HIEPES, Tomás
(b. ca. 1610, Valencia, d. 1674, Valencia)

Vase of Flowers

1643
Oil on canvas, 115 x 86 cm
Private collection

Tomás Hiepes lived and worked in Valencia, where he enjoyed considerable local fame as a still-life and flower painter. This painting, the magnificent floral arrangements Vase of Flowers, reflects his ability in flower painting. The format and style of Hiepes's flower paintings appears to have changed little throughout his career, he painted flowers with the same painstaking technique, love of symmetrical order and idiosyncratic charm that distinguished many of his still-lifes.

Hiepes's flower pieces are reminiscent of earlier Flemish works in terms of the number and variety of ornamental flowers depicted. This painting with sunflower includes no less than twenty-six species, far more than any other Spanish flower piece in the period. Hiepes also differed from other flower painters in Spain in the accuracy of his depiction of flowers, including the relative size of different blooms.

The floral arrangements depicted in Hiepes's work, however, are unlikely to have been copied from real bouquets before the artist. It would have proved impossible to bring together in one place and at one time all of the flowers depicted in the paintings, since these bloom at different times of the year and most flowers would have wilted before the painting was finished. Moreover, it would appear to be an impossibility for so many large flowers to fit into the narrow neck of the vase. Hiepes must have painted each bloom individually into his flower piece, probably from single flowers or from other graphic sources. The degree of separateness between these in his paintings appears to betray this practice.

The images on the Italian vase depict scenes of a classical triumph. Similar images decorate the vases in other flower pieces by Hiepes. Three gilt figures of crouching nude slaves are trampled underfoot by the Roman emperor and appear to support on their backs the whole arrangement of flowers. The decorative splendour of the vase certainly makes it a suitable recipient for such a magnificent display of flowers.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.