Workshop of Francisco de Zurbarán

With the Trafalgar Galleries, London, by 1983;

Acquired by the late owner by 1984.

Warsaw, The Royal Castle, Opus Sacrum, 10 April – 23 September 1990, no. 38;

Vaduz, Liechtensteinische Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Opus Sacrum, 15 February – 30 September 1991, no. 38.

D. Angulo, 'Varias pinturas Sevillanas, Asunción de Tristan', in Archivo Español de Arte, LVI, April–June 1983, pp. 161–63, reproduced figs 10 and 12 (as by Zurbaran, incorrectly reproduced as in Budapest);

R. Cohen, in the exhibition catalogue, Trafalgar Galleries at the Royal Academy III, London 1983, cat. no. 9 (as by Zurbaran);

C. Strinati and A.S. Labuda, 'Painting Discovery at the Burlington House Fair', in Antique Collector, October 1983, p. 42 (as by Zurbaran);

Józef Grabski, catalogue of the exhibition, Opus Sacrum, Vienna 1990, pp. 224–29, cat. no. 38 (as by Zurbaran);

A. E. Pérez Sánchez, De pintura y pintores. La configuración de los modelos visuales en la pintura española, Madrid 1993, p. 109.

The canvas has fairly recently been relined, cleaned and restored. The paint surface is in good overall condition with little sign of wear and no major damages. The colours remain bright and rich and even the smallest details of the landscape beautifully preserved. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals local retouchings to both hands, the nose and mouth of the Virgin, and some scattered minor retouchings throughout her drapery. There is 3 cm restored old tear to the right of her left arm and retouchings to abrasion in all the margins. The varnish remains clear and even.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This painting was first published by the great Spanish scholar Diego Añgulo in 1983 as a new discovery by Zurbarán, one of the most original and important Spanish masters of the seventeenth century. The attribution was accepted by successive scholars, among them Alonso Pérez Sánchez in 1993, but has more recently been challenged by Odile Delenda (see Literature) who considers it to be the work of an as yet unidentified follower of Zurbarán, also working in Seville in the late 1620s.

All these scholars are unanimous in observing that the general design and pose of the model in this picture were heavily influenced by another painting of the Immaculate Conception by the Italian master Guido Reni (1575–1642) which had been hanging in the Cathedral in Seville since 1628 (fig. 1).¹ According to Reni's biographer, Carlo Cesare Malvasia, that work was painted for the Infanta of Spain, and accordance with her wishes, was hung in the cathedral, where it remained until the Napoleonic Wars. Zurbarán, himself a native of Extremadura, first visited Seville between 1614 and 1617, and returned there in 1629, when he would stay for very nearly thirty years. It has thus been suggested that this painting could be the Immaculate Conception commissioned from Zurbarán by the City Council of Seville on 8 June 1630, for its Lower Council Chamber.² The curious inscription on the reverse of the canvas (fig. 2) elicited in support of this attribution, does not, however, correspond to any known signature or inscription by Zurbarán himself. Its author was clearly greatly influenced by the design of Reni's masterpiece; the Virgin floats in divine glory, her eyes cast heavenwards, the landscape below her filled with the traditional symbols of her purity, the turris eburnea, the fons vitæ and the hortus conclusus. She stands upon the moon in crescent form, the antique symbol of chastity. The colour scheme used for her garments, that of red and blue, is also indebted to Reni's example, and would later be at odds with the white and blue robes ordained by the scholar and painter Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644), appointed by the Holy Inquisition in 1618 to regulate such iconography. This combination of traditional and rather newer iconography was very much of its time. As Grabski has observed, the picture was painted at a period of important developments in the iconography of the Immaculate Conception, centred on the city of Seville, and led by Counter Reformation theorists such as Pacheco, whose thoughts would later be codified in his celebrated Art of Painting, published posthumously in 1649.  

1. S. Pepper, Guido Reni, Oxford 1984, p. 256, no. 114, plate 139.
2. This is now, however, thought to be the painting in the Museo Diocesano, Sigüenza (exhibited, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Francisco de Zurbarán 1598–1664, 2014, no. 29)