Still-Life with Flowers, Artichokes and Fruit

In this painting Ponce depicts a copious bouquet of cut flowers in a two-handled vase of Talavera pottery that rests on a smooth stone ledge, laden with leafy branches of apples and pears, and some artichokes. The horizontal format and neutral, light ochre background tone gives a greater sense of atmospheric, ambient space than in other works by the artist, a sense that is, in turn, articulated by two butterflies that fly around the blooms.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 7 minutes): Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, ballet suite, op. 71, Waltz of the Flowers