Lot 311: JOAN MACIP, CALLED JOAN DE JOANES VALENCIA 1510 - 1579

oil on panel

93 by 55.6 cm.; 36 1/2 by 22 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, pps. 450-52, no. 17, reproduced vol. III, plate LXXXVII, erroneously listed as Saint Bernard;
Joan de Joanes, exhibition catalogue, Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes, 31 January - 26 March 2000, appendix, p. 234, reproduced;
Joan de Joanes. Un Maestro del Renacimiento, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, Fundación Santander Central Hispano, 3 Oct. - 26 Nov. 2000, p. 176, under cat. no. 77.

PROPERTY FROM A SPANISH NOBLE FAMILY

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

This painting of Saint Vincent Ferrer by Joan de Joanes belongs to a set of four panels, which were probably designed as guardapolvos for a single retablo (see note to lot 310). Its companion piece, in which the figure is depicted on the same squared marble floor with a parapet behind, represents Saint Bernard (see Joan de Joanes, exhibition catalogue, under Literature, pp. 226-27, reproduced p. 227), and would have occupied the guardapolvo on the upper right of the retablo, opposite the present work. For a reconstruction of the likely original configuration of the panels see fig. 1, p. 30.

Depictions of Saint Vincent Ferrer were extremely popular with Dominican convents, hermitages and parrochial churches in Valencia during the 16th century and the subject was painted on numerous occasions by Joanes. For example, one treatment (oil on panel 112 by 45 cm.) which originally formed part of the Retablo de San Sebastián painted for the monastery of Valdecristo in Altura, is now in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona (see Joan de Joanes. Un Maestro del Renacimiento, under Literature, pp. 82-83, cat. no. 13, reproduced); and another (oil on panel, 65.5 by 40.5 cm.), in which the saint is positioned before the harbour of Barcelona - the scene of his miraculous prediction of the return of some lost ships - is in the Museo del Patriarca, Valencia (see op. cit., pp. 150-51, cat. no. 64, reproduced). A beautiful drawing (pen and brown ink) by Joanes, today in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia (see op. cit., pp. 77-78, reproduced), depicts the saint in a similar pose to the present work (albeit with some changes to the arrangement of the drapery, scroll and setting), however Dr. Fernando Benito Doménech believes this to date late within the artist's career and thereby post-date the present work.

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.

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