Painted on the spot in 1833, this extraordinary, large scale view of the interior of Seville Cathedral is one of the artist’s finest and most important Spanish paintings, and one of only five known oil paintings he executed in Spain itself – and one of only two on this scale (see previous lot).
“You are, no doubt, wondering why I remain in this town so long, but the fact is that I am painting two pictures. One, the interior of the cathedral during one of the grand ceremonies which are here carried out on a scale of grandeur of which you can have no conception.”
The first owner of this picture was Roberts’ friend and fellow Scottish artist, David Ramsay Hay (fig. 1). A noted colour theorist and interior decorator, who most famously designed the interiors of Abbotsford in Roxburghshire for Sir Walter Scott, Hay was an apprentice with Roberts in the Edinburgh studio of the decorative painter Gavin Beugo, and the pair maintained a lifelong correspondence. In August 1833 Roberts wrote to Hay from Seville: ‘My dear Hay, – I have been detained here longer than I expected, but the painting of two pictures 6 feet 6 inches by 4 feet 6 inches, with a number of figures, all taken from the life, is no joke. The one is now completed, and the other is far advanced, and I think the novelty of their having been painted in Spain will add to their value. The figures are large, and I have done my best to render them truly and effectively. I will start for Madrid early next month, and expect to reach London some time in October. I have had crowds to see my first picture; among others, the Archbishop, a greater man than King Ferdinand.’1
He had earlier written to his parents, explaining his reason for embarking on such a project whilst still travelling: ‘My dear Father and Mother – You are, no doubt, wondering why I remain in this town so long, but the fact is that I am painting two pictures. One, the interior of the cathedral during one of the grand ceremonies which are here carried out on a scale of grandeur of which you can have no conception. You will easily understand my reason for painting on the spot when I tell you that I have got all the characters introduced in the picture to stand for me. This was not accomplished without great exertions on the part of kind friends; and you have no idea of the sensation my picture is exciting among the people here. Indeed every day I am surrounded by bishops and monks, of all orders and colours, and I have even been honoured by a visit from the Captain-General, a greater man here than the Lord-Provost is in Auld Reekie… I have nothing to divert my attention from the subject in hand: and this has such a sensible effect on my works that I feel convinced they will excel anything I have hitherto done.’2
A few weeks later he elaborated on the choice of composition to his friend Hay: ‘After some consideration I selected the subject of the ‘Corpus Christi’, a festival similar to our Sacrament, with this difference, that instead of eating the bread and drinking the wine, as we do, it is placed with great pomp in a magnificent silver temple of the most exquisite workmanship… The point I have selected for my picture, which is 6 feet 6 inches by 4 feet 6, is when the principal dignitary is receiving the Host preparatory to its being placed in the silver temple. This, of course, is in the cathedral, and gives me an opportunity of showing the richness of the interior, together with the gorgeous and picturesque dresses of the clergy. Among other figures are the dancing boys in old Spanish dresses. These dance and play castanets before the high altar during the continuation of the festival, which lasts for six days. This is a privilege confined to this Cathedral, and well it may be, for I don’t think it would be allowed anywhere else under the name of religious worship. What would my worthy mother think if she saw so many ‘friskin’ and ‘loupin’, like so many antics, in the kirk?’3
The painting received high praise among the critics following its exhibition in both London and Liverpool and, having heard so much about its gestation, Hay bought the picture unseen for £300. Roberts himself called it a ‘long price’, though there were several other offers (including a high ranking Spanish grandee who had offered to buy the picture before the artist had even left Spain), and he was deeply touched by his friend's desire to own what he himself was convinced was his best picture yet.4 Twenty-four years later, when both paintings were exhibited in the Manchester Art Treasures exhibition in 1857, Roberts commented on seeing his Spanish pictures again that they were ‘up to the mark and more; they are in admirable condition’.5
This painting has been requested for inclusion in the forthcoming exhibition Visions of Romantic Spain: David Roberts and Genaro Pérez Villaamil, to be held at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. The exhibition, which is being organised by the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, was due to take place between September 2020 and January 2021, however due to the Covid-19 pandemic it has been rescheduled for next autumn. It will be the first major exhibition of Roberts’ views of Spain and will explore the relationship between Roberts and his contemporary Spanish follower, Genaro Pérez Villaamil, who’s own view of the interior of Seville Cathedral during the celebration of Corpus Christi and the Giralda are in the Fundación Banco Santander and the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga respectively.
We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz, who is writing the catalogue raisonné of Roberts’ work, for her assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.
1 Quoted in Ballantine, p. 61.
2 Quoted in Ballantine, p. 58.
3 Quoted in Ballantine, pp. 60–61.
4 Quoted in Sim, p. 101.
5 Quoted in Guiterman, 1981, p. 20.