Matías de ARTEAGA y ALFARO - Lot 24

Matías de ARTEAGA y ALFARO (Villanueva de los Infantes (Ciudad Real) 1633-Seville 1704) The Marriage of the Virgin Canvas. 203 x 160 cm. Provenance : Sale of paintings from the collection of the late Mr. Billaudel, Paris, December 1, 1841, no. 40 (Murillo). We would like to thank Professor Enrique Valdivisio for having indicated the attribution of this painting to Matías de Arteaga y Alfaro, based on digital photography, by e-mail dated September 24, 2023. This artist combines the influence of the two great Sevillian Baroque painters of the second half of the 17th century: Bartolomeo Murillo and Juan de Valdés-Leal. From the former, he retains the softness of the modelling and the order of the frieze composition (Murillo's Marriage of the Virgin in the Wallace Collection, London, comes to mind). The Saint Joseph is reminiscent of those by Murillo. From Valdes-Leal, he retains the shimmer of materials and certain physical features, in this case the three male figures on the left, or the oriental atmosphere created by the turbans. Matías de Arteaga was also passionate about perspective and palatial settings, as can also be seen in the upper section. In Dictionnaire des professeurs des beaux-arts en Espagne (Madrid. 1800), Ceán Bermúdez writes: "He was very fond of perspective, as there are few paintings by him without temples, palaces, streets or gardens, and generally with subjects from the life of the Virgin" (volume 1, p.77). This description also applies to his important activity as an engraver, to the drawing preserved in the Louvre museum, or to his paintings. He depicted the union of Mary and Joseph on several occasions, notably in his series on the life of the Virgin; two different, full-length compositions on this subject are preserved in private Spanish collections.