Bodegon

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In fine art painting, the term Bodegon has two meanings. Generically it means any still life painting, but more specifically it stands for kitchen still lifes. The Spanish words for both ¨pantry¨ and 'tavern' is bodégon. In his youth the Spanish master Velasquez (1599-1660), painted some works which pertain to this genre, amongst the most famous of these works is the ¨Old woman frying eggs¨, (1618) National Gallery of Art, Scotland. These early works by Velasquez were highly influenced by the Italian school, namely Caravaggio and his circle who practiced the technique of Chiaroscuro. The Spanish Bodegón tradition, stretching back to the 17Cent, has a moral seriousness and austerity… [p.30] (Nochlin, Linda. The Politics of Vision : Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1989). This austerity and seriousness of the Spanish School can be interpreted on the one hand as a rejection of worldly pleasures and on the other as a reaction to the style of Northern still life paintings, namely the Dutch School. The Dutch still life masters and their patrons relished in the idea of excess, often depicting scenes were plenitude was paramount, a horn of plenty for the eyes and the senses.