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Lot Essay
The prime version of the Infant Saint John with the lamb is now in the National Gallery, London (inv. C322). Painted circa 1660, it is first recorded in 1665 decorating the altar at the inauguration of the new church in Plaza de Santa Marma la Blanca in Seville.
According to the sale catalogue for The Marquis de Salamanca auction, the present painting originally came from the Royal Palace in Madrid. William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (1817-1885), who bought the painting along with a number of others, formed one of the finest collections in England in the mid-nineteenth century. His immense wealth permitted him to purchase the Bisenzo collection in Rome en bloc in 1847, while at almost exactly the same date acquiring from the Prince de Canino about a hundred pictures from the collection of his great-uncle, Cardinal Fesch. A keen exhibitor of his new acquisitions, Dudley lent the present lot to the National Exhibition of Works of Art, Leeds in 1868, along with 128 other pictures. The majority of Dudley's pictures were of remarkable quality; his collection included such masterpieces as Fra Angelico's Last Judgement and and Rembrandt's Saint John the Baptist preaching, both now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, as well as Raphael's Crucifixion and The Mass of Saint Giles by the Master of Saint Giles, both now in the National Gallery, London.
The imposing and rare frame dates to the late-sixteenth or early-seventeenth century, and would appear to be its original frame. With its bold scrolling foliage with fruits and cherubs' heads on a painted ground, it is very much of the Spanish Renaissance/early Baroque style, influenced by Italian prototypes.
According to the sale catalogue for The Marquis de Salamanca auction, the present painting originally came from the Royal Palace in Madrid. William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (1817-1885), who bought the painting along with a number of others, formed one of the finest collections in England in the mid-nineteenth century. His immense wealth permitted him to purchase the Bisenzo collection in Rome en bloc in 1847, while at almost exactly the same date acquiring from the Prince de Canino about a hundred pictures from the collection of his great-uncle, Cardinal Fesch. A keen exhibitor of his new acquisitions, Dudley lent the present lot to the National Exhibition of Works of Art, Leeds in 1868, along with 128 other pictures. The majority of Dudley's pictures were of remarkable quality; his collection included such masterpieces as Fra Angelico's Last Judgement and and Rembrandt's Saint John the Baptist preaching, both now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, as well as Raphael's Crucifixion and The Mass of Saint Giles by the Master of Saint Giles, both now in the National Gallery, London.
The imposing and rare frame dates to the late-sixteenth or early-seventeenth century, and would appear to be its original frame. With its bold scrolling foliage with fruits and cherubs' heads on a painted ground, it is very much of the Spanish Renaissance/early Baroque style, influenced by Italian prototypes.