Saint Agnes

• Francisco de Zurbarán (Fuente de Cantos, Badajoz, 1598 – Madrid, 1664)
• c. 1635
• 150’70 x 105’60 cm
• Oil on canvas

It is one of the most beautiful saints executed by Francisco de Zurbarán. It was considered an artwork of the Spanish master for more than 150 years, until in 2010 its attribution was questioned without convincing arguments.

The artwork has been studied in the CAEM in an integral way, starting from its direct observation and with the help of multiband photographic techniques. The results of these non-invasive analyses, compared with the analysis of its pigment composition and, especially the careful stylistic comparison with other works by Zurbarán, have led us to restore the former attribution of the work to the great master of the Spanish Baroque, Francisco de Zurbarán.

Self-Portrait

• Joaquín Sorolla Bastida (Valencia, 1863 – Cercedilla, Madrid, 1923)
• 1885
• 40’5 x 24 cm
• Oil on panel

This is a work by Sorolla made in Rome, during his first year of pension in Italy. Sorolla dedicated this self-portrait to his friend Esteban: an unidentified person.

The piece has been studied and restored at the CAEM. It was attributed by Blanca Pons-Sorolla, and the CAEM confirmed the authorship. During the study, it was revealed that it is a self-portrait. The study of the artwork allows a better understating of Sorolla’s evolution, from his natural talent to his worldwide recognition as the master of light.

Prince Felipe Próspero

• Diego Velázquez
• c.1659
• 144’2 X 104’1 cm
• Oil on canvas

Long conversations between doctors Carmen Garrido and Ximo Company about this work preceded its study. Hidden under a large repolychrome, the different analytical techniques, highlighting IR photography and radiography, gave strength to the hypotheses that Garrido expressed on multiple occasions to the director of the CAEM: unseen under a crude intervention, a work by the great Sevillian master was hidden.

Unfortunately, Dr. Garrido died without completing her study, and she was not even able to contemplate the fascinating restoration process that released one of the best works that have been in the CAEM. Thus, Dr. Company, helped by researcher Marc Borrás, concluded, as Carmen Garrido had always thought, that the original work was the product of Diego Velázquez, while the later repolychrome work was the work of his son-in-law Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo.

This work fully coincides with the identical version located in Vienna, without a doubt one of the best paintings ever executed by the painter of Felipe IV, which allows us to understand the reason for this rarity: the monarch wanted to also preserve the beautiful image of his son that was shipping to Austria.

Francisco de Goya. Carlos IV / Portrait of King Carlos IV

• Francisco de Goya (Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, 1746 – Burdeos, 1828)
• 1789
• 111’5 x 76’5 cm
• Oil on canvas

Comprehensive analytical study attributed to Goya allowing a magnificent portrait of Carlos IV, the first of an extensive series Aragonese painter made the Bourbon king. Allows discover matrix or original prototype that Goya consummated and patented between February and April 1789, i.e., how devised and performed the first official portrait of King Charles IV. Strong evidence from the powerful analytical cabinet of the University of Lleida, which has after three years of hard work come with that plural look, collegial, transversal and transdisciplinary claiming the History of Art of the XXI century is provided.

It has been published on PUIG, Isidro; COMPANY, Ximo; GARRIDO, Carmen; HERRERO, Miquel Àngel: Francisco de Goya. Carlos IV. Portrait of King Carlos IV, Caem, Universitat de Lleida, col·lecció “Estudios Monográficos de Pintura”, núm. 6, Lleida, 2016.

Portrait of Juana Galarza de Goicoechea

• Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, 1746 – Bordeaux, 1828)
• c. 1805-1808
• 7 cm Æ
• Graphite and conté pencil on avitel paper

Is an exquisite portrait by the Aragonese master of his mother-in-law Juana Galarza de Goicoechea, to whom Goya’s family was related when Goya’s son (Francisco Javier Goya) married Juana’s daughter (Gumersinda Goicoechea) in 1805. The study has been carried out over three years, and has been reviewed by numerous experts related to the figure of Goya.

In this excellent drawing we can see Goya’s agile and expert hand, reflected in the freely executed but totally accurate details, such as the way the hair is tied back or the decoration of the dress. It is a type of drawing that resembles other family portraits by the master, such as the drawing of Javier Goya y Bayeu, also a drawing, now in a private collection. The complete study has culminated in a publication in book format, which can be purchased through the following link.

Saint Jerome in His Study

Saint Michael the Archangel defeating the Devil

• Lorenzo Suárez (h. 1590 – active in Murcia in the first half of the 17th century)
• First third of the 17th century
• 141’6 x 101’4 cm
• Oil on canvas

This wonderful canvas shows a painting by one of the best painters of the Murcian baroque, of which barely a dozen pieces are preserved.

Tras un minucioso análisis técnico, se pudo apreciar que la obra presentaba las características técnicas y compositivas a nivel de materiales propias de una pintura siglo XVII, así como algunos detalles, tales como los círculos que hay en las alas del demonio, totalmente inapreciables bajo luz día, emergían en la toma de fotografía infrarroja.

After a detailed technical analysis, it was possible to appreciate that the work presented the technical and compositional characteristics typical of a 17th century painting, as well as some details, such as the circles on the wings of the devil, totally inappreciable under daylight, that emerged in infrared photography.

These techniques also allowed us to study in depth the signature of the piece, making its authenticity clear. Finally, the comparative study of our work with the small artistic corpus of Suárez, clearly manifested the characteristics, stylemes and brushwork common to each other, especially when confronted with the paintings preserved in the conventual church of La Merced in Murcia.

