Colnaghi Foundation Journal 02 - Magazine - Page 83
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A LO NSO CA NO / A new Dead Christ on the Cross
A LON SO CA N O / A new Dead Christ on the Cross
N OTES
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Ángel Aterido Fernández, ed., Corpus Alonso Cano
(Madrid: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte,
2002), no. 8. The citation of documents here will
conform to their numbering in the Corpus which also
provides original sources. “Alonso” is a Castillian
variant of “Ildefonso.”
Aterido Fernández, Corpus, no. 339.
Aterido Fernández, Corpus, no. 14.
We wish to draw attention to the common error in
dating the contract to September. See our discussion of
this matter in José Manuel Cruz Valdovinos, Velázquez.
Vida y obra de un pintor cortesano (Saragossa: Caja
Inmaculada 2011), pp. 23-24.
Aterido Fernández, Corpus, no. 16.
Aterido Fernández, Corpus, no. 339, pp. 389, 514.
Antonio Palomino, El Museo pictórico y escala óptica, III. El
Parnaso español pintoresco laureado (1724), ed. Juan A. Ceán
y Bermúdez (Madrid: Aguilar, 1947), p. 985.
Aterido Fernández, Corpus, no. 339.
San Francisco de Borja, in the Museo de Bellas Artes,
Seville.
Aterido Fernández, Corpus, nos. 184, 185.
Gospel according to Saint John, 19, 33-34: “But
after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that
he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But
one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and
immediately there came out blood and water.” (DouayRheims Bible.)
Francisco Pacheco, Arte de la Pintura (1649), ed.
Bonaventura Bassegoda i Hugas (Madrid: Cátedra,
1990).
Pacheco, Arte, pp. 713-749.
“…ha sido el primero que estos días en España ha
vuelto a restituir el uso antiguo con algunas imágenes
de Cristo, que ha pintado, de cuatro clavos, ajustándose
en todo a lo que dicen los escritores antiguos; porque
pinta la cruz con cuatro extremos y con el supedáneo
en que están clavados los pies juntos. Vése plantada la
figura sobre él como si estuviera en pie; el rostro con
magestad y decoro, sin torcimiento feo o descompuesto,
así, como convenía a la soberana grandeza de Cristo
nuestro Señor.”
Roberto Belarmino (1542-1621) was proclaimed a saint
and doctor in the twentieth century. The work to which
Pacheco refers is De septem verbis a Chisto in Cruce prolatis
(1618).
“Alberto Durero, diligentísimo, docto y santo artífice,
habrá casi cien años que dibuxó un Crucifixo que
yo hallé en un libro de cosas de su mano, que fue de
nuestro católico Rey Felipo segundo, con cuatro clavos
y el supedáneo, bien así como yo los executo.”
Cruz Valdovinos, Velázquez, p. 159.
Erwin Panofsky, Vida y arte de Alberto Durero (1955), trans.
María Luisa Balseiro (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1982),
pp. 234-235, figs. 280 & 281. According to Panofsky,
the print measures 32 x 22.5 cm.
Benito Navarrete Prieto, “Durero y los cuatro clavos,”
Boletín del Museo del Prado 34 (1995): pp. 7-14. The
reproduction of the print which Navarrete includes is
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less precise than the one published by Panofsky which
leads one to suppose they are different impressions.
Furthermore Panofsky does not cite it. See Cruz
Valdovinos, Velázquez, p. 159. Now we believe they were
the one and the same.
“… y nuestro prudentísimo monarca Filipo segundo
estimó, grandemente, sus dibuxos. Yo alcancé uno de
su mano de un libro que fue de su Majestad, digno
de suma veneración,”Pacheco, Arte, p. 553; Navarrete
Prieto, “Durero,” p. 8. Bassegoda, in his comments
on Pacheco text, discusses the author’s remarks on
Dürer’s Apocalypse, a matter which does not concern
our study.
Panofsky, Vida y arte, fig. 281.
Pacheco, Arte, p. 36.
Enrique Valdivieso and Juan Maria Serrera, Pintura
sevillana del primer tercio del siglo XVII (Madrid: Consejo
Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1985), p. 18.
Pacheco, Arte, p. 36.
Valdivieso and Serrera, Pintura sevillana, p. 39.
Valdivieso and Serrera, Pintura sevillana, p. 76, no. 134,
pl. 22; Enrique Valdivieso and Juan Maria Serrera,
Inventario artístico de Sevilla y su provincia, 2 vols. (Madrid:
Ministerio de Cultura, 1985), II, p. 231, fig. 50. The
abbreviated signature is O.F.P. See Juan Luis Ravé
Prieto, “Crucificado expirante,” in Pacheco. Teórico, artista,
maestro, ed. Luis Méndez Rodríguez, exh. cat. (Seville:
Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, 2016), pp. 160-161.
Ravé Prieto, “Crucificado expirante,” notes that the duque
de Alcalá, señor del Coronil, gave a Cross to the parish
described as “de pincel y plata” (painted and with
silver) – which could be this one – and said that the
silver was later melted down. This hypothesis does not
seem possible in our opinion.
