Lot 28
  • 28

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 GBP
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Description

  • Bartolomé Estebán Murillo
  • Saint John the Evangelist
  • oil on canvas

Provenance

Church of Santa María la Blanca, Capilla del Santísimo, Seville;

Miguel Rosillo y Ortiz de Cañavete (1878–1950), Conde de Rosillo, 1920; 

By descent until recently.

 

Condition

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Bartolome Esteban Murillo. St. John the Evangelist. This painting has a quite recent lining and recent narrow Spanish stretcher. The present restoration is also quite recent. There is a very fine inner craquelure, but also a more general horizontal craquelure suggesting that the painting was rolled at one time. The beautiful conservation of the paint throughout seems to reflect a calm early history in a stable atmosphere, with various slightly more recent largely superficial retouchings, but minimal early intervention, preserving the rich luminosity and texture of the brushwork. The deep shadows have remained unworn, with some older varnish visible under ultra violet light, and with the subtle half tones in the modelling of the head and the drapery intact. Ultra violet light also shows a few scattered recent retouchings: some minor retouching around the edges, including in the top corners, one or two small touches in the neck, where there is also a little slightly fractured paint, a few touches in the red lower left drapery, one slightly larger retouching beneath the book, with a smaller retouching above in the far right of the sleeve. A few rather older retouchings can be found in the blue drapery at centre left, with some curious surface hatching in the drapery near the lower right corner where a vague patch of shading may have simply darkened over time, and some slightly streaky rubbed places in the collar. Old minute flaking has not been filled in various areas, but the paint appears stable and secure overall. Quite early touches or possible pentimenti can be seen in the open pages of the book, while the writing is immaculately unworn and intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

This recently discovered painting of Saint John the Evangelist is an early work by the leading painter in Seville in the middle of the 17th century, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. It is typical of his first style which still shows the influence of his teacher Juan del Castillo and which is notable for a richness of colour, strong modelling and, often, stark chiaroscuro. As his career progressed his modelling would turn softer and his palette lighter. Saint John the Evangelist is shown with his attribute the eagle which symbolises the height he rose to in his Gospel. His eyes are raised skywards to meet the heavenly shaft of light above.

Murillo’s early style differs markedly from that of his later years. In the loosest sense of the term some of his earlier works could be classed as Caravaggesque, often with an emphasis on pronounced modelling achieved through a single, strong source of light from the side, casting dark shadows that contrast sharply with those parts that catch the light. Here the white pages of the book are angled towards the light source above and to the right, as is St John’s face. Murillo however was experimental such that he by no means exclusively employed such dark settings; the protagonists of his three earliest altarpieces, for example, are in fact offset by bright backgrounds filled with flatly illuminated putti.1 They do however all have in common an earthiness of tone and execution that gradually transforms into a sweeter, brushier style as the years progress. The present work, more private in nature than the large public altarpieces of the 1640s, may be compared to other starkly lit works from the 1640s, such as the series of canvases in the Claustro de San Francisco el Chico,2 or the small canvases depicting St. Thomas Aquinas and San Buenaventura.3

1. See E. Valdivieso, Murillo. Catálogo Razonado de Pinturas, Madrid 2010, nos 2–4, reproduced p. 255–57.

2. Valdivieso 2010, nos 6–16, reproduced pp. 259–71.

3. Valdivieso 2010, nos 32 and 33, reproduced p. 284.