Christ carrying the cross

• Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (Candía, Grecia, 1541 – Toledo, 1614)
• ca. 1585-1590
• 57’50 x 38’50 cm
• Oil painting on canvas

In the mid-1580s, Greco transformed the traditional narrative image of Christ carrying the cross on the way to Calvary into a devotional image marked by the triumph of Christ as a King. As a consequence, Christ embracing the cross or Christ carrying the cross became one of the favorite themes of the public and Greco’s clientele, and for this reason there are numerous versions made during the last two decades of the s. XVI.

In the version we have studied here, it seems to us that we are dealing with an original work by Greco, an attractive piece, of great quality and technical and executive refinement. In our opinion, it is an authorship that offers no doubts. The technical-formal analyzes commented throughout the study justify this. The workmanship is loose, with large brushstrokes that show an unmistakable vivacity and a serene and adult plastic loquacity.

Peasants going to the market

• Cornelis de Vos (Hulst, h. 1584 – Amberes, 1651)
• c. 1620-1639
• 130’5 x 121’5 cm (unframed)
• Oil on canvas

This painting can be a second version of the painting by Cornelis de Vos (ca. 1584-1651) and his brother-in-law Frans Snyders in The Iveagh Bequest – Kenwood House (London) Figures with fruits and hunting piece. It is undoubtedly a work of great quality. It seems that was Cornelis himself who painted the figures of the Peasants going to the market, probably along with another artist of Frans Snyders workshop. However, the meticulous realist style of Cornelis de Vos is undoubtable.

Assault on an elephant

• The follower of Hieronymus Bosch, El Bosco (‘s-Hertogenbosch, h. 1450 – 1516).
• c. 1558
• 153 x 233 cm
• Oil on canvas
  

This boschian work, thoroughly analyzed by the CAEM in all its aspects: iconography, iconology, comparison with the production of El Bosco and his followers, as well as its material composition, technique and creative process through the use of non-invasive techniques and microsamples , turned out to be a beautiful and ancient example of a “ghost copy”, a work that claims an autograph painting by the master of s’Hertogenbosch, now lost, being testimony to a composition by Hieronymus Bosch that has survived thanks to this painting and other works that all come from a lost original model.

Landscape

• Joaquín Sorolla i Bastida (Valencia, 1863 – Cercedilla, Madrid, 1923)
• c. 1880 – 1881
• 34,6 x 16,8 cm
• Oil on canvas
  

This is a small oil painting on panel, showing a river or lake landscape. Executed probably from natural with a very refined technique, it was made by Joaquin Sorolla in 1881, at the beginning of his artistic career. X-ray showed that the painter painted this Valencian landscape in a panel where previously there was already a human figure, probably by Sorolla itself. The painter humanizes the landscape, depicting the silhouette of a tower and a dome on the horizon, and the recent installed electrical wiring.

This work was attributed to the Valencian master by the CAEM, with the collaboration of Ms. Blanca Pons-Sorolla.

Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata

• Francisco de Herrera, el Viejo (Sevilla, h. 1590 – Madrid, h. 1654)
• First third of the 17th century
• 101’2 x 82’5 cm
• Oil on canvas

This beautiful painting was attributed in the 1960s to Antonio del Castillo, undoubtedly due to an aged state of the varnish, which hid its true intensity, as well as the remains of a signature whose spelling coincided with that of said painter.

However, a detailed study of the work cast doubt on this rubric, as well as the styles and technical characteristics of the piece were discordant with the aforementioned artist, appreciating the style of Herrera el Viejo.

Thus, the work was restored, showing that the signature was apocryphal, while the real colours of the cloudscape and the rest of the composition came to light. This intervention was crucial to fully establish the attribution of the piece, which due to its colour, the fineness of its execution and its resurgent quality after the removal of an extremely aged varnish, allowed us to join other colleagues of reputed authority, and thus affirm, without any type of doubt, that we are before a work of the great Sevillian painter Francisco Herrera el Viejo.

Virgin of the had with the Child

• Pedro de Mata (active between 1532 y 1593)
• c. 1567
• 48 x 38 cm
• Oil on canvas

This is a Virgin wearing a pretty pilgrim hat and carrying the baby Jesus in her arms. This type of Virgin became fashionable in the 16^th century and well-known thanks to the versions made by Luis de Morales (Badajoz, 1509 – 1586). Hitherto, Morales was considered the creator of this model of Virgin, and all works with this iconography were attributed to him or his workshop.

The study of the artwork has revealed a proximity between our piece and the original model, made by Antonio de Holanda (1480 – 1571), The Empress of Portugal with Prince Felipe in her arms, from Casa Medina Sidonia. It is also close to the oldest model (according to our study) made by Morales: The Virgin with Child or The Virgin with the Hat, from the Descalzas Reales Monastery in Madrid. However, there are style differences between these two painters, being closer to the style observed in the works attributed to Pedro de Mata.

Male portrait in Neoclassical fashion

• Rembrandt Peale (Bucks County, United States of America, 1778 – Philadelphia, 1860)
• First third of the 19th century
• 72’9 x 59’8 cm
• Oil on canvas

After several months of exhaustive research, the CAEM team, with the collaboration of Ellen G. Miles (curator emeritus, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, USA), Jacob Simon (research fellow, National Portrait Gallery, London), Carol E. Soltis (associate curator of projects, Philadelphia Museum of Art), Patricia H. Svoboda (research coordinator, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery) and Linda A. Thrift (curator emeritus of the American Portrait Catalogue, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery), have attributed this penetrating portrait to the Unites States painter Rembrandt Peale.

