IGNACIO PINAZO CAMARLENCH (Valencia, 1849 - Godella,... Lot 129

IGNACIO PINAZO CAMARLENCH (Valencia, 1849 - Godella, Valencia, 1916). "Portrait of Luis de Góngora. Oil on canvas. Preserves the original canvas. Presents restorations. Provenance: Collection of the Viscount of Casa Aguilar Don Florestán Aguilar y Rodríguez 1872-1934, in his property the palace Fuentepizarro de Villalba (Madrid) until 2020. Signed in the lower left corner. Measurements: 42 x 34 cm; 49 x 41 cm (frame). Pinazo's renovating aesthetics finds its sources in the great Spanish geniuses as he defines in this quote: "Today painters have many pretensions because they paint in the open air, without thinking that Goya and Velázquez did everything better". Undoubtedly, the modernity of the Sevillian master played a fundamental role in the style of Pinazo as can be seen from works as early and relevant as Desembarco de Francisco I en el puerto de Valencia, 1876 (Museo Provincial de Valencia) whose clear inspiration was The Surrender of Breda. The work we present here is of fundamental importance for understanding both Pinazo's sources and the development of his painting. In the case of this canvas, he does not act as a mere copyist, faithfully reproducing the image, but goes beyond the Velázquez model, contributing his own personal stamp. In this way the model seems almost taken from nature and not from a Golden Century canvas. The painting that must have served as a model for this canvas is probably the one preserved in the Prado Museum (P001223) from the Royal collection and exhibited in a fairly accessible way until 1900. Currently this work is considered an early copy of Velázquez and the original model in the Boston Museum around 1622 during his first stay at the court. There is another example in the Lázaro Galdiano collection (also an old copy) but it is more reasonable to assume that it was the one in the Prado since José Lázaro acquired it in 1912, too late and with less ease for copying as it was a private collection. Although the model with which it is found presents us with the style of the young Velázquez still close to his father-in-law Pacheco, Pizano reinterprets the character with a more advanced technique: a loose brushstroke, impastoed and with direct and firm strokes. It is reminiscent in part of a mature Velázquez and at the same time of the modern and free stamp of painting at the end of the 19th century. Preserves the original canvas. Presents restorations.