Mastery of light, expressive color, material quality and, above all, detail. Luis Meléndez (Naples, 1716-Madrid, 1780) has the ability to captivate the audience with a challenge to realism that transcends the canvas and the objects represented. Arranged on a table of wood or stone, or even placed on the floor – with the rare exception of a landscape background- are represented diversity of fruits and kitchen furnishings that despite repeated in all his compositions, attracting the eye of viewer by its surface over and over again.

Meléndez's still lifes raise an extraordinary vision of the everyday object that contrasts with the luster of the art court of his time. In its sobriety, they are authentic. Therefore, despite contrasting with the taste preferred by the French and Italian art of Philip V, this authenticity close to the seventeenth century Spanish still life, captivate, at least, courtiers and academicians.

Born in Italy, into a dynasty of artists from Asturias – his father, Francisco Antonio, was a miniaturist ; and his uncle Miguel Jacinto was the offical court portraitist –, Meléndez began his education in Madrid with his father, and continued his education in the studio of Louis-Michel van Loo. The expulsion of his father's on the Preparatory Meeting of the Academy of San Fernando and a conflict with Van Loo, led him to Italy. Back in Spain, Meléndez worked first as a miniaturist, but his still lifes were those who won for recognition.

Fruits, earthenware, glass, cork, fabric, metal and stone, form a body of work that has captivated-and-still collectors and museums worldwide. A master of the art that reflects their desire for accuracy, an unconscious wish to check your surroundings with an almost scientific mind. Until September 23 at the Selgas-Fagalde (El Pito, Cudillero). Alejandro Martínez

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