Colnaghi Foundation Journal 03 - Magazine - Page 197
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Onofre Falcó, a Spanish Renaissance master
Onofre Falcó, a Spanish Renaissance master
Sixteenth-century Valencia saw the production of a
number of paintings of circular format, including
examples by Joan de Joanes: The Visitation and the
Martyrdom of Saint Agnes ( Madrid, Museo Nacional
del Prado); The Annunciation in the Fernando Durán
collection; and the busts of Saint Paul and Saint Peter
in the San Antón, Santa Bárbara, y Santos Médicos t in the
parish church of Onda.39 Other examples appear in
Falcó’s oeuvre, including the two paintings published
here for the first time depicting The Annunciation (fig. 18)
and the Adoration of the Shepherds (fig. 19).
Another work that can be attributed to the artist was
formerly in the Argudín collection and is known from
a photograph in the Moreno Archive (inv. 03017-A).
Captioned “Saint”, it may depict an Apostle ( James
the Lesser) in a landscape (fig. F). Absorbed in his
reading, the saint is shown seated and holding a club
in a landscape with ruins that include the Pyramid of
Cestius in Rome, which Falcó included in other works,
as did Joan de Joanes.
Fig. 18 / Onofre Falcó, Annunciation (present
location unknown).
Fig. 19 / Onofre Falcó, Adoration of the
Shepherds (present location unknown).
Fig. F / Onofre Falcó, “Saint" (perhaps
corresponds with apostle Santiago el Menor
in the countryside), Photo Moreno, Instituto
del Patrimonio Cultural de España, MCD.
Fig. 20 / Onofre Falcó, Virgin with Child, oil
on panel, 43.5 x 34.5 cm, Madrid, Private
Collection.
Falcó must have produced numerous easel paintings in
order to meet the demand for private devotional works
depicting the Holy Family or the Virgin and Child,
as in the case of his contemporary Joan de Joanes.
Notable examples among Falcó’s works of this kind
are an unpublished Virgin and Child (fig. 20) formerly
in the collection assembled by Antonio de la Cuadra
Echeveste in the mid-nineteenth century. It includes
a typical landscape with blue-toned mountains and
classical ruins with obelisks.
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