Circle of TOMÁS YEPES (Valencia, ca. 1610-1674). "Still life". Oil on canvas. Preserves original canvas. It has restorations and tension bands. Measurements: 90 x 108 cm; 105 x 124 cm (frame). Suspended in the darkness, the elements that make up this still life seem to float, shining and shining they emerge with clarity before the spectator. The textures of each surface, be it the different shades of red of the cherries, the detail of the ornamentation of the vase, the gleam of the copper, present us with a calm and suggestive reality that makes it impossible to look away and continue scrutinising each detail. The modern and daring vision that the Baroque still life reached in Spain made it one of the highest levels of this genre in its time. Italian influences such as the great contrasts of light, the effective chiaroscuro inherited from the Caravagists and the taste for the Flemish still life that was so successful at the Spanish court, which was based on a type of work in which each piece was an exercise in representing reality in the most plausible way possible. Tomás Hiepes is currently considered the most outstanding Valencian Baroque still life painter, and in fact it is to him that we owe the greatest interest in this genre in the Valencian sphere. Although he was born around 1610, Hiepes began his artistic production in the second half of the century and continued to work until the 1970s, although his painting does not show any major stylistic changes throughout his production. In his work we can appreciate a search for geometry and symmetry through the composition of the flowers, which he arranged in a radial form, in the manner of the early Spanish Baroque, as can be seen in this canvas. His aesthetic language is characterised by several features that can be seen in this work. These include the importance of naturalism, a detailed and precise technique, especially visible in the qualities of the objects, a mainly warm, typically Valencian colour range, the influence of the Neapolitan still life in the brightness and sumptuousness of some elements and a certain tenebrist character in the lighting. With regard to the biographical information on Tomás Hiepes, there is no extensive bibliography that can establish his entire artistic career. It is known that his works were signed between 1642 and 1674, the year of his death. His works are currently held in various private collections and important art centres, including the Museo del Prado, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Valencia and the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, among other public and private collections.