{"id":194571,"date":"2021-04-01T12:27:53","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T12:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/lot\/the-meeting-at-the-golden-door-35910771\/"},"modified":"2021-04-01T14:23:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T14:23:39","slug":"the-meeting-at-the-golden-door-35910771","status":"publish","type":"lot","link":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/lot\/the-meeting-at-the-golden-door-35910771\/","title":{"rendered":"[Auction 104] Lot 515 – The meeting at the golden door"},"content":{"rendered":"Oil on panel\r\nPortugal, c. 1550","protected":false},"featured_media":196610,"template":"","categories":[65],"class_list":["post-194571","lot","type-lot","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paintings","author-diogo-de-contreiras"],"acf":{"auction_number":"104","number":"515","ref":"515","letter":"0","hammer_value":"26000","show_hammer_value":true,"estimation_min":"18000","estimation_max":"22000","price_on_request":false,"author":1424,"auction":{"ID":188041,"post_author":"44","post_date":"2020-11-12 14:36:43","post_date_gmt":"2020-11-12 14:36:43","post_content":"","post_title":"Auction 104 - Antiques & Works of Art, Silver & Jewellery","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"auction-104-antiques-works-of-art","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2021-04-16 20:55:56","post_modified_gmt":"2021-04-16 20:55:56","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/?post_type=auction&p=188041","menu_order":0,"post_type":"auction","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"name":"The meeting at the golden door","dimensions":"118x50 cm","description":"Oil on panel
\r\nPortugal, c. 1550
\r\n
\r\n","additional_info":[{"title":"Additional Information","text":"Provenance: Late Alpoim Calv\u00e3o Collection
\r\n
\r\nDIOGO DE CONTREIRAS (1500-1560)
\r\nPresent 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 Greg\u00f3rio Lopes (ca.1490-1550). Through novel experimentation Contreiras would simultaneously be able to absorb contemporary Italian innovations on drawing, composition and colour.
\r\nThe artist\u2019s biographical details have been thoroughly researched and it is today widely accepted that he worked from Lisbon for the wealthiest Portuguese patrons, namely Duke Teod\u00f3sio I of Braganza (1510-1563), the Order of Christ\u2019s Head\u2013Commander Afonso de Lencastre (ca.1505-1572), the Royal House nobleman Jo\u00e3o Rodrigues Portugu\u00eas and the aristocratic Costa family from \u00c9vora. This information, as well as other important data, resulted from research developed in 1977-78 by Professor Vitor Serr\u00e3o, which led him to identify with certainty the artist previously known as the \u201cMaster of S\u00e3o Quintino\u201d, as being in fact Diogo de Contreiras.
\r\nUp until then the artistic production attributed to this \u201cMaster of S\u00e3o Quintino\u201d had been mistaken, namely in 1954 by Lu\u00eds Reis Santos (1898-1967), for the later phase of the painter Greg\u00f3rio 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 S\u00f3ria (1911-1961), on a group of over thirty paintings identified as being by \u201cS\u00e3o Quintino\u201d would later be reinforced by Vitor Serr\u00e3o\u2019s attributions.
\r\nThe 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\u2019s 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 C\u00e1stris, near \u00c9vora.
\r\nFactors 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\u2019 artistic development and suggest, with some certainty, that our painting is likely to date from the early 1550s.
\r\nAccording to the Historian Joaquim Caetano who, following from Vitor Serr\u00e3o\u2019s research results, has focused his attention on Contreira\u2019s work, the artist does not always follow the same exact models. As such, in this painting, the Saint Joachim\u2019s figure \u2013 of long beard and grey hair - is portrayed in profile, and that of Saint Anne \u2013 of oval face characteristic of the artist\u2019s female models \u2013 appears facing the viewer but placed towards the back.
\r\nIn 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 \u201cAnnunciation to Saint Joachim\u201d both with considerable depth of perspective.
\r\nBy 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\u2019s and the landscape (whose colours reflect the Saint\u2019s 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\u2019 hearts, holds the Immaculate Virgin suspended on a fine crescent and resplendent on the luminous halo.
\r\nAccording to An\u00edsio Franco \u201cthis 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.\u201d
\r\n
\r\nLiterature:
\r\nJoaquim Oliveira Caetano, A identifica\u00e7\u00e3o de um pintor in \"Oceanos\", n.\u00ba 13, Lisboa, 1993;
\r\nGr\u00e3o Vasco e a pintura europeia do Renascimento: Galeria de Pintura do Rei D. Lu\u00eds, 17 mar\u00e7o a 10 junho 1992, Comiss\u00e3o Nacional para as Comemora\u00e7\u00f5es dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, em colabora\u00e7\u00e3o com Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, Instituto Portugu\u00eas do Patrim\u00f3nio Cultural, Instituto Portugu\u00eas de Museus, 1992;
\r\nV\u00edtor Serr\u00e3o, Hist\u00f3ria da Arte em Portugal - o Renascimento e o Maneirismo, Lisboa, 2002
\r\n V\u00edtor Serr\u00e3o, Os pain\u00e9is da igreja de Unhos: s\u00e9culos XVI - XVII, Boletim Cultural, n\u00ba 73-74, Lisboa, 1970, p. 27-52;
\r\nPedro Almeida Flor, A autoria do Ret\u00e1bulo de Santa Maria de Almoster por Diogo de Contreiras (1540-1542), in ARTIS, Lisboa, Instituto de Hist\u00f3ria da Arte da Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa, 2004, n.\u00ba 3, pp. 335-34;
\r\nV\u00edtor Serr\u00e3o e Joaquim Oliveira Caetano, A Pintura Maneirista em Portugal. Arte no Tempo de Cam\u00f5es, cat\u00e1logo de exposi\u00e7\u00e3o comissariada por Comiss\u00e3o Nacional para a Celebra\u00e7\u00e3o dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, galeria de D. Lu\u00eds, Pal\u00e1cio Nacional da Ajuda, Lisboa, 1995, n.\u00ba 8, pp. 194 e 195"}],"tags":"Paintings","auction_session":"2","gallery":[{"image":{"ID":196610,"id":196610,"title":"104_515","filename":"515.jpg","filesize":10835622,"url":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515.jpg","link":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/lot\/o-encontro-na-porta-dourada-1293198996\/104_515\/","alt":"","author":"44","description":"","caption":"","name":"104_515","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":194570,"date":"2021-04-01 15:55:04","modified":"2021-04-01 15:55:05","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2573,"height":5411,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515.jpg","medium-width":143,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1615,"large":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515.jpg","large-width":487,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515.jpg","1536x1536-width":730,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515.jpg","2048x2048-width":974,"2048x2048-height":2048,"v_medium":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515-640x1346.jpg","v_medium-width":640,"v_medium-height":1346,"gform-image-choice-sm":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515.jpg","gform-image-choice-sm-width":143,"gform-image-choice-sm-height":300,"gform-image-choice-md":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515.jpg","gform-image-choice-md-width":190,"gform-image-choice-md-height":400,"gform-image-choice-lg":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/515.jpg","gform-image-choice-lg-width":285,"gform-image-choice-lg-height":600}},"is_video":false,"video_source":"","video_id":"","use_video_thumbnail":true}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lot\/194571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lot"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/lot"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritas.art\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}