Circle of VICENTE CARDUCHO (Florence, 1576 or 1978 - Madrid, 1638). "Saint Paul. Oil on canvas. Size: 134 x 76 cm; 144 x 86 cm (frame).

About Auction

Live

OLD MASTERS

By Setdart Auction House

Oct 20, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-10-20 07:30:00 2021-10-20 07:30:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : OLD MASTERS https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/old-masters-7700
Setdart Auction House sofia@setdart.com

View Full Catalog (168)

• Lot Description
  Circle of VICENTE CARDUCHO (Florence, 1576 or 1978 - Madrid, 1638). "Saint Paul. Oil on canvas. Size: 134 x 76 cm; 144 x 86 cm (frame). Saint Paul acquires in this painting a monumental canon. Represented in full body, barefoot, with classical tunic and mantle, his head appears bordered with a nimbus. He holds the martyr's back in his left hand and the Scriptures in his right. The figure is set in a landscape with a low horizon, worked with faded colours in the Flemish tradition, with plains and mountains bluish due to the effect of the distance. The low position of the horizons, which creates a narrow ground plane and ample space for the sky, and which is also in keeping with the low viewpoint that monumentalises the figures, has a certain scenographic sense, distinctly Baroque, which allows the sky to rise up like a backdrop, focusing the attention on the figure. All these are formal and stylistic solutions that have notable concomitants with the work of the painter Vicente Carducho, with his concern with colour and light, and his personal assimilation of the Flemish, Italian and Velázquez style. Vicente Carducho was a painter and treatise writer of Italian origin, although his artistic activity took place in Spain, specifically in the Madrid school. He trained as a painter of frescoes and altarpieces in which he reflected a language halfway between classicism and post-Renaissance mannerism. His first major work, the Preaching of Saint John the Baptist for the Monastery of San Francisco in Madrid, was understood to be a very daring piece for the time, a fact that indicates Carducho's importance within the complex journey through the history of art. Following the death of his brother Bartolomé Carduchó, a painter at the court of Philip II in Spain, Vicente was commissioned to decorate one of the galleries of the Royal Palace of El Pardo, producing works depicting the exploits of Achilles. He later began his career as court painter to Philip III, collaborating on important works such as the High Altar of the Monastery of Guadalupe (Cáceres) and the altarpiece of the Monastery of the Incarnation (Madrid). Until the arrival of Velázquez, he was the most influential representative of the Madrid school in painting, thus exposing his artistic conceptions and being the master of artists such as Francisco Fernández, Pedro de Obregón, Francisco Collantes, Bartolomé Román and Félix Castello. The Madrid Baroque school emerged around the court of first Philip IV and then Charles II, and developed throughout the 17th century, continuing well into the 18th. Analysts of this school have insisted on considering its development as a result of the binding power of the court; what is truly decisive is not the place of birth of the different artists, but the fact that they were educated and worked around and for a nobiliary and religious clientele based next to the royals. This allowed and encouraged a stylistic unity, even if there were the logical divergences due to the personalities of those involved. This was an awakening of the nationalist conscience as it allowed a liberation from the previous Italianate moulds and a leap from the last echoes of Mannerism to Tenebrism. This was the first step taken by the school, which gradually progressed towards a more autochthonous Baroque language linked to the political, religious and cultural conceptions of the Habsburg monarchy, before dying out with the first outbreaks of Rococo, which became apparent in the work of the last of its representatives, A. Palomino. Stylistically, the starting point was a naturalism with a notable capacity for synthesis, leading in due course to the allegorical and formal complexity characteristic of the decorative Baroque.
• Shipping Info

  • In-house shipping available. Please inquire at admin@setdart.com.

• Buyer's Premium
  • 22.00 %