Lot Essay
We are grateful to Dr. Stephanie Breuer-Hermann, who is preparing a catalogue raisonné of the work of Sánchez Coello, for confirming the attribution. The present picture is a late work, datable to the 1580s on grounds of both costume (the height and width of the sitter's collar) and style. The loose brushwork contrasts vividly with Sánchez Coello's earlier work but is characteristic of the rare paintings of his late period (see the catalogue of the exhibition, Alonso Sánchez Coello y el Retrato en la Corte de Felipe II, Museo del Prado, Madrid, June-July 1990, nos.28 and 40). The decisive influence here was Titian, whose 'Noli Me tangere' Sánchez Coello had copied in 1574 (ibid., no.47).
The present picture has traditionally been identified as a portrait of Hernán Cortés (1485-1547), the great conquistador and conqueror of Mexico. Cortés died in poverty and obscurity and only one certain depiction of him is known (on a medallion of 1529). This would make him a likely subject for a posthumous portrait commissioned by his much more affluent descendants. In the present picture, however, the contemporaneity of the sitter is stressed not only by the costume but also by the clock on the table, which is datable c.1580 and, as the most up-to-date South German model, is clearly displayed to show the owner's wealth. Modern scholarship has thus tended to identify the sitter as Cortés' grandson, Don Fernando Cortés, 3rd Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca (died 1602).
Dr. Yvonne Hackenbroch has kindly pointed out that the hat badge shows 'The Judgement of Solomon', symbolic of wise judgement
The present picture has traditionally been identified as a portrait of Hernán Cortés (1485-1547), the great conquistador and conqueror of Mexico. Cortés died in poverty and obscurity and only one certain depiction of him is known (on a medallion of 1529). This would make him a likely subject for a posthumous portrait commissioned by his much more affluent descendants. In the present picture, however, the contemporaneity of the sitter is stressed not only by the costume but also by the clock on the table, which is datable c.1580 and, as the most up-to-date South German model, is clearly displayed to show the owner's wealth. Modern scholarship has thus tended to identify the sitter as Cortés' grandson, Don Fernando Cortés, 3rd Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca (died 1602).
Dr. Yvonne Hackenbroch has kindly pointed out that the hat badge shows 'The Judgement of Solomon', symbolic of wise judgement