![Luis Meléndez - Still Life with Figs and Bread [c.1770]](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2950/15299624709_56f45efbed_o.jpg)
Luis Meléndez (1715 – 1780) is now recognised as the premier still-life painter in 18th-century Spain, indeed one of the greatest in all of Europe, though his reputation had long been eclipsed by the achievements of his Spanish contemporary, Francisco Goya. After a precarious beginning to his career, Meléndez received a royal commission in 1771 from the Prince of Asturias (later King Charles IV) to paint a series of still lifes depicting "the four Seasons of the Year, or more properly, the four Elements, with the aim of composing an amusing cabinet with every species of food produced by the Spanish climate." He became an inventive and consummate painter of still-life arrangements.
[National Gallery of Art, Washington]