Johannes Hispanus Acitve in central and southern Italy at the beginning of the 16th century

Anonymous sale, Zurich, Galerie Koller, where acquired by the late father of the present owner in 1972.

F. Zeri, "Me Pinxit. Ioanes Hispanus", in Proporzioni, vol. II, 1948, p. 175, n.6, reproduced fig. 208;
Reprinted in Giorno per giorno nella pittura. Scritti sull'arte nell' Italia settentrionale dal Trecento al primo Cinquecento, Turin 1988, p. 346, footnote 6, reproduced fig. 276;
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School, London 1957, vol. I, p. 166, reproduced plate 557 (as Antonio Solario);
J. Albi, Joan de Joanes y su círculo artístico, Valencia 1979, vol. I, pp. 284 ff., reproduced vol. II, plate LXII (as 'Johannes Hispanus?');
M. Tanzi, "Ioanes Hispanus, cinquant'anni dopo", in Ioannes Ispanus. La pala di Viadana. Tracce di classicismo precoce lungo la valle del Po, exhibition catalogue, Viadane 2000, p. 86, reproduced fig. 61 (with reservations about the attribution to Hispanus; an opinion more recently revised by the author in a forthcoming article in which the painting is attributed to Hispanus).

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been transferred from panel to canvas some time ago. There has been a little retouching since then, mainly on the right side of the face of the Madonna, but the rather older restoration elsewhere remains comparatively well integrated. This is largely concentrated in the sky, and in the upper part of the painting, with filled losses coming down from the fairly fractured top edge into the red of the canopy in places, with a wider loss in the upper centre of the sky narrowing as it descends, with a circular filling below it just above the centre of the horizon. The upper right cloudier side of the sky is widely retouched. The right side of the Madonna's face has many losses, and there are various other smaller retouchings in her neck. The Child has fewer scattered, smaller, retouched fillings, with even fewer losses in the face of St. Dorothy, and her yellow robe is magnificently intact. In general the lower half of the painting is rather well preserved, for instance the lovely drapery of the sleeve around the lower hand of the Madonna, but there are also almost perfect areas higher up, such as the landscape, the green curtain, and details such as the fine veil around the Child and the nearly intact veil of the Virgin, which seems to have only lost a few flakes near the middle, as well as St. Dorothy's beautifully preserved basket of apples and roses. 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."

The artist takes his name from a panel of the Deposition in the Saibene collection in Milan, which is signed IOANES ISPANUS.P. ¹  On the basis of this, Federico Zeri was the first to construct a possible oeuvre of some ten works which he attributed to this hand, whom he considered to have been active in central and southern Italy at the very beginning of the 16th century. Of these, the present work is certainly by the same hand as that responsible for a Madonna and Child with Saints Dorothy and Anthony Abbot listed by Zeri as formerly in a London private collection.²  Very similar models are used for the Madonna and Saint Dorothy in both paintings, while the latter holds an identical basket. The highly detailed landscape, with its distinctive rocky crags is also the same. The style of these works combines a Spanish naturalism with Italian influences, such as the Florentines Sebastiano Mainardi and Piero di Cosimo, as well as more northern painters under the influence of Antonella da Messina, and in particular Antonio Solario (fl. 1495-1520). The latter's signed Madonna and Child with donor in Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, is, for example, extremely close to the present work, and led Berenson and others to attribute the present painting to his hand.³  This and Spain's connections to the Kingdom of Naples might also suggest that Johannes worked for while in that city. The undeniably close similarities between these and other works of Solario would certainly suggest that Johannes, like Solario, spent some time in the Marches. A specific identity, however, remains elusive. His Spanish origins led first Longhi⁴ and later Albi to speculate whether he might be the young Juan de Borgoña (fl. 1495-1535), whose work in Avila and Burgos display a similar combination of Italian influences, and whose Deposition in the cathedral at Toledo is very similar to the Saibene panel.⁵

We are grateful to Prof. Lino Moretti, Dott. Andrea de Marchi and Prof. Marco Tanzi for their help with this catalogue entry.  Prof. Tanzi will be publishing the painting again in a forthcoming article in the journal of the Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona. All three support an attribution for this painting to Hispanus, while Prof. Peter Humfrey and Prof. Mauro Lucco endorse an attribution to Solario (on the basis of photographs).

1  Reproduced in Zeri, under Literature, fig. 269.
2  Zeri, op. cit., reproduced fig. 275.
3  See B. Berenson, under Literature, vol. I, pp. 165-66, reproduced plates 551, 554, 556 and 558.
4  R. Longhi, Officina Ferrarese, Rome 1934, p. 129.
5  See I. Mateo Gómez, Juan de Borgoña, Madrid 2004, p. 136, reproduced.