Juan de Valdés Leal Seville 1622 - 1690

Seville, Exposicion Ibero-Americana, 1928, no. 48;
Seville, Exposición Ibero-Americana, 1929, no. 69;
Seville, Museo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Museo del Prado, Valdes Leal, 1990, no. 32.

Inventory of the picture collection of Don Nicolás Omazur, 15 January 1690 (Archivo de Protocolos de Sevilla, oficio 16, 1690, libro I, fol. 777), inv. no. 37;
Inventory of the picture collection of Don Nicolás Omazur, 26 June and 8 July 1698 (Archivo de Protocolos de Sevilla, oficio 16, 1698, libro II, fols 387), inv. no. 80;
A.L. Mayer, La Pintura Española, Barcelona 1928, p. 283;
M. Trens, La Eucaristía en el arte español, Barcelona 1952, p. 19;
J. Gudiol, 'La peinture de Valdés Leal et sa valuer picturale', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, VI, L, 1957, p. 132, as painted circa 1655;
D.T. Kinkead, Juan de Valdés Leal, His Life and Work, New York and London 1978, pp. 122 and 378-79, cat. no. 58, reproduced figure 56, as dateable circa 1656;
D. T. Kinkead, 'The Picture Collection of Don Nicolás Omazur', in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXVIII, no. 995, February 1986, pp. 137, 139 (no. 37) and 142 (no. 80);
E. Valdivieso, Historia de la Pintura Sevillana, Seville 1986, p. 268.
E. Valdivieso, Juan de Valdés Leal, Seville 1988, p. 239, cat. no. 62, reproduced p. 94, plate 65;
Valdés Leal, exhibition catalogue, Seville, Museo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1990, pp. 140-41, cat. no. 32,  reproduced.

This dramatic representation of The Sacrifice of Isaac is by the last of the great Baroque painters of Seville, Juan de Valdés Leal. The painting constitutes a masterpiece from the beginning of the artist's mature style, painted circa 1657-59, and represents one of the finest achievements of his career. Its quality of execution and powerful narrative, coupled with its distinguished provenance, having belonged to the great 17th century collector Don Nicolás Omazur, marks it as one of the greatest works by the artist remaining in private hands.

Juan de Valdés Leal was born in Seville on 4 May 1622. He is next documented in Córdoba in 1647, where he remained until his return to his native city in 1650. His early work from his Cordoban period is characterised by a dark palette and rigidity to the figures, consistent with painting in the city at that time. On his arrival in Seville however he was strongly influenced by the work of Francisco de Herrera the Elder and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (who was five years his elder), as demonstrated in his painting of The Death of Saint Clare, signed and dated 1653, painted as the last of a series of scenes illustrating the life of the Saint for the Franciscan convent in Carmona, which derives from a composition by Murillo (now in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden), but in handling is more indebted to the work of Herrera. Valdés Leal returned to Córdoba in 1654, where the following year he was commissioned to paint the high altar of the church of the Carmelitas Descalzas, his only retablo still remaining in its original setting today. He is believed to have visited Madrid in preparation for this commission, and his absorbtion of the work of Titian, Tintoretto, Rubens and leading Spanish painters of the day, lead to the development of the artist's mature style, evident in his painting of the central canvas of the retablo, representing The Ascension of Elijah (see Valdés Leal, exh. cat., under Literature, pp. 86-87, reproduced ). By 1656 the artist had returned to Sevillle where he would largely remain for the remainder of his life.

The present work can be dated soon after the artist's return to Seville in 1656 and is painted in his newly developed mature style, which is  characterised by a lightening of the palette, an openness of composition, and a lightness of brushwork. It is dated by Valdivieso (see Literature) to circa 1657-59. The painting in every respect embodies the essence of the high baroque in Seville, a movement principally identified with the work of Valdés Leal's near-contemporary, Murillo. The scene is a key event in the Old Testament, in which the faith of the great Hebrew patriarch undergoes the ultimate test, and as a result of his unshakeable belief in God leads to the proliferation of his line. The artist has chosen to depict the moment of highest drama, when the angel stays the hand of Abraham who is on the point of slaying his only son, saying 'Now I know that you are a God-fearing man. You have not withheld me from your son' (Genesis, chapter 22, verses 12).

