Estimate

18.000 - 22.000

Session 2

15 April 2021

Hammer Price

Description

Oil on panel
Portugal, c. 1550

118x50 cm

Category

Paintings

Additional Information

Provenance: Late Alpoim Calvão Collection

DIOGO DE CONTREIRAS (1500-1560)
Present day Art Historians are unanimous in their appreciation of Diogo de Contreiras, one of the most creative painters of the Portuguese Mannerism who, by embracing a distinctive personal style, freed himself from the restrictive models defined by Gregório Lopes (ca.1490-1550). Through novel experimentation Contreiras would simultaneously be able to absorb contemporary Italian innovations on drawing, composition and colour.
The artist’s biographical details have been thoroughly researched and it is today widely accepted that he worked from Lisbon for the wealthiest Portuguese patrons, namely Duke Teodósio I of Braganza (1510-1563), the Order of Christ’s Head–Commander Afonso de Lencastre (ca.1505-1572), the Royal House nobleman João Rodrigues Português and the aristocratic Costa family from Évora. This information, as well as other important data, resulted from research developed in 1977-78 by Professor Vitor Serrão, which led him to identify with certainty the artist previously known as the “Master of São Quintino”, as being in fact Diogo de Contreiras.
Up until then the artistic production attributed to this “Master of São Quintino” had been mistaken, namely in 1954 by Luís Reis Santos (1898-1967), for the later phase of the painter Gregório Lopes. Reynaldo dos Santos (1880-1970) however, had argued that this artist had no connection to that master, being instead an independent, yet unknown, entity. Further research in 1957, by the Spanish Art Historian Martin Sória (1911-1961), on a group of over thirty paintings identified as being by “São Quintino” would later be reinforced by Vitor Serrão’s attributions.
The work we are now presenting for sale at Veritas is one of three versions that Contreiras completed on the same subject. One first version was painted circa 1540 for Saint Catherine’s Parish Church. One other was completed at a later date for the central panel of the tryptic of the Conception at the Benedictine Monastery of Cástris, near Évora.
Factors such as the robustness of the figures and their depiction in pray, rather than in the usual embrace of Conception, point to an evolution in Contreiras’ artistic development and suggest, with some certainty, that our painting is likely to date from the early 1550s.
According to the Historian Joaquim Caetano who, following from Vitor Serrão’s research results, has focused his attention on Contreira’s work, the artist does not always follow the same exact models. As such, in this painting, the Saint Joachim’s figure – of long beard and grey hair - is portrayed in profile, and that of Saint Anne – of oval face characteristic of the artist’s female models – appears facing the viewer but placed towards the back.
In this particularly tall and narrow panel the placement of the Golden Gate oblique arch, reinforced by a buttress, creates an angle at the centre of the painting and provides an opening for two backgrounds. One with buildings, to the left, and another to the right with a landscape that becomes the setting for the complimentary scene of the “Annunciation to Saint Joachim” both with considerable depth of perspective.
By replicating the arch diagonally supported by the buttress, the artist created a central X intersection that overlaps at this particular point. One of the axes connecting to Saint Anne’s and the landscape (whose colours reflect the Saint’s mantle) and the other corresponding to Saint Joachim and the succession of warm colours in the background with buildings. Vertically these two axes are intersected by the line that, from the rose stems that extend from the spouses’ hearts, holds the Immaculate Virgin suspended on a fine crescent and resplendent on the luminous halo.
According to Anísio Franco “this is an unsurpassable work in the production of this Portuguese Renaissance artist that, although out of his intended original context, has its own independent status and relevance as a work of art that will undoubtedly enhance and value any Old Master paintings collection.”

Literature:
Joaquim Oliveira Caetano, A identificação de um pintor in "Oceanos", n.º 13, Lisboa, 1993;
Grão Vasco e a pintura europeia do Renascimento: Galeria de Pintura do Rei D. Luís, 17 março a 10 junho 1992, Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, em colaboração com Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, Instituto Português do Património Cultural, Instituto Português de Museus, 1992;
Vítor Serrão, História da Arte em Portugal - o Renascimento e o Maneirismo, Lisboa, 2002
Vítor Serrão, Os painéis da igreja de Unhos: séculos XVI - XVII, Boletim Cultural, nº 73-74, Lisboa, 1970, p. 27-52;
Pedro Almeida Flor, A autoria do Retábulo de Santa Maria de Almoster por Diogo de Contreiras (1540-1542), in ARTIS, Lisboa, Instituto de História da Arte da Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa, 2004, n.º 3, pp. 335-34;
Vítor Serrão e Joaquim Oliveira Caetano, A Pintura Maneirista em Portugal. Arte no Tempo de Camões, catálogo de exposição comissariada por Comissão Nacional para a Celebração dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, galeria de D. Luís, Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, Lisboa, 1995, n.º 8, pp. 194 e 195