TREASURES OF AL ANDALUS, OLD MASTERS, FINE ART AND ANTIQUES
Lote 148:
Oil on canvas. Measurements: 228 x 164 (framed), 205 x 145 (canvas). Provenance: important private collection, Spain. Acisclo Palomino y Velasco (Bujalance, Córdoba, 1655-Madrid), 1726 Cordovan painter and initially trained in Córdoba under the direction of Juan de Valdés Leal while studying humanities. With the help of Juan de Alfaro, a disciple of Velázquez, who was working at the Madrid court, in 1678 he traveled to Madrid. There he was introduced to the circle of Juan Carreño de Miranda and Claudio Coello, who facilitated contact with the royal collections and gave him the opportunity to collaborate on some works, such as the decoration of the room of Queen María Luisa de Orleans, first wife of Carlos II, and the gallery of the cierzo, both of the Real Alcázar. These works allowed him to obtain the title of painter to the king in 1688. The arrival of Luca Giordano in Madrid in 1692 made him interested in learning the technique of fresco, becoming one of the most important Spanish fresco artists of the second half 17th century. He collaborated in the preparation of the vaults of El Escorial and those of the old oratory of the Madrid City Council. Between 1697 and 1701 he worked in Valencia, painting the vaults of the church of Santos Juanes and the basilica of Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados. In 1705, he traveled to Salamanca where he executed the Triunfo de la Iglesia for the choir of the church of San Esteban (in situ). Between 1712 and 1713, He painted eight canvases with scenes and saints related to the history of the city of Córdoba for the chapel of Cardinal Salazar and for the main altar of the cathedral, both in that city. Between 1723 and 1725, he worked on his last work before his death, the decoration of the sacrarium of the Carthusian monastery of El Paular in Granada. Ordained a priest when he became a widower in 1725, he is known more for his facet as a writer and theoretician than for that of a painter, due to the publication of three volumes that, grouped under the title of The pictorial museum and optical scale, deal with The theoretical of painting (1715), the practice of painting (1724) and the award-winning Spanish picturesque Parnassus (1724). The latter consists of two hundred and twenty-six biographies of painters and sculptors who worked in Spain and constitutes a fundamental literary source for the study of the history of Spanish art of that period. Reference bibliography: Palomino de Castro y Velasco, Antonio, The pictorial museum and optical scale [1715-1724], Madrid, Aguilar, 1988.
