29th May - Old Masters

Lot 1 - Granada School; second half of the 17th century. "Saint Francis". Carved and polychrome wood. Measurements: 75 x 28 x 28 cm. This sculpture represents Saint Francis of Assisi standing and dressed in the Franciscan habit. It is a work that follows the aesthetic precepts of Pedro de Mena y Medrano. During his career he worked on several occasions on the representation of Saint Francis, producing two different representations. One shows the saint dead but incorrupt, standing, with the habit of the hood over his head and his hands hidden by the sleeves, as he was seen when Pope Nicholas V visited his crypt in the church of Assisi, as can be seen in this work. The other version shows the saint alive and meditating on a crucifix. The first iconography, to which this piece corresponds, was carved by Mena in high relief on the choir stalls in Malaga Cathedral between 1658 and 1660 and in a free-standing version on the half-length sculpture in Toledo Cathedral. Pedro de Mena was the son of the sculptor Alonso de Mena, whose workshop was the most important in Granada until the arrival of Alonso Cano. Trained with his father, after his father's death he remained in charge of the workshop and worked together with Bernardo de Mora. During this period he made four sculptures for the church of San Matías in Granada, the Sagrada Familia de los Capuchinos in the same city, and the San Antonio in the Municipal Museum in Malaga. He later worked with Alonso Cano after the latter moved to Granada in 1652. He carved four large sculptures of saints commissioned from Cano for the convent of the Guardian Angel and also a Conception for the parish church of Alhendín in the fertile plain of Granada. Later, in 1658, he left for Malaga due to the commission to make the choir stalls of the cathedral choir, which had been designed in 1633 by Luis Ortiz de Vargas, who began the carving but left it unfinished. José Micael y Alfaro continued the work, but in the end it was Mena who did most of the work, carving the forty-three missing panels and the crowning of the choir stalls. In this work he showed his great technical skill and his ability to create a great variety of faces, types and compositions. In 1662 he travelled to court at the request of John Joseph of Austria. On this brief trip he also visited Toledo. For Don Juan José he carved a sculpture of the Virgin of Pilar with Saint James the Apostle at the foot. In Madrid he also made a Crucifix for Prince Doria, which was sent to Genoa. In Toledo he carved the St. Francis in the Cathedral Treasury, which is one of his most important works. Small in size, as was customary in Granada art, he is shown standing upright, with his head slightly raised and his eyes turned towards the sky. He was appointed sculptor of Toledo Cathedral. Near the end of his journey he began Magdalena penitente (Prado) in Madrid, which he completed on his return to Malaga. There he set up an important workshop and produced numerous works. Around 1666 he produced, for the convent of Santo Domingo in Malaga, the Virgin of the Crib and a Crucifix, an unusual iconography for Mena, who was not in the habit of depicting sorrowful themes.

Estim. 8 000 - 10 000 EUR

Lot 2 - Important Renaissance capital. Italy, first half of the 16th century. Marble. Measurements: 37 x 42 x 42 cm. Important Italian capital carved in marble. On a small collar, figurative and vegetal representations have been worked in bas-relief. Figures of angels alternate with acanthus leaves. The volutes of the upper body and the acanthus leaves are taken from the Ionic and Corinthian orders.

Estim. 4 000 - 5 000 EUR

Lot 3 - JOSÉ DE RIBERA (Xátiva, Valencia, 1591 - Naples, 1652). "Ecce homo". Oil on canvas. Relined. Attached report by Nicola Spinosa. It presents restorations. It has a frame adapted from the XVII century in ebonised wood. Measurements: 88 x 65 cm; 111 x 89 cm (frame). This work shows the figure of Christ crowned with thorns and ironically presented to the people of Jerusalem as king of the Jews (Ecce Homo, Behold the man). The work has been attributed to Ribera by the expert Nicola Spinosa, curator of the Polo Museale Napoletano and director of the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, due to technical characteristics such as the strong contrast of light and shade intended to define forms and volumes, particularly expressive in the treatment of the red cloak that covers his hips and thorax, and in the skin already bruised by his final sufferings and the somatic characteristics in the gaze marked by a restrained and very human sadness. This Ecce Homo can be dated a few years after the young Ribera's final move to Naples in mid-1616. The painting in question, with stylistic results still evident and markedly Caravaggesque in origin, continues, with the composition inverted and with some variations in the arrangement of the hands tied with a rope, from the Ecce Homo by the artist which is kept in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, coming from the Casa de la Compañía de Jesús in Toledo, where it was seen by Ponz in the mid-18th century, dated by modern and contemporary critics on a stylistic basis immediately after 1620 and before 1624. From its subject matter and style we can situate this painting within the Neapolitan school of the 17th century around the figure of José de Ribera, a key painter belonging to the generation of the great masters of the Golden Age, trained in Italy as a self-taught artist. He first came into contact with naturalism when he arrived in Rome in 1615, where he came into contact with the Nordic Caravaggists, from whom he adopted the smooth, hurried technique, ugliness and rigorous drawing that shaped his style during his Roman period. However, in 1616 he moved to Naples and settled there permanently. In Naples Ribera became the leader of the group of Neapolitan naturalists and an important circle of painters grew up around him. Despite his stay in Italy, Ribera sent numerous works to Spain, and his language would be key to the formation of the Baroque in our country. His work would bring tenebrism and, later, the full Baroque, long before the latter arrived directly in Spain, thus influencing the new generations of painters. On the other hand, once his Roman period was over, his painting was characterised by a very loose, Venetian-influenced brushstroke, which also marked the work of his followers. Thus, Ribera's school developed a style of dramatic, contrasting, clearly tenebrist lighting, which is nevertheless tinged by a Venetian brushstroke that is impastoed and fluid. Thus, here we see an artificial, directed spotlight that penetrates the scene from the upper right corner and directly illuminates the saint's face and hands, leaving the rest in semi-darkness. And we also find that totally modern brushstroke that models the saint by means of the light, that touch of pasty, expressive brushwork that the artist learned directly from Ribera's work.

Estim. 60 000 - 70 000 EUR

Lot 4 - Flemish school; mid-17th century. "Landscapes". Oil on canvas. The two paintings are re-drawn. They present restorations on the pictorial surface. Measurements: 128 x 84 cm; 137 x 202 cm (frame). Set of landscape scenes that present a similar finish as for the use of the same chromatic range, based on ochre and greenish tones, with areas in cobalt blue that enhance the scene and provide greater vitality. Despite this similarity, the composition differs in both cases. The two images show small figures, in fact, in one of them it is possible to identify Saint Roque, so it is likely that both scenes form a narrative ensemble in which actions from the saint's life are narrated, and it is probable that they belonged to a larger pictorial cliché. In the Baroque period, landscapes were rarely depicted without the use of genre themes, as landscape painting as a genre was not fully established until the 19th century. In the West, landscape did not appear as a fully independent genre in art until almost the 17th century, thanks to Dutch painting (especially Jacob van Ruysdael). It was treated as a mere backdrop in the Middle Ages until the Renaissance began to show interest in it. It is striking to note the large production of the period, which was aimed at the increasingly wealthy urban bourgeoisie, an abundance of works and a proliferation of pictorial genres. One of these genres was landscape, which developed greatly from the 17th century, a time when it had not yet appeared as an independent theme, without needing the presence of an anecdote in order to exist. Like other genres that became very popular in Flanders during the 17th century, landscape painting has its roots in the Dutch pictorial tradition of the 15th century. The background landscapes in the religious works of Van Eyck, de Bouts and van der Goes occupy a much more important place as an artistic element in these works than landscape painting in Italian painting of the same period. With regard to the representation of the narrative, the landscape of the Flemish Primitives plays an essential role, not only as a natural setting for the characters but also to separate and set the various episodes of the story narrated in the work. With regard to the imitation of nature, 15th-century Flemish painters sought to depict the countryside and towns of their native country in their religious landscapes, detailing their flora with botanical precision and even giving an idea of the time of day and the season of the year in which the scene takes place. This special interest in depicting the landscape increased as the 16th century progressed, when a new type of landscape was developed and popularised for sacred scenes: the panoramic view. Very soon, however, it was the depiction of the landscape itself that was to receive the attention of painters and, of course, of the public. In the panoramic views of Joachim Patinir and his followers the roles are reversed: the religious subject is an excuse for the landscape. In these paintings the landscape becomes completely independent of any narrative, and this is the direction that the Flemish and Dutch painters of the late 16th and early 17th centuries were to follow, a time when landscape painting became very popular in the Low Countries and specialists in the genre began to proliferate. Gillis van Coninxloo, Paul Bril, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Joos de Momper are the most distinguished landscape painters of the transition from the 16th to the 17th century, and each of them gave their vision of landscape a very personal stamp.

Estim. 18 000 - 22 000 EUR

Lot 5 - BERNARDO MONSÚ (Denmark, 1624 - Italy, 1687). "Hunter. Oil on canvas. Re-coloured. It has restorations on the pictorial surface. It has a 19th century frame. Measurements: 98 x 72 cm; 124 x 96 cm (frame). In this canvas the author shows us a scene that seems to be taken from the daily life, a costumbrista scene, but that nevertheless keeps a deeper allegorical meaning. The main character is a young hunted man holding his gun, the bust-length figure in the foreground gazes at a point outside the composition with an absent, frightened expression, so that the artist focuses much of his attention on capturing the character's psychology. Costumbrista painting is a genre in which popular types and attitudes, behaviour, values and habits common to a specific group of the population, region or class are described by means of a satirical, nostalgic or narrative description of the environments, customs, clothing, festivals and entertainments, traditions, trades and representative types of a society. The idea of costumbrismo arose from an attempt to understand reality, or more precisely, reality understood in a particular way, from a specific point of view. Born in Helsingor, Bernhard Keil began his training as a pupil of the Danish painter Morten Steenwinkel. He subsequently settled in Amsterdam, where he trained with Rembrandt between 1642 and 1644. He then worked in the studio of Hendrick Uylenburgh between 1645 and 1648, and between 1649 and 1651 he had his own studio. In 1656 he made a trip to Rome, where he is documented until 1687, the date of his death. During his years in Italy he also worked in Bergamo and Venice. His style reveals the influence of Jan Lievens initially and later of the Italians Pietro Bellotti, Antonio Cifrondi and Giacomo Francesco Cipper. Among his best known works are those for the chapel of San Canuto in Santa Maria Traspontina in Rome. In addition to religious themes Keil also executed allegorical and genre scenes. Today the works of Bernhard Keil are in some of the world's most important collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Netherlands Institute for Art History and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others.

Estim. 8 000 - 10 000 EUR

Lot 6 - Spanish school of the second half of the 16th century. "Virgin and Child with a Bunch of Grapes". Oil on panel. Measurements: 100 x 73 cm. This purely Renaissance panel shows the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus on her lap, enthroned on a large stone seat with scrolls and pine cones on the sides. The mother of Jesus offers the Saviour a few grapes, a fruit that has been associated with the Eucharist and his role as Redeemer, while she is observed by a praying man who kneels before them, most probably the patron of the work. This gentleman is dressed in the fashion of the time, in rigorous black, with a small lily on his collar and cuffs (a very fashionable accessory during the reigns of Philip II and Philip III). The artist completes the scene with lavish classical architecture based on the repetition of semicircular arches that shelter a doorway in the lower part. In the upper part of the composition, seven foreshortened child angels frolic on a bed of clouds and hold above their heads a large phylactery on which a Marian antiphon can be read: Ave Regina Caelorum (Hail, Queen of Heaven). The composition is symmetrical and orderly, but the graceful, naturalistic movement of the small bodies, which adopt the most varied attitudes, lends dynamism to the whole. A golden light radiates from the background and tints the sky blue. Thanks to the bold use of light, the bodies acquire an almost sculptural volume, modelled by subtle chromatic changes. During the Italian Renaissance, humanised depictions of angels, characterised as playful, chubby children with fluffy wings, became common. See, for example, Andrea Mantegna's endearing cherubs.

Estim. 8 000 - 10 000 EUR

Lot 7 - After models by TIZIANO (Pieve di Cadore, Belluno, Veneto, ca. 1477/1490 - Venice, 1576);Spanish school, 18th century."The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence".Oil on copper.It presents repainting.Measurements: 51 x 36 cm; 73 x 53 cm (frame).The present work, although executed in Spain during the 18th century, was originally conceived by Titian from 1548 to 1559 and is enceunta in the Escorial Monastery in Madrid.The painting on copper depicts the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence. The work shows the protagonist on the grill at the moment when the martyrdom begins, a characteristic feature of the Baroque style that seeks to enhance the drama of the scenes. The way in which the grill has been depicted indicates the quality of the author, as it initiates a marked diagonal that helps to configure the space of a scene completely populated with characters, just as Titian did almost two centuries earlier. A deacon born in Aragon, near Huesca, and martyred in Rome in 258, his "Legendary Acts" narrate that Saint Lawrence, out of humility, washed the feet of Christians, cured a widow of a headache and gave sight to a blind man through baptism. Three days after the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus II, who had ordained him deacon and entrusted him with the treasure of the Church, he was arrested and ordered to hand over these riches. But there was nothing left of it, as Lorenzo had distributed it to the poor. Furious at seeing his greed frustrated, the emperor Decius ordered him to be flogged with rods, his ribs burned with a red-hot iron and, finally, to be stretched out naked on a gridiron over a mantle of coals. Saint Lawrence is the patron saint of the poor, among whom he distributed the treasures of the Church. He was also adopted as patron saint of numerous guilds and trades.Titian Vecellio was an Italian Renaissance painter and one of the greatest exponents of the Venetian school, which explains his use of bright, luminous colours, as well as his loose brushstrokes and innate chromatic moulding. He was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini (Venice, ca. 1433-1516), an Italian painter of the Fourteenth century, renowned both for his sumptuous colouring and for his landscapes and fluid atmospheres. The death of the leading established artists of the day (Giorgione and his own master, Bellini) and the transfers of Sebastiano del Piombo and Lorenzo Lotto to Rome and Bergamo respectively left Titian without rivals, at which point he began his period of expansion in which the Italian freed himself from the hermetic canons learned during his youth and began to produce the works that would establish him as a key painter in the history of European art: court portraits for the Duke of Ferrara Alfonso I of Este and his work on the high altar of the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. In 1521 Titian's workshop began to play an important role, receiving numerous commissions such as The Martyrdom of Saint Peter in Verona (1530), the year in which the artist's period of consolidation began and in which he cultivated an increasingly dramatic style, increasing his good relations with the court of Mantua, which would lead to his consecration as a portraitist, producing works such as Charles V on Horseback in Mülberg (1548). In his later years the Italian artist became increasingly self-critical, producing completely perfectionist works such as Danae Receiving the Golden Rain (1553) and working for Philip II, a monarch with whom he maintained a close artistic relationship, producing numerous royal portraits.

Estim. 6 000 - 6 500 EUR

Lot 8 - Spanish or Italian school; XVIII century. "San Antonio". Oil on canvas. Relined from the 19th century. It has a XIX century frame with faults. Measurements: 150 x 107 cm; 158 x 114 cm (frame). The present canvas represents St. Anthony of Padua as a young beardless man with wide monastic tonsure, dressed in a long Franciscan habit, kneeling in front of Jesus. The presence of the infant, which alludes to the vision he had in his cell, became the most popular attribute of this Franciscan saint from the sixteenth century, being especially popular in the Baroque art of the Counter-Reformation. St. Anthony of Padua is, after St. Francis of Assisi, the most popular of the Franciscan saints. He was born in Lisbon in 1195 and only spent the last two years of his life in Padua. After studying at the convent of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, in 1220 he entered the Order of Friars Minor, where he changed his first name, Fernando, to Antonio. After teaching theology in Bologna, he traveled through southern and central France, preaching in Arles, Montpellier, Puy, Limoges and Bourges. In 1227 he participated in the general chapter of Assisi. In 1230 he was in charge of the transfer of the remains of St. Francis. He preached in Padua and died there at the age of 36 in 1231. He was canonized only a year after his death, in 1232. Until the end of the 15th century, the cult of St. Anthony remained located in Padua. From the following century he became, at first, the national saint of the Portuguese, who placed under his patronage the churches they built abroad, and then a universal saint. He was invoked for the rescue of shipwrecked sailors and the liberation of prisoners. The Portuguese sailors invoked him to have good wind in the sails, fixing his image on the mast of the ship. Nowadays, he is invoked mainly to recover lost objects. However, there is no trace of this last patronage before the 17th century. It seems to be due to a play on words with his name: he was called Antonio de Pade or de Pave, an abbreviation of Padua (Padova). From there, it was attributed to him the gift of recovering the epaves, that is to say, the lost goods. He is represented as a beardless young man with a large monastic tonsure, dressed in a habit, and usually appears with the Child Jesus, holding him in his arms, in allusion to an apparition he had in his cell. It became the most popular attribute of this saint from the 16th century onwards, being especially popular in the Baroque art of the Counter-Reformation.

Estim. 2 500 - 3 000 EUR

Lot 9 - ANTONIO CARNICERO MANCIO (Salamanca, 1748 - Madrid, 1814). "Portrait of the Marquise Doña Rosa de Onofrio y Cordova". Oil on canvas. Relined. Presents old restoration. It possesses frame of epoch, towards the end of the XIX century. Measurements: 124.50 x 89 cm; 131 x 97 cm (frame). Painter and engraver, son of the baroque sculptor Alejandro Carnicero, he was also an excellent miniaturist. He entered the San Fernando Academy in Madrid at the age of ten, and accompanied his brother Isidro to Rome. He remained in the Italian capital for six years, perfecting his art and participating in various artistic competitions, being awarded prizes in several of them. On his return to Spain he completed his training at the Madrid Academy. During these years he began his collaboration with José del Castillo, with whom he worked from 1775 onwards on cartoons for tapestries for the Royal Factory, destined to decorate the rooms of the Princess of Asturias in the palace of El Pardo. As a draftsman he illustrated the editions of "Don Quixote" published by the Royal Spanish Academy in 1780 and 1782. In 1790 he made preparatory drawings for engravings, among them his outstanding series entitled "Tauromaquia". In 1796 and after previous failed attempts, he was appointed Pintor de Cámara de Carlos IV. Between this date and 1799, he made the illustrations for the book "El Real Picadero", commissioned by Manuel Godoy, which he was unable to finish. He also collaborated with the "Colección de trajes", a series on the popular types in Spain, making between 1778 and 1784 seven illustrations with typical characters of the Balearic Islands. His scenes of dances and walks, or the flights of Montgolfier balloons, are ascribed to the Rococo style. However, in his portraits a greater classicism can be appreciated, as can be seen in his "Portrait of Carlos IV with armor" and in the "Portrait of Manuel Godoy". Among the variety of styles and genres treated by the artist is a work of exceptional character, "The Allegory of Vigilance", with a moral theme, painted with dramatic hallmarks of light and shadow that anticipate the romantic aesthetics of the sublime. In the 1780s Carnicero worked on a series of oil paintings with views of roads and ports, originally commissioned by Carlos III to Mariano Ramón Sánchez, which reflects the sophisticated cultural and enlightened interest of the time in the historical, archaeological and geographical heritage of the country. During these years the painter was sent to Aranjuez as drawing teacher of Prince Ferdinand. In connection with this he served a month in prison in 1806, after the incidents of the so-called "Prince's trial". However, after his imprisonment he agreed to remain in his position as Painter to the King. The usurpation of Joseph I Bonaparte meant his fall from grace, but after the restoration of the government of Ferdinand VII he was restored to his post. Butcher is represented in the Prado Museum, the Municipal Museum of Madrid, the Academy of San Fernando, the Lázaro Galdiano of Madrid and the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao, among others. Relined. Presents old restoration. It has a period frame, towards the end of the 19th century.

Estim. 12 000 - 14 000 EUR

Lot 10 - FRANCISCO BARRERA (Madrid, 1595 - 1658). "Still life. Oil on canvas. Piece reinforced on the outer perimeters. Measurements: 52 x 77 cm. Francisco Barrera was especially active during the thirties and forties. Although he also made landscapes, decorative and genre painting, he stood out above all in the still life. His painting enjoyed great success; his workshop had many disciples, and he was friends with other still life painters such as Antonio Ponce and Juan de Arellano. He had, however, some problems with the authorities. He was denounced to the Inquisition for making religious works that did not conform to iconography. His still lifes reveal, above all, the influence of Juan de Van der Hamen, the main head of the Madrid school of the first half of the 17th century. However, being somewhat later, Barrera is less severe and geometric: he places the objects in a more intuitive, more random way, he is less meticulous in the description and does not recreate so much in the textures. Neither does he present the courtly tone of Van der Hamen's still lifes, but tends more towards the everyday. Thus, Barrera presents the food in kitchen-like contexts although, from 1626, the supports will no longer be tables but stone plinths like the one we see here, influenced by Sánchez Cotán. Especially famous were his seasonal still lifes like this one, with seasonal foods, which became fashionable at court. Barrera represents a more advanced moment in the Baroque than Van der Hamen and Cotán: he seeks asymmetry in his compositions, naturalism in the arrangement of the elements, and even opens occasionally to landscape. In his style, drawing predominates, and he likes to place elements in foreshortening, coming out of the surface on which they rest and accentuating the sensation of depth, as here the bird located in the lower right corner. Francisco Barrera is represented in the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville, the National Museum of Slovakia, as well as in other important collections around the world, both public and private. Piece reinforced on the outer perimeters.

