Lot Essay
Cinicinnato studied under Salviati in Florence and with the recommendation of the Spanish Ambassador in Rome, Don Luis Requesens, received a three year contract to work for Philip II of Spain. Cincinnato arrived in Madrid with Patricio Cajés in 1567: they were both given lodging at the Royal hunting lodges at El Pardo and Valsin and both worked with Gaspar Becerra, a Spanish painter who had studied in Italy, on the decoration of the lower rooms of the Alcazar. In 1571 Cincinnato executed some now lost frescoes in the sacristy of the Escorial. The next year Cincinnato wrote to the secretary of King Philip II for an increase in his salary. The secretary described Cincinnato as '...the best of the foreign painters, reliable and unassuming and it is necessary that he stays.' The King, who oversaw every detail regarding the work at the Escorial, replied rather laconically that '...for the present there is no need to increase his salary. Some of the paintings he could have done better; however, there is no need to tell him so.', R. Mulcahy, The Decoration of the Royal Basilica of El Escorial, Cambridge, 1994, p. 96.
Cincinnato's most celebrated work is the Martyrdom of Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion, painted for the Monastery of San Lorenzo in replacement for El Greco's masterpiece now in the Prado. El Greco's picture, finished in 1583, did not conform with Philip II's theological views on the iconography of the subject. Cincinnato was called in to value the work and to settle the compensation. Naturally, as one of the only foreign painters in Madrid, he received the commission to replace the altarpiece. Cincinnato also completed the choir's wall frescoes in the Escorial, left unfinished at Cambiaso's death in 1585. By then Cincinnato was described by the obrero mayor as in a very weak state: 'I wish that the said Romulo had a bit more energy, he seems to me to be only half alive, and so between him and Luqueto [Cambiaso] we could make one able man. For his part he will have to spend the year of 1586.', Mulcahy, op. cit., p. 93. In 1591 Cincinnato retired to Guadalajara.
The style of the present drawing reflects the artist's Florentine training, but also reveals a Genoese influence through the use of the orange prepared paper so much favoured by Tavarone, a Genoese artist who worked with Cambiaso in Spain. The squaring and the highly finished aspect of the composition would suggest that the drawing might be a modello for an altarpiece to be presented to a patron, possibly the one represented in the foreground of the present drawing. The technique of the drawing is closest to that of Saint Anthony Abbot in a Niche in the Prado in Madrid, D. Angulo and A.E. Pérez Sánchez, Spanish Drawings, 1400-1600, London, 1975, no. 130, pl. XXXIX. The respective left and right hands of the two saints in the present drawing are very similar to those of Saint Anthony, as are the curls of hair around the heads of each of the figures.
Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878), to whom the drawing belonged, travelled in Spain, Lebanon and Syria from 1839 and returned to England in 1842. He later pursued his interest in Spanish art and in 1848 the Annals of the Artists of Spain, dedicated to Richard Ford, another Spanish scholar in England. He also wrote books on Velázquez in 1855 and a catalogue of Velázquez and Murillo's prints in 1873. He was one of the first collectors who specialized in Spanish drawings in England.
Cincinnato's most celebrated work is the Martyrdom of Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion, painted for the Monastery of San Lorenzo in replacement for El Greco's masterpiece now in the Prado. El Greco's picture, finished in 1583, did not conform with Philip II's theological views on the iconography of the subject. Cincinnato was called in to value the work and to settle the compensation. Naturally, as one of the only foreign painters in Madrid, he received the commission to replace the altarpiece. Cincinnato also completed the choir's wall frescoes in the Escorial, left unfinished at Cambiaso's death in 1585. By then Cincinnato was described by the obrero mayor as in a very weak state: 'I wish that the said Romulo had a bit more energy, he seems to me to be only half alive, and so between him and Luqueto [Cambiaso] we could make one able man. For his part he will have to spend the year of 1586.', Mulcahy, op. cit., p. 93. In 1591 Cincinnato retired to Guadalajara.
The style of the present drawing reflects the artist's Florentine training, but also reveals a Genoese influence through the use of the orange prepared paper so much favoured by Tavarone, a Genoese artist who worked with Cambiaso in Spain. The squaring and the highly finished aspect of the composition would suggest that the drawing might be a modello for an altarpiece to be presented to a patron, possibly the one represented in the foreground of the present drawing. The technique of the drawing is closest to that of Saint Anthony Abbot in a Niche in the Prado in Madrid, D. Angulo and A.E. Pérez Sánchez, Spanish Drawings, 1400-1600, London, 1975, no. 130, pl. XXXIX. The respective left and right hands of the two saints in the present drawing are very similar to those of Saint Anthony, as are the curls of hair around the heads of each of the figures.
Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878), to whom the drawing belonged, travelled in Spain, Lebanon and Syria from 1839 and returned to England in 1842. He later pursued his interest in Spanish art and in 1848 the Annals of the Artists of Spain, dedicated to Richard Ford, another Spanish scholar in England. He also wrote books on Velázquez in 1855 and a catalogue of Velázquez and Murillo's prints in 1873. He was one of the first collectors who specialized in Spanish drawings in England.