SALVADOR MAYOL (Barcelona, 1765-1834). Oil on canvas. "The killing of the Innocent". Oil on canvas.

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OLD MASTERS & SCULPTURE - Day 2

By Setdart Auction House

Jun 1, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-06-01 09:45:00 2021-06-01 09:45:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : OLD MASTERS & SCULPTURE - Day 2 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/old-masters-sculpture---day-2-6999
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• Lot Description
  SALVADOR MAYOL (Barcelona, 1765-1834). Oil on canvas. "The killing of the Innocent". Oil on canvas. Signed with initials. Measurements: 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 high pictorial level, which combines the baroque tradition with the artist's own neoclassical elements, full of dynamism and magnificence, of impeccable execution. The scene is entirely occupied by the contorted figure of a woman desperately defending her children, one of them already dead, in front of the executioner. The bloody sword, the violent posture of the soldier or the deceased child lying on top of the woman, reveal 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 two years of age, thus trying to end the life of Jesus who, according to the prophecies, was to end his power. The scene had a great success since the last centuries of the Roman Empire (it appears in the mosaics of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, from the 5th century), and throughout the Middle Ages and modern times, giving rise to interpretations full of dynamism, violence and expressiveness, such as, for example, the version of Rubens, one of his masterpieces. Salvador Mayol was trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where he later worked as a teacher, where he was taught by Joseph Flaugier, a French painter established in Barcelona, with neoclassical convictions. He enjoyed, in his native city, considerable prestige as a portrait painter. 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 to the Diputació de Barcelona the painting Alegoría de la Constitución del 1820, which was highly celebrated by the local critics. He participated in the Llotja Exhibition of 1826, with the works El descenso de la cruz and Baile de Boleras. In 1829 he entered the Royal Academy of San Fernando. Throughout his career he worked in various genres, such as mythological, religious, portrait and genre painting, but he was especially 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 of Barcelona, the Library-Museum Víctor Balaguer (Vilanova y la Geltrú), the Goya Museum of Castres (France), the Museum of History of the city of Barcelona, the Academy of Belles Arts of Sant Jordi and private collections.
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