Estim. 4 000 - 6 000 EUR

Lot 11 - Viceroyalty school: XVIII century. "The Triumph of Jesus". Oil on copper. It has an adapted frame, made in silver. Measurements: 23.5 x 20 cm; 39 x 29 cm (frame). In this work Christ child is represented as "Salvator Mundi", an iconography that represents the Christological concept of Jesus Christ, as universal savior, in relation to his role as judge in the Final Judgment and to his character of Redeemer. It is characterized by presenting Christ raising his right hand as a sign of blessing, while holding an orb with his left hand, although, in this case, the Child is placed on the orb stepping on the skeleton with his feet, in such a way that it represents the triumph over death and brings the resurrection to the viewer, a message that emphasizes the universal character of the Christian doctrine. The painting, which presents a completely scenographic composition, contains a multitude of martyrs, the Virgin, saints and the trinity of Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit. We are before a work resolved in naturalistic language, a style ascribed to the baroque tradition of Spanish imagery. Given the importance given to religious images in the Hispanic world, during the 17th and 18th centuries ambitious pictorial series and extensive iconographic programs were created for churches and convents, as well as printed prints, medals and reliquaries for private devotion. As a whole, regardless of their size or support, these images fulfilled the objective of sacralizing daily life beyond the altars. It is worth mentioning that during the Spanish colonial domination, a mainly religious painting was developed, aimed at Christianizing the indigenous peoples. The local painters were modeled on Spanish works, which they followed literally in terms of types and iconography. The most frequent models were the harquebusier angels and the triangular virgins, however, it was not until the first years of the 19th century, already in times of independence and political opening of some of the colonies, that several artists began to represent a new model of painting with its own identity. It has an adapted period frame, made of silver.

Estim. 9 500 - 10 000 EUR

Lot 12 - Attributed to THOMAS LAWRENCE (Bristol, 1769 - London, 1830). Untitled. Oil on canvas. Measurements: 73,5 x 63 cm; 96 x 84 cm (frame). The author offers us a portrait of great sobriety, dominated by a palette of cold tonalities, which are only qualified with the use of rounded forms that contribute delicacy to the piece as it is observed in the treatment of the handkerchief in the neck. Both the composition and the pictorial execution of this excellent portrait fit with the characteristics of the best English portrait painting of the first quarter of the 19th century, and especially with the work of Sir Thomas Lawrence and his closest circle. Sir Thomas Lawrence was, after the death of Joshua Reynolds in 1792, Britain's foremost portraitist. His early training took place in Bath, where he learned from William Hoare the technique of pastel, and from Thomas Barker the correct handling of oil paint. In 1787 he moved to London, where he exhibited his first works at the Royal Academy. He began to triumph thanks to his female portraits, such as the one of Elizabeth Farren, where we can already guess certain traits of sensitivity that he would develop in his more mature production. In 1791 he was admitted to the Royal Academy and the following year, after the death of Joshua Reynolds, he became the king's painter. In 1815 he was knighted and that same year the royal family commissioned a series of portraits for the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle. In 1820 he succeeded Benjamin West as president of the Royal Academy. Lawrence's portraits were based on the "great style" of Reynolds, but the Bristol painter opened the way to a new concept of portraiture with respect to the model, his personal demeanor and his emotional portrayal. He knew how to rescue a very personal vision of his clients, typical of the romantic portrait and of the Victorian era. His models are presented in relaxed and natural attitudes, the brushstroke is delicate, imperceptible in the faces and lighter and sketched in the clothes and the landscape, which almost always has an important role.

Estim. 5 000 - 6 000 EUR

Lot 13 - Venetian school; XVI century. "St. Peter and St. Paul". Bronze and marble base. Measurements: 17,5 x 5 cm; 18 x 8 x 4,5 cm; 7 x 6,5 x 6,5 x 6,5 cm (bases,x2). Pair of sculptures made in gilded bronze, except for the nimbus sanctity. Aesthetically the two figures show a great quality in the modeling of the elongated and delicate forms added to the great lightness provided by the movement of the drapery and its folds. Both figures have a religious theme as they represent St. Peter, holding the keys and St. Paul with his usual attributes. It is clear the influence of neoclassicism in these sculptures, not only for the modeling of both pieces that shows a perfect knowledge of classical anatomy, but also for the elegant pose adopted by the figures, which stand out for their great stylization. They are pieces of exceptional quality, reminiscent to a great extent of a figure of St. Philip attributed to the artistic circle of Sansovino and a reference in the Cleveland Museum Catalog. This type of pieces were worked in a meticulous and exquisite way, paying so much attention to detail as can be seen in the treatment of the clothing and facial features that in both cases are completely individualized. Aesthetically this couple is related to the Venetian school, which is described thanks to elegance, and opulence. Characteristics of a booming city, with a great trade linked to a strategic geographical location, gateway to the East. Venice became a school that delved into both Western and Eastern traditions, resulting in a vaporous aesthetic shown from a magnificent point of view.

Estim. 5 500 - 6 000 EUR

Lot 14 - Spanish school of the 16th century. Circle of ALONSO BERRUGUETE (Paredes de Nava, c.1490-Toledo, 1561). "Male bust". Alabaster. Measurements: 22 x 16 x 16 cm. The aged and expiring face of this male bust leads us to think that we are in front of the representation of an apostle or a saint during his martyrdom. The character is treated with drama and a deep mysticism. The gaze focuses our attention, and is reflected with a veracity typical of a careful study of the natural. The morphology, the expression and the way of treating the character allow us to relate it to the circle of Alonso Berruguete, Spanish sculptor and painter, son of the painter Pedro Berruguete and one of the fundamental referents of the Spanish sculpture of the Renaissance that advanced even the new mannerist, intellectualized and abstract derivation of the Italian Cinquecento, almost at the same time that it is produced in Italy. From 1507 he was in Italy expanding his knowledge of painting, mainly in Florence, where he must have arrived around 1512. The long years of his stay in Italy allowed him to become deeply acquainted with the masters of the Quattrocento and the models of classical Greco-Latin sculpture. He took up residence in Valladolid in 1523, where he founded his workshop and dedicated himself to the carving of altarpieces and images.

Estim. 1 500 - 2 000 EUR

Lot 15 - Spanish school. Late Gothic, 15th century. "Pietà. Polychrome wood carving. Frontal work (niche for niche on the back). Presents faults, restorations and Repainting. Measurements: 105 x 55 x 55 cm. Important Spanish carving belonging to the late Gothic. It responds to the iconography of the Pietà, that is, the seated Virgin welcomes on her lap the dead Christ, once He has descended from the cross. In a theme of deep dramatism, intensity that in this piece is captured in the pathos printed on both faces (the mother with half-closed eyelids and arched eyebrows, the son with his mouth half-open and showing the upper row of teeth), as well as in the lifeless body of Jesus, whose left arm is taken by the loving hand of Mary. With her other hand she holds Christ's head, the naked body (except for the purity cloth) sliding down to touch the ground with the tips of her toes. The draperies of the Marian mantle are skillfully draped with deep, broken folds that fall to the ground in zigzagging meanders. In this piece, characteristic elements of the Renaissance, such as naturalism and the harmony of the anatomical proportions, can already be glimpsed. The iconography of the Pietà arises from a gradual evolution of five centuries and, according to Panofsky, derives from the theme of the Byzantine Threnos, the lamentation of the Virgin over the dead body of Jesus, as well as from the Virgin of Humility. The first artists to see the possibilities of this theme were German sculptors, the first example being found in the city of Coburg, a piece from around 1320. With the passage of time the iconography will spread throughout Europe, and already in the seventeenth century, after the Counter-Reformation, it became one of the most important themes of devotional painting.

Estim. 14 000 - 18 000 EUR

Lot 16 - ANDRÉS PÉREZ (Seville, 1660- 1727). "Infant Jesus with a border of flowers". Oil on canvas. Relined. With label of the Sala Parés de Barcelona on the back. It presents lack of polychrome in the frame. Measurements: 110 x 82 cm; 121 x 94 cm (frame). We are in front of a painting of quality in which formal and compositional elements characteristic of the XVIIth century of the hand of Andrés Pérez converge: the floral garland that welcomes the devotional scene has been solved extracting the just qualities of the sensual corollas. As for the central scene, the choir of angels accompanying the Infant Jesus present accomplished foreshortenings and dynamize their bodies in a variety of postures. The plastic richness is allied with the symbolic richness of the emblems that each figure carries: the instruments of the Passion (nails, hammer, ladder...), the cloth of Veronica... all of them symbols of the Way of the Cross, as is the cross that Jesus holds. With his other hand, Christ raises a bronze chalice with a sacred host that shines with inner light, while he places his bare feet on an orb surrounded by a serpent, a demonic symbol. The Child Jesus, of adolescent age, wears long curly hair and raises his gaze towards the Holy Spirit, who bursts into the sky incarnated as a white dove. Around him float seraphim with candid faces. The whole, full of characters in action, nevertheless preserves a studied compositional order through a symmetrical distribution, starting from the central axis occupied by Christ and the Holy Spirit. Cold and warm shades are boldly combined. The light contours and modulates the forms, sculpting the tender bodies with softness, giving them volume and movement. There is little information about the biography of the painter Andrés Pérez, son of painter Francisco Pérez de Pineda, of whom he was probably a disciple. According to Cean, despite the Murillo influence of the time, Andres Perez has its own style characteristics, such as a very precise drawing, characters of gentle expressiveness, and large scenarios in which reminiscent of architectural environments or landscape perspectives. The two most relevant works known of this painter are kept in the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville, having been attributed to Ortega and Lucas Valdés. His works have a markedly Eucharistic symbolism, perhaps because of the commissions for chapels.

Estim. 7 000 - 8 000 EUR

Lot 17 - Spanish or Italian school; XVIII century. "Magdalene penitent." Oil on canvas. It has perforations and flaws in the pictorial surface. Measurements: 109 x 165 cm; 119 x 175 cm (frame). Devotional image that shows us Mary Magdalene during her penitence in the desert. The scene is developed in an open landscape, but of great darkness that configures a scene of a great luminous dramatism, enveloping the protagonist in the darkness. While Eastern Christianity especially honors Mary Magdalene for her closeness to Jesus, considering her "equal to the apostles", in the West the idea developed, based on her identification with other women in the Gospels, that before meeting Jesus she had dedicated herself to prostitution. Hence the later legend narrates that she spent the rest of her life as a penitent in the desert, mortifying her flesh. In art she was preferably represented in this way, especially in the 17th century, a time when Catholic societies felt a special fascination for the lives of mystics and saints who lived in solitude in wild places, dedicated to prayer and penance. Mary Magdalene is mentioned in the New Testament as a distinguished disciple of Christ. According to the Gospels, she housed and provided materially for Jesus and his disciples during their stay in Galilee, and was present at the Crucifixion. She was a witness of the Resurrection, as well as the one in charge of transmitting the news to the apostles. She is also identified with the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with perfumes before his arrival in Jerusalem, so her main iconographic attribute is a knob of essences, like the one shown here.

Estim. 3 500 - 4 000 EUR

Lot 18 - Spanish school; 17th century. ‘Saint Serapius’. Oil on canvas. It presents faults in the pictorial surface. Measurements: 73 x 60 cm; 86 x 73 cm (frame). The piece represents the same moment as the painting of Saint Serapio created by Zurbarán and which is in the collection of Wadsworth Atheneum, Harford (United States). However, in this particular case the saint is portrayed outside, allowing the artist to glimpse a landscape dominated by the blue sky. Furthermore, in this particular work the scene is enriched by the presence of an angel who tries to crown Saint Serarius, carrying the laurel wreath and a palm of martyrdom. In the scene we can make out the cross where he was martyred, although the peaceful gesture of his face reveals no trace of pain but rather of sorrow and acceptance of his fate. Aesthetically, the work shows great precision in the drawing through which the artist sculpts and models the body with great rotundity and monumentality. The hands and the folds of the tunic seem to have the three-dimensionality and spatial presence of a sculpture, while the face is slightly more delicate. As for the colour, the white is clearly inspired by Zurbarán, while the blue of the background is reminiscent of the palette so characteristic of the Flemish school. Saint Serapius (1179 - 1240) was an English Catholic Mercedarian priest and martyr and the first of his Order to merit the palm of martyrdom by being crucified and quartered. He is said to have served in the armies of Richard the Lionheart and Leopold VI during the time of the Crusades. He participated in the Reconquista while serving in the armed forces for Alfonso VIII of Castile or Alfonso IX of León. He met Pedro Nolasco in Barcelona and became a professed member of the Mercedarians in 1222. The aim of the Mercedarians was to free Christian captives held in Muslim states. He was assigned to recruit for the order in England, but pirates besieged the ship and left him for dead. He survived and went to London to preach, which got him into trouble and he was ordered to leave the city. There are several accounts of his death. According to one account, he was beaten, nailed to an X-shaped cross and quartered by French pirates in Marseille. The most reliable account comes from the early annals of the Mercedarians: ‘Captured in Scotland by English pirates, Serapion was tied hand and foot to two posts, then beaten, dismembered and disembowelled. Finally, they cut off part of his neck, leaving his head to hang.

Estim. 10 000 - 11 000 EUR

Lot 19 - Venetian School, modelled on PAOLO VERONESE (Verona, 1528 - Venice, 1588). ‘Martyrdom of Saint Justina’. Oil on canvas. Re-coloured. It presents faults in the pictorial surface. Measurements: 97 x 75,5 cm; 117 x 87 cm (frame). This painting follows the model of the work painted by Veronese, which is in the main altar of the basilica Santa Giustina in Padua. Veronese portrayed Saint Justina of Padua on several occasions. It is in this work, however, that he displays the greatest sumptuousness and scenographic complexity. Perhaps its privileged location led Veronese to intricate the depiction of the martyrdom of the saint, who is almost hidden among the number of characters that populate the scene, with various earthly and heavenly entourages swirling around the protagonist. Numerous engravings were made of this work, which spread the mastery of the composition. An example of this is the engraving belonging to the Valparaíso collection by Agostino Carracci. In this painting the artist follows the original model, although he allows himself certain licences that add originality to the painting. Venetian Baroque painting was a transforming force for much of the rest of the European schools, and masters such as Rubens, Velázquez and Van Dyck succumbed to the works produced by this school during the 16th and 17th centuries. The vibrant colouring, the fluidity and strength of the brushstroke and a passionate movement full of gestures and theatricality made it a landmark often imitated. The great painters such as Titian, Tintoretto, Bassano and, more closely related to us, Veronese, championed this vision. Veronese, like his contemporaries, maintained elaborate compositions in which the scenes seem to move on their own. The loose, almost pure brushstrokes give the sensation of immediacy and lead us to an energetic vision in which the colour unfolds, shining with flashes of red in contrast with a blue that is lost to black and suddenly shines through to lead white. All this colourfulness and fluency are expressed in Veronese's luxuriousness. A precious treatment of fabrics, jewels and textures emanates from each of the elements in the painting. In the case of our painting this is clearly evident.

Estim. 15 000 - 16 000 EUR

Lot 20 - MIGUEL GÜELLES (c. 1607-1637). "The Virgin, St. Anne and St. Joachim." Oil on canvas. It has a report issued by Don Enrique Valdivieso. They present faults and Repainting in the pictorial surface. Measurements: 251 x 180 cm. During the baroque period numerous images of the Virgin proliferated, enriching its iconographic representations. It is not usual this type of scene where the Virgin is next to her two parents, since Mary's childhood is usually represented through her birth or her presentation in the temple. In this case, the tenderness with which the author has represented the characters stands out, showing an intimate scene where some older parents place their attentive gazes on a little Mary. In spite of the innocence of the Virgin's face, the artist introduces at her feet the figure of the devil with the apple of original sin in his mouth, in addition both St. Joachim and St. Anne hold and offer the young girl Marian symbols, the book and the lilies indicating her destiny and relevance as queen of heaven. Aesthetically the quality of the forms, the truthful and naturalistic language in spite of being a theme of divine character and the tonalities of the color palette recall the painting of Miguel Güelles, baroque painter of Spanish origin, documented in Peru for the realization of a series dedicated to saint Domingo de Guzmán, at the moment conserved most of them in the convent of Our Lady of the Rosary in Lima. It is also documented that he worked in Mexico around 1619, although he later returned to Spain to work in Huelva and Carmona. He is also known for his work as an examiner of the painter's trade. It has a report issued by Mr. Enrique Valdivieso. They present faults and Repainting in the pictorial surface.

Estim. 11 000 - 13 000 EUR

Lot 21 - Attributed to BARTOLOMÉ ESTEBAN MURILLO (Seville, 1618-1682). ‘Christ Salvator Mundi’. Oil on copper. Size: 11 x 9 cm; 27.5 x 25 cm (frame). The monumentality of the figure and the consistency of the figure that is portrayed through a vaporous brushstroke that creates an almost powdery atmosphere, together with the softening of the gesture and the psychological capture of the protagonist that conveys great tenderness are characteristic of Murillo's painting. It should also be noted that this type of image was a great success among Sevillian society at the time, and its devotional efficacy has remained intact over the centuries. In this type of work, which in many cases was intended for private worship, the artist showed himself to be a true master when it came to combining a wise and delicate style with a gentle and sweet content. However, as he possessed a powerful sense of composition, he endowed them with remarkable monumentality and balance. Little is known of Murillo's childhood and youth except that he lost his father in 1627 and his mother in 1628, for which reason he was taken into the care of his brother-in-law. Around 1635 he must have begun his apprenticeship as a painter, most likely with Juan del Castillo, who was married to a cousin of his. This working and artistic relationship lasted about six years, as was customary at the time. After his marriage in 1645 he embarked on what was to be a brilliant career that gradually made him the most famous and sought-after painter in Seville. The only trip he is known to have made is documented in 1658, when Murillo was in Madrid for several months. It is conceivable that while at court he kept in touch with the painters who lived there, such as Velázquez, Zurbarán and Cano, and that he had access to the collection of paintings in the Royal Palace, a magnificent subject of study for all the artists who passed through the court. Despite the few documentary references to his mature years, we know that he enjoyed a comfortable life, which enabled him to maintain a high standard of living and have several apprentices. Having become the leading painter in the city, surpassing even Zurbarán in fame, he was determined to raise the artistic level of local painting. In 1660 he decided, together with Francisco Herrera el Mozo, to found an academy of painting, of which he was the main driving force. His fame spread so far throughout Spain that Palomino states that around 1670 King Charles II offered him the possibility of moving to Madrid to work there as a court painter. We do not know whether this reference is true, but the fact is that Murillo remained in Seville until the end of his life.

Estim. 62 000 - 64 000 EUR

Lot 22 - JORGE MANUEL THEOTOCÓPULI (Toledo, 1578- 1631). "St. Francis of Assisi. Oil on canvas. Relined. It has a label on the back. Attached report issued by Don J. M. Quesada. Measurements: 106.5 x 81 cm; 125 x 100 cm (frame). Aesthetically this work follows the models of the painting attributed to the circle of El Greco that belongs to the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao, Donation Antonio Santamarina in 1975. The piece represents St. Francis of Assisi in profile to the viewer, completely inserted in prayer, as he directs his face towards the crucifix in the upper area. Both the use of a dark color palette reduced to very few tones that dominates the whole scene, as well as the scarcity of elements deliberately portrayed by the author, show us his interest in the symbolism and the message he wants to convey to the faithful. As for the model, it should be noted that El Greco resorted to this theme on numerous occasions, the first time being around 1577. Finally, the most popular model was the one on which this painting is based, which was widely reproduced by his disciples. In this particular case it is worth mentioning that the stylized canon of the protagonist of the scene and the palette used bring us aesthetically close to the work of Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli, son of the famous El Greco. Jorge Manuel was artistically trained in his father's workshop, where he worked until his father's death. Although it is true that throughout his career he participated alone in other projects as an architect and painter. His pictorial work was distinguished by continuing with the aesthetic precepts of his father. However, where he especially excelled was in the field of architecture; he even designed the building of the Toledo City Hall, in addition to being ordained master builder of the primate cathedral. Attached is a report issued by Mr. J. M. Quesada.

Estim. 39 000 - 42 000 EUR

Lot 23 - Master active in Rome; last third of the 16th century. ‘Salome and the Beheading of John the Baptist’. Oil on canvas. Re-framed. It possesses frame, c, 1830. Measurements: 84 x 103 cm; 100 x 118 cm (frame). Salome is presented in this scene showing the silver tray to the spectator, although she directs her face towards her servant, while the executioner holds the head of the saint as a trophy showing it to Salome. The girl does not show a hint of remorse, but rather adopts an expression that attempts to capture a shameless, tempting woman, thus alluding to her role in the biblical story. According to tradition, Salome, a woman of great beauty, danced for her stepfather, who enthusiastically offered to grant her any prize she wished. The young woman then asked, following her mother's instructions, for the Baptist's head, which was given to her ‘on a silver platter’. This biblical story has often been depicted in painting, as it offers the possibility of depicting exotic settings and half-naked women without abandoning the biblical repertoire, although this is not the case with this particular work. Salome was a princess, daughter of Herod Philip and Herodias, and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, who was linked to the death of Saint John the Baptist in a story told in the New Testament (Matthew and Mark). Herodias, wife of Herod Philip, scandalously married his half-brother, Herod Antipas, which provoked a war, since Herod Antipas had repudiated his previous wife, daughter of the Nabataean monarch. The attitude of the new marriage was highly criticised by the people, as it was considered sinful, and one of those who denounced it most was John the Baptist, for which he was imprisoned, although Herod did not dare to execute him for fear of the people's wrath. According to tradition, Salome, a woman of great beauty, danced for her stepfather, and he enthusiastically offered to grant her the prize she desired. The young woman then asked, following her mother's instructions, for the Baptist's head, which was given to her ‘on a silver platter’. Aesthetics suggest that the author of this work is a master possibly of Tuscan origin whose style is based on the canons of Mannerism and influenced by Counter-Reformation criteria. In fact, it should be noted that there is a youthful model by Scipione Pulzone of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, which is similar in composition to the present painting. Scipione Pulzone began his artistic training as a pupil of Jacopino del Conte, although he soon preferred to use figures such as Girolamo Muziano and Siciolante as references for his art. His taste for descriptive effects led him to study Flemish and Venetian models, from which he derived a rich palette of colours. However, it was in Raphael that he found his greatest influence, reflected in his use of sharp outlines and schematic clarity. His art is particularly reminiscent of the earliest Raphael, which is reminiscent of the style of a Perugino or a Domenico Ghirlandaio. This is why his art is largely revisionist, as his sources are not to be found in his immediate predecessors but in the great masters of the late Quattrocento. In 1584 Pulzone travelled to Naples and Florence. In the latter city he came into contact with local artists of a similar sensibility to his own. Pulzone is the archetype of Counter-Mannerist art. He was primarily a portraitist and his works are submissive to the dictates of the Roman Church: he attempted to convey simple emotions, within the reach of the simplest of viewers, with a didactic intention and at times with an almost artisanal air, giving priority to art as a vehicle for conveying an idea, in this case of a religious nature, rather than seeking beauty, the artist's own showcasing or the assumption of artistic challenges.

