Workshop of Anthony van Dyck

(Antwerp 1599–1641 London)
The Virgin and Child with Saint Barbara,
oil on canvas, 128 x 92 cm, framed
Provenance:
Aristocratic collection, Seville, 1960;
where acquired by the father of the present owner

Exhibited:
Seville, Museum of Fine Arts, Pintores granadinos del siglo XVII. Actos conmemorativos del tricentenario de Bartolomé E. Murillo, March–April 1982, cat no. 19 (as Alonso Cano)

Literature:
E. Pareja López, Pintores granadinos del siglo XVII. Actos conmemorativos del tricentenario de Bartolomé E. Murillo, exhibition catalogue, Seville 1982, pp. 52–53, illustrated (as Alonso Cano)

We are grateful to Gloria Martínez Leiva for her assistance in cataloguing this lot. Her written research report in Spanish accompanies this lot in copy.

The work offered here depicts the Virgin seated with the Child on her lap with Saint Barbara kneeling in humility before them. Dressed in a white robe and a blue mantle with a brown veil, the Virgin stands out firmly from the darkened cloudy landscape. The Virgin is commonly depicted wearing red after the birth of Christ, but this would not distinguish her enough from Saint Barbara who is often depicted in this colour as well. On the righthand side of the composition, behind the saint, a tower can be distinguished, which balances out the figures in the foreground and, crucially, identifies the saint. As the daughter of a Governor of the ancient Heliopolis of Phoenicia, now in Lebanon, Barbara was locked into a tower to prevent an unsuitable marriage. During her imprisonment, she converted to Christianity and had a third window made in the tower as a symbol of the Holy Trinity. After refusing to marry the candidate proposed by her father, claiming that she chose Christ as a husband, the Governor had her brutally killed in honour of the pagan gods. In this painting, her rich robe and mantle, as well as the pearls, refer to the high social position of the saint. She is depicted holding her right hand elegantly to her chest, as a sign of respect and humility; her left hand holds a palm referring to her martyrdom.

The present painting relates to compositions made by Van Dyck during his second Antwerp period (circa 1627–1632/34) in which his years in Italy (1621–1627) are echoed. A fine example of his work at that time, in which the inspiration from Titian and Guido Reni is clearly visible is the artist’s Virgin and Child Adored by Penitent Sinners, conserved in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 1230). In the Paris painting, the seated Virgin and Child with a kneeling figure on their left are comparable to those in the present work, as is the dark background on the left of the Paris painting which must have inspired the artist of the present work.

Van Dyck’s Mystic Marriage of Saint Rosalie possibly served as direct inspiration for the present painting (conserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inv. no. 482). Van Dyck received the commission for this altarpiece from the Jesuit Confraternity of Bachelors, "the Sodaliteit der bejaerde Jongmans", when he became a member in 1628. The Viennese painting, in its turn, alludes to Titian’s Pesaro Madonna in the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, although in reverse. It remains uncertain how Van Dyck composed the Viennese work, as there are no records of the artist’s stay in Venice, nor are there any drawings known after Titian’s compositions by Van Dyck. Working from a print was a common practice, though there are no prints after Titian’s work known that were spread in Van Dyck’s time.

In the representation of the Virgin in the painting offered here, it seems that elements have been closely copied from the Viennese work. Especially the Virgin’s facial structure, the inclination of her head, and the folds in the veil are all almost identical to the work in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. This also applies to the facial structure and the position of the head of Saint Barbara when compared to that of Saint Rosalie. The contours of the faces of the figures are strongly outlined and it has therefore been suggested that the artist of the present work might have used a copying technique.

As also cited in lot 99, Horst Vey states in his discussion on the religious works of Van Dyck’s second Antwerp period that: ‘It seems to have been the exception rather than the rule for a composition to leave the workshop before a repetition had been made’ (see H. Vey in: S. J. Barnes, N. De Poorter, O. Millar & H. Vey, Van Dyck. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven/London 2004, p. 240). Taking this into account and adding the closely copied elements after the Viennese work, it is plausible that the present work was made in Van Dyck’s workshop after 1629.