The Ascension of Christ
Ca. 1620. Oil on canvas.Not on display
Christ ascending to the heavens marks the central axis of the composition. To the left and right, the painter places two balanced groups of characters. The attribution of the canvas to Antonio Lanchares is due to Pérez Sánchez, in view of the influence Eugenio Cajés had on the models in the lower part in terms of the faces, hair and grandiloquent gestures of the figures. However, the monumentality of the clothing, the proportions of the hands, the figure of Christ, and especially the two angels in the upper part suggest a strong influence of Roman painting. Both circumstances fit in with the style of Lanchares, who was educated by the Madrid painter and later worked in Italy. This may be the Ascension mentioned by Palomino in the Carthusian monastery of El Paular, which measured two rods ?equivalent to the height of the present painting? and accompanied a canvas depicting the Pentecost. Ponz also mentioned both works by Antonio Lanchares in the Chapter Room of the monastery. However, Ceán Bermúdez stated that only one was signed. If so, this painting would have formed part of the altarpiece in the chapel of the Sagrario on which this painter and the sculptor Miguel Tomás worked from 8 August 1619 and which was replaced in the 18th century by another by Hurtado Izquierdo. (Orihuela, M. in: Pintores del reinado de Felipe III [Painters under the rule of King Phillip III], 1993, p. 72)