Peale was the son of the famous portraitist Charles Willson Peale (Chester, United States of America, 1741 – Philadelphia, 1828), who introduced his son to the world of art at an early age and encouraged him to continue his training by travelling around the United States and Europe during his youth. His style was influenced both by the French neoclassicism of masters such as Jacques-Louis David (Paris, 1748 – Brussels, 1825) and by the portrait-like dynamism of Benjamin West (Springfield, United States of America, 1738 – London, 1820). Finally, Rembrandt Peale ended up creating a new style in the genre of portraiture capable of harmoniously capturing the personality and atmosphere of the sitters, as he did in Male portrait in Neoclassical fashion, using resources such as the application of touches of white in the hair and eyes that bring light and naturalness to the gentleman depicted.

Note from Mallorca

• Joaquim Mir i Trinxet (Barcelona, 1873-1940)
• ca. 1903-1904
• 19 x 13 cm (without frame)
• Oil on panel

This small-format artwork corresponds to a final palette note made by Mir during his stay in Mallorca. It not only tells us about a landscape or a specific place on the island, but also of everything that surrounded the artist in his professional career.

This composition corresponds to the type of work that Mir used to did especially at the end of a session or a working day. Apart from the large works intended to be exhibited, Mir always carried canvases, boards or small-format cardboard, as he used this material to take advantage of the paint that remained on his palette when he finishes a session. In Note from Mallorca our artist draws with colour and captures his agile, confident and vibrant brushstroke.

Seated female nude

• Attributed to Joaquim Sunyer i de Miró (Sitges, 1874-1956)
• 1936
• 91’5 x 72’7 cm
• Oil on canvas

CAEM’s staff, after an exhaustive research, has attributed this work to the Sitges native painter Joaquim Sunyer (1874-1956). The brushwork corresponds to the artist’s, and even though the pigment’s palette was quite common in his period of time, the deep research of the figures and the signature as well has helped out with the attribution.

“Seated female nude” belongs to one of Sunyer’s most beloved topics, along with landscapes, and can be understood as a breath of fresh air in his more Post-Impressionist and Noucentisme period nudes; in this sense, it’s a quite unique canvas that leads the way to new interpretations of his work. An intimate piece of work, straightforward and especially well done that highlights the gift of the Sitgetan painter.

Marine storm

• Ramón Martí Alsina (Barcelona, 1826-1894)
• ca. 1872-1894
• 51’5 x 91’5 cm
• Oil on canvas

The CAEM has corroborated the authenticity of a beautiful marine landscape, signed by Ramón Martí Alsina. It is a piece made at a very sad moment in the artist’s history, in which he was hit by various family calamities.

The feeling of fury of the painter is reflected in the piece: it is the representation of a sea lashed by the winds of a dark storm that is approaching. A subject solved with great conviction and resolution, which shows the force of the marine storms made by this great artist, introducer and great representative of Catalan realism.

Virgin of Milk

• Workshop of Joos van Cleve (¿Cléveris?, ca. 1485 – Amberes, ca. 1540)
• ca. 1510-1530.
• 23’6 x 19 cm
• Oil on panel

After a meticulous process of restoration in our facilities, decisive elements have been recovered that were previously hidden from the view of human eyes.
The importance of this discovery led to a second phase of study, which culminated in the approximation of the piece to the workshop production of the great flamenco artist Joos van Cleve.

The analytical techniques of the CAEM have allowed to link the production process of the work to the modes of production of the Flemish workshops, and more specifically to this prolific workshop of Antwerp, where under the direction of Master Cleve great artists of the Flemish Renaissance were trained.

The Beggar

• Isidre Nonell i Monturiol (Barcelona, 1872-1911)
• ca. 1897-98
• 25’9 x 32’8 cm
• Pen drawing with India ink, on satin continuous paper.

This is an earlier version of the artwork Prayer of and unhappy woman (“Rezo de una infeliz”), also by the same artist, which is currently kept in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. Both artworks are part of the same creative process, although due to some iconographic differences and the difference of proportions between the two artworks, are considered two independent pieces.

In the artwork The Beggar (“La Mendiga”), the proverbial expert hand is revealed, in drawing, by Nonell. The artwork was made during his first stay in Paris and as the inscription and the stamps that are still preserved on the reverse testify, it was sent to his friend Pere Romeu, regent at that time of the tavern “Els Quatre Gats” in Barcelona, meeting point of the great Catalan artists of the moment.

Retiro Pier

• Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (Valencia, 1863 – Cercedilla, Madrid, 1923)
• 1882
• 16’9 x 27’6 cm
• Oil on panel

Fruit of the best luminist in Europe, this small table seems to be a trapped instant, as in a photograph, in which the light, based on colors, shows the capture of time in tenths of a second, with its five figures scattered around the pier from the Big Pond of the Buen Retiro in Madrid.

The different tests confirmed what the stylistic comparison already announced: that we were faced with one of those wonderful “color notes” of the Valencian master (he made more than 2000 throughout his career). The artwork presents a dedication to his friend, the mathematician Augusto Krahe García, with whom he shared a house during his stay in Madrid in 1882.

The hoop game

• Federico del Campo (Perú, 1837–1923)
• Around 1874
• 27’8 x 18 cm
• Oil on panel

It is a small wonder of one of the best painters in Latin America, Federico del Campo. Born in Peru, he spent most of his career in Europe and hardly any paintings are preserved in his native country, most of his artworks are in private collections. He specialized in recreating landscapes of Venice, his paintings of the Grand Canal or St. Mark’s Cathedral being highly applauded.

The different technical tests, the analysis of the inscriptions on the reverse and the study of old inventories allowed the piece to be attributed without any doubt, as well as to demonstrate its authenticity, something to applaud, considering that the work entered the CAEM as a piece anonymous, which we now know is a precious costumbrism piece from one of the brightest brushes of the mid-century.

Study of Christ

Ermita de Sant Medir

• Joaquim Mir i Trinxet (Barcelona, 1873-1940)
• ca. 1897-1899
• 62’60 x 41’20 cm (without frame)
• Pastel on paper

The particular burst of colors and the dissolution of the form coexist in this magnificent artwork of Mir in which presents the Ermita de Sant Medir located in Sant Cugat del Vallès.