Gospel according to Saint John, 19, 19-20: “And Pilate
wrote a title also, and he put it upon the Cross. And the
writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING
OF THE JEWS. This title therefore many of the Jews
did read: because the place where Jesus was crucified
was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, in
Greek, and in Latin.” (Douay-Rheims Bible.)
Valdivieso and Serrera, Pintura sevillana, p. 77, no.
135, pl. 32; J. Moya Morales, “Cristo crucificado,” in
Méndez Rodríguez, Pacheco, pp. 162-163. The signature
is the same initials as in the El Coronil version but the
‘F’ and ‘P’ are inside the ‘O’. It comes from the Gómez
Moreno collection, where it was already located by
1916. The support is a single panel made out of cedro
de Indias (María del Valme Muñoz Rubio, “Francisco
Pacheco: Teoría y práctica,” in Méndez Rodríguez,
Pacheco, p. 54).
Valdivieso and Serrera, Pintura sevillana, p. 77, no. 136,
pl. 33. It was published by Matías Díaz Padrón, “Un
nuevo Cristo crucificado de Pacheco,” Archivo Español de
Arte 38 (1965): pp. 128-130. The work was acquired in
Paris in 1901 by the ancestors of the above-mentioned
owner. It cannot be the painting once belonging to
Dean López Cepero at the end of the eighteenth
century, as explained below.
31. Valdivieso and Serrera, Pintura sevillana, no. 137, cited
the López Cepero painting and thought that it could
have been the one belonging to López Dóriga. They
also included as no. 139 a work in a private collection
in Buenos Aires, noting only that it was on canvas
and a variant of the one then in the Gómez Moreno
collection. There is no doubt that the picture now in
the museum in Buenos Aires is the one that had been
in the private collection and which belonged to Dean
López Cepero. See Teresa Espantoso Rodríguez and
María Cristina Serventi, “Un ‘Cristo en la cruz’ de
Francisco Pacheco en el Museo Nacional de Bellas
Artes de Buenos Aires,” Boletín del Instituto de Teoría e
Historia del Arte Julio E. Payró. Buenos Aires 7 (1997): pp.
101-105, and María Cristina Serventi, Pintura española
(siglos XVI al XVIII) en el Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Asociación Amigos del
MNBA, 2003), p. 129.
32. Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 27, 37: “And they
put over his head his cause written: THIS IS JESUS
THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Gospel according to
Saint Luke, 23, 38: “And there was also a superscription
written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and
Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
(Douay-Rheims Bible.)
33. Some explanation is given in Juan Luis Ravé Prieto,
“Un nuevo Crucificado de Francisco Pacheco,”
Laboratorio de Arte 5 (1992): pp. 305-316, which refers to
the example in El Coronil.
34. Igancio Cano Rivero, “Cristo crucificado,” in Méndez
Rodríguez, Pacheco, pp. 164-165 (with the bibliography
given above). This discusses the relations between
Pacheco and the Carmelite college of San Alberto
in Seville, for which he painted a San Miguel also in
1637 (present location unknown) and he included two
Carmelites in his Libro de retratos. His proposal that
the painting comes from the college is reasonable. He
suggests that it could be the Crucifix which was on the
altar according to Ceán Bermúdez.
35. José Manuel Cruz Valdovinos, “Sobre el maestro de
Zurbarán y su aprendizaje,” Boletín del Seminario de Arte
y Arqueología 57 (1991): pp. 490-492; José Manuel Cruz
Valdovinos, “Zurbarán,” in Francisco Calvo Serraller
et al., Veintitrés biografías de pintores (Madrid: Fundación
Amigos del Museo del Prado/Mondadori, 1992), pp.
247-273.
36. In the Apparition of the Crucifixion of Saint Peter to Saint
Peter Nolasco (Museo Nacional del Prado), signed and
dated 1629, which he painted for the convent of the
Merced Calzada in Seville, the apostle - still alive appears with nails on each foot, horizontal arms with
his head higher, a loincloth without long ends and a
rustic cross.
37. José Milicua, Crist a la creu amb la Mare de Déu, la
Magdalena i sant Joan al peu en Zurbarán al Museu Nacional
d’art de Catalunya (Barcelona: Editorial Planeta, 1988),
pp. 90-91, p. 219; Pacheco, Arte, pp. 741-742. It is the
sixth approbation, dated 29 April 1629, which figured
in chapter XVI, the last of the third book.
38. According to Milicua, the titulus was made “sin
demasiadas contemplaciones” (without too many
complications).
39. This measurement seems to be incorrect. The second
figure should be 168 cm.
40. Juan Miguel Serrera, “Crucificado,” in Zurbarán, exh. cat.
(Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 1988), pp. 194-196.
He thinks that it was on the choir stairs in the convent.
41. See the information provided by the museum. An
inscription on the reverse indicates that it belonged
to the Marqués de Villafuerte in Seville. It was in the
Valdés collection by the twentieth century, and, acquired
by Pedro Masaveu, it entered the museum as a donation
in lieu of tax. The remains of a date are illegible.
