SALVADOR MAYOL (Barcelona, 1765 - 1834). "The Slaughter of the Innocents. Oil on canvas. Signed with initials. Size: 144 x 118 cm; 164 x 138 cm (f

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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
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• Lot Description
  SALVADOR MAYOL (Barcelona, 1765 - 1834). "The Slaughter of the Innocents. Oil on canvas. Signed with initials. Size: 144 x 118 cm; 164 x 138 cm (frame). Salvador Mayol stages the biblical story of the Slaughter of the Innocents. We are in front of a canvas of a high pictorial level, which combines the baroque tradition with neoclassical elements typical of the artist, full of dynamism and magnificence, of impeccable execution. The scene is entirely occupied by the contorted figure of a woman desperately defending her sons, one of whom is now dead, against the executioner. The bloody sword, the violent posture of the soldier, and the dead child lying on top of the woman, highlight the explicit violence of one of the cruelest episodes in the history of Bethlehem. The Slaughter of the Innocents is a biblical account incorporated by Matthew into his Gospel (Matthew 2:16-18). According to Matthew and other apocryphal sources, such as the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy, Herod I the Great would have given the order to execute all children born in Bethlehem under the age of two, in an attempt to put an end to the life of Jesus, who, according to the prophecies, was to end his power. The scene was a great success from the last centuries of the Roman Empire (it appears in the mosaics of the 5th-century basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome), and throughout the Middle Ages and the modern period, giving rise to interpretations full of dynamism, violence and expressiveness, such as, for example, Rubens' version, one of his masterpieces. Salvador Mayol trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where he later taught under Joseph Flaugier, a French painter with neoclassical convictions who had settled in Barcelona. He enjoyed considerable prestige as a portraitist in his native city. During the Bourbon occupation he moved to Mallorca, where he continued to devote himself to painting and gathered around him a considerable group of disciples. At the end of the war he returned to Barcelona, where he cultivated genre painting (historical, religious and biblical), portraiture and drawing. In 1820 he offered the Diputació de Barcelona the painting Allegory of the Constitution of 1820, which was highly acclaimed by local critics. He took part in the Llotja Exhibition of 1826, with the works El descenso de la cruz ("Descent from the Cross") and Baile de Boleras ("Boleras Dance"). In 1829 he entered the San Fernando Royal Academy. Throughout his career he worked in various genres, such as mythology, religion, portraiture and genre painting, but he was particularly known and appreciated for the latter two. Many of Mayol's works are kept in the Museum of Lluc (Mallorca), the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona, the Víctor Balaguer Library-Museum (Vilanova i la Geltrú), the Goya Museum in Castres (France), the Museum of History of the city of Barcelona, the Academy of Fine Arts of Sant Jordi and private collections.
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