Bon appétit!

Published Feb. 9, 2010 at 9:44 p.m.
The delicious art of Luis Meléndez
Luis Meléndez himself greets you at the outset of "Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life" at the Museum of Fine Arts. He seems a haughty 31-year-old in this 1746 self-portrait, standing in a fine silk coat and ruffled shirt and holding up a chalk drawing (note the chalk in his hand) of a hunky nude dude.

STILL LIFE WITH WATERMELONS AND APPLES IN A LANDSCAPE: These paintings invite you in, whetting your desire, tempting you.

“Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life” Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston Through May 9 Slideshow: Images from the MFA's Luis Meléndez exhibit.

Luis Meléndez himself greets you at the outset of "Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life" at the Museum of Fine Arts. He seems a haughty 31-year-old in this 1746 self-portrait, standing in a fine silk coat and ruffled shirt and holding up a chalk drawing (note the chalk in his hand) of a hunky nude dude.

Luis's father, Francisco Meléndez, was a miniature painter for Spanish kings and also one of the founders of the fledgling Royal Academy of Art in Madrid, where by 1746 Luis was studying. Luis himself had assisted with his father's painting projects, and he spent six years helping in the studio of a royal portraitist. The drawing in his self-portrait signals his desire to rise to the upper echelon of painters and fill canvases and murals with grand Biblical and historical scenes.

But he struggled to obtain regular royal commissions. Four times he petitioned King Charles III for a steady gig, and each time he was rejected. It may not have helped that his father was feuding with his art-school colleagues; Francisco was thrown out the same day that Luis got into a dispute in school and was expelled. After studies in Italy, Luis returned to Madrid, and for five years, he helped his father paint elaborately illuminated pages for a royal-chapel choirbook. But he couldn't seem to win the king's favor on his own.

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