Estim. 35 000 - 40 000 EUR

Lot 24 - Attributed to GASPARD DUGHET (Rome, 1615-1675). "Landscape with figures". Oil on canvas. Relined. A very similar work is part of the Royal Collection published in "The enclosed beauty", Museo del Prado, 2013 p.252. Presents restorations on the back. Measurements: 49 x 61 cm; 66 x 79 cm (frame). The present canvas shows an idealized landscape, a type of leafy landscapes of wide panoramic in which Gaspard Dughet, who is considered one of the main masters in the creation of the poetics of the Roman landscape of the XVII century, excelled. In this landscape, as in others he painted, the influence of Poussin can be seen in the serene capture of nature, although this influence is mixed with that of Nordic painters who provide a more stormy and charged sky, as well as luminous details with a subtle dramatism. The small human figures in his paintings were sometimes painted by other artists. Gaspard Dughet, also known as Pussino and as Gaspard Poussin, was Nicolas Poussin's brother-in-law, and worked in Poussin's studio until 1635. Nicolas Poussin's life became better known after his arrival in Rome in 1624 and, above all, after his marriage in 1630. When he arrived in Rome, he managed to contact important patrons, thus winning important commissions (he participated in the renovation of St. Peter's in the Vatican, painted for Casiano del Pozo, etc.). His fame grows from 1634, when he begins to receive commissions from France, and finally he arrives in Paris to work for Louis XIII in 1640, returning to Rome after a disastrous stay. Stylistically, he stands out for his strong compositions, perfectly balanced, and turns, over time and increasingly, towards nature, creating important landscapes. His work is preserved only in important private collections, and also in prominent institutions such as the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the Museum of Fine Arts in Rouen, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, etc. It should be noted that he was appointed Academician of St. Luke in Rome in 1659, and that the Spanish ambassador Castel Rodrigo bought many of his works, which could be for himself or for King Philip IV. His work is preserved in several private collections around the world and in institutions such as the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, the Wallace Collection in London, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, etc.

Estim. 6 000 - 8 000 EUR

Lot 25 - Lions; Spanish School, c. 1500. Carved stone. Measurements: 25 x 53 x 22 cm. Carved stone with a pair of lions whose bodies are united as they are made from the same block of stone. The piece stands out for its synthetic and stylized finish. Both faces, each one on one side of the piece, have the same design, lying down with the front paws facing forward and the jaws slightly open. This iconography comes from the Hellenistic period, and became popular in medieval Europe, conceived as a representation of the power of death, and influenced by the funerary role of the figure of the lion in the Christian religion. It is a metaphor in which lions represent danger, but also power and protection.

Estim. 5 000 - 6 000 EUR

Lot 26 - Attributed to GIUGLIELMO DELLA PORTA (Lombardy, 1500 - Rome, 1577). "Christ crucified". Bronze and ebony base. Measurements: 43 x 36 x 10 cm (Christ); 121 x 54 x 27 cm (total). Crucified Christ in round bulk made in gilded bronze seated on an ebony base and cross. As for the sculpture, in this case we observe how the sculptor uses only three nails, thus accentuating the dramatism of the scene, which is enhanced by the elongation of the upper extremities that reflect how Christ supports the entire load of his body, with his face down in exhaustion. Stylistically, there are various characteristics typical of Guglielmo della Porta's torso, the way the cloth is made and the curvature of the body with the legs bent to the right. Guglielmo della Porta was a renowned Italian sculptor, architect and restorer of Mannerism. Della Porta was the son of Cristoforo della Porta and his wife Caterina. He received his artistic education from his uncle Giovanni Battista della Porta in Genoa. He worked for the cathedral of Genoa during his early years of artistic training already in 1531 together with his brother Giacomo and under the direction of his uncle on the statues of the chapel of St. John the Baptist. In 1537 he moved to Rome and became a disciple of Michelangelo, thus obtaining a greater number of commissions. An example of this is the bust he made for Pope Paul III in 1547, after his death, and the tomb of St. Peter, which was his main work, which occupied him from 1555 to 1575, although it was later revised by Bernini. His career as a sculptor at the court of the Farnese was due to his contact with Mario Maccarone, the supervisor of papal building projects. In 1540, as Della Porta he designed the tomb of Vincenzo degli Ubaldi in the church of Santi XII Apostoli. Della Porta was a lay brother of the Cistercians and was called from 1547 to the papal coinage. Among other things, his studio was commissioned to complement the legs of the torso of Farnese, which was found in 1546. The result was so convincing to his contemporaries that following Michelangelo's own advice he was approved to link the ancient limbs of the statue, which had been excavated. Today his works can be found in different places of great historical and artistic relevance, such as his sculpture of Moses in San Lorenzo de Fiori, or for example his works in the Giuliano chapel of the cathedral of Genoa, in Santa Maria del Popolo, and his bust of Paul III which is in the Museum of Capodimonte.

Estim. 92 000 - 95 000 EUR

Lot 27 - PIETER COECKE VAN AELST(Aalst, 1502 - Brussels,1550) "Triptych". Oil on panel. It presents restorations on the pictorial surface. Measurements: 107,5 x 48 cm (central panel); 107 x 174 cm (side panels). In the center of this triptych is represented the ascension of Christ to the heavens, being this observer by the apostles and the Virgin. On the right side Pilate has just judged Jesus, who is being carried by two soldiers and finally, on the left side of the composition we can appreciate Jesus on the resurrected tomb. These scenes show a great normativity with respect to the biblical story, but this coherence is not only thematic but also aesthetic, since in the three works the use of a chromatic range of clear and bright colors predominates in the composition. In addition, despite the distortion of the anatomies presented by all the characters, a great dynamism can be appreciated in the piece, which is granted by the harmonization of a classical compositional structure, using a triangular pattern in all the scenes. The iconography and the composition repeat models of the 15th century, but the triangular arrangement, the plastic rotundity of the figures and the subtle modeling of the faces and the anatomy of the Child, as well as the architectures, respond to the new Italian language. In the 16th century, following the introduction of the novelties of the Italian Renaissance, the Flemish style evolved towards a more classical and sculptural sense, while retaining its own characteristics. In this context is Pieter Coecke van Aelst or Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder, who was a Flemish painter, sculptor, architect, author and designer of woodcuts, goldsmiths, stained glass and tapestries. His main subjects were Christian religious themes. In the words of the Prado Museum "at first his painting seems to have been influenced by his master Bernard van Orley and his father-in-law Jan van Dornicke. Later, his style, described as Antuerpian Mannerist, and close to the tradition of the last works of Raphael, evolves towards a language close to that of the Romanists". He worked in Antwerp and Brussels and was appointed court painter to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Coecke van Aelst was a polyglot. He published translations into Flemish (Dutch), French and German of architectural treatises from ancient Rome and modern Italy. These publications played a key role in the dissemination of Renaissance ideas in northern Europe. They contributed to the transition in northern Europe from the then predominant late Gothic style to a modern "antique-oriented" architecture. Pieter Coecke van Aelst was the son of the deputy mayor of Aalst. The early Flemish biographer Karel van Mander wrote in his Schilder-boeck published in 1604 that Coecke van Aelst studied with Bernard van Orley, a prominent Renaissance painter based in Brussels. There are no documents to prove this apprenticeship, but there are strong stylistic similarities between the styles of the two artists. According to Karel van Mander, Pieter Coecke van Aelst later studied in Italy. Although there is no firm evidence that Coecke van Aelst traveled to Italy, stylistic evidence supports this idea. However, the Italian influence could also be attributed to the fact that Raphael's tapestry cartoons were available in Brussels. It presents restorations on the pictorial surface.

Estim. 155 000 - 160 000 EUR

Lot 28 - Spanish or Italian school of the XVI century. "San Pedro". Limestone. Provenance: French collection J.D. It presents damages originated by the passage of time. Measurements: 174 x 60 x 40 cm. Sculpture worked in limestone in round bulk representing the apostle St. Peter, which appears recognizable by the Gospels, although it does not retain the keys. Its canon, slightly stylized, and its harmonic features, is inspired by Renaissance and Gothic models that seek naturalism in expression and drapery. Saint Peter (Bethsaida, c. 1 B.C. - Rome, 67) was, according to the New Testament, a fisherman, known for being one of Jesus' twelve apostles. The Catholic Church identifies him through the apostolic succession as the first Pope, based, among other arguments, on the words addressed to him by Jesus: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the power of Death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." St. Peter could be said to be the confessor of Jesus, his closest disciple, being both united by a very special bond, as narrated in the Gospels, both canonical and apocryphal. During the Gothic period, free-standing sculpture, independent of the architectural framework, considerably increased its repertoire, both in typology (sepulchers, pulpits...) and iconography (new saints, new orders...). With the arrival of the Gothic period, a substantial aesthetic change took place throughout Europe, both in architecture and in painting and sculpture. The symbolic and timeless hieratism of the Romanesque gave way to a desire for reality and narrative sense that had its roots in classical sculpture and forced artists to take nature as a model. Gothic sculptors therefore sought to represent the visible world as it is. In this way they try to humanize the gestures and attitudes of the characters, which acquire individuality. Aesthetic conventions were left behind -such as the large eyes that stood out above the rest of the face, which symbolized the soul of the character- and a naturalistic representation of faces, anatomy, clothing, etc. was sought. Following this new aesthetic line, the figures abandoned their vertical, symmetrical and hieratic postures to adopt others that were increasingly more expressive and gestural, with greater realism in movement. At the same time, they seek to represent the emotions of the characters through eloquent gestures of the face and hands.

Estim. 20 000 - 22 000 EUR

Lot 29 - MATHEUS VAN HELMONT (1623, Antwerp - 1679, Brussels). "The Antiquarian." Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Relined. Measurements: 58 x 67.50 cm, 80 x 89 cm (frame). Mattheus van Helmont, was a Flemish painter specialized in genre scenes of interiors and village scenes. His style and subject matter were influenced by the work of David Teniers the Younger and Adriaen Brouwer. His favorite subjects were peasant festivals, wedding celebrations, drinkers and alchemists. He developed his own personal style towards the final phase of his career. He spent most of his active life in Antwerp, but later moved to Brussels. Mattheus first joined the Antwerp guild of St. Luke's as the son of a master and in 1645 became a full master of the guild. His paintings of market scenes and Italianate fairs suggest that he possibly visited Italy but there is no documentary evidence to corroborate such a trip. He joined the Brussels Guild of St. Luke in 1674. He had a large output but fell into debt, presumably due to his rebellious nature and frequent involvement in fights. This caused him to leave Antwerp and settle in Brussels in 1674. He was forced to leave many paintings to his creditors in Antwerp. He probably remained for the rest of his life in Brussels, where he died sometime in 1679. Mattheus van Helmont is known for his large output, usually signed or monogrammed, but rarely dated. His known works can be dated to the period between 1638 and 1670. He was a genre painter and specialized in painting interior scenes with peasants, alchemists and craftsmen at work, tavern interiors, village scenes, market scenes and kermises. He also painted some still lifes. He is reported to have painted singers, a genre popularized by David Teniers the Younger and depicting monkeys appearing in human attire and human surroundings. However, there are no firm attributions to van Helmont of works in this genre. He may have produced 'guard room scenes', that is, scenes depicting an interior scene with officers and soldiers enjoying themselves. However, the Guard Room with the Liberation of St. Peter (sold at Colnaghi Old Masters), previously attributed to him, has now been re-attributed to a follower of David Teniers the Younger. While most of his village scenes depict Flemish villages, he also painted scenes of Italian-looking towns and cities, such as the market scene in an imaginary Italian village. He is known to have contributed staff for the landscapes of Jacques d'Arthois. Relined.

Estim. 5 000 - 5 500 EUR

Lot 30 - Attributed to HIERONYMUS FRANCKEN (Antwerp 1578-1623). "Epuon and Lazarus". Oil on copper. Measurements: 35 x 51 cm; 61 x 80 cm (frame). In this work is represented the parable of the rich Epuon and Lazarus, which is collected in the Gospel of Luke. The story is narrated by Jesus, who tells his disciples and some Pharisees, the relationship, during life and after death, between an anonymous rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus: "There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate stood a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham afar off, with Lazarus by his side. Then he cried out to him, Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this fire. But Abraham answered, Son, remember that in your life you received your good things, while Lazarus received evil things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, there is a great gulf between us and you. He answered, "Then I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment." Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them." "Nay, father Abraham,' he said, but if anyone from among the dead goes to them, they will repent. He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead.'" This scene represents the moment, in which Lazarus with his lacerated body, begs for a little alms, while the rich man, seated at the table with his five brothers enjoys dinner, oblivious to the suffering of Lazarus. The appearance of the dog, licking the sores of Lazarus, has given rise to the similarity of this with the figure of St. Roch, as well as the name has sometimes been identified as Lazarus of Bethany, although both characters are not related. In this particular case the presence of Lazarus is relegated to the right area of the last plane of the composition, giving great prominence to the scene of opulence of the table and the attitudes of the diners, especially highlighting the male figure at the far right of the banquet, who turns his face looking directly at the viewer. Along with his brother Frans Francken II, Hieronymus played an important role in the development of new genres in Flemish art in the early 17th century. He was a prolific artist with a wide range who painted religious scenes, allegorical subjects, portraits, fruit pieces, genre scenes, architectural paintings and art galleries.

Estim. 7 000 - 8 000 EUR

Lot 31 - Antwerp School; second third of the XVII century. "Kermesse". Oil on copper. It presents restorations and faults in the pictorial surface. Measurements: 55 x 71 cm; 77 x 99 cm (frame). Oil on copper in which the artist reflects a complex landscape where architecture coexists with nature. The skill of the author leads him to combine the most classical architecture, which is reflected in the palace on the right side of the scene, with a more fanciful and even ephemeral architecture, which is described in the foreground. The cypress trees and manicured gardens show us an exuberant conception of the scene, which is completed with the presence of several characters enjoying the outdoors, either strolling or dancing as in the case of the group of men and women who form a chorus in the foreground. This recreational idea may remind us of a "kermesse", a Dutch term for the popular peasant festivals typical of the Netherlands. It is a theme already popularized by David Teniers the Elder (1582-1649), who treated it with a healthy sense of humor that will enjoy a long life among genre painters in both Flanders and Holland. Although in this case it should be noted that this idea of "Kermesse" is wrapped in a halo of opulence related to the highest spheres of society and not to the peasantry. Undoubtedly, it was in the painting of the Dutch school where the consequences of the political emancipation of the region, as well as the economic prosperity of the liberal bourgeoisie, were most openly manifested. The combination of the discovery of nature, objective observation, the study of the concrete, the appreciation of the everyday, the taste for the real and material, the sensitivity to the seemingly insignificant, made the Dutch artist commune with the reality of everyday life, without seeking any ideal alien to that same reality. The painter did not seek to transcend the present and the materiality of objective nature or to escape from tangible reality, but to envelop himself in it, to become intoxicated by it through the triumph of realism, a realism of pure illusory fiction, achieved thanks to a perfect and masterful technique and a conceptual subtlety in the lyrical treatment of light. It presents restorations and faults in the pictorial surface.

Estim. 5 000 - 6 000 EUR

Lot 32 - HENRI JOSEPH FRADELLE (France, 1778-1865). "The poet Moliere". Oil on board. Presents label on the back. It has a frame of the eighteenth century with faults. Measurements: 65 x 55 cm; 88 x 77 cm (frame). This work represents Moliere reading a text next to a maiden that seems to rebuke him. It is probably the representation of the last play of Moliere, who is said to have died on stage acting, dressed in yellow as can be seen in this painting. The work stands out for the detail of the qualities and the care in the tactile quality of the objects that make up the scene, where the textures have been perfectly portrayed. The painting is part of a subgenre of portraiture based on illustrious men. Molière is considered one of the greatest playwrights in history and the father of French Comedy. His relationship with the theater began in 1643 when he signed, together with the Béjart family, comedians, the act of constitution of the Illustrious Theater, which he would go on to direct without much success a year later. For five years, Molière left the French capital to be an actor, returning in 1650 to take charge of the company. Soon his farces and comic plays became famous, being installed by the French king in the Petit-Bourbon theater. His plays began to gain popularity, following the maxim of "correcting manners by laughing", which, together with the royal protection, made Molière gain enemies among those who were ridiculed in his plays. In 1664 he was appointed in charge of the Court entertainments; that same year "Tartuffe" was premiered, a play critical of religious hypocrisy and which provoked angry reactions among the conservative classes, forcing the king to ban the play for five years. With royal support, however, the company became the Royal Company. Although his health began to fail, Molière continued to write immortal plays such as "The Misanthrope" and "The Stick Doctor". His last play, "The Imaginary Sick Man", sadly went down in history due to the attack that the actor and author himself had during one of its performances, from which he did not recover and died. Henri Jean-Baptiste Victoire Fradelle was a French-English Victorian painter and portraitist, specialized in literary, historical and religious subjects. For over a hundred years he was confused with his son, Henry Joseph Fradelle (1805-1872), who trained as an artist, but pursued several professions. It was not until the first decade of the 21st century that this error was detected and biographies, lists and auction houses gave Fradelle his correct name.

Estim. 3 000 - 4 000 EUR

Lot 33 - Sevillian school; last quarter of the seventeenth century. "Virgin of the Rosary with St. Dominic and St. Francis". Oil on canvas. It has a frame of the century c. 1900. Measurements: 66 x 47 cm; 100 x 80 cm (frame). Image of scenographic presentation, which shows the Virgin with the Child in her lap, seated on a throne of clouds. Both figures hold rosaries, which extend to St. Francis and St. Dominic. Mary is a monumental figure, well seated and sculptural, typical of the classicist baroque, and occupies most of the pictorial surface, directly illuminated by a clear and uniform light, which models avoiding the excesses of tenebrism and creates a soft play of lights and half shadows. This light gives the flesh tones of both figures a pearly appearance, in accordance with the classical idealization they show. The colors, especially the red of the Virgin's tunic, which dominates the composition and is framed by the blue tone of the mantle. The figures stand out well silhouetted against a golden background of Gloria, subtly worked with shades of ochre and yellow. The representation of the Virgin of the Rosary was a theme that gained popularity in Baroque painting, the period in which this oil painting is dated. Legend has it that the Virgin taught Saint Dominic to pray the rosary in 1208, telling him to propagate this devotion and use it as a powerful weapon against the enemies of the faith. Appearing in the chapel where the saint was praying, holding a rosary in his hand, he taught him to recite it, promising that many sinners would be converted and obtain abundant graces. He did indeed preach it, and with great success, bringing many Albigensians back to the Catholic faith. In the scene, located in the lower left corner, a dog carrying a torch in its jaws is also represented. This iconography alludes to the dream of Saint Dominic's mother, before he was born. After dreaming of a dog carrying a torch coming out of her womb, the mother made a pilgrimage to the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos to find out the meaning of her dream. There it was revealed to her that a child would be born, whom she named Domingo, in honor of the monastery.

Estim. 2 000 - 3 000 EUR

Lot 34 - Circle of GUGLIELMO DELLA PORTA (ca. 1550-1577). "Christ crucified". Silver. It has wooden base of the sixteenth century. Measurements: 43 x 31 x 9 cm 96 x 47 x 8 cm (total). Christ realized in silver that follows the models of the work realized by Guglielmo della Porta, at present in the church of San Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna. Thus, we are faced with the figure of Christ crucified with only three nails, accentuating the drama of the scene. This theatricality is enhanced by the elongation of the upper limbs, which support the entire weight of the protagonist's body. Guglielmo della Porta was a renowned Italian sculptor, architect and restorer of Mannerism. The son of Cristoforo della Porta and his wife Caterina, he received his artistic education from his uncle Giovanni Battista della Porta in Genoa. He worked for the cathedral of Genoa during his early years of artistic training already in 1531 together with his brother Giacomo and under the direction of his uncle on the statues of the chapel of St. John the Baptist. In 1537 he moved to Rome and became a disciple of Michelangelo, thus obtaining a greater number of commissions. An example of this is the bust he made for Pope Paul III in 1547, after his death, and the tomb of St. Peter, which was his main work, which occupied him from 1555 to 1575, although it was later revised by Bernini. His career as a sculptor at the court of the Farnese was due to his contact with Mario Maccarone, the supervisor of papal building projects. In 1540, as Della Porta he designed the tomb of Vincenzo degli Ubaldi in the church of Santi XII Apostoli. Della Porta was a lay brother of the Cistercians and was called from 1547 to the papal coinage. Among other things, his studio was commissioned to complement the legs of the torso of Farnese, which was found in 1546. The result was so convincing to his contemporaries that following Michelangelo's own advice he was approved to link the ancient limbs of the statue, which had been excavated. Today his works can be found in different places of great historical and artistic relevance, such as his sculpture of Moses in San Lorenzo de Fiori, or for example his works in the Giuliano chapel of the cathedral of Genoa, in Santa Maria del Popolo, and his bust of Paul III which is in the Museum of Capodimonte.

