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On 14 February 1612 Juan Bautista Maíno signed the contract to execute the paintings for the monastery church of San Pedro Mártir in Toledo. Maíno agreed to a period of eight months to make the paintings, which had to portray the scenes and episodes specified by the prior of the monastery. Despite the agreement reached in the contract, the paintings were not completed until De
Two banderoles, one above and the other below the central circle, contain Latin texts from Deuteronomy (32: 28-29 and 20), warning against the wages of sin. The upper banderole, between the tondos of Death and the Last Judgment, reads: Gens absq[ue] [con]silio e[st] et sine prudentia // deutro[m]y 32 [um//] utina[m] sapere[n]t [et] i[n]telligere[n]t ac novissi[m]a p[ro]videre[n]t (For they are a n
It is not known when or how these two paintings -Saint John the Baptist and Saint Juan de Ribera (P947)- came to be the property of Luisa Enríquez, but their common provenance has never been seen as an indication of a link with the same group of art works. However, the technical study that was recently carried out on the two panels shows that they are directly and unequivocally related in t
In this painting, following His crucifixion and descent from the Cross, the body of Christ lies upon a white cloth. On His left is a beam of the cross bearing the sign that identifies Him as King of the Jews and the skull that, according to tradition, indicated that Calvary had been the burial site of Adam. At the other end of the painting, a washbasin recalls the tradition of the arma Christi, an
Three boys -two standing and one seated- are playing chito, a game in which metal disks known as tejos are thrown at a piece of carved wood (the chito) resting on the ground with a coin on top of it. The goal is to topple the chito, causing the coin to fall. The player whose tejo is closest to the fallen coin wins.
In this half-length portrait, the lady is wearing a dark brown velvet overdress luxuriously ornamented with gold chain-stitched embroidery, slit sleeves, and a high collar open in front in the Flemish style. This is a notable example of Spanish portraiture during the reign of Philip II. To begin with, it is painted on a finegrained reddish tropical wood, mahogany perhaps, a support that was quite
Until 1972, the Museo del Prado catalogues record that the signature of M. Hobbema (with the MH intertwined) appears on the tree stump. In the 1985 catalogue this signature is said to be apocryphal. Whatever the case, recent studies of the picture have been unable to reveal any such signature. Valdivieso (1973) considers it to be an original by Jan Looten (1618-ca. 1681). The composition is remini
A compendium of common motifs in Meléndez´s oeuvre is found in this painting, affording it a sense of proximity and trueness to life of great artistic and documentary value. Set out among plums and figs on the characteristic wooden tabletop with visible grains and knots are a loaf of bread and a typical Talavera or Puente del Arzobispo wedding jug in white with an ochre-yellow antimon
Patinir shows St Jerome sitting inside the wooden shack that leans against the rocks in the foreground. As with the Landscape with the Martyrdom of St Catherine in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum), the painter here raises the line of the horizon, leading to an increase in the space devoted to the landscape and the consequent reduction of the sky (although this has been cut down still further, it
Large-format versions of the Virgin holding the dead body of Christ, like those at Badajoz Cathedral and at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, gave way in Morales’s oeuvre to smaller compositions on the same subject, with half-length figures shown on a striking background of rigorous black. Against this, the two figures and the upright of the cross are contrasted with strong lighti
A man stands before a dark background, portrayed more than half-length with his torso bare and his hair and beard white from age. With his left hand he holds a cross and with his right he holds a hook caught in the mouth of a fish. Both motifs allow us to identify him as the apostle Saint Andrew. The X-shaped cross recalls the one on which he was crucified and the fish with a hook is a reminder th
Saint Anthony, whom the artist has been able to place in the immediate foreground of this panel by using a landscape format, closely resembles the saint depicted in the Saint Anthony triptych in Lisbon; he is wearing the same habit, the distinctive cape bearing the Tau cross and the customary rosary with a little bell. This large-scale figure, occupying most of the available space on the left of t
The principal beams are decorated with secular scenes, including dances, jousts or men fighting monsters, and with the coats-of-arms of Castile and León and those of the Luna and Rojas families. Other decoration includes sacred scenes (the Last Supper and the Last Judgement, for example). Between the transversal beams are panels with alternating castles and lions and elongated hexagonal pan
Large-format versions of the Virgin holding the dead body of Christ, like those at Badajoz Cathedral and at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, gave way in Morales’s oeuvre to smaller compositions on the same subject, with half-length figures shown on a striking background of rigorous black. Against this, the two figures and the upright of the cross are contrasted with strong lighti
El Greco executed various versions of the Holy Face on the Veil of Veronica, an iconographic motif that became very popular at the end of the Middle Ages. According to the story that developed during the medieval period, on His way to Calvary a woman offered Jesus a white cloth to wipe the sweat and blood from His brow, and the features of His face became imprinted on the cloth. There is no biblic
It is not known when or how these two paintings -Saint Juan de Ribera and Saint John the Baptist (P950)- came to be the property of Luisa Enríquez, but their common provenance has never been seen as an indication of a link with the same group of art works. However, the technical study that was recently carried out on the two panels shows that they are directly and unequivocally related in t
Goya expresses the greater importance of this composition through the larger size of the figures, compared to its companion work, Tobias and the Angel (P07856). The wood shavings on the floor indicate that the scene takes place in Saint Joseph´s austere carpentry shop. The Virgin and Saint Joseph —holding his flowering staff— sadly reflect on their child´s destiny, which is foreshadowed by the woo
This portrait is a full-length likeness of Philip II’s third wife, Queen Isabel de Valois. She wears a black gown with pointed sleeves and a long train that is curled around her body and billows at the back. Poking out from beneath her hanging sleeves, held in place with ruby and diamond buttons and lined in white fabric, are silver and gold undersleeves. The one-piece gown is decorated with appli
