00e1ndez Bayton 1981, vol. 2, p. 144, no. 132); probably one of two still lifes by Cot\u00e1n listed among the paintings from royal residences gathered at the Escorial in 1809 for shipment to Madrid for a projected national museum [Jordan 2008, pp. 136-37 and Ilse Hempel Lipschutz, Spanish Painting and the French Romantics, Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 268-81, especially p. 280]. August L. Mayer, Munich, by 1922 [see Mayer 1922, p. 361]; sold, Munich, Hugo Helbing, November 24\u201325, 1933, lot 79, pl. 4, as S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n, K\u00fcchenstilleben for 380 Marks [the price based on Die Weltkunst 1933; that the picture belonged to Mayer can be deduced from the provenance of no. 74 in this sale, which later entered the Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen].  Private collection, Germany [according to 1955 receipt from Frederick Mont, in curatorial file].  Frederick Mont and Newhouse Galleries, New York, by 1955 [1955 receipt cited above and shipping invoice, in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute, 1955.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":14,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":true,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":0,"color":{"h":42,"l":47,"s":24,"percentage":0.00016794231450204558,"population":160},"latitude":41.8792788903631,"longitude":-87.6233967962952,"latlon":"41.879278890363,-87.623396796295","is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 211","gallery_id":2147483626,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Painting and Sculpture of Europe","department_id":"PC-10","artist_id":5383,"artist_title":"Juan S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[5383],"artist_titles":["Juan S\u00e1nchez Cot\u00e1n"],"category_ids":["PC-10","PC-831"],"category_titles":["Painting and Sculpture of Europe","Essentials"],"term_titles":["oil on canvas","oil painting","oil paint (paint)","still life","Renaissance","window","17th Century","painting techniques","painting","painting","paint","spanish","paint","oil paintings (visual works)","painting (image making)","painting","european painting","canvas","birds","cabbages","ducks","food","fowl","fruit","plants","vegetables"],"style_id":"TM-5891","style_title":"Renaissance","alt_style_ids":["TM-13770"],"style_ids":["TM-5891","TM-13770"],"style_titles":["Renaissance","17th Century"],"classification_id":"TM-66","classification_title":"oil on canvas","alt_classification_ids":["TM-15664","TM-10387","TM-78","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_ids":["TM-66","TM-15664","TM-10387","TM-78","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_titles":["oil on canvas","spanish","paint","oil paintings (visual works)","painting","european painting"],"subject_id":"TM-8937","alt_subject_ids":["TM-14921","TM-11211","TM-12641","TM-12639","TM-8673","TM-12584","TM-11204","TM-12058","TM-12643"],"subject_ids":["TM-8937","TM-14921","TM-11211","TM-12641","TM-12639","TM-8673","TM-12584","TM-11204","TM-12058","TM-12643"],"subject_titles":["still life","window","birds","cabbages","ducks","food","fowl","fruit","plants","vegetables"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-13502","TM-2577","TM-3124"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-13502","TM-2577","TM-3124"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","painting","paint","canvas"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3971","TM-14210","TM-3891"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-3971","TM-14210","TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting techniques","painting","painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":["Essentials"],"image_id":"f2021182-1302-f76f-97f1-4e7850030e3b","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":["04eb8dbe-c9b6-017c-6734-51998699f4f4"],"sound_ids":["04eb8dbe-c9b6-017c-6734-51998699f4f4"],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"Still Life with Game Fowl","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1955.1203"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Still Life with Game Fowl"],"weight":18642,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-03-17T16:52:44-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-27T15:11:32-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:47:41-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. 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