Francisco Herrera, d. Ä. ("El Viejo"), Umkreis
Kirchenvater / Bischof, 1638 - 1640
In 1918, August Mayer attributed this “uncommonly lively and boldly executed" drawing without question to Francisco de Herrera the Elder, and related it to the painting of Saint Basil at the Musée du Louvre, which is currently dated 1637.[1] Antonio Martínez Ripoll supported the attribution with special reference to its concept, character, and execution, and dated the sheet to the years 1638-40, thus matching the painting.[2] Diego Angulo Iñiguez and Alfonso Pérez Sánchez expressed reservations. In addition, they saw no parallels with assured drawings, though they ascribed the sheet to the circle of Herrera the Elder.[3]
Closer to the Hamburg sheet in its pose and volumes than the painting of Saint Basil is a painting of Saint Isidore by Domingo Martínez from the Capilla de la Antigua in the cathedral at Seville. The works differ in the object held by the seated man: the scroll in the drawing has been replaced by a book in the painting. The lines of the descending scroll in the drawing are taken over by the pluvial, and parallel lines predominate in both compositions.
The main lines of the composition were drawn in red chalk over a very superficial black-pencil preliminary drawing and then reinforced with more black pencil in the area of the face. Quite obviously in this study, the artist devoted his greatest attention to the precisely formulated right hand that guides the pen.
Jens Hoffmann-Samland
1 Mayer 1918, 110. Saint Basil Dictating His Rule, 95 11/16 X 76 4s in. (243 x 194 cm), Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. MI 206. Gerard Powell 2002, 174-78.
2 Martínez Ripoll 1978, 224.
3 Angulo Iñiguez and Pérez Sánchez 1985, 28.