Ancient Spain
not including El Greco
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Judaica Manuscript Jewels II Cartier Music in old painting Early still life
Chronology : 1570-1599 1610-1619 1660-1679 1800-1809
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Judaica Manuscript Jewels II Cartier Music in old painting Early still life
Chronology : 1570-1599 1610-1619 1660-1679 1800-1809
1312 the Shem Tov Bible
2024 SOLD for $ 7M by Sotheby's
A Talmudist and kabbalist in the following of Maimonides, Rabbi Shem Tov ben Abraham ibn Gaon prepared for his own use a magnificent Masoretic Bible on parchment 34 x 25 cm. This document was paginated to 768 in the 20th century by David Solomon Sassoon.
The colophon on page 753 identifies the maker, dates the completion to 5072 matching 1312 CE, locates it in his hometown Soria (Castile) and identifies the contents as the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible arranged into Pentateuch, Prophets and Writings.
The possibly autograph illuminations are assimilating Christian and Jewish styles. An Islamic influence also appear in some multi-lobed gilded archways. The kabbalistic intention is revealed by some letter alterations supported by an alphabetic poem that starts the whole work.
Large margins in the page enable an unprecedentedly detailed Masorah parva supported by a detailed system of internal cross references. His Masoretic predecessors are quoted and commented with a very fair exactitude. Abundant citations of the Hilleli Codex provide an irreplaceable information about that lost Masoretic Bible from ca 600 CE.
Ibn Gaon considered his work as too important for being used by the diaspora. He emigrated with it in 1315 to the Holy Land. In the 14th century a Davidic prince in Baghdad is identified at its owner. It was sold for $ 7M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on September 10, 2024, lot 1. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The colophon on page 753 identifies the maker, dates the completion to 5072 matching 1312 CE, locates it in his hometown Soria (Castile) and identifies the contents as the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible arranged into Pentateuch, Prophets and Writings.
The possibly autograph illuminations are assimilating Christian and Jewish styles. An Islamic influence also appear in some multi-lobed gilded archways. The kabbalistic intention is revealed by some letter alterations supported by an alphabetic poem that starts the whole work.
Large margins in the page enable an unprecedentedly detailed Masorah parva supported by a detailed system of internal cross references. His Masoretic predecessors are quoted and commented with a very fair exactitude. Abundant citations of the Hilleli Codex provide an irreplaceable information about that lost Masoretic Bible from ca 600 CE.
Ibn Gaon considered his work as too important for being used by the diaspora. He emigrated with it in 1315 to the Holy Land. In the 14th century a Davidic prince in Baghdad is identified at its owner. It was sold for $ 7M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on September 10, 2024, lot 1. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1582-1972 La Peregrina
2011 SOLD for $ 11.8M by Christie's
A pearl made five hundred years ago by an anonymous mollusk in the Gulf of Panama got a fabulous destiny. Used in jewelry of all kinds to meet the changes of fashion, it demonstrates that not only diamonds are forever.
It entered in 1582 into the Spanish royal collection, where it was considered as the biggest pearl in the world. Pear-shaped, it was then weighing 223 grains.
Mary I of England, wife of Philip II of Spain, used it very elegantly as a pendant to a brooch. Philip IV of Spain preferred it as a hat pin. It went to France during the Spanish war of Joseph Bonaparte, and Napoleon III sold it to the English aristocracy.
This wandering pearl has been known for two centuries under the name La Peregrina. It lost twenty grains when it was reworked to improve the security of its setting.
Richard Burton bought it in 1969 at Sotheby's auction as a gift to Elizabeth Taylor.
It was mounted as pendant in a pearl necklace that did not please its new owners. Burton and Taylor then made designed by Cartier in 1972 the magnificent necklace of pearls, rubies and diamonds, where it is again hanging as pendant.
This necklace was sold for $ 11.8M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Christie's on December 13, 2011, lot 12.
It entered in 1582 into the Spanish royal collection, where it was considered as the biggest pearl in the world. Pear-shaped, it was then weighing 223 grains.
Mary I of England, wife of Philip II of Spain, used it very elegantly as a pendant to a brooch. Philip IV of Spain preferred it as a hat pin. It went to France during the Spanish war of Joseph Bonaparte, and Napoleon III sold it to the English aristocracy.
This wandering pearl has been known for two centuries under the name La Peregrina. It lost twenty grains when it was reworked to improve the security of its setting.
