Fernando Yañez de la Almedina Born in Almedina, flourished 1506 - 1531

Private collection, Spain, since the 1970s;
From whom acquired by the present owner in 1999.

The original is a little warmer and richer in tone than as shown in the catalogue illustration. The support consists of a single panel, approx 0.6cm in width, which is cradled on the reverse. The panel has been trimmed by just over 1cm at the upper horizontal margin. The upper right corner and a strip (of width 1cm) of the extreme vertical right margin has suffered substantial loss but has been subsequently restored. There is a part-restored vertical surface split to the panel that begins to the left of the Virgin's right eye and continues to the christ child's right knee. There is a restored damage to the basket, further minor restored damages to the Christ child's belly and retouching up the left hand vertical edge. There is some retouching along the afore-mentioned surface split. There is a retouching to Christ's nose and right shoulder but otherwise both faces have largely escaped interference. Inspection under ultra-violet light reveals some retouchings to the sky and landscape and minor further retouchings to the drapery. Sold with a tabernacle frame, in good condition. AF*
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This rare work by the Valencian Fernando Yañez encapsulates the powerful influence of Florentine painting, and in particular that of Leonardo da Vinci, on artists across Europe during the early sixteenth century. It is inspired by Leonardo's famous Madonna of the Yarnwinder, the original version of which is now lost but can be dated to 1501 when it is the subject of a letter from Pietro da Novellara to Isabella d'Este dated 14 April 1501; Leonardo's original was painted for Florimond Robertet, secretary to the King of France and two possible secondary versions exist, one recently stolen from Drumlanrig Castle and the other in a New York private collection. So strong is Leonardo's influence on his art, it is thought that Yañez must have trained in Italy in the early years of the 16th century and perhaps even in the workshop of Leonardo himself; in 1505 a 'Fernando Spagnuolo' is recorded as working on the cartoon for Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari (destroyed; copy in the Uffizi, Florence). 

Along with Fernando Llanos, Yañez was the leading painter in Valencia of his day; together they received the commission for the high altar of Valencia cathedral, which they executed from 1507 to 1510, but after this there is no documentary evidence of further collaboration. Both artists used the Madonna and Child from Leonardo's Madonna of the Yarnwinder as the basis for several works; in a work in Buenos Aires, Grether collection, for example, Yañez removes the yarnwinder from Christ's grasp and adds St. Joseph to the background thus creating a Holy Family.¹  As Yañez does with the present work, Llanos repeats the Yarnwinder  with a panel now in Murcia, Museo de Bellas Artes.²  With all these works, differences to Leonardo's original are minor and are usually limited to the clothing and landscape.

Although it can be difficult to distinguish between the two artists, so alike are their styles, the physiognomies of each artist's Madonnas are subtly different and the present work compares extremely closely with the Grether Holy family which appears to be signed and dated on the reverse Hernandiañes año 1523. Yañez, who is considered the more gifted of the two, achieves a greater sense of depth with his more accomplished use of the Leonardesque sfumato, giving his figures a monumentality and serenity that is perhaps missing from those of Llanos.

We are grateful to Dr. Fernando Benito Domenech for tentatively endorsing the attribution to Fernando Yañez on the basis of a photograph.

1  See C. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, vol. XI, Cambridge (Mass.) 1953, p. 242, reproduced fig. 90.
2  See F.B. Domenech, Los Hernandos, exhibition catalogue, Valencia 1998, pp. 144-47, cat. no. 21.