Our artist handles the pastels with maximum ease and thus achieves a fresh and attractive result. Thanks to this technique, Mir produced some artworks and drawings of excellent color strength that today allow us to understand how the artist saw the landscape. The theme represented follows closely two artworks of Mir from the first stage, is why we consider that the painting corresponds to the period of 1897-1899.

This painting was attributed by the CAEM team, with the collaboration of Dr. Ma. Teresa Camps, expert in the artworks of Joaquim Mir.

Girl head on the bed

• Joaquín Sorolla i Bastida (Valencia, 1863 – Cercedilla, Madrid, 1923)
• 1883
• 45 x 35 cm
• Oil on canvas

Represents a girl that is debated between life and death. At first glance, its plastic quality and the sensitivity with which it deals with such a delicate subject, indicate that it is a work executed by a master of the nineteenth century.

His study and the technical analyses carried out asserted that the dating of the canvas, the palette of pigments, the stylistic affiliation, the technical ability and the freshness of its brushstrokes, are undoubtedly the work of the great Valencian master of the light: Joaquim Sorolla. It is therefore an unpublished early work of the artist, prior to his trip to Rome, which already shows his great pictorial skills before becoming a reference of the Universal Painting of the nineteenth century.

This painting was attributed by the CAEM team, with the collaboration of Ms. Blanca Pons-Sorolla.

Saint Peter

The Stigmatization of St Francis of Assisi

• Manuel Salvador Carmona (Nava del Rey, Valladolid, 1734 – Madrid, 1820)
• ca. 1762
• 49’2 x 34 cm (without frame)
• Graphite pencil and sanguine drawing, on laid paper

From a meticulous study of the piece, in which material issues have been addressed as iconographic, it has been concluded that it is a preparatory drawing for the realization of an engraving, belonging to one of the greatest artists of Spanish illustration, in the technique of drawing and engraving.

The great executive quality of the piece was what made one think that it could be the creation of a great artist in question, who should be extremely skilled in the arts of both engraving and drawing. The few parts that could cast doubt on this fact were studied with different analytical techniques: it was found that these doubting elements were the result of two previous restorations.

Finally, after a great work of archival research, it was possible to demonstrate that the piece was actually part of a set of works that relate an important chapter of the life of San Francis of Assisi, belonging to the collection of the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.

Portrait for a woman

Nativity

With CAEM’s support and ethic advice, this artwork was succesfully auctioned the loth of december 2012 at Sotheby’s (London).

Portrait of Pedro Gil Moreno de Mora

Saint Augustin

Raising of Lazarus

Woman with flowers, allegory of spring

• Ramon Martí Alsina (Barcelona, 1826-1894)
• ca. 1860-1880
• 51’5 x 35 cm
• Oil on canvas

The work belongs to the great promoter of Catalan modernism in painting, Ramon Martí Alsina (Barcelona, ​​1826-1894).

It is a romantic composition, painted with oil on canvas, in which a beautiful young woman is represented in a garden. The vaporousness of her dress reveals the master’s hand. The artist made several copies of this work on several occasions, as it was one of the most appreciated among the different allegories of the stations he offered: in this case, it is undoubtedly a piece made with ease that shows a great delicacy nonetheless.

Still life with celery, fig and plums

• Francisco de Burgos Mantilla (Burgos, h. 1610 – Madrid, 1672)
• Second third of the seventeenth century
• 37’5 x 64 cm
• Oil on canvas

At the view of the technical analysis the team of researchers from CAEM has concluded that this work corresponds to the Spanish painter Francisco de Burgos Mantilla, follower and collaborator in the artistic production of Velazquez. It is a simple and austere composition with an attractive pictorial concept, far away from the current one prevailing in the still lives of the sixteenth century. It has got an unquestionable plastic quality, where paint has been applied directly, with a lively and considerably free brushstroke. Francisco de Burgos Mantilla carried out this work probably as an appealing study of the nature and with the purpose to give at the same time answer to the increasing demand of still lives in the Spanish market.

Book illustrated and dedicated by Dali

• Salvador Dalí (Figueres, 1904-1989)
• 1977
• 30 x 28 cm
• Black ink on paper

This is an edition of the book Dalí de Draeger by Max Gerard, published by Blume (Madrid and Barcelona) in 1968, with foreword by Dali himself. The painter gave this copy to the wife of Dr. Puigvert in 1977, reputedly urologist and personal friend of Dali, which he treated on numerous occasions. The dedication goes accompanied by an original drawing by Dalí, masterfully representing the Quixote and Sancho Panza, executed through clean and quick lines. It is a sumptuous and perfectly preserved valuable edition.

Women’s portrait

• Ludovic Gignoux (France 1882-1900)
• 1901
• 40 x 55 cm
• Oil on canvas

Different technical analyses have allowed CAEM experts to assign this work to Ludovic Gignoux, follower of Joaquín Sorolla. This canvas shows a female figure with the distinctive features and characteristics of the gypsy culture, though it could also be considered a fresh, pure-blood and authentic maja. Both her dark eyes of a deep seductive look and her lovely upsweep with flowers on top of her head stand out. She wears a genuine shawl in a cream colour, which covers her hand and at the same time hides a knowing smile. From the technical point of view, the artist uses the application of layers of different thickness and their superposition to create contrasts and set up forms and details. Even though the light is spread out homogeneously, the artist has created small contrast areas where lights and shadows become pronounced. All these elements create a representation of exotic and enigmatic perception from romantic stereotypes around the figure of the maja of that time period.

