Fray Nicolás Borrás

Possibly identifiable with a painting of the same subject listed by M.A. de Orellana as in the Hieronymite Monastery of Cotalba, Gandía;
In the collection of D. Melchor Ferrer y Lacosta (died 1846) and listed in his will under ‘Séptima’, item 94, as Joan de Joanes, valued at 3.334 reales;
In the collection of D. Rafael Ferrer Estelles, Valencia, by 1950;
Thence by descent to the present owner.

J. Soler, ‘Pintores de Ayer: Juan de Juanes, El Primer Gran Pintor Valenciano’, in Feria Mucitorio Internacional, Feriario Año XII, no. 14, May 1950, without pagination;
Nicolás Borrás Falcó (1530 – 1610), Palau Comtal – Cocentaina, 28 October - 30 April 2011, exh. cat., pp. 132 & 168, reproduced figure 36.

The support appears to consist of a single, stable panel cradled to the reverses. The paint surface is superb and in very good, original condition. There is a vertical line of blistering in the paint surface upper left running though the edge of the architecture approx. 7 cm. long but this is unobtrusive and the paint shows no signs of further lifting or flaking. There is an old restored damage of approx. 4 cm squared upper left in the top right of the architecture. Inspection under UV light reveals retouching works to the aforementioned damage; to the lowest fern painted in the architecture upper left; to the red dress of the upper left angel and a retouching of 1 cm long to the left of the Virgin’s forehead. Overall there is little later intervention and the painting is in very good condition. Offered in a carved gilt wood and plaster frame in good condition.
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Nicolás Borrás was a Valencian priest and painter and who trained under the older Valencian artist Vincente Maçip. He was only 20 when his master died but his works continued to be influenced by Maçip’s style throughout his career. He was deeply religious and whilst active as a priest in the Monastery of Saint Jerome, Gandía he painted the high altar of the church and twelve other altarpieces for the monastery.  In 1575 he joined the monastic community and continued to paint both within the monastery and for patrons outside the cloisters in and around Valencia.  

The painting may be identifiable with a work of the same subject described by the Valencian biographer Marcos Antonio de Orellana as in the Hieronymite Monastery of Cotalba in Gandía: "Es asunto del insinuado Retablo, que está en el Oratorio de la Granja, es Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles, poco menor del natural rodeada de muchos ángeles con diversos instrumentos, dándole música, con su maestro de capilla guiando el compás, todo bien historiado."¹

The present composition by Borrás was repeated at a later date by Cristobal Llorens, albeit with some changes, in the upper register of the altarpiece of the Church of the Assumption in Alacuás.²

1.  See M.A. de Orellana, Biografiá Pictórica,  ed. X. de Salas, Valencia 1967, p. 87.
2.  See F. Benito Doménech, Los Ribalta y la Pintura Valenciana de su tiempo, Valencia 1987, pp.54-61.