Important Christmas Fine Art Auction: Haute Epoque, Jewels and Colonial Treasures
Lot 90:
Oil on glued oak panel that connects with the style and forms of the first stage of Portuguese training of Luis de Morales (Badajoz, c. 1510-Alcántara, c. 1586) three stages can be indicated in his training: a first in Seville, another in Portugal and another in Italy. In Seville, Morales had to learn with the teacher Pedro de Campaña. Although we should not rule out the idea of training with other teachers, cities and workshops, Seville was the natural capital of lower Extremadura, and it is quite credible that Morales (just as Zurbarán would do later) ended up there. A second stage of “Portuguese education” is another not inconsiderable hypothesis, observing the kinship that his painting has with much Mannerist work of the Portuguese school, and more specifically with Fray Carlos, a friar of Flemish origin who professed in the monastery of Our Lady of Espinheiro and main painter of the Évora School. Finally, we must talk about a possible Italian training, specifically in the city of Milan, where he was able to study and learn about the work of authors such as Domenico Beccafumi and Sebastiano del Piombo, still alive from the year in which we met him in those lands ( 1546), as well as other masters, already dead but with their fame intact, such as Andrea Solario, Cesare da Sesto, Fra Bartolomeo, among others. Who was a Spanish painter of the Mannerist style. The nickname “El Divino” or “El Divino Morales” is due to the great fame that he enjoyed in life and the predilection for religious themes in his works. He developed his activity in relative isolation in Extremadura, although his works were distributed throughout the Peninsula. Reference bibliography: «Exhibition of works by Divino Morales. Held at the Prado Museum in Madrid, from May 1 to 31, 1917 – Museo Nacional del Prado. Lot without reserve. Provenance: old private collection from Barcelona.
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