Triumph of Galatea

Madonna or Virgin in prayer

• Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato and workshop
• ca. 1660-1670
• 50 x 45 cm (without frame)
• Oil on canvas

 We are facing a piece of great beauty in which color is the main protagonist. We highlight a loose, agile and safe brushstroke. The artist, Sassoferrato, with some possible help from his extensive and specialized workshop, performs a precise work on “Madonna or virgin in prayer”. Without any doubt, this is an attractive piece of great quality and refinement. In our opinion, it is an authorship that offers no doubts. The technical-formal analyzes justify it.

During the s. XVII, the devotional image of the Madonna Orante became a very important icon for the Italian society of that century. That is why there were many painters who copied this type of madonnas. Of all of them, Sassoferrato, together with its wide and well-structured workshop, adopted serial work, one of the elements that stands out in its production, as well as its exquisite executive capacity in its madonnas.

Crucifixion

• Workshop or circle by Anton Van Dyck
• ca. 1617-1620.
• 190’5 x 148 cm (without frame)
• Oil on canvas

The work presents some technical characteristics and a stylistic execution that place it indisputably in the amberine environment of the first third of the 17th century. To our thoughtful judgment the work presents elements of a great artist, these being indisputably related to Van Dyck’s talent. To this fact must be added the notable participation of the artist’s workshop in his youth work, which was already a highly recognized teacher at that time unable to cope with the volume of commissions that came to his hands.

After many months of research, CAEM researchers consider that the work under study corresponds to the workshop or circle of the artist Anton Van Dyck. The link with seventeenth-century flamenco art is evident. However, it should be noted the presence of some compositional elements that point to a certain Italianism in the conception of the work.

Sacred Heart Chris child

• Luis Paret y Alcázar
• Between 1789 and 1799
• 69 x 55’2 cm
• Oil on canvas

The investigation carried out by CAEM experts has concluded with the allocation of this painting to Luis Paret y Alcázar (Madrid 1746-1799). The technical study of its components has confirmed the existence of materials from the eighteenth century. It has also been revealed the peculiar use of a preparation yellow ochre layer, which matches with the preparation of other pieces of this artist.

According to the stylistic study it would be a work of the end of the century, corresponding to the last pictorial period of the artist, who in that moment creates neoclassical compositions without giving up on the rococo characteristic elements. This painting would belong to the series of Christ Childs, characterized by iconography fusions (in this case, elements of the Passion of Christ and of the Salvator Mundi, as well as of the Sacred Heart). Not only the iconography is impressive but the details of the work have been done in an extremely accurate way. Definitively, a wonderful work that reflects the fineness of the rococo world, together with the meticulousness and the attention to detail of a relevant miniaturist.

The Descent from the Cross: Second engraving plate (5^th state of 5)

• Rembrandt, reworking by Basan / Bernard
• First half of the 19^th century (?)
• 53’5 x 41 cm (print)
• Etching on paper

This is a modern etching, the result of successive reworkings from the fifth state of the original plate by Rembrandt: because of this, it is signed and dated: “Rembrandt f. 1633 pryvl cum”. Everything indicates that this work comes from a French press, and probably was printed in Paris between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century by Pierre-François Basan or his son, Henri-Louis. However, it is not easy to distinguish between quality prints from the late eighteenth century or early nineteenth, and any subsequent from Rembrandt plates, produced in France during the second half of the nineteenth century prints.

Adoration of the Magi

• Follower of Luca Giordano
• First half eighteen century
• 71’5 x 92’5 cm (without frame)
• Oil on canvas
• Private collection

It is a very important painting that belongs to a follower of Luca Giordano, which could have been painted in Spain in the first half of the eighteenth century, inspired in a picture painted by Luca Giordano (Naples, 1634 – 1705) from the Royal Collections in the National Heritage housed in the Royal Palace of the Granja de San Ildefonso.  The scene is a marvellous work in colour, design and composition. He uses a palette of pale colours, which are not so bright from the chromatic viewpoint as the ones used by the Neapolitan artist. We find a skilful artist who was able to reproduce Giordano’s work with great skill. This oil had belonged previously to the important Spanish collector José Lázaro Galdiano (Beire, 1862 – Madrid, 1947).

Ecce Homo

The Boy Jesus injured by the Thorn

• Workshop of Zurbarán
• Second half of the 17^th century (c. 1650-1660)
• 66 x 53’5 cm (unframed)
• Oil on canvas

It is a virtually unprecedented canvas from the workshop of Francisco de Zurbarán, a Boy Jesus injured by the Thorn preserved in a private collection in Madrid. This had never been exhibited, and remained unpublished until their recent publication in the catalogue raisoné of the work of Zurbaran (Delenda, 2010). Visual examination of the piece and technical analyses confirm the classification of the painting as “workshop”: it means that it surely was executed in the studio or the artist’s workshop, probably under the supervision of the master, Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664).

Christ healing the sick

• Charles Amand-Durand, copyist of Rembrandt
• ca. 1866-1905
• 51’5 x 35 cm
• Heliogravure

Being an engraving of very good quality, we were forced to conduct a study to answer and contrast many open questions. Finally, the watermark of the support revealed that the work is an excellent copy of the original plate made by Rembrandt, made by a good copyist.

Painted with the heliogravure technique, with some minimal modifications of the original plate, it depicts Christ in the midst of a crowd “healing the sick”. The composition is also known as “The stamp of the hundred guilders.” It is a creation of Rembrandt that was copied throughout history, but only a few like Charles Amand-Durand were able to copy it successfully.

Saint Helena (Elena of Constantinople)

• Zurbarán Circle
• Second third of the 20th century
• 112’5 x 100’3 cm (without frame)
• Oil on canvas

This beautiful piece, which clearly takes some inspiration from the art of the great master Zurbarán, moves away from his usual way of representing the Saints. In front of its standing figures, arrogant and proud, and richly jeweled, this painting presents St. Helena in a devout attitude, kneeling in front of the Cross of Christ, prostrating the imperial crown at her feet, alluding to her submission to God.

