Miguel March

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Christie's, 2 December 1983, lot  31;

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 23 January 2004, lot 8, for US$125,100.

A.E. Pérez Sánchez, Pintura Barroca en España (1600 – 1750), Madrid 1992, p. 264;

P. Cherry, Arte y Naturaleza, Madrid 1999, p. 279, reproduced p. 277, fig. 206.

The canvas has a relatively recent lining. The overall impression of the painting is positive. The paint surface is quite well preserved in parts though it is affected by significant abrasion in the dark areas of shadow and in the sky. Clearly it has been the subject of a thorough recent restoration. There are a number of restored damages, most of which are around the margins. Some of the faces have been retouched and strengthened in parts, particularly those of Painting in the lower left and the angel. There is an uneven layer of varnish. Sold with a gilt frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."

"he was an excellent draughtsman and handled colour beautifully." Antonio Palomino

 

This rare depiction of The Liberal Arts within Spanish painting is by the hand of Miguel March, an artist working in Valencia, on the eastern seaboard of Spain, during the mid-17^thcentury. According to Palomino the painter produced battle scenes in the tradition of his father, Esteban March, but was more diversified in his choice of subject matter. The modest corpus of work by his hand to survive today consists predominantly of still lifes and, above all, allegorical scenes, of which the present work can rightly be considered the artist’s masterpiece.

 

The attribution of the work to March is predicated on the basis of its clear stylistic affinities with four allegorical scenes today in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia representing Hearing, Sight, Taste and Time – the first of which is clearly signed ‘Miguel Marc F.’ (see fig. 1).¹ The figure seated in the lower right corner of our painting recurs in the artist’s Allegory of Sight and all of the paintings share in common a similar dry handling of paint and rigidity to the figures, who are often depicted in profile.

 

Although little documentation survives concerning the life of Miguel March, who according to Palomino died ‘in the flower of his life’, the Valencian biographer Marco Antonio Orellana (1731 – 1813) recounts that the artist travelled to Italy during the 1650s.² Certainly his figure types suggest a direct knowledge of the paintings of Ribera and other Neapolitan masters, whilst the figure of Music seen here recalls the models employed by Francisco de Zurbarán in his processional female saints. From his apparent predilection for depicting intellectual subject matter however, it would seem that March was an artist of some education, as suggested by the present work and its companion piece representing an allegorical scene of Peasants mocking an Old Man, which remained in the same collection as the Allegory of Liberal Arts until they were dispersed at auction in New York in 2004.³  Dr. Peter Cherry was the first to point out that the elderly figure in the companion picture recalls the ancient philosophers depicted by Ribera, such as Diogenes and Epictetus, and in the catalogue to the exhibition La Gloria del Barroco, held in Valencia in 2009/10, José Gómez Frechina convincingly identified the philosopher as Diogenes of Sinope, who made a life of extreme poverty and austerity a virtue and of whom his namesake Diogenes Laercio remarked that he considered music, geometry, astrology and other arts entirely worthless and futile.⁴ This would seem to explain the pairing of the two subjects by March, no doubt at the request of a highly educated patron, familiar with classical texts.

 

During classical antiquity an education in the Liberal Arts was considered essential for a free person (citizen) to take an active part in civic life. Even during the 17^th century the study of the liberal arts, or a humanistic education, remained the ideal educational foundation for the educated classes and the basis to produce a virtuous, knowledgeable and articulate individual. The Liberal Arts are made up of the Trivium – Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic – and the Quadrivium – Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy, each depicted with their individual attributes in this rare representation of the subject by Miguel March.

We are grateful to Dr. José Gómez Frechina for endorsing the attribution to Miguel March.

 

1. See Pintura Española de Bodegones y Floreros de 1600 a Goya, exhibition catalogue, Madrid 1983, pp. 138-9, nos. 117-120, reproduced.

2. See M. A. Orellana, Biografía pictórica valentina o vida de los pintores, arquitectos, escultores y grabadores valencianos, Valencia 1967. 

3. Peasants mocking an Old Man, oil on canvas, 152 by 175 cm.. The painting was sold New York, Christie’s, 23 January 2004, lot 9.

4. See La Gloria del Barroco, exhibition catalogue, Valencia 2009, pp. 222-23, no. 33.