Domingo Martínez

Private collection, Hamilton, Ontario.

E. Valdivieso, "La Pintura en Sevilla durante la estancia de Isabel de Farnesio (1729 – 1733)", in Pinturas de la Colección de Isabel de Farnesio en el Museo del Prado, exhibition catalogue, Seville 1996, p. 25, reproduced;
E. Valdivieso, Pintura Barroca Sevillana, Seville 2003, pp. 543-544, reproduced plate 525;
B. Navarrete Prieto, "El Buen Uso de las Estampas...Pintura e Imagen impresa en la obra de Domingo Martínez", in Domingo Martínez en la estela de Murillo, exhibtion catalogue, Seville, Centro Cultural El Monte, 2004, p. 80, reproduced fig. 4.9.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The canvas is wax/resin lined and the paint surface is stable and flat and in a good condition. The figure is in a good untouched condition apart from minor augmentation to the mouth. The thinly painted sky has been strengthened where the warm ochre ground colour has become dominant, perhaps excessively so. The paint surface, particularly the texture, has been well preserved; overall, the painting is in a good original condition. Offered in an ornate gilt wood frame in good condition."
"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."

Diego Martínez was the dominant artist in Seville in the first half of the 18th century. On the recommendation of the court painter Jean Ranc in 1734 he was invited by Philip V to work at the court in Madrid, though he rejected the offer and chose to stay in Seville.

The present composition is based, in reverse, on an engraving by Jan van Troyen after a signed work by Francesco Bassano in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.¹ However, Martínez has made the composition his own: in the present work the boy is portrayed in a joyful mood, stopping to smile widely, while Bassano and Troyen show the boy concentrating on his recorder with a melancholic air. Moreover, both the engraving and Bassano's original have a dark background behind the boy, without the landscape which Martínez includes.

1. Inv. no. 279. See E Arslan, I Bassano, vol. I, Milan 1960, p. 225, reproduced vol. II, plate 259.