Still Life with Breams, Oranges, Garlic, Condiments and Kitchen Utensils

In 1772 almost the whole town of Alcorcon, just outside Madrid, lived by making pottery, and its lead-glazed earthenware was what kitchens all over the capital cooked and served from, in grand houses as much as poor ones. One of those brown bowls sits here behind the head of garlic, next to a brass mortar with its pestle, a frying pan tipped on its side, and a metal oil cruet at the back. Everything on the table is cheap. Melendez gave the two sea bream the whole middle of the picture, laid on bare boards with a coarse cloth and oranges, and lit them so hard that the scales and the big round eyes carry most of the light. He signed in the lower right with his initials and the year, L.M.D. 1772, and the old royal inventory numbers are still painted along the bottom left edge.