The Property of Carlos Alberto Cruz
Miguel Jerónimo and Jerónimo Francisco García (1576-1639/1644) | Spanish, Granada, circa 1630-1640 | Relief with Saint Jerome in Penitence
Lot Closed
July 6, 02:48 PM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
The Property of Carlos Alberto Cruz
Miguel Jerónimo and Jerónimo Francisco García (1576-1639/1644)
Spanish, Granada, circa 1630-1640
Relief with Saint Jerome in Penitence
polychromed terracotta, on a polychromed wood background, in a gilt and painted wood mount
inscribed: ALO. CO. FAT. / AO. 1633
the mount with a plaque inscribed: ALONSO CANO / 1801-1887
relief: 45 by 36.5cm., 17¾ by 14 3/8 in.
57 by 46cm., 22½ by 18 1/8 in. overall
Probably private collection, Madrid, before 1955;
certainly with Silvano Lodi, Milan, 1985;
Hans Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921-2002);
Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, inv. no. K5IF;
Sotheby's London 9 December 2005, lot 59;
where acquired by the present owner
certainly with Silvano Lodi, Milan, 1985;
Hans Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921-2002);
Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, inv. no. K5IF;
Sotheby's London 9 December 2005, lot 59;
where acquired by the present owner
Granada, Exposicion Alonso Cano, June 1954 (according to Wethey and Baker, op. cit.)
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2017-2019 (as Alonso Cano)
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2017-2019 (as Alonso Cano)
H. E. Wethey, Alonso Cano: Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Princeton, 1955, p. 199 (probably);
D. Sanchez-Mesa Martin, 'La Policromia en las esculturas de Cano', in Centenario de Alonso Cano en Granada, Granada, 1969-1970;
A. Radcliffe, M. Baker and M. Maek-Gérard, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Renaissance and later sculpture, London, 1992, pp. 432-434, no. 87;
M. García Luque, 'Un retrato biográfico de dos escultores en la sombra: los hermanos Miguel Jerónimo y Jerónimo Francisco García (1576-1639/1644)' in Archivo Español de Arte, XC (360), 2017, pp. 365-382
D. Sanchez-Mesa Martin, 'La Policromia en las esculturas de Cano', in Centenario de Alonso Cano en Granada, Granada, 1969-1970;
A. Radcliffe, M. Baker and M. Maek-Gérard, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Renaissance and later sculpture, London, 1992, pp. 432-434, no. 87;
M. García Luque, 'Un retrato biográfico de dos escultores en la sombra: los hermanos Miguel Jerónimo y Jerónimo Francisco García (1576-1639/1644)' in Archivo Español de Arte, XC (360), 2017, pp. 365-382
This important relief depicting the hermit Saint Jerome in a state of divine contemplation, with the lion at his feet, and priestly and scholarly accoutrements about him, is one of a group of polychromed terracotta reliefs which have been attributed to the twin brothers Miguel Jerónimo and Jerónimo Francisco García by Manuel García Luque (op. cit.).
The relief had previously been associated with Alonso Cano (1601-1667), one of the great Spanish Baroque artists. The Cruz St Jerome is likely to be the one which was exhibited at the 1954 Granada Cano exhibition, and which was subsequently published by Wethey, who argued against the Cano attribution. The Cruz relief was previously in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection and was published by Malcolm Baker as the work of a follower of Alonso Cano (op. cit., no. 87). Baker asserted that the signature and date: ALO. CO. FAT. / AO. 1633 were likely to be apocryphal, since the upper part of the inscription is seen to be separately applied under ultraviolet light and overlaps an adjoining plant; he also suggests that the date is later. A thermoluminescence test carried out by Doreen Stoneham from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford, in 1991, indicated a date of firing between 300 and 500 years prior to the test (i.e. between 1491 and 1691). Baker concludes that the Cruz relief is stylistically later than the 1630s and, rather, dates to the late 17th century.
Research published by Manuel García Luque has provided additional biographical information on the brothers Miguel Jerónimo and Jerónimo Francisco García, who were active in Granada in the first half of the 17th century. García Luque proposes that the present relief belongs to a small group of highly naturalistic devotional terracottas executed with the use of molds by the Hermanos García during their artistic maturity in the 1630s. The Cruz relief is very close to another in the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid (inv. no. CE1859) which similarly depicts St Jerome in a recumbent contemplative pose, although with certain compositional differences; the two reliefs were clearly made by the same hand. Significantly, the Valladolid St Jerome is dated Abril 1628 and inscribed 20 mayo (perhaps the first inscription is for the date of firing and the second for the date of the polychromy). García Luque suggests that both models are inspired by prints of St Jerome by Willem Isaacsz. van Swanenburg after Abraham Bloemaert (see, for example, the engraving of the same subject in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (1963.30.11804)). Prior to the publication of García Luque's research, the Valladolid St Jerome had been attributed to Alonso Cano (cf Guide: Museo Nacional Colegio de San Gregorio, Valladolid, 2003, p. 116). The fact that both the Valladolid St Jerome and the Cruz relief have respectively been attributed to Cano, one of the great Spanish Baroque artists, is a testament to the high quality of these artworks.
Miguel Jerónimo and Jerónimo Francisco García were born in the autumn of 1576, and baptised on 28 October of that year in the Sagrario parish of Granada. They were of the same generation as some of the greatest sculptors of the Spanish Golden Age, including Gregorio Fernández (1576-1636) and Juan Martínez Montañés (1568–1649). Their father Pedro García was a wealthy silk merchant, and the brothers donated works to their local church. Until recently, little was known about the Hermanos García, who have predominantly been associated with images of the Ecce Homo; one of their most important works is the Cristo de las Penas in the monastery of Cartuja (illustrated by García Luque, op. cit., fig. 4). However, through extensive research of Grenadian primary source material, García Luque has shown that the brothers were responsible for works with other subjects, including saints John and Jerome. García Luque argues for the small group of virtuoso devotional images of saints in polychromed terracotta with painted landscape backgrounds being late works by the Hermanos García based on stylistic grounds, comparable techniques (employed elsewhere by the García) and the inscribed dates on some of the groups, including the Valladolid example. Joining the Cruz and Valladolid reliefs are groups with the Infant Saint John and the Angel, Saint Peter, and the Magdalene (op. cit., pp. 380-281).