Richard Burton bought it in 1969 at Sotheby's auction as a gift to Elizabeth Taylor.
It was mounted as pendant in a pearl necklace that did not please its new owners. Burton and Taylor then made designed by Cartier in 1972 the magnificent necklace of pearls, rubies and diamonds, where it is again hanging as pendant.
This necklace was sold for $ 11.8M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Christie's on December 13, 2011, lot 12.
1618 Praying Girl by Velazquez
2017 SOLD for € 9.7M by Abalarte
An oil on canvas 58 x 44 cm attributed to Diego Velazquez, undated and unsigned, has just surfaced in Spain. Although it has been inspected by only one expert, it was immediately offered at auction. It was sold for € 9.7M by Abalarte on April 25, 2017, lot 41.
It is a beautiful portrait of a little girl in half-length, her hands joined for prayer, her eyes wide open in a rather sad expression. The chiaroscuro on a black background and the realism of this child's portrait without any moving intent plead for an autograph work by Velazquez.
During the X-Ray inspection several white dots forming a halo were discovered, in conformance with a traditional iconography of Mary's childhood. This painting could have been conceived as an Inmaculada before being transformed by the artist in a modello portrait.
If this is the case it is probably prior to an Inmaculada preserved at the Fundacion Focus Abengoa in Sevilla, dated around 1618 and attributed by some experts to Velazquez and by others to Alonso Cano. Velazquez and his younger colleague Cano were both students in Sevilla to Francisco Pacheco, a painter and theoretician who had met El Greco and specialized in religious art for the local ecclesiastical clientele.
The high skill of Velazquez was precocious : barely 18 years old in 1617, he was received in the corporation of the painters of Sevilla and his first masterpiece mixing genre and still life, Vieja friendo hiejos, was painted in the following year. He was remaining at that time in the entourage of Pacheco whose daughter he married in 1618.
The portrait of an unidentified gentleman, oil on canvas 32 x 23 cm, was sold for € 4.2M by Abalarte on March 2, 2022, lot 163. The head is authenticated as a work by Velazquez. The canvas had been trimmed on its four sides. The neck and ruff are by another hand and the lace is later.
The pictural style and pigments are typical of Velazquez's period 1621-23. At that time he was still a resident in Sevilla but made long stays at the court of Felipe IV. The portrait of Gongora currently at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston was made in 1622 during his first visit in Madrid..
It is a beautiful portrait of a little girl in half-length, her hands joined for prayer, her eyes wide open in a rather sad expression. The chiaroscuro on a black background and the realism of this child's portrait without any moving intent plead for an autograph work by Velazquez.
During the X-Ray inspection several white dots forming a halo were discovered, in conformance with a traditional iconography of Mary's childhood. This painting could have been conceived as an Inmaculada before being transformed by the artist in a modello portrait.
If this is the case it is probably prior to an Inmaculada preserved at the Fundacion Focus Abengoa in Sevilla, dated around 1618 and attributed by some experts to Velazquez and by others to Alonso Cano. Velazquez and his younger colleague Cano were both students in Sevilla to Francisco Pacheco, a painter and theoretician who had met El Greco and specialized in religious art for the local ecclesiastical clientele.
The high skill of Velazquez was precocious : barely 18 years old in 1617, he was received in the corporation of the painters of Sevilla and his first masterpiece mixing genre and still life, Vieja friendo hiejos, was painted in the following year. He was remaining at that time in the entourage of Pacheco whose daughter he married in 1618.
The portrait of an unidentified gentleman, oil on canvas 32 x 23 cm, was sold for € 4.2M by Abalarte on March 2, 2022, lot 163. The head is authenticated as a work by Velazquez. The canvas had been trimmed on its four sides. The neck and ruff are by another hand and the lace is later.
The pictural style and pigments are typical of Velazquez's period 1621-23. At that time he was still a resident in Sevilla but made long stays at the court of Felipe IV. The portrait of Gongora currently at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston was made in 1622 during his first visit in Madrid..
@Abalarte presenta un #Velázquez inédito que se subastará el próximo 25 de abril □https://t.co/27rtaAvXhY vía @ArtMarketAgency pic.twitter.com/voIHKJghfg
— Canalpatrimonio (@canalpatrimonio) April 3, 2017
1629 Bodegon of Fruit by van der Hamen y Leon
2019 SOLD for $ 6.5M by Christie's
Juan Sanchez Cotan is a painter in Toledo at the time of El Greco. In 1603 he leaves the world to enter as a lay brother in a Carthusian monastery. The inventory made in his studio just after his departure lists 60 paintings including 12 still lifes.