Valdés Leal's extraordinary representation of the human drama and immediacy of the event is heightened through the dynamic construction of the composition and the artist's depiction of life-size figures. The narrative is conveyed through the dramatic poses of the three protagonists, as well as the contrasting expressions of their faces: on the left the heavenly angel rushes in, hair and drapery billowing in the wind as he stretches out to interrupt Abraham, whose knife is raised in tragic resignation to his task; his left hand tenderly rests on the raised rib cage of his own flesh and blood Isaac, whose contorted figure and facial expression reveals the true horror of the scene. The overall construction of the composition is both dynamic and remarkable. It is conceived upon two converging diagonals: one running from lower right along the figure of Isaac and up through the left wing of the angel to the upper left corner; the other beginning from the ram lower left, along the body of the angel, through the right arm and head of Abraham to the upper right corner. At the same time the heads of the three protagonists are arranged in an inverted triangle in the centre of the composition, with the eye being lead in to the dynamic circular movement of the picture through the body of the angel, along his right arm to the figure of Abraham, through his left arm to the figure of Isaac and then back to the angel, whose left arm ushers the viewer's gaze to the image of the ram caught in the thicket lower left. The extraordinary movement and rhythm within the scene is complemented by a subtle palette of soft tones, punctuated by the vibrant yellow and red of the angel's drapery, and an extrarodinary attention to detail, such as the realistic depiction of the ram and the burning vessel in the corners of the foreground. The painting in many respects can be compared closely to the artist's other celebrated work given by Valdivieso to the same date, circa 1657-59, The Liberation of Saint Peter, in Seville Cathedral (see Valdes Leal, exh. cat., under Literature, pp. 136-139, reproduced).

Although not noted in the 1990 exhibitions on Valdés Leal in Seville and Madrid, the present painting is almost certainly identifiable with a picture in the collection of the eminent collector Don Nicolas Omazur, who lived in Seville during the second half of the 17th century. Omazur was a Flemish merchant who amassed one of the most significant collections of paintings in Spain during the 17th century. The collection incorporated the largest number of works by Murillo ever held by a single collector (no fewer than 31), which included portraits of the patron and his wife Doña Isabel Malcampo - see, for example, the portrait of Omazur by Murillo, dated 1672, now in the Museo del Prado. He also owned many other works by the leading Sevillian painters of the day, including Velázquez, Alonso Cano, Jusepe de Ribera and Francisco Herrera the Younger. Omazur clearly highly esteemed the work of Valdés Leal, for he owned at least seven works by the artits (one of the largest collections of his work yet documented), and the present work appears to be recorded in both of his surviving inventories. The first, in which he proudly lists all of the names of the artists and schools, was drawn up on 15th January 1690, which lists under inventory number 37 (see 1690 inventory, under Literature):

'Yten un quadro g^de del Sacrifisio de Abraham y Ysaac con, su moldura de ojas de laurel dorada original del dho Valdes.'

Following Omazur's death on 2nd June 1698, a second inventory was drawn up on 26th June and 8th July of that year, which omits in most cases the names of the artists, but records under number 80 (see 1698 inventory, under Literature):

'Yten un quadro del Sacrificio de Abraham de tres baras y media de ancho y dos y media de altto con moldura dorada.'

Despite the author of the painting being unspecified it seems, given the measurements listed, that this is almost certainly identifiable with the present work. Although the portrait in the Museo del Prado of Don Nicolas Omazur (in which he holds a skull) suggests that the eminent collector was aware of the ephemeral nature of fame and wealth, it seems fitting that this great painting, which once formed part of his distinguished collection, is still preserved today as a testament to the school which he so avidly collected. Then, as now, it represents one of the finest examples of the Sevillian High Baroque to be remain within a private collection.