Following research, the present relief of St Jerome can be ascribed to the Hermanos García. However, the fact that both the Valladolid St Jerome and the Cruz example have respectively been attributed to Cano at different points in their recent histories is a testament to the high quality of these artworks, which are astonishing in their pictorial naturalism, plasticity and surface detail.
RELATED LITERATURE
M. Trusted, Spanish Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1998; J-L. Romero Torres, 'Los hermanos García: Sculptors, Painters and Brothers in Sixteenth-Century Granada: An examination of their work and the shift towards naturalism in Andalusian Baroque Sculpture' in The Mystery of Faith: An eye on Spanish Sculpture 1550-1750, exh. cat. The Matthiesen Gallery-Coll&Cortés, London, 2009, pp. 53-83; J. L Romero Torres, A. Pampoulides and E. Foster, Granada: The Mystic Baroque, exh. cat. Coll & Cortés, Madrid, p. 62-67
The relief had previously been associated with Alonso Cano (1601-1667), one of the great Spanish Baroque artists. The Cruz St Jerome is likely to be the one which was exhibited at the 1954 Granada Cano exhibition, and which was subsequently published by Wethey, who argued against the Cano attribution. The Cruz relief was previously in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection and was published by Malcolm Baker as the work of a follower of Alonso Cano (op. cit., no. 87). Baker asserted that the signature and date: ALO. CO. FAT. / AO. 1633 were likely to be apocryphal, since the upper part of the inscription is seen to be separately applied under ultraviolet light and overlaps an adjoining plant; he also suggests that the date is later. A thermoluminescence test carried out by Doreen Stoneham from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford, in 1991, indicated a date of firing between 300 and 500 years prior to the test (i.e. between 1491 and 1691). Baker concludes that the Cruz relief is stylistically later than the 1630s and, rather, dates to the late 17th century.
Research published by Manuel García Luque has provided additional biographical information on the brothers Miguel Jerónimo and Jerónimo Francisco García, who were active in Granada in the first half of the 17th century. García Luque proposes that the present relief belongs to a small group of highly naturalistic devotional terracottas executed with the use of molds by the Hermanos García during their artistic maturity in the 1630s. The Cruz relief is very close to another in the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid (inv. no. CE1859) which similarly depicts St Jerome in a recumbent contemplative pose, although with certain compositional differences; the two reliefs were clearly made by the same hand. Significantly, the Valladolid St Jerome is dated Abril 1628 and inscribed 20 mayo (perhaps the first inscription is for the date of firing and the second for the date of the polychromy). García Luque suggests that both models are inspired by prints of St Jerome by Willem Isaacsz. van Swanenburg after Abraham Bloemaert (see, for example, the engraving of the same subject in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (1963.30.11804)). Prior to the publication of García Luque's research, the Valladolid St Jerome had been attributed to Alonso Cano (cf Guide: Museo Nacional Colegio de San Gregorio, Valladolid, 2003, p. 116). The fact that both the Valladolid St Jerome and the Cruz relief have respectively been attributed to Cano, one of the great Spanish Baroque artists, is a testament to the high quality of these artworks.
Miguel Jerónimo and Jerónimo Francisco García were born in the autumn of 1576, and baptised on 28 October of that year in the Sagrario parish of Granada. They were of the same generation as some of the greatest sculptors of the Spanish Golden Age, including Gregorio Fernández (1576-1636) and Juan Martínez Montañés (1568–1649). Their father Pedro García was a wealthy silk merchant, and the brothers donated works to their local church. Until recently, little was known about the Hermanos García, who have predominantly been associated with images of the Ecce Homo; one of their most important works is the Cristo de las Penas in the monastery of Cartuja (illustrated by García Luque, op. cit., fig. 4). However, through extensive research of Grenadian primary source material, García Luque has shown that the brothers were responsible for works with other subjects, including saints John and Jerome. García Luque argues for the small group of virtuoso devotional images of saints in polychromed terracotta with painted landscape backgrounds being late works by the Hermanos García based on stylistic grounds, comparable techniques (employed elsewhere by the García) and the inscribed dates on some of the groups, including the Valladolid example. Joining the Cruz and Valladolid reliefs are groups with the Infant Saint John and the Angel, Saint Peter, and the Magdalene (op. cit., pp. 380-281).
Following research, the present relief of St Jerome can be ascribed to the Hermanos García. However, the fact that both the Valladolid St Jerome and the Cruz example have respectively been attributed to Cano at different points in their recent histories is a testament to the high quality of these artworks, which are astonishing in their pictorial naturalism, plasticity and surface detail.
RELATED LITERATURE
M. Trusted, Spanish Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1998; J-L. Romero Torres, 'Los hermanos García: Sculptors, Painters and Brothers in Sixteenth-Century Granada: An examination of their work and the shift towards naturalism in Andalusian Baroque Sculpture' in The Mystery of Faith: An eye on Spanish Sculpture 1550-1750, exh. cat. The Matthiesen Gallery-Coll&Cortés, London, 2009, pp. 53-83; J. L Romero Torres, A. Pampoulides and E. Foster, Granada: The Mystic Baroque, exh. cat. Coll & Cortés, Madrid, p. 62-67
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