Juan Sariñena, Erfinder
Der Hl. Ludwig Bertram / S. Luis Bertrán, 16./17. Jahrhundert(?)
In 1545, Valencia native Luis Bertrán (1526-1581) entered the Dominican Order. He became a priest in 1547, and in 1562 he left for New Granada, where he was a missionary for seven years. There he survived an attempt on his life by the Indians with snake venom, and he deflected a shot using a crucifix. He was canonized in 1691.
In the 1966 Hamburg exhibition catalogue (Stubbe (dir.) 1966) it was already noted that, despite the later inscription of “De Pacheco," the sheet exhibits no similarities to that artist's known works. However there are very similar depictions of Saint Luis Bertrán by Juan Sariñena, a native Aragonese, as his surname indicates. After a sojourn in Rome between 1570 and 1575, Sariñena settled in Valencia in 1580.[1]
According to Fernando Benito Doménech, Sariñena monopolized the icon of Saint Luis Beltrán from the moment he made the latter's first portrait, for which patriarch Juan de Ribera paid him on June 18, 1584. That work is now at the Museo del Patriarca in Valencia. There are at least two other autograph works and numerous later copies of varying quality.[2]
In this sheet it is striking how the saint looks away from the crucifixslightly distorted in its perspective-with a mild expression, whereas in the other representations he gazes at it in meditation. Also, the hands and the collar are slightly varied. The folds of the collar over his left shoulder are rendered in a similar way in an engraving by Manuel Bru y Pérez (1736-1802) after Juan Sariñena's brother, Cristóbal Sariñena (active 1588-1622).[3] Thus, Cristóbal might also be the author of the Hamburg sheet. A drawing in red chalk[4] attributed to Juan Sariñena is too different in its technique, but also in its expression it is closer to the heads of the paintings than the present drawing. The Hamburg sheet is cautiously drawn, with uniform hatching. The perspective rendering of the flat crucifix is unconvincing. The drawing was published by Benito Doménech in the catalogue of the exhibition he dedicated to that artist. Benito Doménech considered it a later work (possibly by Miguel March (ca. 1633-ca. 1670) without mentioning that it was at the Kunsthalle.
Jens Hoffmann-Samland
1. Biographical and documentary data in Benito Doménech 2007, 24-33.
2. Benito Doménech 2007, 86-87, no. 1.
3. Cristóbal Sariñena (pint.) Manuel Bru (del, and sculp.), 1772, Navarre, Universidad de Navarra, see http://hdl.handle.net/10171/24138. Manuel Bru also produced engravings after Vicente Juan Maçip and Ribalta.
4. See Véliz 2002, 114-15.
Details zu diesem Werk
Beschriftung fremd: Unten links bezeichnet: "De Pacheco" (Feder in Braun)
Beschriftung fremd: Auf dem Verso nummeriert: "19" oder "79" (Bleistift, unterstrichen)
[José Atanasio Echeverría]; Julian Benjamin Williams, Seville (d. 1866); John Wetherell (?) (d. 1865); Horatio/Nathan Wetherell (?) (until 1874); Frederick William Cosens, London (from 1874 to 1890); Sotheby's, London, auction of the property of Frederick William Cosens (from November 11 to 21, 1890); Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London (from November 1890 to July 1891); acquired by the Hamburger Kunsthalle (July 14, 1891).
The Spanish Gesture. Drawings from Murillo to Goya in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Jens Hoffmann-Samland, with contributions by María Cruz de Carlos Varona, Gabriele Finaldi, José Manuel Matilla u. a., 2014, S. 242-243, Abb., Abb.-Nr. , Kat.-Nr. 146
Spanische Zeichnungen von El Greco bis Goya, Wolf Stubbe; Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1966, S. 27, 208, Abb.-Nr.
A Corpus of Spanish Drawings, vol. III Seville School 1600 to 1650, Angulo Íñiguez and Pérez Sánchez; Herausgeber: Harvey Miller Publisher, 1985, S. 80-81, Abb. S. pl.CXXXVI, 418, Abb.-Nr.
Dibujos españoles del Siglo de Oro, Zahira Véliz; Oviedo, Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, 2002, S. 114, Abb. S. fig. 1, Abb.-Nr.
Juan Sariñena (1545 - 1619) Pintor de la Contrarreforma en Valencia, Benito Doménech; Museo de Bellas Artes, 2007, S. 86, Abb.-Nr.