Sanchez Cotan wished to reproduce with the greatest pictorial accuracy some elements of nature that he positions in a balanced composition. Vegetables, fruit and game fowls are laying or hanging in a uniformly gray window frame against a black background. He had invented the bodegon, an unprecedented style in modern painting that anticipates Chardin and Cézanne.
Several originals survive. One of them is dated 1602. Another one, oil on canvas re-sized at 73 x 62 cm after removal of the central part, was sold for £ 4M by Christie's on December 8, 2004.
The growing interest in botanical gardens and cabinets of curiosity led to the still life paintings of flowers and fruit in Flanders and Milan from 1606. In the 1620s the best Spanish continuator to Sanchez Cotan, Juan van der Hamen y Leon, inserts flowers in the bodegones.
In 1626 van der Hamen finds a trick to display complex arrangements in very large formats : he replaces Sanchez Cotan's window by three stone bases of varying heights and widths.
A bodegon of fruit with a large vase of flowers, oil on canvas 86 x 132 cm painted by van der Hamen in 1629, was sold for $ 6.5M by Christie's on May 1, 2019, lot 109. Painted in the same year and style by the same artist, a bodegon of fruit with an artichoke, 79 x 100 cm, was sold for € 900K by Christie's on October 6, 2004.
Sanchez Cotan wished to reproduce with the greatest pictorial accuracy some elements of nature that he positions in a balanced composition. Vegetables, fruit and game fowls are laying or hanging in a uniformly gray window frame against a black background. He had invented the bodegon, an unprecedented style in modern painting that anticipates Chardin and Cézanne.
Several originals survive. One of them is dated 1602. Another one, oil on canvas re-sized at 73 x 62 cm after removal of the central part, was sold for £ 4M by Christie's on December 8, 2004.
The growing interest in botanical gardens and cabinets of curiosity led to the still life paintings of flowers and fruit in Flanders and Milan from 1606. In the 1620s the best Spanish continuator to Sanchez Cotan, Juan van der Hamen y Leon, inserts flowers in the bodegones.
In 1626 van der Hamen finds a trick to display complex arrangements in very large formats : he replaces Sanchez Cotan's window by three stone bases of varying heights and widths.
A bodegon of fruit with a large vase of flowers, oil on canvas 86 x 132 cm painted by van der Hamen in 1629, was sold for $ 6.5M by Christie's on May 1, 2019, lot 109. Painted in the same year and style by the same artist, a bodegon of fruit with an artichoke, 79 x 100 cm, was sold for € 900K by Christie's on October 6, 2004.
Christie’s to Sell Shickman Collection Led by Spanish Still Lives https://t.co/DUYZZPBEnR pic.twitter.com/xSsE0vtely
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) November 21, 2018
1637 Hearing by Ribera
2019 SOLD for £ 5.7M by Sotheby's
Born near Valencia, Ribera is attracted by Italy. In Rome, he is interested in the faces and attitudes of poor people, most certainly through an influence from the Caravaggesques of Utrecht. He paints a first series of the Five Senses, not without wit. Smell is a ragged beggar who peels an onion.
In 1616 Ribera, aged 25, arrives in Naples which is then a Spanish possession. He will never return to his country but wishes to state his origin by signing his works Jusepe de Ribera español. He is also nicknamed Lo Spagnoletto.
He paints other Senses in 1637 with allegories completely different from his earlier series. Hearing is a girl who plays the tambourine with an expression of deep happiness, personifying the pleasure of the senses. This oil on canvas 60 x 46 cm was sold for £ 5.7M by Sotheby's on July 3, 2019, lot 24.
This figure was painted by Ribera at the end of his tenebrist phase, with a black background in the style of his friend Velazquez. In the series of popular types, she thus appears in the continuity of his picturesque bearded milking woman (Mujer barbuda) painted in 1631.
Clearly a pendant of similar size with the Tambourine girl, Taste is a hilarious drunkard. Candidates have been proposed for Smell and Touch, but Sight remains unidentified, without evidence that this series has ever been complete.
In 1616 Ribera, aged 25, arrives in Naples which is then a Spanish possession. He will never return to his country but wishes to state his origin by signing his works Jusepe de Ribera español. He is also nicknamed Lo Spagnoletto.
