Lot 309: f - FRAY NICOLÁS BORRÁS COCENTAINA 1530 - 1610 GANDÍA

oil on panel, unframed

44 by 58.8 cm.; 17 1/4 by 23 in.

Nicolás Borrás was born in Cocentaina, where he was baptised in the local church of Santa María in 1530. He is believed to have moved to Valencia at an early age and according to his own testament trained in the workshop of Joan de Joanes, whose style exerted an enduring influence on his work. His most ambitious commission was for the main altarpiece of the church of the Hieronymite Monastery at Cotalba in Gandía, which the artist began in around 1574 and which consisted of fourteen large panels (for a proposed reconstruction of the altarpiece see Los Ribalta y la Pintura Valenciana de Su Tiempo, Valencia, Lonja de Valencia, October - November 1987, Madrid, Museo del Prado, December 1987 - January 1988, p. 37, reproduced), many of which are today in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia. As a result of the complexity and scale of the commission however, it took the artist five years to complete the main altarpiece and rather than accept payment for his work, he requested admission into the religious order (taking up the habit in 1575), which lead to his production of further altarpieces and decoration for the church.

The present work, hitherto unrecorded, was probably conceived by Borrás as a predella panel for a small altarpiece. The style of the painting can be compared closely to the artist's representation of The Holy Family with Saint Anne (oil on panel, 205 by 137 cm.) in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia (see op. cit., pp. 42-43, reproduced), which originally formed the central section of an altarpiece for the side chapel dedicated to Saint Anne in the church of the Hieronymite Monastery at Cotalba. Above this was a painting of God the Father, today in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia, and beneath was a predella panel representing The Birth of Christ, of current whereabouts unknown. A close comparison between the present work and The Holy Family with Saint Anne reveals a number of stylistic affinities between the two works. In particular the distinctive figure types (highly Joanesque although with slightly more angular features); the colour scheme (dominated by brown and grey tones, contrasted with more primary colours to the draperies of the protagonists); and the architectural setting, (with windows and arches providing views of distant landscapes beyond). Borrás is believed to have painted the aforementioned altarpiece during the early 1580's, shortly following completion of the main altarpiece at Cotalba, which seems a likely dating for the present work.

We are grateful to Dr. Fernando Benito Doménech for confirming the attribution to Fray Nicolás Borrás upon the basis of photographs.