The technical analyzes asserted a direct, scarce and firm drawing, which could indicate that it is a copy of some lost model. As for its materials, all are consistent with the period attributed to the piece. All this allows us to claim that it was created in the close circle of Zurbarán, by a good painter who knew how to learn from his models and reformulate his prototypes to present a new formula.

Portrait of the Infant Carlos María Isidro de Borbón y Borbón, Infante of Spain

• Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Follower of)
• Second or third third of the XIX century
• 74 x 60’2 cm
• Oil painting on canvas

It is an old copy of the portrait of the Infante Carlos María Isidro, a work that Goya made as a preparatory sketch for the work The Family of Carlos IV, both paintings currently exhibited in the same room of the Museo Nacional del Prado.

The good workmanship of the work led great researchers to think about the possibility that it could be a resketch, also made by Goya, and prior to the one that the Prado guards. The CAEM investigations have carried out a profound comparative, aesthetic and material study, revealing the construction process of the work, which reveals that it has been carried out a posterior. The identification of some specific materials in the work, such as the presence of zinc white, have also helped to date the piece and verify its age.

Saint Joseph with the Christ Child

• Circle of Miguel Jacinto Meléndez
• First third of the 18th century
• 148 x 105’7 cm
• Oil on canvas

It is a precious representation of Saint Joseph with the Christ Child in his arms: while the father looks at his little one with tenderness, the child raises his gaze to heaven in a pose that is more divine than earthly.

This beautiful print follows the fortunate model of Miguel Jacinto Meléndez, but there are also different elements in it that recall various artists from his direct environment, such as the pose of Saint Joseph’s hands, more typical of Alonso Cano, who in turn influenced Acisclo Antonio Palomino, a painter who also belonged to Meléndez’s environment.

Portrait of a young boy

• Follower of Joaquín Sorolla i Bastida
• Beginning of the 20^th century
• 53,5 x 38,6 cm
• Oil on canvas

It is an interesting portrait of a boy, about three or four years old, executed by a follower of the style of Joaquin Sorolla. While the firm is apocryphal and the date does not correspond with the stay in Rome of the Valencian painter, we emphasize the artistic quality of this portrait. The child’s silhouette, very sharped, with notable drawed character, cuts out on a dark, neutral background, very usual in portraits of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is dissolved in the bottom of the work until disappear, with a technique that emulates the skills of Sorolla.

Saint Jerome in Penitence

• Follower of José de Ribera
• 17-18th centuries
• 160 x 120 cm
• Oil on canvas

After several technical analyses (HD digital photography through diffuse reflection of the visible light spectrum; low level lighting photography and infrared reflectography), CAEM experts have concluded that we are in front of a work of a good follower of the Valencian artist José de Ribera (Xàtiva, 1591 – Naples, 1652); of an interesting artist with high technical skills. It is an attractive and huge work where the Saint is represented in a full-length sitting figure, in a rocky and desert-like area, with extended legs covered by the cardinal’s hat, bended arms, and joined hands holding a stone as in a penitent pray. At the same time, Saint Jerome is presented as the penitent, wise man and doctor of the church, surrounded by representative symbols (half-open books, writing pen, the crucified Christ, the sand clock and the cardinal’s hat, among others).

Saint Marine

• Follower of Francisco de Zurbarán
• 18th century
• 55 x 45 cm
• Oil on canvas

It is a small work dated the 18th century, which has been kept in a private collection, and it has been assigned to a follower of Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664). An attractive half-length female figure with the head facing towards and the body slightly leaning towards the right is represented on a neutral and dark background. She’s wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat, a white shirt, and a reddish bodice with sleeves and has a green cape in her hands. This work is inspired in Zurbarán models, specifically in the saint virgins and martyrs painted by the Extremaduran artist and his workshop. Thus, the image corresponds to a Saint Marine whose direct examples are two works assigned to Zurbarán circle, which are kept in The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham and in a private collection in Seville. It should be pointed out that a radiography carried out within the technical analysis of the CAEM has revealed that the canvas had been reused because the figure of a pilgrim, probably Saint Jaime, can be seen under it.

Portrait of Pope Pius V

• Attributed to Federico Zuccari
• Last third of 16^th century (after de 1566)
• 96 x 72 cm (unframed)
• Oil on canvas

This panel, preserved in a private collection in Barcelona, is attributed to the Italian school of the second half of the sixteenth century, and particularly the circle of Federico Zuccari (1540/41-1609). Regarding the pictorial style, it fits well into his later years. Leaving aside the attributive problems, this is a work of an artist of great technical capacity and well informed of the developments of Roman painting of the second half of the sixteenth century.

Holy Trinity

• Follower of Rubens
• First half of the 19^th century (?)
• 41 x 40,5 cm (unframed)
• Oil on canvas

This is a study of small dimensions preserved in a private collection from Girona, dated in the first half of the nineteenth century and attributed to a copyist of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Visual examination of the piece and technical analyses conclude that the work is a copy of the Holy Trinity (ca. 1615-1620) preserved in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp. Physical analysis, especially infrared Reflectography reveals that this is a copy of very good quality, having a very detailed initial drawing.

