Pablo de Céspedes (1538–1608)
Spanish School
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1600
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
521 x 445 mm (20 1/2 x 17 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Spain
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 485061
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Pablo de Céspedes (1538 - 1608), Spanish School, inscribed on the back: Porcions Picturae Esulturae Architecurae Omnium bonarium Artium pertisimus (skilled in all the arts), circa 1600. A head-and-shoulders portrait, turned slightly to the right, scant grey hair, small collar and a black doublet. The sitter was a Spanish artist, born in Córdoba and studied in Rome under Michelangelo and Raphael and acquired a style which could be termed academic Mannerism. Typical of the involved gesturing and format of his style are his Last Suppers in Seville Museum and Córdoba Cathedral. In 1577 he became a canon of Córdoba Cathedral. He established a school of art in Córdoba, and was also active as an architect, sculptor, poet and scholar and studied philosophy and Oriental languages. He wrote two treatises on art. One, a prose discourse compares the arts of the ancients and the moderns. The other Poema de la Pintura exists today only in fragments. Though little known the poem marks it as one of the most perceptive and didactic writings of its day.
Provenance
In the collection of the 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) by 1835. By descent to the current Lord Egremont. On loan from the Egremont Private Collection
Credit line
Petworth House, The Egremont Collection
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: Paulus de Cespedes Ecles.Cord Porcions Picturae Esculturae Architecturae Omnium honorum Artium peritisimus. Obiit 1608. (on the back)
Makers and roles
Spanish School, artist previously catalogued as attributed to Diego Velázquez (Seville 1599 - Madrid 1660), artist
References
Waagen 1857 Gustav Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, 1857, p.42.