Estim. 13 000 - 14 000 EUR

Lot 35 - Attributed to PEDRO ROLDÁN (Seville, 1624 - ibidem, 1699). "Saint". Carved and polychrome wood. It presents faults and restorations. Measurements: 130 x 67 x 37 cm. Round sculpture carved in wood and polychrome, representing a saint with a bearded face, dressed in habit, with his right hand raised, originally carrying a staff or other object. Aesthetically the work is close to the sculpture of Pedro Roldán. Sculptor from Seville, although he spent a brief stay in Granada, where he trained in the workshop of the sculptor Alonso de Mena. In 1646, he returned to Seville, where he achieved great success and fame. The cultural richness of Seville led to a greater demand for commissions. This led to the creation of a workshop where a large number of artists worked and trained. Roldán's sculpture shows an interest in realistic carving. His style was characterized by the search for a new artistic language, moving away from the aesthetics of the masters of the first half of the century such as Montañés, Cano, Mesa and Ribas. Roldan's compositions are characterized by being very dynamic, using foreshortenings, faces with pronounced profiles, with straight noses and very marked cheekbones, and the clothes with sinuous waves. In this case the sculptor presents a carving in which the Prophet is seated, thus creating a pyramidal composition. Although this composition gives a certain hieratism to the piece, the sculptor has resolved the movement thanks to the mantle, which has been arranged in an undulating way over the prophet. With Renaissance sculpture we find the purest expression of the Spanish soul. In the hierarchy of our artistic excellence, the sculpture of the 16th century represents an equivalence of perfection with the painting of the following century. All the passion, the mysticism, the yearning for beauty, the exaltation of the spirit, the flame that burns the matter, we find it in these statues and reliefs that cover the altarpieces. Likewise, it can be affirmed that yes, there is a distinctly Hispanic renaissance that uses Italian forms to express an essentially anti-classical temperament and ideals, derived directly from Spanish religiosity. There is no radical break with the plastic art of the late Gothic; the naturalistic rhythms and excesses, the angular folds and violent chiaroscuro are softened, and more harmonious and balanced rhythms and more delicate lines are introduced. However, the expressive intensity is the same, seeking above all to delve into the soul, to disrupt the classical type of correction in favor of the spiritual effusiveness that goes beyond pure aesthetics. It presents faults and restorations.

Estim. 18 000 - 19 000 EUR

Lot 36 - Attributed to JACOPO AMIGONI (Venice, 1680/1682 - Madrid, 1752). "Marquis of the Ensenada. Oil on canvas. Presents Puncture. It conserves frame of epoch. Measurements. 83 x 67 cm; 87 x 81 cm (frame). This work follows the models of the portrait of the Marquis de la Ensenada painted by Jacopo Amigoni, c. 1750, which is currently part of the collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid. Although in this particular case the protagonist appears inscribed in a neutral background that provides unique prominence to the figure of the Marquis. Numerous versions of this portrait were made, such as the one in the Musey Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Zenón de Somodevilla y Bengoechea, I Marquis of Ensenada (Alesanco, near Logroño - 1781), commonly known as the Marquis of Ensenada, was a Spanish statesman. He played a key role in the drafting and implementation of the Great Gypsy Raid, officially known as the General Imprisonment of the Gypsies, which was an attempt to exterminate the Gypsies living in Spain, resulting in the deaths of 12,000 Gypsies. Jacopo Amigoni, also called Giacomo Amiconi, was a late Baroque or Rococo Italian painter, who began his career in Venice, but traveled and was prolific throughout Europe, where his sumptuous portraits were in great demand. At first, Amigoni painted mythological and religious scenes; but as the panoply of his patrons expanded northward, he began to produce many salon works depicting gods in sensual languor or play. His style influenced Giuseppe Nogari. Among his disciples were Charles Joseph Flipart, Michelangelo Morlaiter, Pietro Antonio Novelli, Joseph Wagner and Antonio Zucchi. From 1717, he is documented working in Bavaria, in the castle of Nymphenburg. He returned to Venice in 1726. His Arrebato de Paris is preserved in the Villa Pisani in Stra. From 1730 to 1739 he worked in England, at Pown House, Moor Park Wolterton Hall and at the Covent Garden theater. From there, he helped convince Canaletto to travel to England by telling him of the ample patronage available. In 1747 he left Italy for Madrid, encouraged by Farinelli, who had a court appointment there. He became court painter to Ferdinand VI of Spain and director of the Royal Academy of San Fernando. Presents Puncture. Preserves period frame.

Estim. 19 000 - 20 000 EUR

Lot 37 - Valencian School; XVI century. "Virgin and Child". Oil on panel. It presents faults and restorations. Measurements: 65 x 53 cm. As it is common in the works of devotional character, the anecdotal details are limited and the composition is simplified and clarified, with the characters in the foreground on a neutral background. The figure of the Virgin and Child are shown as monumental, with rotund and settled forms that take up almost the entire composition. The Child and the Virgin do not maintain a warm connection with the gaze, although the detail of the mother holding the small foot of her son transmits a certain tenderness to the spectator. The child holds a bird in his hand. Closing the scene are two smaller angels holding the crown on the Virgin's head. The theme of the coronation of the Virgin, was told in the second century by St. Meliton, bishop of Sardis and later disseminated by Gregory of Tours, and James of Voragine, who collected it in his famous legend Aurea. The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin is also a subject of devotion throughout Christianity. Beyond art, the Coronation is a central motif in Marian Processions all over the world. The Valencian school is different from the rest of contemporary Spanish artistic centers, thanks to the fact that during most of the 15th and 16th centuries there was an important settlement of Italian and Flemish painters. Thus, throughout the history of art, Valencia has been an important focus of Spanish art, along with other schools such as Andalusia and Madrid. In Valencia, the change from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century was not a break with the previous tradition, but a continuation of it. In 1768 the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos was created, and this institution will determine a change towards a classicism of baroque roots. Through it, young artists were trained by José Vergara, Manuel Monfort, José Camarón, Vicente Marzo, Vicente López and Mariano Salvador Maella. On the other hand, the economic recovery will result in a thriving industrial and commercial bourgeoisie, which will seek to distinguish itself socially through artistic patronage. At the same time, the Church was losing its monopoly as the only client of the artists. All this will determine a definitive change in taste, and also in the genres treated: religious painting will now coexist with bourgeois portraiture, still life, landscape, historical and mythological themes and genre painting. It presents faults and restorations.

Estim. 5 000 - 6 000 EUR

Lot 38 - Dutch school second third XVII century, possibly JAN VAN NOORDT (Holland, 1623- after 1676). "The meeting of Don Juan and Preciosa". Oil on canvas. Presents restorations. It conserves frame of epoch. Measurements: 117 x 167 cm; 147 x 198 cm (frame). Preciosa is the main character of La Gitanilla, the first of the twelve stories that compose the book of exemplary tales by Miguel de Cervantes. The nobleman Don Juan de Cárcamo falls in love with Preciosa, a young, beautiful and virtuous gypsy. Preciosa asks the young man to prove his love by abandoning his rank and family and adopting the gypsy way of life for two years. Don Juan accepts and takes the name Andrés. After a series of adventures, it is revealed that Preciosa is actually a noblewoman by birth, kidnapped as a child. The two lovers were then able to marry. Aesthetically and compositionally this work follows the model established by Jan van Noordt, whose original work is now in a private collection. Jan van Noordt moved to Amsterdam in the late 1630s, where he began to train under the guidance of the artist Jacob Adriaensz. Jan, also studied under Abraham van den Tempel- As an independent artist, Van Noordt devoted himself to genre subjects, especially the pastoral scenes that had become fashionable in Dutch art. In the late 1650s he began to receive portrait commissions, which evidently allowed him to return to history painting. In the course of the 1660s his style changed from the studied dynamic elegance of Backer to a mature and robust style inspired mainly by the Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens, who had recently undertaken important commissions in Amsterdam. During these years he taught Johannes Voorhout, among other artists. His output declined from 1672 onwards, due to the general economic recession following the Triple Invasion of 1672. It presents restorations.

Estim. 17 000 - 19 000 EUR

Lot 39 - Madrid School; second half of the seventeenth century. "The Virgin and St. Anthony of Padua". Oil on panel. Presents faults and Repainting. Measurements. 45 x 34 cm; 54 x 43 cm (frame). In an austere cell a great break of glory is developed, arranged in the superior zone of the composition. In the inferior zone, in a completely earthly plane, the figure of a kneeling saint is located, dressed with a gray habit and raising his look and his open hands towards the sky, where the Virgin is. Both the theatricality with which the composition of the scene is conceived, as well as the vaporous digging of tones that tend to luminous finishes, indicate that this is a work typical of the Madrid Baroque school. A school that stands out for its opulence to a great extent enhanced by the court. Saint Anthony of Padua is, after Saint Francis of Assisi, the most popular of the Franciscan saints. He was born in Lisbon in 1195 and only spent the last two years of his life in Padua. After studying at the convent of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, in 1220 he entered the Order of Friars Minor, where he changed his first name, Fernando, to Antonio. After teaching theology in Bologna, he traveled through southern and central France, preaching in Arles, Montpellier, Puy, Limoges and Bourges. In 1227 he participated in the general chapter of Assisi. In 1230 he was in charge of the transfer of the remains of St. Francis. He preached in Padua and died there at the age of 36 in 1231. He was canonized only a year after his death, in 1232. Until the end of the 15th century, the cult of St. Anthony remained located in Padua. From the following century he became, at first, the national saint of the Portuguese, who put under his patronage the churches they built abroad, and then a universal saint. He is represented as a beardless young man with a large monastic tonsure, dressed in the brown habit of the Franciscans. One of his most frequent attributes is the book, which identifies him as a sacred writer. Another distinctive iconographic feature is the branch of lily, an element taken from his panegyrist Bernardino de Siena. St. Anthony is usually presented with the Child Jesus, in allusion to an apparition he had in his cell. It became the most popular attribute of this saint from the 16th century onwards, being especially popular in the Baroque art of the Counter-Reformation.

Estim. 4 500 - 5 000 EUR

Lot 40 - Granada School; second half of the seventeenth century. "Virgin of Rosario". Oil on canvas. It has slight flaws on the pictorial surface. Measurements: 63 x 50 cm. This painting is inspired by the "Virgen del Rosario" by Alonso Cano, painted around 1665 and located in the Cathedral of Malaga. In a sky of golden and vaporous texture, the figures located in large size in the foreground stand out. Mary, dressed in a reddish tunic and a blue mantle that slides down her arms, holds the Child Jesus in her lap. He holds a rosary in his left hand. Four cherubs, worked in various foreshortenings, float around the cloud that holds the group in an ethereal condition. The painting, both in composition and execution, brings to mind the "Virgin of the Rosary" by Alonso Cano. Specifically, it is inspired by the upper part of the painting, obviating the representation of the group of saints that the master from Granada placed in the lower part. Moreover, it does not pretend to be faithful to the original (see variations in postures, gestures and attributes), but it is faithful to the creative spirit of Cano, one of the most outstanding figures of the Andalusian Baroque.The 17th century marked the arrival of the Baroque in the Andalusian school, with the triumph of naturalism over Mannerist idealism, loose workmanship and many other aesthetic liberties. At this time the school reached its greatest splendor, both for the quality of the works and for the primordial rank of Sevillian Baroque painting. Thus, during the transition to Baroque we find Juan del Castillo, Antonio Mohedano and Francisco Herrera el Viejo, in whose works the rapid brushstroke and the crude realism of the style is already manifested, and Juan de Roelas, introducer of Venetian colorism. In the middle of the century the period reached its peak, with figures such as Zurbarán, a young Alonso Cano and Velázquez. Finally, in the last third of the century we find Murillo and Valdés Leal, founders in 1660 of an Academy where many of the painters active during the first quarter of the 18th century were trained, such as Meneses Osorio, Sebastián Gómez, Lucas Valdés and others. It presents slight flaws on the pictorial surface.

Estim. 3 500 - 4 000 EUR

Lot 41 - Circle of JOSÉ ANTOLÍNEZ (Madrid, 1635-1675). "Immaculate Conception". Oil on canvas. Relined. Presents faults. Measurements: 128 x 87 cm; 166 x 126 cm (frame). The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception was introduced with force in the Spain of the Counter-Reformation for what would be numerous iconographic representations of the Virgin Mary. Many were the artists who worked on this theme, some of them stood out such as Pacheco, Murillo, Velázquez, Valdés Leal and Francisco de Solís himself. Of Antonílez in particular, it has always been emphasized the large number of works he dedicated to the theme of the Immaculate Conception, of which about twenty copies have been preserved, three of them, signed, in the Prado Museum. In this way he managed to create his own iconographic type, of extreme elegance and refinement, in which the Virgin appears with a concentrated countenance, sweetly absorbed despite the busy group of angels surrounding her. The piece is close to the precepts of José Antolínez, who was one of the most interesting artists of his generation who, due to his early death, could not reach the splendid maturity that his training foreshadowed. This does not prevent him from being considered a great representative of the full Baroque current that renewed painting at the Spanish court during the third quarter of the 17th century. In his work one can perceive the exquisite sensitivity for the recreation of Titian's manners - always so present in the Spanish painting of his time -, combined with the reception of the elegant painting of the Nordic masters Rubens and Van Dyck, and the capture of the atmosphere of Velázquez. In this way, his technique is loose and vibrant, singularly seductive in the use of cold tonalities, which unfold in compositions full of vigorous movement and unstable activity. We know of his father's work as a carpenter craftsman, when the family was established in Madrid's Calle de Toledo, although with an ancestral home in the Burgos town of Espinosa de los Monteros. Palomino has conveyed to us the image of a person of a haughty and vain nature, so conscious of his worth that he was often arrogant, an attitude that would provoke abundant friction and disputes with other colleagues. He was a student of Francisco Rizi, with whom he would also become enemies, but this did not prevent his painting from being highly appreciated by his contemporaries. He cultivated all genres: religious painting, landscape -of which we do not have any example-, mythology, portraiture, as well as genre painting. Within the portrait facet are also worthy of note the two children's representations preserved in the Prado Museum. They are works that show, at the same time, the truthful closeness of the characters and the capture of the atmosphere that surrounds them, so much so that they were considered works by Velázquez, until recently when they were attributed to Antolínez by Diego Angulo. Of the canvases preserved in the Prado Museum, "The Transit of the Magdalene" and the two children's portraits come from the royal collections and two of the Immaculate Conception belonged to the Museum of the Trinity, while the third was acquired in 1931 with the funds bequeathed by Aníbal Morillo y Pérez, IV Count of Cartagena. Presents faults.

Estim. 13 000 - 14 000 EUR

Lot 42 - Italian school; early 17th century. "Lamentation over the body of the dead Christ". Oil on copper. Presents restorations. It has frame c. 1850. Measurements: 15 x 22 cm; 21 x 27 cm (frame). In this work the theme of the lamentation of the body of Christ is captured in a more intimate way than in previous periods, simplifying the composition and eliminating all possible elements. Thus, the body of the dead Christ articulates the image, located in the center, and around it is placed the figure of Mary Magdalene and St. John. In the painting we are dealing with, the characters appear, cut out against a black background that enhances their volumes. Stylistically, the direct influence of tenebrism dominates: the way in which a powerful light builds the volumes and cuts out the gestures, staging the moment of contained pain, the silent pathos. The bodies are modeled with an energetic brushstroke, selectively illuminated, a resource that undoubtedly contributes to accentuate the devout and emotional message contained in the work. The author also manages to masterfully express both the physical pain, through the open wound in Christ's side. The scene of the lamentation or weeping over the body of the dead Christ is part of the cycle of the Passion, and is intercalated between the Descent from the Cross and the Holy Burial. It narrates the moment in which the body of Christ is deposited on a shroud (in other cases, on the stone of anointing) and they are arranged around him, bursting in laments and sobs, his mother, St. John, the holy women, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. It is a very emotional theme, fruit of popular piety, which concentrates the attention on the drama of the Passion and the loving and sorrowful contemplation, with a realistic and moving sense. In Byzantium, and in the representations of Byzantine influence, the figure of Christ rests on the slab of the anointing, where his corpse was perfumed and prepared to receive burial, which later in Italian art will become a sepulcher. This scene is not referred to in the Gospels, but finds its origin in mystical literature and religious texts of piety, as well as in those of the confraternities of flagellants. It presents restorations.

Estim. 5 000 - 6 000 EUR

Lot 43 - Attributed to PEDRO MILLÁN (Seville, XVI century). "Christ". Polychrome clay. Measurements: 24 x 31 x 15 cm. Polychrome terracotta sculpture representing the face of Christ. The piece stands out for its contained emotionality that is appreciated especially in the gesture. The closed eyelids and the half-open mouth added to the serenity show us the last breath of Jesus. The iconography of the work is doubtful, since the crown indicates that it is a moment of the Passion, although it could also be the representation of the Holy Face that has its origin in the episode that occurred during the Passion of Christ, when on the way to Calvary a woman took off her veil to dry the face of the Messiah with it. The image of the face of Jesus Christ was imprinted on the linen handkerchief, and it was miraculously preserved through the centuries, becoming an object of worship. The woman would later be called Veronica, whose etymology derives from the Latin "verum" (true) and the Greek "eikon" (image). The Holy Face is one of the most famous relics of Christianity, described for the first time in 1137. Stylistically, Pedro Millán's work preserves slight echoes of the Gothic style, although in his sculpture the precepts of the Renaissance predominate. His work was characterized to a great extent by a mastery of terracotta modeling as can be seen in works such as the Burial of Christ in the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville or the Crying over Christ in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Estim. 18 000 - 19 000 EUR

Lot 44 - Attributed to LUCA CAMBIASO (Moneglia, Liguria, 1527- El Escorial, Madrid, 1585). "St. Peter, St. Lawrence and St. George". Ink on paper. Presents ancient inscription. Measurements: 35 x 25 cm; 44 x 31 cm (frame). Ink drawing representing St. Peter, St. Lawrence and St. George. The finish of the work indicates that it was probably a study conceived for a larger composition. Considered the most famous Mannerist painter of the Genoese school, Luca Cambiaso was the creator of numerous large-scale fresco decorations of palaces and churches in the city of Moneglia. The masterpiece of the central period of his career is the fresco of the Rape of the Sabine Women on the ceiling of the Villa Imperiale di Terralba, Genoa, painted before 1565. He was summoned to Spain by Philip II in 1583 to work in El Escorial and Madrid, where the most important surviving work is the fresco of the Glory in the vault of the choir of the church of the Monastery of El Escorial. On a formal level, his paintings, and especially his drawings, are characterized by the simplification of the figures to their geometric components, often cubic. Trained with his father, Luca Cambiaso visited Rome around 1547-1550, where he absorbed the knowledge of the great masters of art history, especially Michelangelo, a fact that explains his daring to make theatrical foreshortenings and exaggerated gesticulations. In his mature Genoese work (1550-1560), his style became calmer and more restrained. This was also the period of his collaboration with the Genoese Giovanni Battista Castello (ca. 1509-1569).

Estim. 4 000 - 5 000 EUR

Lot 45 - Murcian School, Circle of FRANCISCO SALZILLO (Murcia, 1707- 1783); XVIII century. "Saint". Polychrome wood, gilded and vitreous paste eyes. Presents faults in the carving and polychrome. Measurements: 23 x 20 x 16 cm; 16 x 16 x 16 x 16 cm. On an elaborate pedestal sits the bust of a saint wearing a golden cloak. His bearded face and snowy hair indicate that he is probably Saint Peter, although there is no iconographic attribute that concretely defines him. Due to the technical and aesthetic characteristics of the work, a link can be established with the artistic influence of the master Francisco Salzillo, who was a Spanish sculptor of the 18th century, considered today as one of the most important of that century and as one of the most outstanding figures of the Murcian school of sculpture. He was dedicated to religious work, making sculptures as well as processional steps and nativity scenes, reflecting a transitional style from Baroque to Rococo and Neoclassicism, and was trained in the workshop of his father, the Italian sculptor Nicolás Salzillo, and had to take care of it when Nicolás died in 1727, when Francisco was twenty years old. Although he hardly ever left Murcia (there is only one documented trip to Cartagena in 1755, and he refused the invitation of the Count of Floridablanca to go to Madrid), he achieved fame and recognition at a national level, carrying out a large number of commissions. He participated in the foundation, in 1777, of the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Murcia, which served to create, two years later, the Patriotic School of Drawing (where he was director), and his work is currently preserved in some important private collections, as well as in institutions such as the Salzillo Museum of Murcia, the Museum of the Cathedral of Murcia, the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, etc.The Murcian school of sculpture was born in the 18th century, driven by the economic growth of the region, around the figure of Francisco Salzillo, gathering Mediterranean and especially Italian influences through the art of the Nativity Scene, which was introduced and developed in Spain in this century. Through the Murcian school, the novelties of the European Rococo were introduced in Spain, which were incorporated by Murcian masters such as Salzillo to the popular feeling typical of Spanish imagery. It presents faults in the carving and polychromy.

Estim. 8 000 - 9 000 EUR

Lot 46 - Attributed to FRANCESCO GHINGHI (Florence, 1689 - 1762). "Annunciation". Hard stones, gilded bronze and silver. Measurements: 25 x 33 cm; 33 x 43 cm (frame). The decoration in hard stones has been arranged throughout the board, which presents a geometric decoration that frames two borders in the center in which you can see the profile of the Virgin and the archangel Gabriel. The presence of both characters refers to the biblical passage of the new testament of the annunciation. However, the schematization of the scene only suggests the message of the annunciation without describing it in detail. The technique known as hard stone carving is a type of inlay that uses colored marble and hard stone and was born in Florence. Thanks to the efforts of Piero de Medici and Lorenzo the Magnificent to revitalize and update a mosaic technique, called opus sectile used in ancient Rome. In the 17th century France was the first court to show a clear interest in the hard stone technique, establishing centers among which the Gobelins factory stood out. In Italy, the Royal workshop of Naples stood out, which took over from Florence when the Medici disappeared. Charles III in Spain brought several foreign masters with the intention of organizing a workshop, which was installed in the Royal site of El Buen Retiro. Stylistically there was a great variety of decorative motifs, although since 1600 there is a clear preference for natural aesthetic patterns to which other zoomorphic motifs were added over time. In this particular case the piece has great similarities with the works of Francesco Maria Gaetano Ghinghi, master carver of family tradition. He was a student of Giovanni Battista Foggini. In 1738 he was appointed by King Charles of Bourbon as the first director of the Royal Laboratory of Hard Stones in Naples.

