School of Madrid, 17th Century

The artists of the mid to late seventeenth century in Madrid had many visual sources of inspiration, especially Flemish and Italian art which had strongly contributed to their development of a flamboyant Baroque style. It has been suggested that the present sheet is stylistically close to the graphic style of painters of the School of Madrid such as Juan Carreño de Miranda (1614-1685), who was extremely influential on artists of the later generation, including Mateo Cerezo (1637-1666) and Claudio Coello (1642-1693).¹ Drawings by Carreño and Coello are often executed in black chalk heightened with white, and similarly to the technique of present drawing, both artists also combine these media with red chalk, here visible in the face of the Madonna, and on the separate sketch to the left.²

^1.Benito Navarrete Prieto, I Segni nel tempo, Dibujos Españoles de los Uffizi, Madrid 2016, pp. 34-35

^2.For some Carreño and Coello drawings in this technique see, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, inv. nos. 10310 S., 10311 S, 10078S, 10122 S; see Cristina Agüero Carnerero, Carreño de Miranda Dibujos, Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica 2017