Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560-1627)
Cotan spent many of his adult years work as an altarpiece artisan in Toledo. Cotan worked for the Spanish aristocracy, painting various religious pieces for the church. Cotan gained experience with portraits, genre paintings and religious iconography.
Cotan shut down his Toledo workshop in 1603 to enter the Carthusian monastery, Santa Maria de El Paular. While religion and mysticism became the main focus of Cotan’s life, he continued to make religious paintings.
In 1612 Cotan relocated to the Granada Charterhouse, and soon decided to enter the Carthusian monastery of Granada. Cotan’s ambition was to become a monk. Many of his paintings in Granada depicted the prosecution of monks by English Protestants.
Though Cotan spent many years making religious paintings, they never received acknowledgment or praise in comparison to his still life paintings. Cotan’s still life paintings are few in number, and rare to encounter. The still lifes are considered to be part of the golden age of painting in Spain, and some of the first examples of ‘Tenebrism’ (dramatic lighting). Cotan would paint extremely dark backgrounds with illuminated fruits and vegetables as well as fish and fowl.
Cotan’s style of still-life painting became a model for other Spanish artists, who referred to the still lifes as ‘bodegon’ (containing mostly vegetables). The focus on painting vegetables may be related to the Carthusian, vegetarian diet.
Many of Cotan’s paintings now belong to Prado collection in Madrid, as well as major international collections. Cotan’s paintings changed the course of still life painting in Spain and throughout Europe. Do you think you own a painting by Juan Sánchez Cotan? Contact us. We are the Juan Sánchez Cotan experts.