Estim. 38 000 - 39 000 EUR

Lot 47 - Granada School; XVIII century. "Magdalene penitent". Polychrome terracotta. Measurements: 32 x 26 x 25 cm. Round sculpture made in terracotta in which the author conceives not only a figure, but a whole context related to it. For this reason the rock with the skull of the work, have so much prominence, and that is why the author forces the posture of Maria Magdalene, forcing the observer to contemplate the piece in a 360 degree turn. The saint is shown kneeling, in an attitude of clemency looking towards the skull that stands out snowy on the black rock that forms the base. Formally the sculpture has been worked following the baroque style of the 17th century, in an exasperated and dramatic attitude, with the long hair that identifies her. The tremendously expressive face is enough by itself to reflect the saint's feelings of desolation and deep dramatism. Stylistically, it is clear the strong influence in the present work of models of the Baroque of the XVII century of the Granada school, and not only in the iconography, but also in the model chosen as influence for the same one, in the decoration of the clothes, in the coloring, in the features of the face, etc. The realistic reproduction of the details does not detract from the delicacy of the forms and the serenity of the face, inheriting the classicist influence. The Granadine school, which starts from the strong influence of the Renaissance period, counted with great figures such as Pablo de Rojas, Juan Martínez Montañés (who was formed in the city with the previous one), Alonso de Mena, Alonso Cano, Pedro de Mena, Bernardo de Mora, Pedro Roldán, Torcuato Ruiz del Peral, etc. In general, the school does not neglect the beauty of the images and also follows the naturalism, as usual at the time, but it would always emphasize more the intimate and the recollection in some delicate images that would be somewhat similar to the rest of Andalusian schools in another series of details but that do not usually have the monumentality of the Sevillian ones. The work can be inscribed, specifically, in the stylistic circle of the Mora workshop (José and Diego). One of the most important workshops in Granada in the 17th century. The artistic legacy of this family of image makers, which spanned from the last third of the seventeenth century until the second half of the eighteenth century, was a milestone in the Granada school. Influenced by the work of both Alonso Cano and Pedro de Mena, an influence that led him to create a very personal and characteristic style.

Estim. 6 500 - 7 000 EUR

Lot 48 - Attributed to JAN BRUEGHEL THE ELDER (Brussels, 1568 - Antwerp, 1625). and Workshop. "Allegory of the sense of taste". Oil on copper. Measurements: 58,5 x 90 cm; 85,5 x 116 cm. A faun and a young lady swirl around a table with abundant delicacies; oysters, a lobster, partridges ect. Along with them several still lifes are given appointment in the scene thus raising the genre of nature itself shows and showing many of its variants, as highlighting the still life of hunting located in the right area of the composition. It is in this area in the background where you can see a group of people who also enjoy a banquet, a narrative device that was very common in the Flemish school. During the 17th century there was a proliferation of paintings of allegorical character, related to the representation of the five. This was due to the fact that the theme of the senses was in turn related to the transmission of a moral and religious message. As Maria Sanchez Luque points out in her work La vanitas en Los cinco sentidos de Brueghel: Olfato y Tacto: "It is fundamentally in the Baroque, when these allegories reach their maximum splendor, they show the confidence in the capacity of objects to materialize the symbol. Symbolism could be the result of several ideas, such as expiration, the futility of clinging to earthly goods and the choice between good and evil. To understand the relationship established between these ideas and the artistic representations, it must be kept in mind that, according to the Baroque mentality, man's life on earth was only a preparation for life in the hereafter, and that his destiny depended to a great extent on how he conducted himself in earthly life. Earthly life was material and transitory, while life in heaven would be spiritual and eternal. One did not have to taste earthly goods but heavenly goods in order to gain heaven. This message is particularly represented in the genre of vanitas". During the 17th century in Flanders there was a growing demand for paintings to decorate the houses of the bourgeoisie. Apart from portraits and large canvases with religious, historical or mythological themes, artists specialized, painting medium-sized works that gradually increased in format, with still lifes, animals, landscapes and genre scenes. The paintings that reproduce collectors' cabinets of the time are explicit in this respect, to the point of originating a new autonomous pictorial genre. Undoubtedly, the future of this painting would have been different without Rubens, whose art revolutionized the artistic panorama of Flanders, introducing a new fully baroque way and bringing a sense of unity and opulent sumptuousness to the ordered and encyclopedic sample that were the precious descriptions of his countrymen. Jan Brueghel came from an illustrious family of artists and, along with Rubens, was considered the leading painter of Antwerp. He was an essential figure for the development of the traditional Flemish landscape in the line initiated by Joachim Patinir and Gillis van Coninxloo III, the latter as the most immediate representative. The subject illustrates a passage from the Bible, Paradise, which was painted countless times by Brueghel, although this painting was one of his earliest versions. The painting reflects the ascendancy of contemporaries such as Roelandt Savery and Rubens, a fact that is not surprising since he had a close collaboration with the latter. The Garden of Eden is a superb example of the best Flemish Baroque landscape.

Estim. 55 000 - 60 000 EUR

Lot 49 - Attributed to JAN BRUEGHEL THE OLD (Brussels, 1568 - Antwerp, 1625). "The Old Man" and Workshop. "Allegory of the sense of sight". Oil on copper. Measurements: 58,5 x 90 cm; 85,5 x 116 cm (frame). A naked Venus contemplates her own beauty in a mirror, while at her feet Cupid observes her. Both seem to be oblivious to the beauty and opulence of the interior in which they find themselves. Bronze and marble sculptures, portraits, religious and mythological paintings, exotic animals, coins and mathematical instruments scattered on the floor are found in an architecture that opens to the outside, where a busy port on the shores of a city can be seen. During the 17th century there was a proliferation of allegorical paintings, related to the representation of the five senses. This was due to the fact that the theme of the senses was in turn related to the transmission of a moral and religious message. As Maria Sanchez Luque points out in her work La vanitas en Los cinco sentidos de Brueghel: Olfato y Tacto: "It is fundamentally in the Baroque, when these allegories reach their maximum splendor, they show the confidence in the capacity of objects to materialize the symbol. Symbolism could be the result of several ideas, such as expiration, the futility of clinging to earthly goods and the choice between good and evil. To understand the relationship established between these ideas and the artistic representations, it must be kept in mind that, according to the Baroque mentality, man's life on earth was only a preparation for life in the hereafter, and that his destiny depended to a great extent on how he conducted himself in earthly life. Earthly life was material and transitory, while life in heaven would be spiritual and eternal. One did not have to taste earthly goods but heavenly goods in order to gain heaven. This message is particularly represented in the genre of vanitas". During the 17th century in Flanders there was a growing demand for paintings to decorate the houses of the bourgeoisie. Apart from portraits and large canvases with religious, historical or mythological themes, artists specialized, painting medium-sized works that gradually increased in format, with still lifes, animals, landscapes and genre scenes. The paintings that reproduce collectors' cabinets of the time are explicit in this respect, to the point of originating a new autonomous pictorial genre. Undoubtedly, the future of this painting would have been different without Rubens, whose art revolutionized the artistic panorama of Flanders, introducing a new fully baroque way and bringing a sense of unity and opulent sumptuousness to the ordered and encyclopedic sample that were the precious descriptions of his countrymen. Jan Brueghel came from an illustrious family of artists and, along with Rubens, was considered the leading painter of Antwerp. He was an essential figure for the development of the traditional Flemish landscape in the line initiated by Joachim Patinir and Gillis van Coninxloo III, the latter as the most immediate representative. The subject illustrates a passage from the Bible, Paradise, which was painted countless times by Brueghel, although this painting was one of his earliest versions. The painting reflects the ascendancy of contemporaries such as Roelandt Savery and Rubens, a fact that is not surprising since he had a close collaboration with the latter. The Garden of Eden is a superb example of the best Flemish Baroque landscape.

Estim. 55 000 - 60 000 EUR

Lot 50 - Spanish school; c. 1600. "Christ crucified". Boxwood. Measurements: 48 x 34 cm (Christ); 84 x 40 x 14 cm. Boxwood carving showing Christ crucified. The representation is simple, although detailed, leaving in view the anatomy of the body of Jesus dressed with the cloth of purity. In spite of the pathos that infuses the gesture of the face in the work a body of serene attitude is shown with certain weight and movement due to the position of the superimposed feet, contrasting with the Romanesque Christs of four nails, whose position presented great statism. The way in which the purity cloth is arranged, diagonally, as well as the waters in the cloth of the same, increase that sensation of mobility, in addition to the inclination of the head towards the side, The moment of the crucifixion has been one of the most worked iconographic themes throughout history with the purpose of indoctrinating the faithful through the suffering that Christ lived in Golgotha. In general, it was left in the hands of image makers, who bequeathed abundant examples, this piece being one of them. These types of pieces were not usually made for churches, but for a more private cult. Thus, they were usually commissioned for private chapels, convents or monasteries, where they would be placed closer to the faithful. For this reason, the artist was required to be more detailed, appreciating in this case the detail of the hair, the Crown of Thorns made of silver, the anatomy, the mouth or the eyes of the crucified. This completes a work that is capable of transmitting the redemptive message of Christ.

Estim. 14 000 - 15 000 EUR

Lot 51 - JAN SANDERS VAN HEMESSEN (c. 1500 - c. 1566). "The Last Supper." Oil on oak panel. Cradled. Reproduced work Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art. No. 70, 2001. Brussels. It presents restorations on the pictorial surface and faults in the frame. Measurements: 59,7 x 73,5 cm; 94 x 107 cm (frame). Although all the characters are located as a frieze, the author has established several planes that provide great depth to the whole. These are defined by the apostles in front of or behind the table and the large windows open to the landscape, which is defined by a precise drawing and a very specific chromatic range typical of the Flemish school. The Last Supper is one of the most relevant representations in the history of Western art. In the first place, because it is the concrete moment in which the sacrament of the Eucharist is established, since Jesus made the analogy between his body and the bread, and the wine and his blood. Secondly, the mythical scene that was painted by Leonardo, established the basis of Renaissance aesthetics, thus providing a conception of perspective that was hegemonic until well into the twentieth century. In this particular case, the scene reflects this aesthetic based on the Leonardesque composition, and the characters present a similar disposition to the one mentioned above. Formally, the scene is part of the academicism, and therefore follows classical rules, the first of which is the high technical quality. Thus, the drawing is rigorous and firm, of great anatomical perfection. Jan Sanders van Hemessen was an outstanding Flemish Renaissance painter, belonging to the group of Italianizing Flemish painters called the Romanists, influenced by Italian Renaissance painting. Van Hemessen had visited Italy during the 1520s, and also Fontainebleau, near Paris, in the mid-1530s, where he was able to contemplate the work of the colony of Italian artists known as the First School of Fontainebleau, who were working on the decorations of the Palace of Fontainebleau. Van Hemessen's works show his ability to interpret Italian models in a new Flemish visual vocabulary. Hemessen played an important role in the development of genre painting, through his large scenes with religious or mundane subjects, set in cities with contemporary clothing and architecture. These works depict human flaws, such as greed and vanity, and some show interest in financial themes. His genre scenes develop the "mannerist inversion," which Pieter Aertsen later developed, in which a small religious scene in the background reveals the true meaning of the painting, which is dominated by a large foreground scene apparently devoted to a profane genre subject. One of his best known works, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, expresses a religious theme through a pure genre painting set in a tavern. It presents restorations on the pictorial surface and faults in the frame.

Estim. 35 000 - 40 000 EUR

Lot 52 - Spanish school; 17th century. ‘Virgin and Child’. Carved and polychrome wood. It presents faults, losses and repainting. Measurements: 82 x 53 x 62 cm. The carving presented here is an iconography that combines divine power and grace with the happy innocence and humble condition of God incarnate. The presence of the Virgin, despite the fact that none of the figures make eye contact with each other, conveys the bond between Jesus and his mother that allows Mary to act as an intermediary, as an advocate for the human race before Christ at the moment of the Last Judgement. Spanish Baroque sculpture is one of the most authentic and personal examples of our art, because its conception and form of expression arose from the people and the deepest feelings that nestled in them. With the economy of the State in ruins, the nobility in decline and the high clergy burdened with heavy taxes, it was the monasteries, parishes and confraternities of clerics and laymen who promoted its development, the works sometimes being financed by popular subscription. Sculpture was thus obliged to express the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when Counter-Reformation doctrine demanded a realistic language from art so that the faithful could understand and identify with what was represented, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content in order to increase the fervour and devotion of the people. Religious themes were therefore the main subject matter of Spanish sculpture during this period, which in the first decades of the century was based on a priority interest in capturing the natural world, gradually intensifying over the course of the century in the depiction of expressive values.

Estim. 7 000 - 9 000 EUR

Lot 53 - Circle of GUGLIELMO DELLA PORTA (Italy, ca. 1550-1577). "Christ crucified". Bronze. Measurements: 25,5 x 19,5 x 5 cm. The Christ that we present here follows the model of the crucifix of Sebastiano Torrigiani, derived in turn from a model of his master Guglielmo della Porta, which is in the church of San Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna. Thus, we are faced with the figure of Christ crucified with only three nails, accentuating the drama of the scene. This theatricality is enhanced by the elongation of the upper limbs, which support the entire weight of the protagonist's body. Guglielmo della Porta was a renowned Italian sculptor, architect and restorer of Mannerism. The son of Cristoforo della Porta and his wife Caterina, he received his artistic education from his uncle Giovanni Battista della Porta in Genoa. He worked for the cathedral of Genoa during his early years of artistic training already in 1531 together with his brother Giacomo and under the direction of his uncle on the statues of the chapel of St. John the Baptist. In 1537 he moved to Rome and became a disciple of Michelangelo, thus obtaining a greater number of commissions. An example of this is the bust he made for Pope Paul III in 1547, after his death, and the tomb of St. Peter, which was his main work, which occupied him from 1555 to 1575, although it was later revised by Bernini. His career as a sculptor at the court of the Farnese was due to his contact with Mario Maccarone, the supervisor of papal building projects. In 1540, as Della Porta he designed the tomb of Vincenzo degli Ubaldi in the church of Santi XII Apostoli. Della Porta was a lay brother of the Cistercians and was called from 1547 to the papal coinage. Among other things, his studio was commissioned to complement the legs of the torso of Farnese, which was found in 1546. The result was so convincing to his contemporaries that following Michelangelo's own advice he was approved to link the ancient limbs of the statue, which had been excavated. Today his works can be found in different places of great historical and artistic relevance, such as his sculpture of Moses in San Lorenzo de Fiori, or for example his works in the Giuliano chapel of the cathedral of Genoa, in Santa Maria del Popolo, and his bust of Paul III which is in the Museum of Capodimonte.

Estim. 2 500 - 3 000 EUR

Lot 54 - Spanish mannerist school; 16th century. ‘Christ tied to the column’. Carved and polychromed wood. It presents faults and losses on the pictorial surface. Measurements: 40 x 11 x 12 cm. In this round sculpture, which represents the image of Christ on the column, also known as Christ tied to the column. It is a Gospel scene and a very frequent iconographic theme in Christian art, within the cycle of the Passion. The scene takes place in the Praetorium in Jerusalem, the centre of Roman power, directed by Pontius Pilate, where Jesus Christ arrived for the second and last time, after passing through different instances (Annas, Caiaphas and Herod). In this biblical episode Christ is exhibited before the one who preferred to release Barabbas rather than him. He is stripped of his clothes and tied to a pillar, where he is subjected to mockery and torture, including the scourging and the crowning with thorns, iconographic denominations which are sometimes totally identifiable with the latter and sometimes precisely differentiated. In this particular sculpture, the crown of thorns is not visible, but the ravages caused to Christ's body by the scourging can be seen. The sculptor shows an image in which Christ is depressed, bent under his own weight, but the rest of the body does not show any great tension, but rather a gesture of concentration and heaviness rather than pain. During the 11th century Spanish sculpture pursued mainly didactic aims, and its images were conceived as a visual narrative, which always had to be clearly legible. At this time, prior to the search for naturalism that would emerge during the Gothic period, the language is purely conceptual, and works on the basis of symbols and conventions accepted by all. In this sense, the carving is synthetic, representative rather than a reflection of the natural, as is the treatment of the face. Due to its technical characteristics, such as the modelling of the forms and the tones used, this work can be classified as belonging to the Mannerist school.

Estim. 2 500 - 2 600 EUR

Lot 55 - Spanish or Italian school; 17th century. ‘Saint Francis comforted by angels’. Oil on slate. It has restorations. It has a frame of the XVIIIth century. Measurements: 24 x 30 cm; 34 x 40 cm (frame). The present work depicts a scene following the miraculous episode in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, which occurred in 1224 during the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. At that time, the Saint, during a moment in which he retired to pray, received from a seraphim the stigmata, the same wounds suffered by Christ on the Cross. For this reason, the present work shows the saint being held by two angels to prevent his ecstatic body from collapsing. It is interesting to mention again the support for this work, as from the 16th century the use of stone as a base for painting began to become popular, an example of which was the exhibition held at the Museo del Prado in 2018, ‘In lapide depictum’, which brought together a group of nine works on monochrome stone, slate and marble by artists such as Piombo, Titian, Daniele da Volterra and Leandro Bassano.

Estim. 2 000 - 2 500 EUR

Lot 56 - PIETRO NOVELLI (Monreale, 1603 - Palermo, 1647). ‘Infant Jesus and Saint Christopher’. Oil on canvas. Relined. Size: 120 x 85 cm; 143 x 108 cm (frame). Formally, this work belongs to the Italian school of the first half of the 17th century, more specifically to the circle of Pietro Novelli. Thus, we see in this work the tenderness, delicacy and subtlety that were Novelli's hallmarks, particularly evident in the delicate canvases, skilfully rendered, and in the pearly flesh tones, worked with a modelling based on the subtlety of the play of light and shade. Pietro Novelli, of Italian origin, achieved great fame as a painter, although he also devoted himself to architecture and was appointed architect to the kingdom. His training was linked to his father's workshop, who was also a painter. His links with Palermo, a place to which he travelled frequently, indicate that he probably attended the school of Vito Carrera. Furthermore, the presence of Van Dyck and the stylistic influence of the master that can be seen in Novelli's painting reinforces the idea that he trained in Palermo. A devotional work in which the artist depicts Saint Christopher with the Child. Christopher is a saint whose legend goes back no further than the 11th century, originating from the development of his name, Christophorus, which in Greek means ‘the one who carries Christ’. Originally, this expression was understood in a spiritual sense, as one who carries Christ in his heart. Later it was taken in a material sense. According to the tradition popularised during the 13th century by the Golden Legend, the man who carried Christ on his shoulders could only be a giant. Proud of his strength, he only agreed to serve the most powerful king in the universe. He placed himself in the service of a monarch, but finding that the monarch was afraid of the devil, he left him to serve Satan. Disappointed again that the sight of a cross at a crossroads was enough to defeat the devil, he pledged himself to serve Christ, and to please him he devoted himself to helping travellers and pilgrims across a dangerous river. One evening he heard himself called by a child, who asked him to carry him on his shoulders; but his burden grew heavier and heavier. So much so that the giant reached the opposite bank with difficulty. Then the child made himself known as Christ. To prove it to him, he asked Christopher to plant his staff in the ground, which immediately became a palm tree laden with fruit.

Estim. 10 000 - 12 000 EUR

Lot 57 - Andalusian School; first half of the 17th century. ‘Still life’. Oil on canvas. Relined Measurements: 58,5 x 83,5 cm; 66,5 x 91 cm (frame). This is a sober composition centred on a clearly delimited space, in which the painter's illusionist taste stands out, as he superimposes some elements on others, thus creating the typical Baroque trompe l'oeil. This canvas depicts a still life of a kitchen, composed of a number of elements mostly in the foreground, in a style directly related to the Spanish Baroque masters. The setting is clearly enclosed by a neutral background. As was the case with many of the Baroque masters, especially the Dutch, here the elements that make up the still life are arranged in a disorganised but clear manner on a flat surface that runs parallel to the lower edge of the painting. A ceramic jug, the spring onions and the presence of the lamb's head indicate the everyday nature of a kitchen still life, but it is true that the presence of the lamb has certain religious reminiscences. This was a common feature in the Spanish school of still life painting. The artist based his conception and treatment of this painting on his knowledge of the Spanish tradition of the genre, which is rooted in the 17th-century masters. His knowledge of the Dutch and Flemish schools of still-life painting is also evident in the apparently chaotic arrangement of the elements that make up the scene. As for the Hispanic tradition itself, we can appreciate the rigour and sobriety of the elements that make up the scene, avoiding any superfluous sumptuousness. The origin of the still life genre in Spain can be found in the early years of the 17th century, when it was still approached in a rational and rigorous style, with a Mannerist heritage. However, as the Baroque period progressed, still lifes and vases became increasingly more dynamic, the compositions became more open and more naturalistic and theatrical.