He paints other Senses in 1637 with allegories completely different from his earlier series. Hearing is a girl who plays the tambourine with an expression of deep happiness, personifying the pleasure of the senses. This oil on canvas 60 x 46 cm was sold for £ 5.7M by Sotheby's on July 3, 2019, lot 24.
This figure was painted by Ribera at the end of his tenebrist phase, with a black background in the style of his friend Velazquez. In the series of popular types, she thus appears in the continuity of his picturesque bearded milking woman (Mujer barbuda) painted in 1631.
Clearly a pendant of similar size with the Tambourine girl, Taste is a hilarious drunkard. Candidates have been proposed for Smell and Touch, but Sight remains unidentified, without evidence that this series has ever been complete.
#AuctionUpdate On the Beat □: This charming portrait of a girl tapping a tambourine by Jusepe de Ribera makes a noise, singing to the tune of £5,743,000 – a new record for the artist. #SothebysOldMasters pic.twitter.com/R0OuYI9gJH
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) July 3, 2019
1650 VELAZQUEZ in Rome
1
masterpiece
Juan de Pareja
Metropolitan Museum
The skills of Diego Velazquez are recognized in the court of King Felipe IV who names him ayuda de camara (valet) in 1643 and superintendente de obras (superintendent of works) in the following year. Having thus become one of the closest collaborators of the king, he requests and obtains a mission in Italy to acquire paintings and sculptures worthy of the royal collection.
He left Malaga in 1649, visited Genoa, Milan, Venice and Modena, buying in passing important works by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. At the beginning of 1650 he was in Rome where he could take care of his own career. A previous stay in Italy in 1629-1630 had much contributed to his artistic training but he was still unknown in that country when he arrived in Rome.
He is accompanied by his slave Juan de Pareja, who is his preparer of colors. Aged about 44, Juan de Pareja is a mulatto with a Moorish dominance.
Velazquez has a great intuition. To assess that his expertise meets his reputation, he paints a portrait of his slave, to whom he commissions the demonstration of the result to a few selected friends. The truth of the portrait is breathtaking. The painting is exhibited in the Pantheon on March 19, 1650 for the feast of Saint Joseph, an extraordinary honor when considering that the work had just been completed. The Romans were dazzled by the physical and psychological resemblance between man and painting.
Velazquez was not only a painter of worldly portraits. He knew to give dignity to men whatever their social condition. Juan's gaze is proud and straight. He will have his reward : freed a few months later with a probation period, he will use his own painting skills to become one of Velazquez's best assistants.
The portrait of Juan de Pareja, oil on canvas 81 x 70 cm, was sold on November 27, 1970 by Christie's for £ 2.3M, worth US $ 5.5M at that time. It was purchased at that sale by Wildenstein acting for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met raises the necessary funds after a call for donations to the Friends of the Museum and acquires this masterpiece in 1971. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
He left Malaga in 1649, visited Genoa, Milan, Venice and Modena, buying in passing important works by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese. At the beginning of 1650 he was in Rome where he could take care of his own career. A previous stay in Italy in 1629-1630 had much contributed to his artistic training but he was still unknown in that country when he arrived in Rome.
He is accompanied by his slave Juan de Pareja, who is his preparer of colors. Aged about 44, Juan de Pareja is a mulatto with a Moorish dominance.
Velazquez has a great intuition. To assess that his expertise meets his reputation, he paints a portrait of his slave, to whom he commissions the demonstration of the result to a few selected friends. The truth of the portrait is breathtaking. The painting is exhibited in the Pantheon on March 19, 1650 for the feast of Saint Joseph, an extraordinary honor when considering that the work had just been completed. The Romans were dazzled by the physical and psychological resemblance between man and painting.
Velazquez was not only a painter of worldly portraits. He knew to give dignity to men whatever their social condition. Juan's gaze is proud and straight. He will have his reward : freed a few months later with a probation period, he will use his own painting skills to become one of Velazquez's best assistants.
The portrait of Juan de Pareja, oil on canvas 81 x 70 cm, was sold on November 27, 1970 by Christie's for £ 2.3M, worth US $ 5.5M at that time. It was purchased at that sale by Wildenstein acting for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met raises the necessary funds after a call for donations to the Friends of the Museum and acquires this masterpiece in 1971. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
2
masterpiece
Pope Innocent X
Doria Pamphilj Gallery
The portrait of the slave Juan de Paareja opened for the artist all the doors of the Vatican.
