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The Dealer's Eye | London

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 26. ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ  | FOUR PANELS FROM AN ALTARPIECE WITH EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST: THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT ST JOHN; THE PREACHING OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST; THE VISITATION; SALOME WITH THE HEAD OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST.

PROPERTY FROM SAM FOGG LTD, LONDON

ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ | FOUR PANELS FROM AN ALTARPIECE WITH EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST: THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT ST JOHN; THE PREACHING OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST; THE VISITATION; SALOME WITH THE HEAD OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

Lot Closed

June 25, 01:24 PM GMT

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

PROPERTY FROM SAM FOGG LTD, LONDON

ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ

Valladolid circa 1485 - after 1563

FOUR PANELS FROM AN ALTARPIECE WITH EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST: THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT ST JOHN; THE VISITATION; THE PREACHING OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST; SALOME WITH THE HEAD OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST


all oil on pine, gold ground, three unframed

unframed: each 59.5 x 46 cm.; 23 3/8 x 18 1/8 in.

framed (1): 65.5 x 52.5 cm.; 25 3/4 x 20 5/8 in.

(4)


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López Isar, Madrid, c. 1920–30;

Félix Valdés, Bilbao, c. 1940;

Private collection, Spain, since 1950;

By whom offered ('Property from a Private Collection, Spain'), London, Sotheby's, 7 July 2011, lot 263 (as Antonio Vázquez), for £50,000;

Where acquired by the present owner.

C.R. Post, The Beginning of the Renaissance in Castile and Leon, A History of Spanish Painting, vol. IX, part II, Cambridge (Mass.) 1947, pp. 626, 629–30, reproduced p. 628, fig. 249 (as the Mambrillas Master);

J. Urrea, 'Contribución al catálogo del pintor Antonio Vázquez', Boletín del Museo Nacional de Escultura, 4, 2000, pp. 11 and 13, reproduced p. 12 (as Antonio Vázquez);

A. Velasco Gonzàlez, Retablos: Spanish Paintings from 14th to 16th centuries, exh. cat., Sam Fogg, London, and Caylus, Madrid 2019–20, under no. 19, pp. 170–73, reproduced in colour p. 171.

"Painted almost 500 years ago in Castile, in Spain, these exceptionally well preserved, colourful scenes are the principal panels from a once larger altarpiece (‘retablo’) dedicated to St John the Baptist. Like most Castillian paintings of this date, they are strongly influenced by Flemish art, but beautifully rendered details such as the gilded, punched and decorated brocade cloth of honour, draperies and halos, make them uniquely Spanish."


Alex Bell


In excellent condition, this set of Castillian Renaissance paintings by Antonio Vázquez, who was active principally in Valladolid in the first half of the sixteenth century, are datable to the 1530s. The sole securely documented work by him of 1536 is an extant retable made for the Alderete family chapel in the church of El Salvador, Simancas, that serves as an important point of reference for stylistic comparisons with the present panels, which are thought to predate it. In 2000 Jesús Urrea published them as the work of Antonio Vázquez; and at the time of the 2011 sale, Isabel Mateo Gómez endorsed the attribution to this master on the basis of photographs. The panels, which all depict scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist, would once have formed part of a large-scale retable, possibly flanking a central wooden sculpture or a larger painted panel.1 The ensemble also comprised several smaller panels, now dispersed, that were part of the banco. These were separated from one another at some point and have since lost their framing elements. In one of them, the presence alongside Saint Elizabeth of Hungary of a donor figure, perhaps a Franciscan nun, may indicate, as Post was first to suggest, that the altarpiece came from a convent of the order, probably in the area of Valladolid.2



1 For a possible main panel see A. Padrón Mérida, 'Nuevas pinturas de Antonio Vázquez', Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, 57, 1991, pp. 357–60, plate II, fig. 1, although this may relate instead to three panels published by J.C. Brasas, 'Antonio Vázquez: Nuevas adiciones a su obra', Boletín del Museo Nacional de Escultura, 3, 1998–99, pp. 19–22.

2 Six other panels from this ensemble are known: St Francis of Assisi; The Lamentation; St Elizabeth of Hungary with a donor; Saint Christopher; The Adoration of the Magi (each 43.5 x 35 cm.); and an Immaculate Conception (dimensions not known; its square format suggests it may have formed part of the banco). These are discussed by Velasco Gonzàlez in London and Madrid 2019–20, pp. 168–73, no. 19; for reproductions, see Urrea 2000, pp. 12 and 14. Photographs in the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España record the Immaculate Conception with the other panels when still in the collection of López Isar, Madrid, c. 1920–30, and subsequently with at least five that were later owned by Félix Valdés, Bilbao, c. 1940. By the time of the 2011 sale the Immaculate Conception no longer formed part of the ensemble.