Portrait of Johann Christoph Gugel

• Anonymous, Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg
• 1630
• 133 x 112 cm
• Oil on panel

It is a very interesting and highly assessed portrait, assigned to a good painter of the Nuremberg Academy. A half-length male of the German nobility is represented on a dark background, wearing rich clothes like a black doublet with brocades of plants and vegetal origin and a fleece-lined tabard. The ornaments and insignias show his social status and his belonging to the German nobility. At the upper left part of the canvas, there is an inscription identifying the portrait: “H.C.G. (Hans –abbreviation of Johann– Christoph Gugel) at the age of 68, in the year of our Lord 1630”. The author of this work has been influenced by the type of portrait popularized by the Dutch painter Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt (1566-1641), the most representative official portrait painter in the first decades of the 17^th century. In relation to his style it is closer to the one of Jan Antonisz van Ravesteyn (1570-1657), who worked mainly in La Haya, and was one of the most famous portrait painters in the first half of the 17th century. His defined treatment of the details characterized him and apparently he was disciple of Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt.

Portrait of a man

Holy Family with the infant Saint John the Baptist and Saint Catherine of Siena

Male portrait

• European school
• Last third of the 18th century and first third of the 19th century
• 65’5 x 54 cm
• Oil on canvas

The portrait is an old re-inked canvas, on which a mysterious gentleman is represented, dressed following the English fashion and wearing a powdered wig.

The Stylistic analysis, contrasted with the different techniques realized, has corroborated its chronology. In addition, the work has been restored at the centre, and has revealed the appearance of a hands with interlaced fingers, this representation is quite unusual in the history of art.

Adoration of the shepherds

• Polidoro da Cravaggio (follower of)
• Second half of 16th century
• 128’4 x 95’4 cm
• Oil painting on canvas

In this elegant Italian work, is represented the moment when the shepherds come to adore the Child Jesus.

The artist has masterfully represented the model devised by Polidoro Caldara, better know as Polidoro da Caravaggio, in terms of inventio, he has a one of Raphael’s disciples most outstanding. This work is one of the few examples that copies the original model. Whose homonyms are located in great Italian museums such as the Palazzo Marliani Cicogna, in Busto Arsizio, or the Museo Regionale di Messina.

Virgin Annunciate

• Anonymous. Valencian School
• 17th century
• 22 x 16’7 cm
• Oil on copper

The small finely painted copper plate reproduces a Virgin Annunciate following the models of the Valencian school of the 15th and 16th centuries. With angelical face, highly stylized fingers, and rich ornamentation on the mantle and tunic, his iconography is based on the schemes adopted after the Council of Trent in the 16th century, when the nobility is returned to the Virgin after having been represented in a daily plane more typical of genre scenes.

Saint Eliah

Portrait of the marquis of la Torre and Salinas de Sotomayor

• Follower of Federico de Madrazo
• c. 1880-1900
• 76’6 x 64’4
• Oil on canvas

This painting of a parade to widespread and elegance could be a full-length portrait of Maria Luisa Despuig Fortuny ( 18 ?? – 1903), Marquis of la Torre. It was developed by a very skilled artist who closely follows developments formal and stylistic own pictorial portraiture of the late nineteenth century, which reveals particularly influenced by the production of Luis and Federico de Madrazo. The artist uses colorful, bright and dense palette to present the model of sober and academic and drafts by using a brush to portrait expressive nature. It should be noted painter ‘s skill in solving forms, especially the face and dress portrayed. In addition, the combination of a particularly meticulous and materials jewels and furniture that accompany the model made with short strokes and thick, with lighter texturing the rest of the canvas.

Introduction to a Dominic

• Joaquín Turina y Areal (Seville, 1847-1903)
• Last third of the 19^th century
• 55,5 x 45 cm

Saint Joseph with the Christ Child

• Galician School, follower of Pedro Gutiérrez Fernández
• First half of the 17th century
• 80 x 40 x 25 cm
• Carved wooden sculpture, polychromated with gold bread and glass paste applications

The research carried out by the CAEM Team, has concluded that this remarkable carving is the work of a follower of the Galician master Pedro Gutiérrez Fernández. The materiality of the work places it around Ourense’s sculpture workshops, an important center of sculpture activity throughout the 16th and early 17th centuries; which, together with a detailed stylistic study, draws him closer to the artist, especially for his particular manner of represent the hair and beard of the saint,  and  the face of the Child.

Of particular note is the great detail of the decoration of the Saint Joseph’s robe, made of gold bread, which together with the application of silver bread to the belt and the eyes of glass paste the whole, further enriching the image of the guiding father to the son.

Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew

• Anonymous Spanish copyist of José de Ribera
• Second third of the 17th century
• 37’9 x 37’9 cm (without frame)
• Oil on canvas

This curious work was mutilated, probably due to the poor state of conservation that different vicissitudes had caused it, to the point that in order to save it, probably in the 19th century, the saint’s face was saved.

Thanks to the analysis of the support, as well as a deep historical-artistic study, it was learned that the piece originally showed a concrete passage from the life of St. Bartholomew, specifically his martyrdom. The composition was not devised by the painter, he did not even use his own models to portray, but instead he used a wonderful Ribera engraving, which he made in 1624.

The Gathering of the manna

• Bolognese School
• Second third of the 17th century
• 111’2 x 154’3 cm
• Oil on canvas

The artist uses the Bologna school models to represent the biblical scene of the Gathering of the Manna in the Sinai desert, from the book of the Old Testament Exodus (Ex: 16, 1-36). Specifically, it uses the works of the Bolognese masters Annibale, Agostino and Ludovico Carracci as models; getting to copy the female character sitting on a rock, in the middle of the scene, of the work of Annibale San Rocco Giving Alms to the Poor (1587 / 88-1595, oil on canvas, 331 x 477 cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden). A work that also stands out, for include a typical character of the Flemish Costumbrism (the old man sitting eating manna), and for a magnificent execution of the landscape that speaks for itself.