In August 1650 Pope Innocent X sits for him. The artist wants to do better than Titian and takes a great care in the attitude and in the colors. Admiring the masterpiece, the pope famously says : "Troppo vero".
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
In August 1650 Pope Innocent X sits for him. The artist wants to do better than Titian and takes a great care in the attitude and in the colors. Admiring the masterpiece, the pope famously says : "Troppo vero".
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
3
Monsignor Segni by Velazquez and Neri
2023 SOLD for £ 3.44M by Sotheby's
Major prelates now desire a similar portrait of them. At that time Velazquez works slowly. If he accepts, he endangers the mission for his king while his return is awaited with an impatience soon to be officially notified. If he refuses, he loses his best protectors for the acquisition of the works of art promised to the king.
The portrait of Monsignor Cristoforo Segni reveals the clever solution found by Velazquez. This outstanding person in charge of overseeing the apostolic palaces sits in an armchair and holds a paper in his hand, on the model of the portrait of the pope. The paper has the same role of identifying the artist and the prelate. For Segni the name of another artist, Pietro Martire Neri, is also indicated near that text.
This double authentication has puzzled all art historians, especially since no collaboration between Velazquez and Neri has ever been documented. The sharpness and expression of the face could however not have been achieved by Neri whose personal known work is rather mediocre. Segni's head is an autograph painting by Velazquez. Neri completed the rest, possibly after the departure of Velazquez from Rome.
This oil on canvas 114 x 92 cm was sold by Sotheby's for $ 4.1M on February 1, 2018, lot 48, and for £ 3.44M on July 5, 2023, lot 19. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the videos shared by the auction house before each sale.
The portrait of Monsignor Cristoforo Segni reveals the clever solution found by Velazquez. This outstanding person in charge of overseeing the apostolic palaces sits in an armchair and holds a paper in his hand, on the model of the portrait of the pope. The paper has the same role of identifying the artist and the prelate. For Segni the name of another artist, Pietro Martire Neri, is also indicated near that text.
This double authentication has puzzled all art historians, especially since no collaboration between Velazquez and Neri has ever been documented. The sharpness and expression of the face could however not have been achieved by Neri whose personal known work is rather mediocre. Segni's head is an autograph painting by Velazquez. Neri completed the rest, possibly after the departure of Velazquez from Rome.
This oil on canvas 114 x 92 cm was sold by Sotheby's for $ 4.1M on February 1, 2018, lot 48, and for £ 3.44M on July 5, 2023, lot 19. The image is shared by Wikimedia. Please watch the videos shared by the auction house before each sale.
masterpiece
1656 Las Meninas by Velazquez
Prado
Please watch the video shared by TED-Ed.
1664 The Wittelsbacher-Graff
2008 SOLD for £ 16.4M by Christie's
The Wittelsbacher is a diamond in an extremely rare color, an exceptional size and a royal provenance dating back to more than three centuries ago. This historic piece is contemporary with the Koh-I-Noor.
This Indian greyish-blue diamond weighing 35.56 carat of VS2 clarity is chosen in 1664 by King Philip IV of Spain to enter the dowry of his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa. The princess is well known for being in 1656 the main character of the Meninas of Velazquez. So this diamond is a contemporary of the royal glory of the Koh-I-Noor, the Regent and the Orlov. Entered in the Bavarian royal family by a marriage in 1722, it was then known as Blaue Wittelsbacher.
It was sold by Christie's in 1931 with the crown jewelry of Bavaria, and for £ 16.4M on December 10, 2008, lot 212. It has been purchased at the latter sale by Graff Diamonds. Its image before being recut by Graff is shared by Wikimedia :
This Indian greyish-blue diamond weighing 35.56 carat of VS2 clarity is chosen in 1664 by King Philip IV of Spain to enter the dowry of his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa. The princess is well known for being in 1656 the main character of the Meninas of Velazquez. So this diamond is a contemporary of the royal glory of the Koh-I-Noor, the Regent and the Orlov. Entered in the Bavarian royal family by a marriage in 1722, it was then known as Blaue Wittelsbacher.
