(Seville circa 1630 – 1684 Óbidos)
Lilies and other flowers in a majolica vase, with peaches, grapes, cherries and other fruit around, on stone steps,
oil on canvas, 77.4 x 89.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
William Samuel Paley collection, New York (1901–1990);
his sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 17 January 1992, lot 86 (as Attributed to Master of the Hartford Still Life);
with Galleria Cesare Lampronti, Rome, 1998;
where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Rome, Galleria Cesare Lampronti, Nature morte e Paesaggi Italiani ed europei del XVII e XVIII secolo, 12 May-30 June 1993, cat. no. 1 (as Spanish School, late 16th/early 17th century)

Literature:
G. Sestieri, L. Laureati (eds.), in: Nature morte e Paesaggi Italiani ed europei del XVII e XVIII secolo, exhibition catalogue, Rome 1993 (as Spanish School, late 16th/early 17th century);
A. Bacchi, E. Sambo, in: La natura morta di Federico Zeri, Bologna 2015, p. 28, illustrated p. 29 fig. 18 (as Josefa de Ayala)

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri, under no. 92828 (as Josefa de Ayala).

Josefa de Ayala, also known as Josefa de Óbidos, is celebrated for her still-life painting in which she demonstrates a knowledge of the Spanish painters Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560–1627) and Francisco de Zurbaràn (1598–1664), as well as an awareness of the first still-life painters in Rome following Caravaggio, including Agostino Verrocchi (1586–1659). Josefa was active during the seventeenth century, at the height of popularity for the genre, and can be regarded a link between the Rome of Caravaggio and the Iberian Peninsula.

The geometrical rhythm of the fruits, presented in parallel rows, arranged on receding steps derive from the Spanish tradition of Cotán. The composition’s somewhat surreal, rigorous separation of the fruit presented in horizontal rows, is interrupted by the pivotal, vertical thrust, of the centrally positioned double handled vase with a white lily. This flower probably alludes to or is emblematic of the Virgin Mary. The rendering of every detail, the rich sense of colour and of the rhythm of the present painting can be compared to the Still life with flowers and sweets dated to circa 1679 in the Biblioteca Municipal Braamcamp Freire, Santarém, Portugal.

Josefa de Ayala was born in Seville, she was the daughter of the painter Baltazar Gomes Figueira with whom she trained. She arrived in Portugal in 1634 when her father returned with his family to his country of origin, settling in Óbidos. Josefa undertook religious training at the Augustinian convent of Santa Ana, Coimbra. Although she did not take Holy Orders, Josefa never married and in 1653 she returned to Óbidos, where unusually for the time, she lived as an independent woman earning her living from painting, largely commissioned by convents and monasteries, but also supplying portraits and still-live paintings to private clients. Many of her still-life paintings, considered her specialty, are now conserved in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon.