Luis Egidio Meléndez (1716-1780)
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Luis Egidio Melendez was a Spanish still-life painter during the eighteenth century. Melendez was the son of a Spanish miniaturist painter from the small town of Oveido, Pain. His father, Francisco Melendez de Rivera Diaz, studied in Madrid before moving to Italy to pursue a career as a painter. Francisco Melendez settled in Naples, where Luis was born. Luis Melendez only lived in Italy for one year before his father moved the family back to Madrid. Luis and two of his siblings studied under their father, who gained a title as a painter of miniatures for the King.
Luis Melendez worked in the workshop of Louis Michel van Loo for many years, copying van Loo’s royal portraits for commercial and international sale. This work helped to prepare Melendez for his own painting career.
In 1744 Luis’s father became the honorary director of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Luis was one of the first students to enroll at the Academy. Unfortunately, Luis’s father lost his teaching position after angrily claiming that he was the institution’s true founder. The dispute let to Luis’s expulsion from the school, after aiding his father in presenting libelous documents about the Academy.
After Luis’s dramatic exit from the Academy, he relocated to Italy in search of new opportunities. Luis spent time in Rome and finally Naples, where he painted for the King. Luis lived in Italy until 1753, when his father encouraged him to return to Spain and re-paint miniatures that were lost in a fire at the Alcázar in Madrid. Luis followed his father’s advice and proceeded to paint numerous paintings for the court.
Luis became known for his still life paintings, executing nearly fifty “bodegón” paintings from 1759 to 1772. Luis’s still-lifes were painted in a decorative style, typical of Spain at that time. Artists Juan Sanchez Cotán and Francisco de Zurbarán started the bodegón style.
Meléndez painted his still-lifes with a serious sense of reverence. The grand themes did not attract him, but the ordinary stuff of every day life, which he studied with an enormous visual interest in the every day normality of form. Though Luis was not the first, nor the last to paint bodegón’s, his works show tremendous skill and mastery of the subject. Luis Melendez’s works are now in major museum collections, including the Museo del Prado and the National Gallery of London. Do you think you own a painting by Luis Melendez? Contact us. We are the Melendez experts.