Still life with fruit, bottles, breads 1826

Curator: Let’s spend a moment with Francisco de Goya's "Still life with fruit, bottles, breads," painted in 1826. Editor: My first thought is that this isn't what I expect from Goya. The composition has this weighty darkness about it. Curator: It does, doesn't it? Three dark bottles looming in the background. Perhaps symbolic of the darkness of the era and even his personal struggles with illness. Note, though, the grapes are rendered in remarkable detail. Editor: Those bottles dominate the entire picture plane though! They steal attention away from all the meticulously rendered fruit and, I assume, house-baked bread in the foreground. The contrast is intense between dark vessels and more humble and lighter foods. It almost makes one question their place on the composition. Curator: Well, consider the bread, it's rendered almost sculpturally. Goya highlights everyday objects. It reminds me of vanitas paintings of the period that also contemplated on mortality and transience through material possessions. The shadows are stark too; they deepen the mood. It certainly deviates from his more overtly political or dramatic works. Editor: And that barrel next to them. Goya’s technique seems to celebrate how bread, grapes and water vessels are fashioned through manual and largely peasant labor. Also, the materiality! He plays with matte and sheen so strategically using simple, earthly materials as both content and process. Curator: He does elevate the mundane. The light feels directed. Perhaps these items speak to a more grounded, simple existence in the face of looming historical changes and the tumultuous political climate that shaped so much of his art before. It offers a humanized counterpoint. Editor: Interesting way to summarize his complex outlook. Ultimately, it’s his ability to evoke material relationships through tone and form that really intrigues me in this painting. The way everything’s connected!