Bearded man dressed in red

• Anonymous Italian in the surroundings of 1900
• ca. 1900
• 56’2 x 43’9 cm (without frame)
• Temple on canvas

This curious work, despite its chronology, presents a preparation of its pigments which was more common in previous centuries. Likewise, its iconographic identification is very difficult, and we were surprised when we discovered in its underlying drawing that it was annulled an instrument with which he was writing on a large support, probably a book.

An alteration so marked with regard to its identifying elements indicates that the artist of the work was not concerned with the identification of the character, but wanted to emulate a broad and blurred concept. Probably, the artist’s aim was only to show an ancient reminiscent figure, a vision of a general type of painting that brings together a broad spectrum of the collective imaginary.

This, together with the characteristics of the pigments, could indicate that the artist only sought to prove and test empirically how pre-industrial artists worked.

Christ Crucified, Virgin Mary, Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint John the Evangelist

• Circle of Joos van Cleve
• ca. 1535
• 66’5 x 44’25 cm
• Oil on panel

This work is an excellent example of Flemish painting in the sixteenth century; it shows an excellent formal style and a noteworthy plastic quality. After several technical analyses, CAEM researchers think that according to the style, brushwork, materials and other formal aspects, this painting can be assigned to the Circle of Joos van Cleve, or to a follower of the artist who would have possibly formed part of the workshop of van Cleve. The formal and iconographic coincidences with different models of van Cleve make us think that the work must be from someone who worked very close to van Cleeve or maybe a copy of a non-documented work of van Cleve, whose original would be lost or missing. At the same time, CAEM experts consider that it can be a work done for some Hispanic customer, with a relationship with Flemish art import circles.

Virgin of Carmen interceding for the souls of Purgatory

• Circle of Sebastiano Conca
• 17th and 18th century
• 28 x 22 cm
• Oil on canvas

The CAEM studies a beautiful Virgin of Carmen, coming from the beautiful Italy. After a thoughtful and exhaustive investigation, it has been concluded that it is a piece of the environment of Sebastiano Conca, great painter of the Italian seicento and settecento.

The pigments of the piece, typical of the period and place, are one more argument to corroborate what the piece already emanates from its technique, invoice and represented iconography.

The subject treated speaks of salvation: the CAEM researchers have also determined that it is a sketch. It must have been done thinking of a transfer of the model to the ceiling of a chapel.

Inventory of a Catalan collection

On the image: Eliseu Meifrén i Roig (Barcelona, 1859-1940), Vora el Sena,  end of 19^th, 21,8 cm x 31,6 cm, pastel on paper.

The CAEM has listed a very interesting pictorial collection, in which are remarked Catalan and Spanish artists from 19th and 20th centuries, as Joaquim Vayreda, great master of the landscape school of Olot, Joan O’Neill (outstanding disciple of Carlos de Haes), Josep Armet, José Navarro i Llorenç, Enric Galwey, Arcadi Mas or Eliseu Meifrèn, among others. There are also represented painters of such importance as Joseph-Bernard Flaugier (Martigues, 1757 – Barcelona, 1813) and Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn (The Haghe, ca.1570-1657).

Church of Vaux-de-Cernay

• Follower of Maurice Utrillo
• After 1940
• 29 x 46 cm (without frame)
• Oil on panel

This work reproduces with certain licenses a concrete painting, the Church of Vaux-de-Cernay by Maurice Utrillo.

Despite becoming a concrete work, this panel has its own substance, reconverting the art of the French painter and playing with different capabilities of light from those of the artist he imitates, achieving a unique and innovative, balanced and certainly beautiful finish. Likewise, the games made by its author, with which he manages to give the piece a darker and more ancient appearance, give this painting its own character.

Bust of a Woman

• Attributed to Adela Agüera y Venero
• 1887
• 25’3 x 19’9 cm
• Oil on canvas

This beautiful portrait is a free copy of the work of the same name by Edoardo Tofano (Naples, 1838 – Rome, 1920): “Bust of a Woman”. A painting that caused a great sensation for its sensuality at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1887 and which was later adapted under another name: “Beauty”.

The artwork, recovered from the interior of a late 19th century collector’s album along with other unpublished artistic gems from the same period, is signed “Adela”. It was possibly painted by the artist Adela Agüera y Venero, mother of the well-known painter Eduardo Chicharro y Agüera, who lived in the Madrid circle of the album’s first owner, Elvira Lledós Molina, to whom she must gift this beautiful composition.

Nature with phylacteria

• Anonymus
• XX century
• 32 x 35’5 cm
• Mixed media: watercolors, color chalk, charkoal and graphite on thick yellowish paper

The piece has been studied to determine its possible relationship with the French symbolist, Odilon Redon (Bordeux, 1840 – Paris, 1916). Some material features, such as support and cake, were initial indicators of a possible attribution. Howevewer, although the materiality of the work corresponds to some of the works made by the artist in the last decades of his life, it has been concluded that it is not a work of Redon, lacking the magical sensum of which enjoy the works of the French artist.

An exhaustive iconographic study of Redon’s corpus, in which each of the elements represented individually has been treated, has found that: although many of the elements can also be represented in various works by the artist, the cursus and the ductus that the characterize has not been identified in his work.

Book illustrated and dedicated by Dali

• Salvador Dalí
• 1971 – 1976
• 30 x 28 cm
• Black ink on paper

This is an edition of the book Dalí de Draeger by Max Gerard, published by Blume (Madrid and Barcelona) in 1968, with foreword by Dali himself. The painter gave this copy to Andreu Descals y Codina (San Friutós de Bages, 1938 – Manresa, 2011), carver, watercolorist, and active cultural promoter in his native region.

Dalí illustrated the inscription with an attractive drawing with three characters represented, executed with fast and secure diagonal lines, creating the optical illusion of a spiral. The two principal characters that occupy the foreground of the composition have a direct connection with the work of Dali himself entitled Reminiscencia arqueológica del Angelus de Millet.