It was sold by Christie's in 1931 with the crown jewelry of Bavaria, and for £ 16.4M on December 10, 2008, lot 212. It has been purchased at the latter sale by Graff Diamonds. Its image before being recut by Graff is shared by Wikimedia :
1760s Still Life with Cauliflower by Melendez
2025 SOLD for $ 6.3M by Sotheby's
Francisco Melendez was a miniaturist painter in the service of Felipe V. When the king created the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Don Francisco was invited to participate. He lucklessly remembered that he had suggested to the king such an institution a few years earlier and claimed to be considered as its founder. Expelled from the academy in 1748, he dragged his son Luis into the same disgrace.
Luis Melendez was a talented artist but like his father he was arrogant. The major themes and the court portraits being now forbidden to him, he specializes in still lifes with chiaroscuro in the tradition of Zurbaran.
Between 1759 and 1774 Luis produces a series of 44 paintings for the natural history cabinet of the Prince of Asturias, later King Carlos IV, on the unique theme of the glorification of fruit and vegetables produced by Spanish soil, accompanied by local utensils. 39 of them are kept in the Prado Museum.
These elements are arranged harmoniously on a table in front of a dark background, with great care applied to drawing, texture and light. In the same time range he also painted variants for his own business.
In an upright format, an oil on canvas featuring on a wooden table a dominant cauliflower accompanied by a basket with eggs and by brown paper, leeks, fish and assorted kitchen utensils 50 x 37 cm was sold for $ 6.3M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on May 21, 2025, lot 39. This set of ingredients is clearly related with the abstinence from meat during Lent.
In the same format with a panoramic orientation, an oil on canvas featuring oranges, nuts, spices, boxes of sweetmeats, a jug and a cask on a table was sold for £ 3.5M by Christie's on February 9, 2012, lot 642.
In the same horizontal format, an arrangement with arbutus berries on a plate, apples, a wood barrel and bread rolls was sold for $ 4M by Christie's on January 29, 2004, lot 83.
In 1771 and 1772 for the same prince, Melendez made four more ambitious paintings, 80 cm wide, in which he placed the fruits and vegetables in the very close foreground of a stylized Spanish landscape. These works are also in the Prado. Again disgraced for his arrogance around 1776, this time after claiming excessive prices for his art, this too skilled artist died in poverty in 1780.
Luis Melendez was a talented artist but like his father he was arrogant. The major themes and the court portraits being now forbidden to him, he specializes in still lifes with chiaroscuro in the tradition of Zurbaran.
Between 1759 and 1774 Luis produces a series of 44 paintings for the natural history cabinet of the Prince of Asturias, later King Carlos IV, on the unique theme of the glorification of fruit and vegetables produced by Spanish soil, accompanied by local utensils. 39 of them are kept in the Prado Museum.
These elements are arranged harmoniously on a table in front of a dark background, with great care applied to drawing, texture and light. In the same time range he also painted variants for his own business.
In an upright format, an oil on canvas featuring on a wooden table a dominant cauliflower accompanied by a basket with eggs and by brown paper, leeks, fish and assorted kitchen utensils 50 x 37 cm was sold for $ 6.3M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on May 21, 2025, lot 39. This set of ingredients is clearly related with the abstinence from meat during Lent.
In the same format with a panoramic orientation, an oil on canvas featuring oranges, nuts, spices, boxes of sweetmeats, a jug and a cask on a table was sold for £ 3.5M by Christie's on February 9, 2012, lot 642.
In the same horizontal format, an arrangement with arbutus berries on a plate, apples, a wood barrel and bread rolls was sold for $ 4M by Christie's on January 29, 2004, lot 83.
In 1771 and 1772 for the same prince, Melendez made four more ambitious paintings, 80 cm wide, in which he placed the fruits and vegetables in the very close foreground of a stylized Spanish landscape. These works are also in the Prado. Again disgraced for his arrogance around 1776, this time after claiming excessive prices for his art, this too skilled artist died in poverty in 1780.
GOYA
1
masterpiece
1797-1800 Maja Desnuda and Maja Vestida
Prado
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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2
masterpiece
1800-1805 Maja Vestida by Goya
Prado
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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3
1805 the Barruso portraits
2023 SOLD for $ 16.4M by Christie's
The burguesia is emerging at the turn of the 19th century. The wealthy bourgeois desire to live like new aristocrats.
Francisco Goya was appointed in 1789 First Court painter to the King. From 1804 he accepts bourgeois sitters for his business. Don Salvador Barruso was a textile merchant involved with the Royal Factories at Talavera.
Don Salvador commissions to Goya in 1805 the portraits of his wife and daughter, which are executed as a pair of oils on canvas of same size, 105 x 84 cm.
