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Lot Essay
These three figures appear as the angels in the painting Abraham and the three angels by Juan Fernández Navarrete, now in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (R. Mulcahy, Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1988, pp. 11-4, no. 1721, fig. 6), though the figure of Abraham intervenes in the foreground. It was commissioned in 1575 by King Philip II of Spain for the Guest Room of the monastery in the Escorial.
A similar drawing of the three angels, without Abraham, is in the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid (inv. 5807; R. Mulcahy, op. cit., p. 13, note 14, fig. 7 and Z. Véliz, 'The Courtauld Gallery's Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine: A link between Navarrete and Schiavone', Master Drawings, XLIX, 2011, no. 1, p. 39, fig. 14). It is unclear if the two drawings are autograph studies or ricordi, or copies after the painting by another hand.
We are grateful to Dr. Zahira Véliz and Benito Navarrete Prieto for their assistance in cataloguing this drawing.
A similar drawing of the three angels, without Abraham, is in the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid (inv. 5807; R. Mulcahy, op. cit., p. 13, note 14, fig. 7 and Z. Véliz, 'The Courtauld Gallery's Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine: A link between Navarrete and Schiavone', Master Drawings, XLIX, 2011, no. 1, p. 39, fig. 14). It is unclear if the two drawings are autograph studies or ricordi, or copies after the painting by another hand.
We are grateful to Dr. Zahira Véliz and Benito Navarrete Prieto for their assistance in cataloguing this drawing.