Saint Ildefonso

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Title Saint Ildefonso Creator El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) Date Created c. 1603/1614 Physical Dimensions overall 112 x 65.8 cm (44 1/8 x 25 7/8 in.) framed 135.4 x 89.9 x 6. 7 cm (53 5/16 x 35 3/8 x 2 5/8 in.) Provenance Probably in the artist's possession at the time of his death in 1614;[1] his son, Jorge Manuel Theotoc¨®puli, Toledo, by 1621.[2] Presented 1698 to Carlos II [1661-1700] by Don Juan Varela Colima, the King's secretary and tax collector for the city and province of Toledo.[3] Condesa de Quinto, Paris; (sale, Paris, 1862, no. 64, as _Un saint ¨¦v¨ºque ¨¦crivant, les regards tourn¨¦s vers l'image de la Sainte Vierge_);[4] Alphonse Oudry; (his sale, H?tel Drouot, Paris, 16-17 April 1869, no. 139, as _Pr¨¦lat ¨¦crivant l'histoire de la Vierge_, for 500 francs);[5] Jean-Fran?ois Millet [1814-1875], Paris; his widow, Catherine Lema?re Millet; (her estate sale, H?tel Drouot, Paris, 24-25 April 1894, no. 261, as _L'¨¦v¨ºque_, for 2000 francs);[6] acquired by (Durand-Ruel, Paris) for Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas [1834-1917], Paris; [7] (his atelier sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 26-27 March 1918, 2nd day, no. 2, as _Saint Ildefonso ¨¦crivant sous la dict¨¦e de la Vierge_);[8] (M. Knoedler & Co., London and New York);[9] sold 7 February 1922 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.;[10] deeded December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[11] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The inventory of El Greco's estate made in 1614 includes the following item Un S. ilefonso escribiendo ( A Saint Ildefonso writing ); see Francisco de Borja de San Rom¨¢n y Fern¨¢ndez, _El Greco en Toledo_, Madrid, 1910 193. [2] The painting is listed in the inventory of 1621 as follows Un san Ylefonso bestido de cardenal escribiendo, de bara y terzia de alto y casi un bara de ancho, con quadro dorado ( A Saint Ildefonso dressed as a Cardinal writing, a _vara_ and a third in height and almost a _vara_ in width, with a gilded frame ); see Francisco de Borja de San Rom¨¢n y Fern¨¢ndez, De la vida del Greco, _Archivo Espa?ol de Arte y Arqueologia_ 3 (1927) 70, n. 15. A _vara_, a traditional Spanish measurement, equals about 84 cm. Thus, the painting was said to be 112 cm tall and almost 84 cm wide. [3] _Relaci¨®n del magestuoso recibimiento y entretenido cortejo de una fiesta de toros celebrada en honor de Carlos II y su esposa en Burguillos en una casa de recreaci¨®n de D. Juan Varela Colima, secretario de S. M. y recaudador de los servicios de millones de Toledo y su partido...3 de junio de 1698_, Madrid, 1698. The relevant passage is transcribed in Francisco J. S¨¢nchez Cant¨®n, _Fuentes para la historia del arte espa?ol_, 5 vols., Seville and Madrid, 1923-1941 5 509-510. The presentation is described as follows A la Reina se ofrecieron doce albanicas de l¨¢minas primor¨ªsimas y al Rey una pintura de vara y media de alto, original del c¨¦lebre Dominico Greco, que representaba a San Ildefonso con nuestra Se?ora, objectos predeilect¨ªsimos de la devoci¨®n de Carlos II... ( To the Queen were presented twelve fans with exquisitely decorated blades and to the King a painting a _vara_ and one-half in height [i.e., about 126 cm tall], an original by the celebrated Dominico Greco, which depicts San Ildefonso with Our Lady, favored objects of devotion of Carlos II... ). The NGA painting is the only work by El Greco or his workshop which corresponds to this description. The painting is listed in the inventory of the collection at the Palacio Real, Madrid, made between 1701 and 1703, as follows Ytten otro lienzo de Vara y Quartta de altto y bara de Ancho poco mas de Un San Yldefonso escribiendo delantte de Una Ymagen de nuestra Se?ora y Un Retratto en el mismo lienzo del Griego todo tasado en treinto Doblones ( And another painting one _vara_ and a quarter in height [i.e. c. 105 cm] and a little more than one _vara_ wide [i.e., c. 84 cm] of a Saint Ildefonso writing in front of an image of Our Lady and a portrait in the same painting [frame?] by Greco all valued at 30 _doblones_ ); see _Inventarios reales Testamentario del Rey Carlos II_, ed. by Gloria Fern¨¢ndez Bayton, 6 vols., Madrid, 1975- 1(1701-1703) 31, no. 130. This entry seems to refer to two separate paintings which had been enframed together. Double enframing was not common, but it was sometimes utilized in the collection of paintings at the Palacio Real in Madrid. Among the 1,067 entries in the 1701-1703 inventory of the Madrid palace, there are five additional references to other small works enframed together. It is impossible to know what portrait was enframed with _Ildefonso_; the portrait might be a now-lost work. Nevertheless it is tempting to posit that the _Ildefonso_ was displayed with Greco's portrait of a Dominican or Trinitarian monk (now in the Prado). This is one of the few portraits by El Greco or his school that could be combined with the _Ildefonso_ without significantly exceeding the measurements given in the 1701-1703 inventory. Because the subject of this portrait is a monk, the combination of this painting with the _Ildefonso_ would accord with the practice otherwise followed in the royal collection of jointly enframing thematically related works. [4] Manuel B. Coss¨ªo, _El Greco_, Madrid, 1908 598-599, no. 299; and August L. Mayer, _Domenico Theotocopuli, El Greco_, Munich, 1926 46, no. 287, maintained that Zacharie Astruc purchased the painting in Madrid and imported it to France. This is not possible if the painting was in the Condesa de Quinto's sale because Astruc made his first trip to Spain in 1864. See Sharon Fletcher, _Zacharie Astruc Critic, Artist and Japoniste_, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1977 (published in the series, Outstanding Dissertations in the Fine Arts, New York, 1978) 305. [5] The price is annotated in both the Frick Art Reference Library and the NGA copies of the sale catalogue. [6] The price is annotated in the Frick Art Reference Library copy of the sale catalogue. [7] Ives, Colta et al. _The Private Collection of Edgar Degas A Summary Catalogue_. New York, 1997 no. 599 give Durand-Ruel, who was an expert at the Millet sale, as the intermediary for Degas. [8] In the 1990 NGA systematic catalogue (Jonathan Brown and Richard G. Mann, _Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries_, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, 1990 44), the painting was incorrectly identified as lot number 3 in this sale, which was _Saint Dominique_, now owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 23.272 and identified as _Saint Dominic in Prayer_. Diana Kostyrko, e-mail of 18 March 2015, in NGA curatorial files, kindly pointed out the error. [9] For an interesting account of Knoedler's purchase of this painting, see Sir Charles J. Holmes, _Self & Partners (Mostly Self)_, London, 1936 335-340. [10] The date of purchase is noted in David Finley's notebook of Mellon acquisitions; original in NGA Gallery Archives, and copy in NGA curatorial files. [11] Mellon collection records in NGA curatorial files. Rights CC0 Medium oil on canvas Show more