Estim. 10 000 - 12 000 EUR

Lot 58 - Attributed to the MAESTRO DE ASTORGA (active in Astorga, León, ca. 1510-1530). ‘Saint John the Baptist. Oil on panel. It has faults and damage caused by xylophages. Size: 147 x 69 cm; 154 x 76 cm (frame). The saint appears in the centre of the composition with his characteristic attributes. He is barefoot and wears the usual camel skin. He is holding a book with cut-out covers imitating green velvet, while with his right hand he points to the Agnus Dei or mystical lamb resting on top of the book.The Gospels say of John the Baptist that he was the son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, cousin of the Virgin Mary. He retired at a very young age to the Judean desert to lead an ascetic life and preach penance, and recognised in Jesus, who was baptised by him, the Messiah announced by the prophets. A year after Christ's baptism, in the year 29, John was arrested and imprisoned by the tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas, whose marriage to Herodias, his niece and sister-in-law, he had dared to censure. Finally, St. John was beheaded, and his head given to Salome as a reward for his beautiful dances. During the 15th century, the influence of the Flemish school of painting was a key factor in the development of European art, particularly in Spain, which was linked to the Low Countries by political and economic ties. At that time, Flemish painters established a stylistic model based on the search for reality, focusing on capturing the qualities of objects, giving special importance to secondary details and using a smooth, draughtsmanlike technique. In the 16th century, as a result of the introduction of the novelties of the Italian Renaissance, the Flemish style evolved towards a more classical and sculptural sense, while retaining its own characteristics. This change also affected the Hispano-Flemish school, which also had independent channels for the penetration of the Italian style. Influences mainly came to Spain from Raphael and his followers, through engravings, oil paintings and painters who travelled between the two countries, and the master from Astorga is considered one of the leading artists of Renaissance Castile. It is true that not much biographical information is known about the artist, so that his name is not known, although he was active in León at the beginning of the 16th century. He painted the Altarpiece of Saint Michael in Astorga cathedral, the Nativity of Christ with Saint Dominic and Saint Lawrence and the History of Saint James, which is in the collection of the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, and the five panels in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Estim. 20 000 - 25 000 EUR

Lot 59 - Andalusian school; second half of the 17th century. ‘Ecce homo’. Oil on canvas. It has restorations. Measurements: 53,5 x 41,5 cm. This devotional canvas, painted for a private altar or chapel, depicts the theme of Ecce Homo, which is very common in this type of painting. The composition is simple and clear, with Christ's face in the foreground, and the absence of narrative details enhances the expressive power and pathos, designed to move the soul of the faithful who pray before the image, in a tremendist sense very typical of the Baroque period in Catholic countries. The theme of Ecce Homo belongs to the Passion cycle and precedes the episode of the Crucifixion. Following this iconography, Jesus is presented at the moment when the soldiers mock him, after crowning him with thorns, dressing him in a purple tunic (here red, the symbolic colour of the Passion) and placing a reed in his hand, kneeling down and exclaiming ‘Hail, King of the Jews’. The words ‘Ecce Homo’ are those pronounced by Pilate when presenting Christ to the crowd; their translation is ‘behold the man’, a phrase by which he mocks Jesus and implies that Christ's power was no match for that of the rulers who were judging him there.

Estim. 2 500 - 3 000 EUR

Lot 60 - Attributed to JUAN DE SEVILLA ROMERO (Granada, 1643-1695). ‘Virgin and Child with Saint John. Oil on canvas. Relined It has restorations. Measurements: 68,5 x 49 cm. The tender religious scene formed by the Virgin, the Child and Saint John the Baptist is enveloped in sepulchral black. An inner light seems to emerge from Jesus' naked body, reflected in his whitish flesh tones that reinforce the purity of his being. The Virgin's skin also shares this porcelain whiteness, except for the faint glow of her cheeks. She is about to cover the little boy with a soft gauze, to wrap him in her dreams. The studied chromatic contrast that models figures and atmosphere, as well as the absence of any superfluous element and the excellence of the qualities place us in the Florentine tradition of the Baroque period. The tenderness of the gesture between the Virgin and Child, the delicate features of the Young Mary's face and the roundness of the Child's infantile forms are very much reminiscent of the work of Juan de Sevilla. In particular, the Virgin and Child depicted in Rest at the Flight into Egypt, which is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. Juan de Sevilla Romero trained first with Francisco Alonso Argüello, then with Pedro de Moya, and went on to work with Alonso Cano from 1660. The influence of his master and of Flemish engravings, especially Rubens, are the fundamental characteristics of his painting. From 1674 onwards he received numerous commissions for different churches and convents in his city, such as the two canvases in the sacristy of the convent of San Jerónimo (in situ), San Pantaleón for San Felipe Neri (Granada Museum of Fine Arts), Triumph of the Eucharist for the Augustinian nuns (in situ) and The Disciples of Emmaus in the Hospital del Refugio and convent of San Antón in Granada, among others. He also worked in Cordoba and Seville, where he collaborated on the tempera decorations for the Corpus Christi celebrations. Other works by the artist include The Holy Family (Museo de la Pasión, Valladolid), the Pietà (Seville cathedral), the Santas (National Museum of Poznan, Poland) and Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple and The Rich Epulon and the Poor Lazarus (Prado, the former from the royal collections and the latter acquired in 1928).

Estim. 3 500 - 4 000 EUR

Lot 61 - Italian school; 18th century. ‘Madonna and Child with Franciscan Saint’. Oil on canvas. It has folds on the canvas, faults on the pictorial surface and restorations. Measurements: 45 x 35 cm. This canvas presents a scene typical of the Baroque period, which clearly represents the triumphal image that the Catholic Church intended to convey through art after the Counter-Reformation. The scene shows the Virgin and Child in her arms. It is an openly scenographic composition, marked by the dynamic diagonal lines so typical of the full Baroque, which are here defined by the head of the Franciscan saint who guides our gaze directly towards the figures of Mary and Jesus. The latter appear seated on a large cloud that lends greater theatricality to the scene, while at the same time serving to clarify the spatial construction. The overall warmth is further enhanced by the preeminence of large areas in highly nuanced and balanced shades of crimson, ochre and orange, with elements of cool tones, mainly blue, dotted throughout. Another typically Baroque feature is the profusion and variety of gestures, expressions and postures, which establish a dialogue and a clear narrative rhythm in the scene, which finally converge in the figures of the Child and the Virgin.

Estim. 600 - 800 EUR

Lot 62 - Andalusian school; late 17th century. ‘Infant Jesus with the attributes of the Passion’. Oil on canvas. Relined. It has repainting and restorations. Measurements. 83,5 x 61 cm. In this painting Jesus is depicted as an innocent, rosy-cheeked child, carrying the instruments of his future martyrdom and wearing a red robe brocaded in gold, alluding to his own martyrdom. Throughout its history, and especially in the Modern Age, Christian art delighted in projecting the innocent infancy of Jesus next to the representation of the cross. The contrast between the happy unconcern of a child and the horror of the sacrifice to which he was predestined was designed to move hearts. It was especially in the art of the Counter-Reformation that this funereal presentiment of the Passion was expressed by means of transparent allusions. Zurbarán shows the Infant Jesus pricking himself with his finger as he plaits a crown of thorns. Murillo, the little Saint John the Baptist showing him his cross of reeds. Finally, the theme finds its most poignant expression in the theme of the Infant Jesus Sleeping on a Cross. Here Jesus is not presented as a baby but as a somewhat older child, looking directly at us, fully aware of his destiny, and in fact bearing it voluntarily, as a burden he accepts on behalf of humanity. Given the importance given to religious images in the Hispanic world, during the 17th and 18th centuries ambitious pictorial series and extensive iconographic programmes were created for churches and convents, as well as printed prints, medals and reliquaries for private devotion. As a whole, regardless of their size or medium, these images fulfilled the aim of sacralising everyday life beyond the altars.

Estim. 1 500 - 2 000 EUR

Lot 63 - Flemish school; 17th century. ‘Martyrdom of a Saint’. Oil on oak panel. Measurements: 23 x 18 cm. In this concrete case the scene presents a composition, of great theatricality and full of narrative details, it tries above all to move the spirit of the faithful showing him the defencelessness of the saint in front of the cruelty to which he is being submitted. This can be seen in his expressive face and the posture of his body. All the figures are arranged in the foreground. This characteristic allows for greater clarity in the reading of the work due to its centred position and clarity, a feature that is intensified by the use of colour and luminosity given the body of Christ. In terms of composition and theme, the work is largely reminiscent of depictions of Christ tied to the column, although the dagger thrust into the protagonist's eye indicates that this is not Jesus, as it is not typical of the iconography of this passage from the Passion of Christ. The monumentality of both the figures that make up the scene and the background on which it is inscribed stand out. The figures are rounded and forceful, with muscular bodies, both in the figures flanking the figure of the protagonist. With regard to the background, the dimensions of the architecture in general and of the column in particular are in harmony with the figures.

Estim. 1 500 - 2 000 EUR

Lot 64 - Spanish or Flemish school; first half of the 17th century. ‘Saint Catherine of Alexandria’. Oil on copper. It has restorations. Measurements: 15 x 11 cm; 27 x 21 cm (frame). The work is notable for its sharpness in capturing the qualities, the precision of the drawing and its classicist aesthetic heritage. The artist presents the bust of a young woman with rounded, pearly forms, blonde hair and delicate hands, showing a lady of great beauty. The main figure, wearing a crown and richly embroidered vestments, holds a palm of martyrdom and points to what appears to be a wheel, indicating that she is a representation of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Catherine was born around 290 into a noble family in Alexandria. Endowed with great intelligence, she soon stood out for her extensive studies, which placed her on the same level as the greatest poets and philosophers of the time. One night Christ appeared to her and she decided, at that moment, to consecrate her life to him and to consider herself his fiancée, in a sort of mystical marriage. When the Emperor Maximian came to Alexandria to preside over a great pagan festival, Catherine took advantage of the occasion to try to convert him to Christianity, which aroused his anger. To test her, Maximian imposed on her a philosophical debate with fifty wise men whom she would try to convert. Catherine succeeded, provoking the emperor's wrath. The emperor had the sages executed, but not before proposing to the saint that she marry one of them, which she flatly refused.

Estim. 2 000 - 2 500 EUR

Lot 65 - ALBERTO DURERO, (Nuremberg, 1471-1528). ‘The Resurrection of Christ’. Engraving on paper. Edition XVI. It has faults and restorations. Size: 12,5 x 10 cm; 34 x 18 cm (paper). This engraving shows the Resurrection of Christ, xerographed by Dürer for the large Passion series, which consisted of twelve prints. Albrecht Dürer is the most famous artist of the German Renaissance, known for his paintings, drawings, prints and theoretical writings on art, which had a profound influence on 16th-century artists both in his own country and in the Low Countries, making him one of the principal introducers of the Italian Renaissance in Central Europe. The son of a goldsmith, Dürer was trained in the tradition of the late Gothic and Flemish Primitives. He began his career as an engraver and portrait painter, and in 1494 he made his first trip to Italy. He returned and settled in Nuremberg, where he produced a large number of engravings that increased his fame, notably the series of the ‘Apocalypse’, ‘Samson defeating the lion’ and others. These works demonstrate not only his great technical mastery but also his knowledge of the Roman treatise Vitruvius and his brilliant ability to incorporate details of nature into works that reflect the environment with great realism. He travelled to Italy again between 1505 and 1507, and in Venice he met the master Giovanni Bellini and other artists. His return to Nuremberg marked the beginning of a second period of enormous artistic production, with works such as the altarpiece for the Dominican church in Frankfurt am Main, large series of engravings, etc. Today Dürer is represented in the most important art galleries around the world, such as the Prado, the British Museum, the Louvre, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, the Uffizi in Florence and many others.

Estim. 500 - 800 EUR

Lot 66 - Spanish school; second half of the 18th century. ‘Saint Catherine of Vadstena’. Oil on canvas. It has frame of the 19th century, c. 1820. Measurements: 30 x 33 cm; 33 x 37 cm (frame). Catherine of Sweden or Catherine of Vadstena (c. 1332 - 1381) was a Swedish noblewoman. She is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Her father was Ulf Gudmarsson, lord of Ulvåsa, and her mother was Saint Bridget of Sweden. At the age of twelve or thirteen she married Lord Eggert van Kyren, a young religious nobleman of German descent, whom she persuaded to take a vow of absolute chastity, and both lived in a state of virginity. Catherine accompanied her mother to Rome in 1349 and shortly after arriving received the news of her husband's death. She stayed with her mother and accompanied her on several trips, including one to the Holy Land. On Bridget's death, Catherine returned to Sweden with her mother's body, which was buried in the monastery of Vadstena. Catherine took charge of the Brigantine convent of Vadstena Abbey, founded by her mother. Catherine took on the task of forming the community according to the rule her mother had written and of directing the Order of the Holy Saviour, or the Brigidines. Later, she returned to Rome to work for her mother's canonisation. She stayed there for five years and became close friends with Catherine of Siena. The saint is depicted accompanied by a hind, alluding to the protection of the virginity of young girls.

Estim. 2 000 - 2 500 EUR

Lot 67 - School of ‘EL GRECO’; DOMENIKOS THEOTOKOPOULOS (Candia, Greece, 1541 - Toledo, 1614). ‘Saint Andrew. Oil on canvas. It has perforation. Measurements: 61,5 x 48 cm. This devotional image of Saint Andrew depicts the saint with the attribute of his martyrdom, the cross on which he was tied by order of the proconsul Aegeas. The tenebrousness of the work, the predominance of shimmering blue and ochre tones, as well as the excessive anatomical elongation of the figure, are features that remind us of the painting of El Greco. Andrew was the first apostle called by Jesus, which is why the Greeks called him Protokletos, ‘the first called’. Brother of Simon Peter and, like him, a fisherman from Galilee, his name is Greek and not Hebrew, and means virile. He is mentioned twice in the Gospels: in connection with the vocations of the first two apostles, and in the episode of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. His legend comes from the Apocryphal Acts, according to which he was appointed, after the death of Jesus, to evangelise Scythia, i.e. modern-day Russia. While preaching there, an angel appeared to him and said ‘Go to Matthew’; he was then miraculously guided to Ethiopia, where St Matthew had been blinded and imprisoned. The prison doors opened before Andrew, and he began to pray in front of Matthew, after which the prisoner regained his sight. Having accomplished his mission, he went to Greece and then to Asia Minor, where he is said to have performed a series of miracles. He finally met his death in Patras, in the Peloponnese, where the proconsul Aegeas had him flogged with rods for preaching disobedience to the emperor, and then ordered him to be tied with ropes to a cross in the shape of an ‘X’, where he died on the third day. The most popular attribute of Saint Andrew is precisely this cross, although until the 15th century he is most often depicted crucified on a normal cross. Sometimes a net full of fish is used as a second attribute, since he was adopted as the patron saint of freshwater fishermen, fishmongers and rope-makers who provided the fishermen with rope for their nets. In time he also became the patron saint of Greece and Russia.

Estim. 1 500 - 2 000 EUR

Lot 68 - Valencian school; 17th century. ‘Still life of pomegranates and plums’. Oil on canvas. The original canvas is preserved. It has restorations. Measurements: 56 x 40,5 cm; 71 x 56 cm (frame). In this canvas we see a still life perfectly framed within the early Spanish Baroque style, with a sober, geometric and rigorous composition, practically symmetrical and with the elements situated on two planes, on a table that runs parallel to the lower edge of the painting and against a dark, neutral background, on which they stand out directly illuminated by a spotlight, artificial and directed, of a scenographic nature. In the centre is a glazed ceramic bowl with pomegranates and grapes. The Valencian school is different from other Spanish artistic centres of the period, thanks to the fact that during most of the 15th and 16th centuries there was a large number of Italian and Flemish painters. Thus, throughout the history of art, Valencia has been an important focal point within Spanish art, the versatility of Valencian painting, conditioned by Italian influence or the Mannerist sensibility of the Castilian school. This work participates in this unique and syncretic style characteristic of the school.

Estim. 6 000 - 8 000 EUR

Lot 69 - Madrid school of the late 17th century. ‘The Coronation of the Virgin’. Oil on canvas. Relined It presents faults. Measurements: 103 x 118 x 2 cm.

Estim. 1 200 - 1 300 EUR

Lot 70 - Novo-Hispanic school, 18th century. Circle of MIGUEL CABRERA (Mexico, 1695-1768). ‘Saint Gertrudis Magna. Oil on canvas. It presents faults and perforations. Frame of the XVIII century. Measurements: 112 x 83 cm; 127 x 97,5 x 3 cm (frame). Miguel Cabrera was one of the leading exponents of Baroque painting of the Viceroyalty. The present devotional painting is based on a painting by Cabrera in the Dallas Museum of Art. The painter must have belonged to Cabrera's circle, but it is not an exact copy. In Cabrera's case, Gertrude's hand shows two outstretched fingers in a gesture symbolising the dual nature of Christ. In our painting, the saint's snowy hand is extended below the heart, which is haloed with the figure of Christ, which is also present in Cabrera's painting. Gertrude, dressed in rigorous black, reads the Scriptures during her monastic stay. During the 18th century the cult of Saint Gertrude the Great was widespread throughout the Spanish empire, and there are numerous representations of her in Castile, Aragon and Portugal, as well as in Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico. The image was disseminated in engravings, canvases, sculptures, nuns' coats of arms and medallions, was placed in altarpieces and was included among the most prominent saints in paintings depicting the heavenly court. In addition, she was mentioned in numerous sermons, novenas, prayers, masses and hagiographies, and her life inspired a play in which the saint was called ‘Christ's most beloved’. Undoubtedly this popular diffusion of her image and her story went hand in hand with the spread of the cult, the peak of which can be seen in the first half of the 18th century.

Estim. 1 600 - 2 000 EUR

Lot 71 - Circle of DIEGO DE VELÁZQUEZ (Seville, 1599 - Madrid, 1660), 17th century ‘Infanta Margarita Teresa of Austria". Oil on canvas. Relined. Frame from the 19th century, with faults and damage due to xylophagous. It conserves remains of a label of the Board of Seizure. Measurements: 152 x 105 cm; 183 x 135 x 8 cm (frame). Margaret Theresa of Austria is depicted as an adolescent in this magnificent painting from the Spanish Golden Age. In its composition, in the type of framing (with the use of the curtain with a cordon) and, above all, in the virtuoso work of goldsmithing to define the qualities and psychology of the character, the oil painting belongs to the courtly circle of Velázquez, whose teachings it inherited with great mastery. Velázquez immortalised the young Margarita Teresa in ‘Las Meninas’, where the Infanta is no more than seven or eight years old. Here Margarita is somewhat older, and her defiant gaze denotes a haughtiness that is not typical of maturity, but rather subtly conveys a certain nonconformity characteristic of puberty. When our anonymous artist portrayed Marguerite, daughter of Philip IV and Mariana of Austria, she was engaged to Emperor Leopold of Austria, whom she would marry in 1666. Perhaps one of the rings she is wearing is a wedding ring. In her right hand she holds a closed fan and in her left a compass, an instrument of undeniable symbolic value (linked, in this case, to her expected ability to command). A frothy ruff enhances her aristocratic bearing, and silver brocades sparkle on her brown velvet dress. A diamond-studded brooch adorns her bosom and a lush headdress covers her golden hair. Her mother-of-pearl skin is illuminated by the faint redness of the crimson lips.An audacious play of glazes manages to extract an unusual depth from the clear gaze.

Estim. 12 000 - 16 000 EUR

Lot 72 - Circle of DIEGO DE VELÁZQUEZ (Seville, 1599 - Madrid, 1660), 17th century ‘Infanta Maria Teresa of Austria. Oil on canvas. Relined. Frame from the 19th century, with faults. It conserves remains of a label of the Junta Incautación. Measurements: 152 x 105 cm; 183 x 135 x 8 cm (frame). This oil painting from the Golden Age of Spanish art has been executed with an exquisite technique, which can be seen in the rendering of each of the qualities: The silk of the puffed sleeves, the brocades of the chest in gold thread, the floral trimmings of the voluminous dress... The artist undoubtedly belonged to the circle of Velázquez, who also left us an excellent portrait of the Infanta Maria Theresa (now in the Museum of Art History in Vienna), although showing her much younger, practically as a child. Therese of Austria (1638-1683) was Infanta of Spain and Queen Consort of France after her marriage to Louis XIV (The Sun King), a cousin on her father's (Philip IV of Spain) and mother's (Isabella of France) side. The use of drapery, the posture of the Infanta (holding a handkerchief in Velázquez's painting and a closed fan in the present one) and the use of a goldsmith's technique in the depiction of the sumptuousness of the dress are elements that this anonymous artist emulates from the master. The Infanta looks at us with an intelligent gaze (in keeping with her age, in each case). In our painting, the more adult gaze also becomes more suspicious. The rosy glow illuminates the whiteness of the skin. A pocket watch rests on the opening of the peephole. It gleams with its patina of gold and silver, as do the earrings and brooches that adorn the majestic young lady. The subject matter, the technical refinement, and the psychological capture make the author of this painting a worthy follower of Velázquez. The work also has similarities with another portrait of the Infanta by a painter close to Rubens, but also close to Velázquez.

Estim. 12 000 - 16 000 EUR

Lot 73 - Neapolitan school, possibly SEBASTIANO CONCA (Gaeta 1680 - Naples, 1764); XVIII century. "The Adoration of the Shepherds". Oil on canvas. Measurements: 53 x 41 cm. The adoration of the shepherds is a traditional theme in the world of art in which Jesus is presented to us as a king. A humble king who is born in a haystack. In this case the work has been conceived in a theatrical way with the presence of the Child in the center as usual and a large number of characters who adore his presence and pay him homage. The artist has moved the figures to the background leaving a slight space in the foreground that gives spatiality to the work and also a certain lightness that facilitates the compression of a composition with so many characters. The light seems to radiate directly from the body of the Child, whose luminosity is further enhanced by the white cloth that surrounds him. This light illuminates the face of the Virgin, highlighting it against the background, and affects other points of the composition creating an expressive and effective play of chiaroscuro, typically baroque. Aesthetically the work is very reminiscent of Sebastiano Conca, an Italian painter active during the Baroque period. One of the most acclaimed artists of his time, he had the opportunity to produce large-scale works, in which he combined the grandeur typical of the late Baroque and the classicist style of Carlo Maratta.

