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Lot Essay
The prime version of the Infant Saint John with the Lamb by Murillo is now in the National Gallery, London (inv. no. C322). Painted in circa 1660, that work is known to have decorated a spectacular temporary altar erected in 1665, on the occasion of the inauguration of the church of Santa María la Blanca in Seville.
According to the sale catalogue for The Marquis de Salamanca auction in 1867, the present work originally came from the Royal Palace in Madrid. William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (1817-1885), who bought the painting along with a number of others, put together one of the finest collections in England in the mid-nineteenth century. His immense wealth permitted him to purchase the Bisenzo collection in Rome en bloc in 1847, while at almost exactly the same date acquiring from the Prince de Canino about a hundred pictures from the collection of his great-uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch. A keen exhibitor of his new acquisitions, Dudley lent the present lot to the National Exhibition of Works of Art in Leeds in 1868, along with 128 other pictures. The majority of Dudley's pictures were of exceptional calibre; his collection included such masterpieces as Fra Angelico's Last Judgement and Rembrandt's Saint John the Baptist preaching, both now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, as well as Raphael's Crucifixion and The Mass of Saint Giles by the Master of Saint Giles, both now in the National Gallery, London.
The imposing and rare frame dates to the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, and would appear to be original. With its bold scrolling foliage with fruits and cherubs' heads on a painted ground, it is very much of the Spanish late Renaissance/early Baroque style, influenced by Italian prototypes.
According to the sale catalogue for The Marquis de Salamanca auction in 1867, the present work originally came from the Royal Palace in Madrid. William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (1817-1885), who bought the painting along with a number of others, put together one of the finest collections in England in the mid-nineteenth century. His immense wealth permitted him to purchase the Bisenzo collection in Rome en bloc in 1847, while at almost exactly the same date acquiring from the Prince de Canino about a hundred pictures from the collection of his great-uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch. A keen exhibitor of his new acquisitions, Dudley lent the present lot to the National Exhibition of Works of Art in Leeds in 1868, along with 128 other pictures. The majority of Dudley's pictures were of exceptional calibre; his collection included such masterpieces as Fra Angelico's Last Judgement and Rembrandt's Saint John the Baptist preaching, both now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, as well as Raphael's Crucifixion and The Mass of Saint Giles by the Master of Saint Giles, both now in the National Gallery, London.
The imposing and rare frame dates to the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, and would appear to be original. With its bold scrolling foliage with fruits and cherubs' heads on a painted ground, it is very much of the Spanish late Renaissance/early Baroque style, influenced by Italian prototypes.