Saint Augustine receives Christ the Pilgrim
1663 - 1711. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
This work is part of a set of 27 paintings on the Life of Saint Augustine, which decorated the lower main cloister of the Convent of San Felipe el Real (Madrid). That set was entrusted to José García Hidalgo, who apparently painted it in collaboration with Alonso del Arco between 1663 and 1711. The works related to this series in the Prado’s holdings to date are: P03268, P03770 (sketch), P04096, P04754, P04755, P05055, P05117, P05508, P05862 (and its sketch P03514), P06124, P06126, P06135, P06971, P07490. The main iconographic source for García Hidalgo’s work was the prints by the Flemish engraver Schelte Adams Bolswert. These have helped to correctly identify many of the scenes in the series, whose iconographic motifs had been forgotten and confused since the time of the Confiscation.
Iturbe Sáiz, Antonio, Patrimonio artístico de tres conventos agustinos en Madrid antes y después de la desamortización de Mendizábal. Actas del Simposium La desamortización: el expolio del patrimonio artístico y cultural de la Iglesia en España, San Lorenzo del Escorial, Madrid, R.C.U. Escorial-Mª Cristina, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2007, p.335-368
