Bidspirit auction | Meat still life, Colonial School,

Meat still life, Colonial School, 17th century (signed ”Salvador Gutiérrez”) - Oil on canvas. This work presents a scene of remarkable visual rawness and great technical realism, framed within the genre of the Spanish Baroque still life. The composition centers on two pieces of animal flesh hanging from a beam, one on the left with part of the ribcage visible, and another on the right, darker, with suggested viscera, accompanied by a straw-colored esparto grass basket that enhances the material and chromatic contrast. The vertical arrangement and narrow format of the painting intensify the powerful presence of the suspended elements, which are clearly outlined against a neutral, somber background. The execution is precise, with an excellent use of chiaroscuro that gives volume and three-dimensionality to the forms, highlighting the textures of the wet flesh, the fibrous folds, and the roughness of the plant tissue of the basket. The inherent drama of the image, accentuated by the directed light and the earthy, reddish colors, connects with the tenebrist tradition of the 17th century, in which naturalism was used to promote symbolic introspection or memento mori. Works like this were not only part of the domestic or gastronomic imagination but were also interpreted as allegories of the transience of life and materiality. This painting belongs to the more austere Spanish still life movement, with affinities with artists such as Juan Sánchez Cotán and Francisco de Zurbarán. Dimensions not shown. Signed.