Estimate

5.000 - 8.000

Session 1

13 December 2021

Hammer Price

Description

Oil on canvas

158x106 cm

Category

Paintings

Additional note

Unsigned painting acquired at auction with incomplete history. The religious thematic, associated to its elegant lobate upper section, suggests a secure public or domestic devotional altar piece provenance. On a preliminary assessment, the drawing characteristics, the colouring, the light and dark contrasts, the plasticity and the atmosphere all remit to a Lisbon studio related to the painter André Gonçalves (1687-1762). In terms of the overall composition, and although matching the print from which it originated – after Hans von Aachen (1552-1615) – it seems rather peculiar in relation to the archers’ figures appearance, in that it introduces more pleasant physiognomies that are recurrent in works from Gonçalves studio, namely those produced for the Madonna of Grace Chapel at Oeiras. In comparison to the original models, prints do undoubtedly lack information relating to colour, plasticity and atmosphere, hence forcing the artist follower to assume his own tendencies, tastes and influences. By doing so he highlights the diversity of colours – yellow, red, pink, blue and purple – albeit annulled by their deficient gradation and limited light-dark contrasts. Light and shade effects do not spread over large spaces and lack firmness, thus reducing the atmospheric allure. Information regarding João dos Santos Ala, and his artistic activity are rather limited beyond the notes in Cirilo Volkmar Machado memoirs. In terms of biographical details Machado places him within the list of artists under André Gonçalves supervision and followers of his style, “he copied his master’s manner but was more truthful” (Machado:73). Also, according to Machado, Santos Ala served at the Saint Luke brotherhood between 1733-1735. The brotherhood records books, however, refer that he was admitted as brother in 1730, while living in the castle neighbourhood, later moving to the Rua das Parreiras at the Parish of Jesus (Teixeira: 94). The dates referred by Machado correspond in fact to the period in which he served as brotherhood nurse, being responsible for assisting and accompanying the brothers through illness (Flor: 87, 88; Irmandade: 14v-15v). Later, and until the early 1780s, he returned to the castle vicinity establishing his own studio (Martins: 156, 157). Of the few Santos Ala paintings referred by Volkmar Machado, a considerable number is lost or of whereabouts unknown, the Annunciation and the Crowning of the Virgin at the Church of Jesus in Lisbon and the portraits of Venerable Carthusian monks from the Laveiras Hospice, in Oeiras now at the National Archives, being his only known extant works. The attribution of the present work to Santos Ala is fundamentally based on the identification of remarkable affinities - the brushstroke, the colouring and the atmosphere conveyed - with the paintings referred above. The choice of this model, of Mannerist characteristics, as opposed to other reformed, either Roman or not, diverges from the established contemporary rules, although most certainly not due to shortage of good quality alternatives on the same topic that were widely circulated – by Guido Reni, by Jusepe de Ribera, by Rubens, etc. – both in the learning studios and amongst peers. But it was chosen nonetheless and, in this context, the most plausible explanation for such fact would be that it corresponded to demand or choice by the patron. Comparing the painting with its printed model, produced by an unknown artist after Jan Muller (1571-1628), it is easy to perceive that there are some obvious differences between them; Some figural groups have been eliminated, certainly for sobriety, for easiness of reading and for focusing the action. Some clearly Mannerist movements and postures were adjusted in terms of proportion and tension of limbs, while body musculature was smoothed. Basically, the work was altered in its key Mannerist aspects, all the parts perceived as “anticlassical” or “unpleasant” at the time of production being selectively eradicated. By identifying the supposed errors of the past in such a manner, João dos Santos Ala reveals a thorough practical and theorical artistic training.


LÉCIO LEAL

Literature: LEAL, Lécio, in MONTEIRO, Joana d´Oliva (coordenação), Maria do Céu e Luís Pereira de Sampaio. Uma colecção em foco, catálogo da exposição realizada na Fundação Medeiros e Almeida, Ed. ADEPA, 2019, p. 44. MACHADO, Cirilo Volkmar – Colecção de Memórias relativas às Vidas dos Pintores (...), Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, 1922. TEIXEIRA, Francisco Augusto Garcez – A Irmandade de S. Lucas, Estudo do seu Arquivo, Lisboa: S. n.,1931. FLOR, Susana Varela, FLOR, Pedro – Pintores de Lisboa, Séculos XVII-XVIII. A Irmandade de S. Lucas, Lisboa: Scribe, 2016 B.N.P., MSS, 9002 - Compromisso da Irmandade da Gloriosa Virgem e Mártir Santa Cecília ordenado pelos Professores da Arte da Música em o Ano de 1749, S.l. [Lisboa]: S. n. [Irmandade de Santa Cecília], 1749 (em linha: http://purl.pt/24981). MARTINS, Francisco de Assis de Oliveira – Pina Manique: o Político – o Amigo de Lisboa, Lisboa: Sociedade Industrial de Tipografia, 1948.