Estim. 4 000 - 5 000 EUR

Lot 74 - ISIDORO TAPIA (Valencia, ca. 1712 - ca. 1771/77). ‘Virgin and Child. Oil on canvas. Size: 84 x 62 x 2 cm. The format of this piece indicates that it was probably originally a processional banner. This is largely due to the composition, which is based on a compartmentalised scheme, with lower cartouches depicting various saints and an upper area containing the representation of the Virgin and Child, which is crowned by various angels. The piece is notable for its great scenography, typical of Baroque aesthetic schemes. This theatricality is defined firstly by the division between an earthly space, dedicated to the saints, and an area reserved exclusively for the divine plane, where the monumental figure of the Virgin dominates the space. The figure, which has been conceived in a pyramidal form, seated on a cloud with cherubic heads and the crescent of the fourth crescent, common in his iconography as the Immaculate Conception, stands as the central axis of the scene, exercising a strict centrality that is only interrupted in the upper area by the representation of the Eucharist and the dove of the Holy Spirit. A Spanish Rococo painter, the Valencian Isidoro de Tapia trained with Evaristo Muñoz, according to Ceán Bermúdez. In Valencia he executed several works commissioned by the public, and in 1743 he moved to Madrid. He joined the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where he was appointed a meritorious academician in 1755. It is thought that he also spent some time working in Portugal. He taught drawing at the Academy until his death, and also worked for the Royal Stables of the Royal Palace. Although few signed works by his hand are known, Ismael Gutiérrez Pastor compiled a small catalogue of twenty-eight works that provide an insight into the personality of this painter, and also reconstructed his life from known and unpublished documents. Works by Isidoro de Tapia are currently held in the San Fernando Academy and other collections.

Estim. 3 000 - 4 000 EUR

Lot 75 - Attributed to VIVIANO CODAZZI (Italy, 1604/06 - 1670). "Capriccio". Oil on canvas. Relined. It presents an old restoration and some losses. The frame presents faults in the gilding. Measurements: 100 x 126 cm; 110 x 136 cm (frame). Painting of Italian school and Baroque period attributed to Viviano Codazzi. The pictorial quality and the theme of the ruins sublimated by means of architectural fantasies leads the experts to deduce the authorship of this great Italian painter. Under a sky covered with wind-laden clouds, a ruinous architecture that condenses attributes of different Greco-Roman temples, of which only the memory and the annotation of some traveler remained, is cut out imposingly. The tall Corinthian columns are eaten away by age and the scars of war. The statues have lost their heads or limbs, and moss grows in every crevice. The lives of the human groups scattered between the lagoon and the porticoes are relaxed. Their clothing is typical of the period to which the painter belongs. The quality of the backlighting and the right chromatic ranges that enhance the architectural beauty and its mystery stand out. Italian Baroque painter born in Valdassina, near Bergamo, Viviano Codazzi specialized in the painting of architecture, covering various genres such as the "quadratura" (decorative genre derived from trompe l'oeil), the painting of ruins or the "capricci", although he also painted several "vedute". He is in fact recognized today as one of the first painters of "vedute", both in its fantastic and realistic aspects, and in fact his work will exert a notable influence on Canaletto and Bernardo Bellotto. He developed a personal language that, in contrast to the heroic character of the landscape derived from the Carracci, imaginatively interprets buildings and ruins, but always respecting verisimilitude, playing with lighting to obtain typically baroque expressive effects, which enhance the appearance of the ancient-looking buildings, populated by small popular characters. Codazzi grew up in Rome, where his family moved to in 1605, and as an adult he settled in Naples around 1633. There he trained as a disciple of Cosimo Fanzago, and his style matured, focusing on architectural painting. In Naples he worked on commissions such as those for the Certosa di San Martino, obtained through Cosimo Fanzago, also born in Bergamo. His major project in Naples was a series of four large canvases depicting scenes from Ancient Rome for the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, including one depicting gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum. Since he was a painter who specialized in architectural painting, the figures in this series were made by Domenico Gargiulo. In fact, this type of collaboration would be a constant in his career. Gargiulo was his main collaborator in Naples, but after returning to Rome following the Masaniello revolt in 1647, Codazzi will work with the Bamboccianti, mostly Dutch painters, and especially with Michelangelo Cerquozzi and Jan Miel. He also collaborated with Filippo Lauri, Adrien van der Cabel and Vicente Giner, already in the 1660s. The Bamboccianti, painters gathered around the figure of Pieter van Laer "Bamboccio", will exert a notable influence on Codazzi's mature style. He had several disciples and faithful followers, among them Ascanio Luciano and Andrea di Michele, in Naples, and also his son Niccolò Codazzi, Vicente Giner (who settled in Spain) and Domenico Roberti. Within his production it is worth mentioning for its originality his representation of the "Basilica of St. Peter" (1636), an unusual work within the genre of the "veduta". Painted in Naples, this painting shows the old entrance to the Vatican palace, destroyed when the Sala Regia and Bernini's colonnade were built, as well as two bell towers based on an engraving of the architect Martino Ferabosco's project, which was never built. One of his best known works is the representation of the Masaniello revolt in the Piazza del Mercato in Naples, with figures by Cerquozzi, which he made for Cardinal Bernardino Spada in 1648 (now in the Galleria Spada in Rome). Apart from these singular works, most of his paintings are medium format paintings, starring architectures in landscape settings. Works by Viviano Codazzi are currently held in the Museo del Prado, the Louvre, the Bowes Museum in County Durham (U.K.), the Indiana University Art Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walters Art Museum, among other public and private collections.

Estim. 12 000 - 15 000 EUR

Lot 76 - Italian school, XVI century. Crucified Christ, ca. 1570. Gilded bronze. Cast by ANTONIO GENTILI (1519-1609). Modeled on GUGLIELMO DELLA PORTA (ca. 1500-1577). Cross and base in methacrylate. Presents some wear in the gilding. Measurements: 24 x 20,5 x 4,5 cm (Christ); 43 x 28 cm (base and cross). Crucified Christ in gilded bronze, cast by Antonio Gentili da Faenza around 1570, from a model of the sculptor Guillermo Della Porta. The exquisiteness of the Renaissance goldsmith and the mannerist solutions of Della Porta are happily combined in this delicate effigy. It represents a dead Christ with three nails. Stylistically, the sculpture belongs to the Renaissance tradition of the Cinquecento, which can be seen in the author's desire to avoid the representation of pathos, choosing instead to depict the moment after death. The relaxed muscles, the harmony of the anatomical proportions, the leftward inclination of the knees and the rightward inclination of the head, the skillful play of the drapery of the purity cloth and the stylization of the physiognomic features make up a classic and timeless ensemble. However, a genuinely mannerist feature is the subtle lengthening of the arms. It is an expressive deformation typical of mannerism intended, in this case, to emphasize and underline the tragic beauty of the crucifixion. Antonio Gentili, also known as Antonio da Faenza, was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor and engraver born in Faenza, Italy. He is considered one of the most important goldsmiths of the 16th century, renowned for his intricate and masterful works in precious metals. Gentili's early life and artistic training are not entirely clear. It is believed that he apprenticed with local goldsmiths in Faenza before moving to Rome in the mid-16th century. Rome, at the time, was a vibrant artistic center, and Gentili's exposure to the Renaissance masters undoubtedly influenced his style and technique. In Rome, Gentili established a successful workshop and gained recognition for his exquisite craftsmanship. He received numerous commissions from wealthy clients, including cardinals, popes and members of the Roman nobility. His works were highly coveted for their elegance, technical virtuosity and incorporation of precious stones, enamels and other decorative elements.Gentili's most notable works include: the Farnese Cross and Candlesticks (1581-1582), The Reliquary of the Holy Thorn (1586-1589), commissioned by Pope Sixtus V, and the Miter of Pope Gregory XIII (1583-1585). Guglielmo della Porta was an Italian architect and sculptor of the Mannerist period. He was born into a renowned family connected with the arts. His father, Giovanni Battista della Porta, excelled as a sculptor. He apprenticed in the workshop of his uncle Giovanni Giacomo della Porta in Genoa. He worked with him on the construction of the cathedral of Milan. Around 1530 he was entrusted with the task of reproducing some of Leonardo da Vinci's works. Back in Genoa, he perfected his drawing technique under the master Perin del Vaga, with whom he worked on the Palazzo Doria. Around 1537 he moved to Rome, where he came into contact with Sebastiano del Piombo, who recommended him to Michelangelo. He worked on the legs of the Hercules Farnese, a sculpture found without its legs. When the original legs were found, Michelangelo recommended that Della Porta's be kept, this being presented as a demonstration that the moderns could be compared with the ancients. He obtained a position in the papal mint.

Estim. 3 000 - 4 000 EUR

Lot 77 - Sevillian school; late 17th century. ‘Christ tied to the column’. Oil on panel. It shows repainting and restorations on the pictorial surface. The frame shows damage caused by xylophages. Measurements: 157 x 86 cm. Christ tied at the pillar is a highly dramatic but non-narrative theme, designed to encourage the faithful to be moved by Christ's physical suffering and to admire his acceptance of the misfortunes he must suffer in order to redeem mankind. In this case Jesus is depicted in solitude, despondent, as his sorrowful face and frustrated gesture suggest. The thinness of his legs and the sombre body, attenuated by the tenebrist lighting, are features that deepen the Calvary of the last moments of Jesus' life. The scene takes place in the Praetorium in Jerusalem, the centre of Roman power, where Christ has arrived for the second and last time, after passing through various stages. He is exhibited before the crowd (‘Ecce Homo’), who preferred to release Barabbas rather than him and, either before or after this exhibition, he is stripped of his clothes and tied to a pillar, where he is subjected to mockery concerning his alleged crime, being ‘king of the Jews’, and torture, including scourging and the crowning with thorns. Aesthetically the work is close to the painting of Pedro de Campaña y Blas de Prado, a Spanish Mannerist painter, renowned for his work in Toledo Cathedral. In 1586 he worked on the restoration of the frescoes painted by Juan de Borgoña in the Chapter House of Toledo Cathedral, where between 1591 and 1592 he painted the coats of arms of the prelates and their inscriptions. Between 1589 and 1590 he was called to El Escorial to appraise the paintings of Pellegrino Tibaldi and other Italian masters, as well as the ‘ornaments’ made for Titian's Saint Margaret and for a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. Sent by Philip II, whom the sovereign of Fez would have asked to send him a famous painter, in May 1593 he set out for Morocco with the commission to portray the members of the court, a journey financed by the 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, Alonso Pérez de Guzmán. When he passed through Seville he was met by Francisco Pacheco, who wrote in The Art of Painting that ‘when he went to Morocco on the King's orders, he was carrying some very well painted canvases of fruit that I saw’. Pacheco's statement, given the date on which it occurred, together with his status as Sánchez Cotán's teacher, place Blas de Prado at the origins of the Spanish still life, although none by his hand has survived. He finally settled in Madrid and it was not long before he resumed his contacts with the churches of the archbishopric of Toledo, as in March he was already working with Pedro Ruiz de Elvira on the gilding of the altarpiece in Villarrubia de los Ojos.

Estim. 3 000 - 3 500 EUR

Lot 78 - Flemish school of the XVI century "The Virgin of the Milk". Oil on panel. Cradled. Frame of the XIX century. Presents lack of paint, and slight damage to the frame. Measurements: 39,5 x 30 cm; 52 x 43 cm (frame). Devotional image representing the Virgin of half a body with the Child, in her invocation of the Virgin of the Milk (also called Virgin of the grotto of Bethlehem). A young Mary, with soft features, bows her head tenderly and offers her breast to the infant. The naked body of the child and the oval face of the Virgin absorb the clear qualities of the light, which enhances the smoothness of the flesh tones. The draped veil has been worked with transparencies and glazes, so that the color of the tunic and the mantle can be glimpsed under the gauze. The same glazing technique has been used to describe the silky and fluffy white cushion. An olive-colored curtain opens in the background, hinting at a room. The Virgin of Bethlehem or of the grotto of Bethlehem is an invocation and iconography of the Virgin Mary, in which she is represented in the act of breastfeeding the Baby Jesus. This representation has had several developments in sacred art, such as painting, sculpture and the particular iconography of the Orthodox Church. The representation of the Virgin suckling the baby Jesus is mentioned by Pope Gregory the Great, a mosaic with this representation probably dating back to the 12th century is found on the façade of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, although a few other examples from the early Middle Ages still survive. It is considered that this invocation may be a syncretism of the mother-goddesses, in particular of the goddess Isis suckling Horus, and probably the earliest images appeared in Coptic art. The Milk Grotto is a place in Bethlehem, very close to the Basilica of the Nativity, where tradition says that the Virgin suckled the Child, and a drop spilled on a rock, which changed its color, becoming white. Because of this, stones from the grotto (made of calcium carbonate) were considered relics in the early centuries because, when diluted in water, the water took on the appearance of milk. The sanctuary erected in this place is used by women who ask the Virgin to improve the quality of their mother's milk.

Estim. 4 000 - 5 000 EUR

Lot 79 - Novo-Hispanic school of the late 17th century. "Virgin of the Popolo". Oil on panel. It presents faults and restorations. Measurements: 110 x 71 x 2,5 cm. Oil painting on canvas representing the Virgin and Child following a compositional model inspired by the "Salus Populi Romani (in Spanish: Protectora del Pueblo Romano), better known as Our Lady of the Snows. It is a Byzantine icon of the Virgin and Child, which tradition attributes to the first Christians. It is located in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Here we see the Virgin half-length, dressed in red tunic and blue mantle, holding in her arms the child, who also wears tunic and mantle, although in red and gold colors. Jesus holds in his hands a book, the Holy Scriptures, and raises his right hand with two fingers extended, as a sign of blessing. Following the model of the icon of the "Madonna del Popolo", the figures show hieratic and solemn positions. However, the modeling of the faces and hands shows a clear classical influence, since it is markedly sculptural.

Estim. 4 000 - 4 500 EUR

Lot 80 - MIGUEL CABRERA (Mexico, 1695 - 1768). "Ecce Homo. Oil on canvas, glued to board. Frame of the eighteenth century, with additions of the nineteenth century. Signed in the lower right corner. Presents faults in the frame. Size: 77 x 64 cm; 100 x 77 x 6 cm (frame). In this canvas adhered to a board, Jesus Christ is represented as Ecce Homo. The characteristic workmanship of the New Spain painter Miguel Cabrera can be appreciated in his skillful assimilation of Spanish Baroque tenebrism, whose formulas he softened by forging his own typology of suffering figures, especially virgins, saints and Christs like the one we are dealing with. The wiry features have been modeled with nuanced shades that enhance the expressiveness of the face, with two tears running down one cheekbone. Blood drips from the crown of thorns that girdles his forehead. The red cloth, a color associated with the Passion and sacrifice, wraps around his shoulders, leaving his torso naked and vulnerable. Handcuffed, the eyes clouded with pain silently dialogue with God the Father. The hands of fine fingers remain joined by a rope. The skillful handling of the glazes stands out. The devotional painting conveys the extreme loneliness of Jesus at the moment when he is exposed to be judged and condemned. Miguel Cabrera was one of the greatest exponents of the novo-Hispanic baroque painting. Born in the town of Tlalixtac, in Oaxaca, he dedicated his work to religious themes and especially to the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and on this last theme he wrote "American marvel and set of rare wonders observed with the direction of the rules of the art of painting" (1756). Among his most outstanding works are those he made for some chapels of the cathedral of Mexico City, among them the sacristy, which houses in one of its walls a "Woman of the Apocalypse". Cabrera was also the chamber painter of Archbishop José Manuel Rubio y Salinas, and in 1753 he founded the first painting academy in Mexico. He also painted some portraits, such as that of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1751). Miguel Cabrera was especially splendid in his small and medium-sized works, both on canvas and copper. His warm and vivid colors, unparalleled in the Novo-Hispanic school of the 18th century, stand out, as well as his firm drawing and the poetic expressions of the faces of his Virgins, saints and even portraits of characters of his time. He was a very prolific artist, and had a very large workshop with apprentices specialized in specific tasks. When composing his works he used to base himself, sometimes literally, on prints of Spanish and Flemish origin, a common practice not only in America but also in Europe. On the other hand, we see in his production a strong influence of Murillo, which makes us think that he must have worked in the workshop of the Rodriguez Juarez brothers, then at the height of their glory, in Mexico City. Currently his works are kept in several of the main Mexican temples, as well as in the Museo del Virreinato in Tepozotlán, the Museo de América in Madrid, the Museo de El Carmen in San Ángel (Mexico City), the Museo Nacional de las Intervenciones in Coyoacán, the Pinacoteca Virreinal in Mexico City, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Museo de Santa Mónica in Puebla. It presents faults in the frame.

Estim. 10 000 - 12 000 EUR

Lot 81 - Attributed to FRANCESCO VANNI (Siena, 1563 - 1610). "St. Francis in ecstasy". Oil on copper. Original frame of the period. It presents to the back an illegible inscription in Italian. Measurements: 25 x 19 cm; 36 x 30,5 cm (frame). This painting belongs to the Tuscan mannerist school and is attributed to the painter Francesco Vanni. An etching of this painter with the same subject and compositional treatment, one of whose copies is preserved in the British Museum, may have served as a preliminary study for the oil painting shown here. The high quality of this painting, in accordance with the mastery of the Sienese master, shows St. Francis of Assisi leaning on a rock, with closed eyelids and half-open lips while listening to the celestial music of the violin played by an angel next to his ear. One of the saint's hands begins to bleed, his wound mimicking the stigmata of Christ's Passion. Each of these narrative details faithfully follows the passages described by St. Bonaventure, biographer of the founder of the Franciscan Order: being gravely ill, St. Francis began to hear music so beautiful that he thought he had already crossed the threshold to the eternal kingdom. Subtle gradations of halftones model the angel's infantile body. The seraphic face contrasts with the wiry, angular features of the ecstatic saint. An amber light emerges from the celestial background and outlines the infant's body against the light, giving it a great beauty, in which we identify Vanni's style. The work clearly belongs to the artistic circle of Francesco Vanni, an Italian painter, draughtsman, engraver, publisher and printer active in Rome and in his hometown of Siena. Vanni was part of a family of painters. When he was 16, Vanni moved to Bologna and then to Rome. He was apprenticed to Giovanni de 'Vecchi during 1579-1580, although he was also greatly influenced artistically by other Tuscan painters of his time. In Rome, he worked with Salimbeni, Bartolomeo Passerotti and Andrea Lilio. Pope Clement VIII commissioned him to paint an altarpiece for St. Peter's, later transferred to mosaic, Simon the Magician rebuked by St. Peter. He painted several other pictures for Roman churches; including St. Michael defeats the rebellious angels for the sacristy of S. Gregorio; a Pieta of St. Mary in Vallicella; and the Assumption of St. Lawrence in Miranda. In Siena, he painted a S. Raimondo walking on the Sea for the church of the Dominicans. Vanni painted a Baptism of Constantine (1586-1587) for the church of San Agostino in Siena. He was active as an engraver and engraved three devotional engravings after his own designs. In addition, he was the publisher of a large 4-plate map of Siena that he himself had designed and had engraved by the Flemish engraver Pieter the Elder. He asked Lorenzo Usimbardi in 1595 for help in obtaining financial support for the publication of the map.

Estim. 17 000 - 18 000 EUR

Lot 82 - Italian school, probably Neapolitan, from the first half of the 18th century. "Adoration of the Shepherds". Oil on canvas. Frame from the 19th century. The frame is missing. Measurements: 63 x 50,5 cm; 79 x 66 cm (frame). This canvas represents a classic theme in the History of Art, that of the shepherds adoring the new-born Baby Jesus in the Bethlehem's portal. It is a scene that lends itself to being interpreted as a large composition with numerous characters, worked in a costumbrista style, which is why it was very much to the taste of Baroque painters, who sought above all a natural and close art that would move the spirit of the faithful and make them feel close to what was depicted on the canvas, to the sacred story.

Estim. 1 000 - 1 200 EUR

Lot 83 - 17th century Spanish school."Saint Mary of Egypt".Oil on canvas.It has a patch on the back. Needs cleaning.Measurements: 121 x 89 cm, 131 x 99 cm (frame).The work represents a female bust portrait. The woman is leaning on a rock, with her hands in an attitude of prayer, looking with her eyes open and her suffering and penitent face looking at a Crucifix. Due to the attributes such as the skull, the book and the rope on the rock, it can be identified with Saint Maria Egipciaca. Saint Maria Egipciaca (ca. 344 - ca. 421) is venerated as the patron saint of penitent women, especially in the Coptic Church, but also in the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Churches. The main source of information about her is the "Vita" written by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the 6th century. She was born in Egypt, and at the age of twelve she went to Alexandria, where she led a dissolute life, according to some authors, devoting herself to prostitution. However, Sophronius states that she often refused to accept the money offered for her sexual favours, driven only by "insatiable desire and irrepressible passion". After seventeen years, Mary travelled to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, driven by the desire to meet lustful pilgrims. There, however, when she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, an invisible force prevented her from doing so. Aware that this had happened because of her impurity, she felt a strong sense of remorse, and seeing an icon of the Theotokos outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness and promised to renounce the world, consecrating herself to the ascetic life. After this, he tried again to enter the church, and was allowed to do so. After receiving communion, she went into the desert and lived there for the rest of her life as a hermit. According to legend, she took with her only three loaves of bread (symbol of the Eucharist), and lived on what she found in nature.