42. The first comes from the Hueto y Lezama-Leguizamón
collection and entered in 1996 through the Villaescusa
legacy. The second comes from the collection of the
Marqués de Almeida in Río de Janeiro; see Milicua,
Crist a la creu, pp. 88-93, pp. 218-220.
43. Cruz Valdovinos, Velázquez, pp. 154-155. I have for
a number of years defended Velázquez’s authorship
on account of the work’s technical, iconographic and
dramatic characteristics. The similarities to the famous
example of the Dead Christ reinforce the attribution.
44. Cruz Valdovinos, Velázquez, pp. 157-160.
45. Harold E. Wethey, Alonso Cano: Painter, Sculptor, Architect
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955), p. 64, no.
12, pl. 165. Wethey gives its origin as the chapterhouse
of the Dominican convent in Loeches (Madrid) and
lists its earlier twentieth-century provenance as property
of the Marqués de Valverde de la Sierra in 19201921; it was at the time of Wethey’s publication in the
collection of Gregorio Diego Curto who died in 1967;
it is possible that it still belongs to his heirs, however,
I do not know of anyone who has studied it since
Wethey, who examined it in person.
46. Wethey Alonso Cano, pp. 63-64, no. 13, plate 104.
47. José Álvarez Lopera, “Cano desconocido. Sobre
conjuntos diversos y pinturas desaparecidas,” in Alonso
Cano. Espiritualidad y modernidad artística. IV Centenario,
exh. cat. (Granada: Hospital Real de Granada, 2001),
pp. 171, 238-239.
48. Antonio Ponz, Viage de España…, 13 vols. (Madrid:
D. Joachin Ibarra, 1776), V, p. 225: “En el descanso
de una escalera que sube al claustro alto está el bello
Crucifijo de Alonso Cano, pintura casi del tamaño del
natural. Es lástima que no se coloque en mejor sitio.”
In fact it is life-size.
49. Álvarez Lopera provided the citation, “Bosarte 1793”,
which did not figure in the general bibliography. See
Isidore Bosarte, Gabinete de lectura española o colección de
muchos papeles curiosos de escritores antiguos y modernos de
la nación (Madrid, 1793), p. 38. The Secretary of the
Academy points out similarities to the Velázquez from
the sacristy of San Plácido.
50. Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario histórico de
los más ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes en España, 6
vols. (Madrid: En la Imprenta de la Viuda de Ibarra,
1800), I, p. 220, notes that the Crucifix had already been
moved to one of the chapels.
51. Nicolás de la Cruz y Bahamonde, Conde de Maule,
Viage de España, Francia e Italia…, 14 vols. (Cadiz: En
la Imprenta de D. Manuel Bosch, 1813), XI, p. 31.
Álvarez Lopera thought it must have entered before the
War of Independence.
52. Wethey, Alonso Cano, p. 63. I believe that the first is from
before January 1643 and the second from before June
1644; José Manuel Cruz Valdovinos, “Alonso Cano
en Madrid,” in Arte y Cultura en la Granada renacentista y
barroca; relaciones e influencias, ed. José Policarpo Cruz,
(Granada: Universidad de Granada, 2014), pp. 200-201.
53. José Manuel Cruz Valdovinos, “Encargos y clientes de
Alonso Cano en la Corte de Felipe IV,” in Alonso Cano.
La modernidad del siglo de oro español, exh. cat. (Madrid:
Fundación Santander Central Hispano, 2002), pp.
79; Cruz Valdovinos, “Alonso Cano en Madrid,” pp.
195, 200.
54. I have not seen the example sold at Sotheby’s in April
1997, which measures 130 x 96 cm and could be the
same painting as this one.
55. Wethey, Alonso Cano, p. 73, n. 14, pl. 107.
56. J.J. Justicia Segovia, “Crucificado,” in Alonso Cano.
Espiritualidad, pp. 239-241.
57. Cruz Valdovinos, “Alonso Cano en Madrid,” p. 198.
58. Wethey, Alonso Cano, p. 79, n. 96, plate 106. I date
it ca. 1650 and do not include it on account of the
restorations that have left little of the original work.
Wethey probably allowed for the inclusion of a Cross
in its height.
59. Cruz Valdovinos, “Alonso Cano en Madrid,” p. 220.
60. María Concepción García Gainza, “Sobre el envío del
Cristo de Cano a Lecároz,” in Alonso Cano y su época,
Actas: Symposium Internacional, Granada, 14 -17 febrero 2002
(Seville: Consejería de Cultura, 2002), pp. 151-159.
61. Cruz Valdovinos, “Alonso Cano en Madrid,” pp. 197-198.
62. Aterido Fernández, Corpus, no. 514, 19-3-1726: “Otro
quadro de dos varas y media de alto y vara y media de
ancho de Cristo crucificado, original de Alphonso Cano
con marco negro y perfil dorado en mil y quinientos
reales de vellón.” (Another painting 2 ½ varas high and 1
½ wide, of Christ crucified, original work by Alphonso
Cano, in a black frame with gilded edge, 1500 reales.)
Given the profession and trajectory of the craftsman
from Madrid, this attribution should be accepted.
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