Lot 288: FRAY NICOLÁS BORRÁS COCENTAINA 1530 - 1610 GANDÍA

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

measurements note
49 by 45.7 cm.; 19 1/2 by 18 in.

oil on panel, unframed

NOTE

This and the lot that follows it, representing The Last Supper, probably once belonged to a large retablo or altarpiece, such as Borrás' most ambitious commission of 1574 for the church of the Hieronymite Monastery at Cotalba in Gandía (reproduced in Los Ribalta y la Pintura Valenciana de Su Tiempo, exhibition catalogue, Valencia, Lonja de Valencia, October - November 1987; Madrid, Museo del Prado, December 1987 - January 1988, p. 37) or the similar retablo representing Los Misterios del Rosario in the Colegio de Santo Domingo, Orihuela (op. cit., p. 35, reproduced). Panels of similar themes, as well as of comparable dimensions and format, appear in each of these retablos and it is likely that this and the following lot originally flanked the central panel or sculpture of the altarpiece. The paintings may be compared in style to another panel by Borrás sold in these Rooms, 9 December 2004, lot 309. A date of execution in the 1570s or early '80s seems likely for the present work and for its companion.