Estim. 2 400 - 2 600 EUR

Lot 84 - DIRK WYNTRACK (Heusden, 1615 - The Hague, 1678). "Lake landscape with birds. Oil on canvas. Re-coloured. Signed in the central left part. Lack of polychromy in the frame. Measurements: 70 x 85 cm; 84 x 99 cm (frame). White swans and other birds splashing in the water or taking flight animate a nature of exuberant vegetation. Wooded landscapes dominated by autumnal colours are transformed in the distance into bluish mists that envelop the panorama in radiant light. During the Dutch Golden Age a type of landscape and pastoral genre painting developed in which figures such as Dirk Wyntrack and Nicholaas Berchem, trained in The Hague and Haarlem, were prominent. Lake landscapes, grazing cattle and sheep, ponds and the occasional architectural element peeping out from the brushwood were common elements. The naturalistic approach to the reproduction of animal species extended to the atmospheric capture, prefiguring what would become an autonomous genre, the landscape, in the 19th century. The present painting is an outstanding example of this tradition of Dutch naturalism, dominated by winter and pastoral scenes with no human presence. Dirck Wijntrack or Wyntrack (1615, Heusden - 1678, The Hague), a Dutch painter of the Golden Age, is known for his landscapes and farm scenes with animals and worked with Jan Wijnants and Joris van der Haagen collaborating on landscape paintings.he married in Rotterdam in 1646 and worked in Gouda during the years 1651-1655.he worked in Schoonhoven in 1655 and moved to The Hague in 1657 where he remained until his death. Some of Dirk Wyntrack's paintings are in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and other prominent public and private collections.

Estim. 4 000 - 5 000 EUR

Lot 85 - Neapolitan school of the 17th century. Following models by JOSÉ DE RIBERA (Játiva, 1591-Naples,1652) . "The View". Oil on canvas. Re-coloured in the 19th century. It presents repainting. Measurements: 110,5 x 88,5 cm; 126,5 x 104 cm (frame). In the Neapolitan school, the influence of José Ribera was remarkable. His vehement and vigorous naturalism, filtered by Flemish influences, beats strongly in the Neapolitan painting contemporary to the Sevillian painter. Here we have a clear example of this influence. The author has faithfully reproduced the painting "The View" which Ribera painted during his stay in Rome (now in the Franz Mayer Museum). It was part of a series on the five senses. In this version, the dual ancestry of Ribera and Caravaggio can be seen in the violent, tenebrist light that bursts through in a slanting manner. It should also be noted that Ribera moved away from the iconographic complexity of the visions of the Five Senses produced in the Low Countries, along the lines of Brueghel. The Valencian artist, who takes up the present version, focuses on a character taken from everyday life. The man holds a spyglass in his hands that allows him to contemplate the universe through the window. Glasses and a mirror complete the representation of sight. The figure is placed in an interior and receives the strong impact of the light on his head and hands, his body being chiselled in each and every detail. The dark tones are used to focus the viewer's attention on the face, which is charged with emotional intensity.

Estim. 4 000 - 5 000 EUR

Lot 86 - Romanesque Christ from the Limoges Workshop, 12th-13th century. Gilded copper. It presents breaks and losses in the gilding. Measurements: 7 x 12 cm. Devotional sculpture made in copper, which represents the body of Christ on the cross, although this is not conserved. The piece presents a figure of Christ triumphant, as he is awake and crowned as king of heaven. The Limoges workshop appeared in the last quarter of the 12th century and continued its activity until the 14th century. It flourished again in the 15th century with the new technique of painted enamel. It became the most important enamel workshop, ahead of the Rhineland and Meuse, which disappeared in the 12th century and were dedicated to the production of individual plates on commission, which were then mounted on an object or joined together to form altar frontals. In Limoges, on the other hand, the production of objects, no longer just plaques, decorated with enamels, began, above all for religious but also for secular use. They were cheaper, copper-based pieces, and very attractive because of the enamelled decoration, which made them a huge and immediate success throughout Europe. Limoges is also mentioned in documents, indicating that it was an important centre known throughout Western Europe. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Limoges is its very shallow background dragging, which does not go beyond two or three millimetres. To depict detail, such fine partitioning is used that it can only be distinguished from the excavated one by close observation through a magnifying glass. In Limoges, the enamels were applied according to the client's taste, filling only the background, only the figures, or both. As for the colour range, he used that of the Meuse workshops, which was very varied, but added new colours, such as olive green, a light greyish blue or white for the flesh tones.

Estim. 5 000 - 6 000 EUR

Lot 87 - Spanish school of the second half of the 19th century. It follows models from the Crown of Aragon, 15th century. "Moses". Oil and gilding on panel. It shows lack of polychromy and damage caused by xylophages in the frame. It needs restoration. Measurements: 210 x 46 cm; 214 x 49,5 cm (frame). The effigy of Moses is erected occupying the entire vertical format, in such a way as to emphasise its monumentality and symbolic importance. In the royal attire and the gilded applications, with an embossed effect, the desire to follow Renaissance models of the Crown of Aragon can be appreciated. Although the prophet does not carry the tablets of the Law or the burning bush (his two most significant attributes), he is recognisable by the locks of hair that rise to form two horns. This element, present in some of the most famous depictions of Moses, is due to the misinterpretation of the Bible. When translated from Hebrew into Latin, the ancient Hebrew expression "keren or" referring to the shining state of Moses' face was misinterpreted by Jerome of Stridon as "horns" and included as such in the Vulgate. This gave rise to a horned Moses in various ecclesiastical images of the late Gothic and early Renaissance period, the period to which this painting evokes. However, the horns continued to be used, sometimes accompanied by a glowing halo, sometimes alone, as in the case of Michelangelo's famous sculpture.

Estim. 700 - 800 EUR

Lot 88 - Sevillian school; 17th century. "Nativity". Oil on canvas. It presents added period cloth in the upper margin. Measurements: 106,5 x 166,5 cm; 136 x 195,5 cm (frame). The canvas offers us a dynamic and multitudinous Nativity. In the centre of the composition is the Virgin, of youthful and delicate aspect, dressed with pink tunic and mantle. The Virgin holds the Child in her hands, whose head is surrounded by a luminous nimbus. A large number of figures are clustered around her. A surprised Saint Joseph holds out his hands to the Child. The scene is completed by the presence of a multitude of winged angels. The upper part of the composition is devoted to the angelic world. Putti and young angels appear amidst wide cloud breaks, witnessing the scene taking place below. The type of composition, as well as the dramatic lighting, with its marked chiaroscuro, is in keeping with the Andalusian school of the first half of the 18th century. The 17th century saw the arrival of the Baroque in the Sevillian school, with the triumph of naturalism over Mannerist idealism, a loose style and many other aesthetic liberties. At this time the school reached its greatest splendour, both in terms of the quality of its works and the primordial status of Sevillian Baroque painting. Thus, during the transition to the Baroque period, we find Juan del Castillo, Antonio Mohedano and Francisco Herrera el Viejo, whose works already display the rapid brushstrokes and crude realism of the style, and Juan de Roelas, who introduced Venetian colourism. The middle of the century saw the fullness of the period, with figures such as Zurbarán, a young Alonso Cano and Velázquez. Finally, in the last third of the century we find Murillo and Valdés Leal, founders in 1660 of an Academy where many of the painters active during the first quarter of the 18th century were trained, such as Meneses Osorio, Sebastián Gómez, Lucas Valdés and others.

Estim. 3 000 - 3 500 EUR

Lot 89 - Spanish school; 17th century. "Holy Family with Saint Anne". Oil on copper. Presents a carved wooden frame. Measurements: 17 x 14 cm; 32 x 29 cm (frame). In this work the artist has made the representation of the Holy Family, following the sweet modes of the time. Through the use of a pyramidal composition in which all the characters are inscribed, the author gives greater prominence to the figure of the Child. The Child is placed in the centre of the composition, and next to him is a mature Saint Joseph, who contemplates his son, absorbed in the scene that is taking place between the Virgin and Child. Saint Anne, who is at Saint Joseph's side, tenderly approaches the Child, who coos to her with complicity. The family is in a neutral interior, which is highlighted by the luminosity brought by the radiance of the Holy Spirit. The naturalness of the scene should be emphasised, as the Child turns his attention to his grandmother, or for example to the hands of Saint Joseph. This approachable attitude is used by the author to inspire and indoctrinate the spectator, thus making him empathise with religion through a scene of a friendly nature. In the most common sense of the expression, the Holy Family includes the closest relatives of the Child Jesus, i.e. mother and grandmother or mother and nurturing father. In both cases, whether it is Saint Anne or Saint Joseph who appears, it is a group of three figures. From an artistic point of view, the arrangement of this terrestrial Trinity poses the same problems and suggests the same solutions as the heavenly Trinity. However, the difficulties are fewer. It is no longer a question of a single God in three persons, whose essential unity must be expressed at the same time as his diversity. The three personages are united by a bond of blood, certainly, but they do not constitute an indivisible block. Moreover, all three are represented in human form, while the dove of the Holy Spirit introduces a zoomorphic element into the divine Trinity that is difficult to combine with two anthropomorphic figures. On the other hand, this iconography was traditionally, until the Counter-Reformation, a representation of the Virgin and Child with the figure of Saint Joseph in the foreground. It was not until the reforms of Trent that Saint Joseph began to take centre stage as the protector and guide of the Infant Jesus.

Estim. 1 000 - 1 500 EUR

Lot 90 - Christ. Italy, 17th century. Bronze. Measurements: 16 x 11 x 3 cm. Christ with three nails, made in bronze. The head tilted on the right shoulder and the closed eyelids indicate that Christ stopped suffering. The slender thighs and bent knees support the weight of the wiry torso. The stylised canon and the slight twisting of the body follow baroque models.

Estim. 500 - 600 EUR

Lot 91 - 16th century Spanish school. "Saint Andrew". Relief in polychrome wood. Measurements: 85 x 36 cm. Devotional image of Saint Andrew which presents the saint with the attribute of his martyrdom, the cross in a crossbuckle to which he was tied by order of the proconsul Aegeas. At the beginning of the 16th century, Spain was the European nation best prepared to receive the new humanist concepts of life and art due to its spiritual, political and economic conditions, although from the point of view of plastic forms, its adaptation of those introduced by Italy was slower due to the need to learn the new techniques and to change the taste of the clientele. Sculpture reflects perhaps better than other artistic fields this desire to return to the classical Greco-Roman world, which in its nudes exalts the individuality of man, creating a new style whose vitality surpasses mere copying. Anatomy, the movement of the figures, compositions with a sense of perspective and balance, the naturalistic play of folds, the classical attitudes of the figures soon began to be valued; but the strong Gothic tradition maintained expressivity as a vehicle for the profound spiritualist sense that informs our best Renaissance sculptures. This strong and healthy tradition favours the continuity of religious sculpture in polychrome wood, which accepts the formal beauty offered by Italian Renaissance art with a sense of balance that avoids its predominance over the immaterial content that animates the forms. In the early years of the century, Italian works arrived in our lands and some of our sculptors went to Italy, where they learned first-hand the new standards in the most progressive centres of Italian art, whether in Florence or Rome, and even in Naples. On their return, the best of them, such as Berruguete, Diego de Siloe and Ordóñez, revolutionised Spanish sculpture through Castilian sculpture, even advancing the new mannerist, intellectualised and abstract derivation of the Italian Cinquecento, almost at the same time as it was produced in Italy.

Estim. 1 800 - 2 000 EUR

Lot 92 - Spanish baroque carving from the 17th century. "Bishop". Carved and polychrome wood. It presents faults in the carving and polychrome. Measurements: 53 cm (height). Baroque sculpture in carved wood representing with verism and naturalistic will a Pope or bishop, richly dressed with tunic and mantle, touched with mitre and, probably, originally carrying a crosier. The tunic is undulated with vertical folds that enhance the play of chiaroscuro. It is a carving worked practically in the round, but it was intended for frontal contemplation, so the back is not worked. It presents faults in the carving and polychromy.

Estim. 1 800 - 2 000 EUR

Lot 93 - Late Gothic crucified Christ. Spain, 17th century. Carved and polychrome wood. Measurements: 93 cm. Devotional image of the 17th century, carved in wood and polychrome. It represents Christ on the cross, already dead, with his eyes and lips half-open. The tilted head draws a spiral with respect to the legs bent to the opposite side, so that the body is harmonious in anatomy and proportions, something that shows the progress with respect to the traditional Gothic. It has a restrained dramatism in the treatment of the traces of suffering, especially in the chest with the marked ribs, the thinness that allows glimpses of muscles and tendons, as if the tension of pain still palpitates in the inert body. The purity cloth is gathered at the side, favoring a play of naturalistic drapery. All these characteristics are typical of late Gothic: the naturalism imprinted on the canvases, different from the greater angularity of the early Gothic, as well as the study of chiaroscuro and the realistic intention in the anatomical description.

Estim. 2 000 - 2 500 EUR

Lot 94 - Dutch school, 18th century. Follower of PAULUS POTTER (Encusa, 1625 - Amsterdam, 1654). "Landscape with Shepherds and Cows". Oil on canvas. Re-coloured. It has repainting and slight damage to the frame. Measurements: 36,5 x 32 cm; 48 x 43,5 cm (frame). The wake of Paulus Potter is evident in this painting, both for the studied composition in which the animals occupy the foreground and for the successful anatomical representation of the cows drinking water from the lake or resting peacefully. The skilful framing stands out, with a composition whose aerial perspective has been worked in depth thanks to a thoughtful use of light. In the realistic rendering of the animals and the light, the painstaking observation of nature is evident. Paulus Potter was a Dutch Baroque painter and engraver who specialised in animals and landscapes. He painted mainly landscapes and animals, with great attention to detail. In his landscapes, he preferred the scenery of the Dutch countryside with its meadows. He owes his fame above all to his paintings of animals, with goats, sheep and, above all, cows, in harmony with the surrounding nature. In fact, he is considered the founder of animal painting. Animals were no longer just another element of the decor, but the main motif of the painting. His most famous painting is The Bull (Young Bull or Young Steer), in Mauritshuis, The Hague. During the Romantic period of the 19th century it was a very popular painting. Potter studied painting with his father, Pieter Potter in Enkhuizen, who painted still lifes and landscapes. Paulus Potter joined the guild of Saint Luke, the Delft painters' guild, in 1646. He then moved to The Hague. It was not until 1646 that he became a member of the Painters' Guild of Saint Luke in Delft, although he lived mainly in The Hague, where he joined the Painters' Guild in 1649 and where he shared a residence with the painter Jan van Goyen for a number of years. There he enjoyed the patronage of important figures such as Amalia of Solms, John Maurice of Nassau and even some of Rembrandt's known patrons such as Nicolaes Tulp. His works had a notable influence on Dutch artists such as Karel Dujardin, Adriaen van de Velde and especially Albert Komp. His best works can be seen in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. There are also paintings by him in the Louvre in Paris and in the Wallace Collection in London.

Estim. 800 - 1 000 EUR

Lot 95 - Spanish school; last third of the 18th century."Dolorosa".Oil on canvas.In need of restoration. It presents pictorial detachment and breaks.Measurements: 74,5 x 56 cm, 78 x 59 cm (frame).In this devotional work the painter presents Mary as Mater dolorosa, placed on a neutral and dark background that emphasizes the monumentality of the figure. The Virgin is portrayed at this moment after the death of her Son, suffering and feeling a deep pain that is symbolically represented in the form of a sword piercing her heart. Devotion to the sorrows of the Virgin has its roots in medieval times, and was especially widespread among the Servite Order, founded in 1233. There are many and varied iconographic representations whose central theme is the Virgin Mary in her Sorrowful aspect, the first of which depicts her next to the Child Jesus, who sleeps oblivious to the future suffering that awaits him. The devotional image is inscribed in an oval around the perimeter of which the legend ECCE MATER TUA (Here is your mother) can be read.It is worth mentioning that, during the Spanish colonial domination, a mainly religious painting was developed, aimed at Christianising the indigenous peoples. Local painters were modelled on Spanish works, which they followed literally in terms of type and iconography. The most frequent models were harquebusier angels and triangular virgins; however, in the early years of the 19th century, at the time of independence and political openness in some of the colonies, several artists began to depict a new model of painting with its own identity.

Estim. 1 000 - 1 200 EUR

Lot 96 - Italian school, 18th century. "Mary Magdalene". Oil on canvas. Relined. Needs restoration. It presents lack of polychromy in all the pictorial surface. Measurements: 78 x 63 cm; 95 x 79 cm (frame). Mary Magdalene was a biblical figure very much represented in the Baroque period, especially in the Italian painting of more sensualist roots. Here, a strong chiaroscuro models the saint's soft features and supple flesh tones. With her left hand, the woman with long, flowing hair prepares to remove an earring, a gesture symbolic of the process of detachment from material goods. While Eastern Christianity honours Mary Magdalene in particular for her closeness to Jesus, considering her "equal to the apostles", in the West the idea developed, based on her identification with other women in the Gospels, that before meeting Jesus she had been a prostitute. Hence the later legend that she spent the rest of her life as a penitent in the desert, mortifying her flesh. In art, she was most often depicted in this way, especially in the 17th century, a time when Catholic societies were particularly fascinated by the lives of mystics and saints who lived in solitude in the wilderness, dedicated to prayer and penance. The theme of the Magdalen also offered the possibility of depicting a beautiful woman showing parts of the anatomy then considered taboo, such as the feet or the breast, but respecting decorum in that she is mortified flesh expressing repentance for her past sins.

Estim. 2 800 - 3 200 EUR

Lot 97 - Jerónimo Jacinto Espinosa (Cocentaina, Alicante, 1600 - Valencia, 1667)."Christ preaching".Oil on canvas.Presents expert appraisal by Joan-Ramón Triadó in Barcelona in 1999. Presents a technical restoration report.Measurements: 108 x 86 cm; 142 X 121 cm (frame).Here the monumental figure of the Saviour is the protagonist of the composition, raising his right hand to give the blessing. In his left hand he holds part of his garment which he gathers with his hand on his chest in an attitude of compassion and forgiveness, a motif which alludes to the universal authority of Christian doctrine. Also worthy of note is the importance of the lighting, with a naturalistic influence, as well as the sober chromaticism, with expressive contrasts of light and shade and a directed, dramatic light.Jerónimo Jacinto Espinosa was one of the most important representatives of the early Valencian Baroque. Born in Cocentaina and settled in Valencia, after the death of Francisco Ribalta in 1628 he became the city's most prestigious painter. He trained with his father, the Mannerist painter Jerónimo Rodríguez de Espinosa, and showed precocious talent. His language is also influenced by Francisco Ribalta, as well as by Juan Ribalta and Pedro Orrente. He was a prolific painter, focusing mainly on hagiographic themes and scenes from the New Testament. However, he also produced portraits in the naturalistic style of his training. In fact, Tenebrist naturalism, with its warm, Caravaggesque intonation in the manner of the Ribaltas, remained constant in his work throughout his career, without showing any influence from the new decorative Baroque trends that triumphed in Madrid and Seville.Espinosa signed his first important work, The Miracle of the Christ of the Rescue, in 1622-23. In this canvas he already showed a fully mature style, which soon earned him new commissions from various Valencian convents. His masterly portrait of the Dominican Jerónimo Mos (1628) also dates from this period. Espinosa also worked for the local nobility, although many of the works he executed before 1640 have been lost. In the following years, and especially in the last decade of his life, he produced his most notable works, and worked for the cathedral, the university and the city of Valencia itself. It should also be noted that we have preserved some drawings by his hand, which give us a better understanding of his system of working. These are studies from life, which are essential to achieve the realism of his painting. His work on canvas was fast, with Venetian-style brushstrokes, glazes and fluid paste. As a result, he achieved a brilliance of colour praised by his contemporaries. Espinosa's works are currently held in the Prado Museum, the Fine Arts Museum of Valencia, the University of Valencia, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Museum of the City of Valencia and other collections, both public and private, as well as in various religious centres in the Valencian Community.

Estim. 8 000 - 9 000 EUR

Lot 98 - European school, 18th century. "Hercules". Marble. Measurements: 35 cm. height. In the representations of Hercules as a child, the hero is often represented defeating the serpent with his plump body. In the sculpture shown here, however, the legendary hero is not doing any of his "works", but his small body remains at rest, sitting on his bare buttocks. His kinky hair frames a face with fluffy cheeks. The half-open mouth gives him a vivid expression. In his right hand he holds his mace, attached to a shield with heraldic insignia. The sculpture is in the neoclassical style.

Estim. 1 500 - 2 000 EUR

Lot 99 - Novo-Hispanic school; second half of the 18th century. "San Estanislao". Oil on copper. It has flaws on the pictorial surface. Measures: 8 x 7 cm. It should be noted that, during Spanish colonial rule, a mainly religious style of painting was developed, aimed at Christianising the indigenous peoples. The local painters took Spanish works as their model, which they followed literally in terms of type and iconography. The most frequent models were harquebusier angels and triangular virgins; however, it was not until the early years of the 19th century, at the time of independence and political opening of some of the colonies, that several artists began to represent a new model of painting with its own identity.

Estim. 400 - 500 EUR

Lot 100 - Italian school, after GIOVANNI BATISTA SALVI "Il Sassoferrato" ; 19th century. "Dolorosa". Gouache on vellum. Size: 9,5 x 7,5 cm. The piece follows the iconographic model established by the artist Giovanni Battista Salvi, better known as "Il Sassoferrato" was an Italian Baroque painter appreciated, above all, for the creation of devotional images in which he united the Bolognese classicist current and the tenebrism of the Caravaggist tradition, with a great variety of models and much diffusion, which often makes it difficult to be able to attribute works to him with certainty. He began his training under his father, Tarquinio Salvi, and furthered it with Domenichino. He settled permanently in Rome and soon achieved a certain degree of success with his gentle painting, allowing him to establish an important workshop in the city that would repeat the master's style and outlines. His work is preserved in important institutions such as the National Gallery in London, the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, etc.

Estim. 400 - 500 EUR

29th May - Old Masters

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Lot 69 - Madrid school of the late 17th century. ‘The Coronation of the Virgin’. Oil on canvas. Relined It presents faults. Measurements: 103 x 118 x 2 cm.