Lot 73: The Gadarene Swine: Christ casting out devils into a herd of pigs

Attributed to Diego López de Escuriaz (active El Escorial 1587-1597) The Gadarene Swine: Christ casting out devils into a herd of pigs pen and brown ink, brown and blue wash, heightened with white, the outlines pricked for transfer, on blue paper 16¼ x 9 5/8 in. (402 x 243 mm.)

FROM A EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION


This drawing, like the preceding lot, is a cartoon for a liturgical embroidery made in the workshop which produced embroideries for the Escorial. It seems to be by the same hand as a drawing of Four prophets which was recently puchased by the Louvre (RF 44337; L. Boubli, Musée du Louvre. Département des arts graphiques. Inventaire général des dessins. Ecole espagnole XVIe-XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2002, no. 34). Lizzie Boubli compares that drawing to a group attributed to the Master D by Angulo and Péréz Sánchez in their Corpus of Spanish Drawings, I, 1400-1600, London, 1975, nos. 361-65.
The subject of the drawing is rare. It shows Jesus curing two possessed men and follows Matthew's text (8:28-34): 'When He came to the other side into the country of the Garadenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way [...] Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them. The demons began to entreat Him, saying "If you are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine." And He said to them, "Go!" And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters.'