It is usual in such pairs to attribute the left picture to the most important character. Here the left is the still childish Maria, nearly fifteen year old. Both are seated, and dressed in the French high waisted fashion of that time. Maria has on her lap a pet bichon dog, a symbol of fidelity. Under the protection of her mother, she is featured as ready for wedding. She will marry two years later and die after childbirth in 1810.
The scarcity of this pair is the featuring of a mother and daughter as pendants, but it is remarkable by the extreme skill of Goya, rightly considered at that time as a worthy successor to Raphael.
The tightly woven canvas was smoothed with a bright brick colored primer enabling to paint in very thin layers. No underdrawing is revealed in infra red reflectography. A painted sketch had dried before the final layer was applied. The surface is remaining pristine.
Fortunately the pair has not been separated. It was sold for $ 16.4M by Christie's on January 25, 2023, lot 138.
Francisco Goya was appointed in 1789 First Court painter to the King. From 1804 he accepts bourgeois sitters for his business. Don Salvador Barruso was a textile merchant involved with the Royal Factories at Talavera.
Don Salvador commissions to Goya in 1805 the portraits of his wife and daughter, which are executed as a pair of oils on canvas of same size, 105 x 84 cm.
It is usual in such pairs to attribute the left picture to the most important character. Here the left is the still childish Maria, nearly fifteen year old. Both are seated, and dressed in the French high waisted fashion of that time. Maria has on her lap a pet bichon dog, a symbol of fidelity. Under the protection of her mother, she is featured as ready for wedding. She will marry two years later and die after childbirth in 1810.
The scarcity of this pair is the featuring of a mother and daughter as pendants, but it is remarkable by the extreme skill of Goya, rightly considered at that time as a worthy successor to Raphael.
The tightly woven canvas was smoothed with a bright brick colored primer enabling to paint in very thin layers. No underdrawing is revealed in infra red reflectography. A painted sketch had dried before the final layer was applied. The surface is remaining pristine.
Fortunately the pair has not been separated. It was sold for $ 16.4M by Christie's on January 25, 2023, lot 138.
4
1808-1812 Dead Hares
2003 SOLD for $ 5.1M by Christie's
In 1808 the outbreak of the war of independence against the French invader had a major impact on the life and art of Goya. His Disasters of War are the most atrocious images in the history of art.
At 62, the artist no longer needs his art to earn a living and, in these difficult circumstances, he has fewer clients. He had a bulimia of innovations throughout his life. He is trying the theme of still life for the first time in his career.
The twelve still lifes painted by Goya surfaced after 1865. They had remained grouped together in the artist's estate and then in a mortgage which had ended in a transfer in favor of a business partner of Mariano, the grandson of the artist.
Goya had attempted in this set to completely renew the theme of still life. Dead animals are no longer decorative objects or hunting trophies, but beings whose lives have been violently taken by humans for culinary purposes. The beginning of the war is the terminus post quem. The terminus ante quem is their reference in an inventory in 1812.
Goya used the best of his pictorial technique, combining veils of color and heavy impastos, placed with brushes, knife and fingers. The animals are different on each opus. The realistic flesh ready for decomposition attests to the importance of death in the artist's creativity.
On January 24, 2003, Christie's sold at lot 136 for $ 5.1M an oil on canvas 45 x 63 cm showing two dead hares lying on top of each other on a table.
At 62, the artist no longer needs his art to earn a living and, in these difficult circumstances, he has fewer clients. He had a bulimia of innovations throughout his life. He is trying the theme of still life for the first time in his career.
The twelve still lifes painted by Goya surfaced after 1865. They had remained grouped together in the artist's estate and then in a mortgage which had ended in a transfer in favor of a business partner of Mariano, the grandson of the artist.
Goya had attempted in this set to completely renew the theme of still life. Dead animals are no longer decorative objects or hunting trophies, but beings whose lives have been violently taken by humans for culinary purposes. The beginning of the war is the terminus post quem. The terminus ante quem is their reference in an inventory in 1812.
Goya used the best of his pictorial technique, combining veils of color and heavy impastos, placed with brushes, knife and fingers. The animals are different on each opus. The realistic flesh ready for decomposition attests to the importance of death in the artist's creativity.
On January 24, 2003, Christie's sold at lot 136 for $ 5.1M an oil on canvas 45 x 63 cm showing two dead hares lying on top of each other on a table.
