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Lot Essay
One of a series of portraits of Spanish artists of the 16th and 17th Centuries drawn by Goya in about 1798 to illustrate his friend Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez's Diccionario de los más ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes. Six of the surviving drawings, including the present sheet, are lightly drawn with the backgrounds indicated with close parallel lines, and are annotated with the title in red chalk in Goya's characteristic rounded hand. In a further four the titles have been erased and rewritten in red ink in cramped bastardo script. This second, smaller, group appears to have been heavily retouched at a later date, and has closely cross-hatched backgrounds.
The series of portrait drawings was first mentioned by Don Valentín Carderera, a connoisseur and collector who hailed, like Goya, from Aragon, and who almost certainly knew the master, possibly through mutual connections such as Bermúdez. Carderera wrote three articles about the series in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1860-63, in which he describes them as 'douze ou treize croquis pour les portraits des plus célèbres peintres de l'Espagne'. The selection of artists chosen for inclusion puzzled both de Salas and Held. A survey of Spanish painting should naturally cover the great masters such as Murillo and Velázquez, whose portraits were not mentioned, and would be expected to ignore artists such as Schut, whom Bermúdez criticizes for his inelegant figures and unconventional drawing style. Jutta Held (op. cit., p. 297) suggests that the Dictionary was conceived as an objective discussion of Spanish art, and therefore would not unduly promote individual artists. The enormous number of portraits required by this egalitarian concept may have been one reason that the project was abandoned before completion.
This frank treatment is apparent in Goya's simple and direct handling of the portraits, many of which may be derived from the Iconographia designed by Van Dyck and Pacheco for publication. The steady gaze of the present portrait, drawn with carefully delineated contours, typifies this approach.
Felipe de Liaño (c. 1560/70-before 1604) was probably a pupil of Alonso Sánchez Coello, and although no paintings or drawings can be securely attributed to him he was widely praised as a portraitist and miniaturist by contemporary writers, I. Gutiérrez Pastor, 'Felipe de Liaño', The Grove Dictionary of Art, London, 1996, XIX, p. 303, and earned the sobriquet 'El Titiano Pequeno'. He probably travelled to Italy, and can be associated with several etchings of soldiers and animal skeletons published there with the signature 'Teodoro Felipe de Liagno' (Bartsch XVII, 1-30).
Ten drawings from the group were in Carderera's extensive collection of drawings and prints by Goya, and may have been among the works that he acquired from Bermúdez himself. Three of these portraits, of Cespedes, Schut and Cano, are recorded in the possession of Carderera's heirs, while two others, of Luis de Vargas and Luis Fernández, are among the drawings given by the collector to the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. The remaining four portraits listed in Carderera's inventory, of Gerónimo Fernández, Vila, Salcillo y Alcaraz, and a second portrait of Cespedes, have not been traced. The present drawing, together with portraits of Navarrete also formerly in the Rudolf Collection, of Roldan formerly in the collection of Tomás Harris, of Zurbarán now in the Louvre, and of Arbasia, sold Christie's, New York, 24 January 2001, lot 92, were not listed in Carderera's collection.
Bermúdez' dictionary was published without illustrations in 1800, under the auspices of the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid. It has been suggested that the omission of engravings in this final version was due to the influence of Ysidoro Bosarte, secretary of the Academy. Bosarte was editor of Palomino's El museo pictórico y escala óptica, which would have been superseded by Bermúdez' more lavish and up-to-date work, J. Held, op. cit., pp. 296-7.
The series of portrait drawings was first mentioned by Don Valentín Carderera, a connoisseur and collector who hailed, like Goya, from Aragon, and who almost certainly knew the master, possibly through mutual connections such as Bermúdez. Carderera wrote three articles about the series in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1860-63, in which he describes them as 'douze ou treize croquis pour les portraits des plus célèbres peintres de l'Espagne'. The selection of artists chosen for inclusion puzzled both de Salas and Held. A survey of Spanish painting should naturally cover the great masters such as Murillo and Velázquez, whose portraits were not mentioned, and would be expected to ignore artists such as Schut, whom Bermúdez criticizes for his inelegant figures and unconventional drawing style. Jutta Held (op. cit., p. 297) suggests that the Dictionary was conceived as an objective discussion of Spanish art, and therefore would not unduly promote individual artists. The enormous number of portraits required by this egalitarian concept may have been one reason that the project was abandoned before completion.
This frank treatment is apparent in Goya's simple and direct handling of the portraits, many of which may be derived from the Iconographia designed by Van Dyck and Pacheco for publication. The steady gaze of the present portrait, drawn with carefully delineated contours, typifies this approach.
Felipe de Liaño (c. 1560/70-before 1604) was probably a pupil of Alonso Sánchez Coello, and although no paintings or drawings can be securely attributed to him he was widely praised as a portraitist and miniaturist by contemporary writers, I. Gutiérrez Pastor, 'Felipe de Liaño', The Grove Dictionary of Art, London, 1996, XIX, p. 303, and earned the sobriquet 'El Titiano Pequeno'. He probably travelled to Italy, and can be associated with several etchings of soldiers and animal skeletons published there with the signature 'Teodoro Felipe de Liagno' (Bartsch XVII, 1-30).
Ten drawings from the group were in Carderera's extensive collection of drawings and prints by Goya, and may have been among the works that he acquired from Bermúdez himself. Three of these portraits, of Cespedes, Schut and Cano, are recorded in the possession of Carderera's heirs, while two others, of Luis de Vargas and Luis Fernández, are among the drawings given by the collector to the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. The remaining four portraits listed in Carderera's inventory, of Gerónimo Fernández, Vila, Salcillo y Alcaraz, and a second portrait of Cespedes, have not been traced. The present drawing, together with portraits of Navarrete also formerly in the Rudolf Collection, of Roldan formerly in the collection of Tomás Harris, of Zurbarán now in the Louvre, and of Arbasia, sold Christie's, New York, 24 January 2001, lot 92, were not listed in Carderera's collection.
Bermúdez' dictionary was published without illustrations in 1800, under the auspices of the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid. It has been suggested that the omission of engravings in this final version was due to the influence of Ysidoro Bosarte, secretary of the Academy. Bosarte was editor of Palomino's El museo pictórico y escala óptica, which would have been superseded by Bermúdez' more lavish and up-to-date work, J. Held, op. cit., pp. 296-7.