ALTARPIECE RELIQUARY WITH OIL ON TABLE. LUIS DE MORALES, ROSEWOOD, IVORY AND STONES, 16TH CENTURY.
Antiques - Paintings
Reference: Z6459
LUIS DE MORALES The Virgin with a book, the sleeping Child and Saint John the Baptist. Oil on panel. Published in the Journal of Extremadura Studies. Provincial Council of Badajoz. 2018 The panel depicts the Virgin Mary, shown slightly more than half-length, seated on a bench and leaning against a table, reading with the sleeping Child on her lap. To the right, a young Saint John the Baptist appears from behind the bench, placing a finger to his mouth, asking for silence so as not to disturb Jesus' sleep. The oil painting is framed by an ebony reliquary altar: flanked by two fluted columns with Corinthian capitals and ivory bases, situated on a plinth containing relics (their cartouches, read from left to right, house those of Saint Sylvester, Saint Philip the Apostle, Saint Philip Neri, Saint Anthony Abbot, Saint Mary Magdalene, the Holy Sepulchre of Our Lord, and Saint Clare) on cloth and framed by ovals with silver rings. The upper section is adorned, in the frieze and tympanum, with silver ovals set with colored agates, and topped by pinnacles with bronze spheres. Isabel Mateo has analyzed both elements. She attributes the panel without a doubt to Luis de Morales, nicknamed “the Divine” (Badajoz, c. 1510-1586), and places it in the painter's final period, created for private devotion. In her analysis, she highlights the similarities with other works by the painter: “Virgin and Child with Saints John” from the parish church of Valencia de Alcántara (Cáceres), dated between 1550 and 1560; the “Virgins with Hats” from the Abelló Collection and the Prado Museum in Madrid; etc. Furthermore, she refers to the Flemish iconographic influences and those of Raphael in Morales's work, among others, and admits to having seen the panel before, but dirty and with overpainting. Regarding the reliquary, added after the painting was completed, he links it to El Escorial and Philip II, finding clear similarities with works made by cabinetmakers active at the Monastery around 1590 that do not feature stones in their decoration. He adds that the presence of agates would place the work around 1600 and that it is either Italian-made or Spanish, with Italian influence. The work has been studied by Dr. Isabel Mateo Gómez
· Size: 25,5X34 cms. (sin marco) y 47X72 cms. (con marco).
Ask price
