Alejandro de Loarte
Place Born
ToledoPlace Died
ToledoBio
The short-lived Alejandro de Loarte played a leading role in the early development of still-life painting in Castile. The exact date and place of his birth are unknown, but he had probably just begun his career at the time of his marriage in Madrid in 1619. Some time thereafter he settled in Toledo, where he seems to have had family ties, and he practiced there both as a painter of religious subjects and still lifes until his early death in 1626. His death inventory listed thirty-three finished still lifes and seven flowerpieces. Images of fruit predominated, but kitchen still lifes of meat and fowl are among his most famous works. Loarte’s Spanish roots can be seen in his debts to both Juan Sánchez Cotán (1561-1627) and Juan van der Hamen of León (1596-1631), but he must have been aware as well of such north Italian still lifes as those by Jacopo Chimenti, called Empoli (1551-1640).