Basket of Cherries and Flowers

Depicting a severely drawn, rather flat basket on a narrow ledge flanked by flowers behind it, the rigorously symmetrical composition is relieved only by soft lighting and the studied disarray of some fallen cherries. The location of the flowers, behind the front ledge in the picture, probably reflects an invention of Juan Sánchez Cotán: in a Still-Life with Hamper of Cherries and Basket of Apricots that is known in a number of copies, a head of maize rises into the composition from behind the lower ledge of a window space in the same way as Ledesma's flowers.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes): Franz Schubert: Blumenlied (Flower Song) D 431