Lot 310: JOAN MACIP, CALLED JOAN DE JOANES VALENCIA 1510 - 1579

oil on panel

93.2 by 55.3 cm.; 36 3/4 by 21 3/4 in.

C. de P., 'Visita al Palacio de la Condesa de Alcubierre', in Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones, no. 35, 1927, p. 171;
J. Albi, Joan de Joanes y su Círculo Artístico, Valencia 1979, vol. I, pp. 450-52, no. 15, reproduced vol. III, plate LXXXV;
Joan de Joanes, exhibition catalogue, Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes, 31 January - 26 March 2000, appendix, p. 229, reproduced.

PROPERTY FROM A SPANISH NOBLE FAMILY

Conde de Alcubierre Collection, Madrid, since the 19th century;
By family descent to the present owner.

Joan de Joanes was one of the leading painters working in Valencia during the mid-16th century. He trained with his father Vicente Maçip, whose style he closely assimilated during his formative years, and he became a key exponent of the Renaissance movement which began in his native city through the work of Paolo da San Leocadia, Fernando Yañez and Fernando Llanos. His mature style however was profoundly influenced by the work of Raphael and the Roman academists, whose work he is believed to have experienced directly during a visit to Italy around 1560.

This depiction of Saint John the Evangelist in a Landscape by Joanes belongs to a set of four panels by the artist, which were probably conceived as guardapolvos for a single altarpiece. The other panels within the group represent Saint Vincent Ferrer (see lot 311); Saint John the Baptist; and Saint Bernard (see Joan de Joanes, exhibition catalogue, under Literature, pp. 226-7, 229 & 230, reproduced). Hitherto the paintings have been in the collection of the Condes de Alcubierre in Madrid since the early 19th century, the latter two panels still remaining in a Spanish private collection today.

In the present work and the Saint John the Baptist, Joanes has depicted the saints in an idealized landscape setting, whereas in the Saint Vicent Ferrer and Saint Bernard the figures are positioned on a squared marble floor, with a parapet behind. The slightly lowered viewpoint adopted in the latter two scenes suggests that they originally formed the upper tier of the guardapolvos (with Saint Vincent Ferrer on the left side), and the Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist (whose gazes both engage the viewer at eye level) the lower tier, with the present work on the left side. For a reconstruction of this likely original configuration see fig. 1, p. 30 (under lot 311).

Albi (see Literature) proposed a plausible date of execution for the set of four to the mid-point of the artist's career circa 1545-50, at a time when Joanes was no longer heavily dependant on the style of his father and had already embraced the influence of Raphael.

We are grateful to Dr. Fernando Benito Doménech for confirming the attribution to Joan de Joanes on the basis of a colour transparency.