Oil on canvas, signed with the initial O at the lower right corner x 115cm Ca

Transcription

1 PEDRO DE ORRENTE (Murcia, 1580 Valencia, 1645) The Last Communion of Saint Mary of Egypt Oil on canvas, signed with the initial O at the lower right corner x 115cm Ca Provenance: Serrano Collection, Madrid 1936 Literature: Guinard, P. Zurbaran et les peintres espagnols de la vie monastique Paris Up dated edition by Claude Ressort, Paris, Nº 274 Gallego, J. y Gudiol, J. Zurbaran Barcelona Nº 538, fig. 478 Delenda, Odile y Wildenstein Institute Zurbarán, Los Conjuntos y el Obrador Volumen II, Madrid Fundación Arte Hispánico. Pag. 416, fig. II-138. Pedro de Orrente was the son of Jaime de Horrente, a Marseille-born merchant who settled in Murcia in 1573 where he married Isabel de Jumilla. Orente was baptised on 18 April 1580 in the church of Santa Catalina in that city. By 1600 he was in Toledo where he was contracted to execute the altarpiece of the Virgen del Saz for the town of Guadarrama (Madrid), a work that no longer survives Nothing more is known of him until 1604 in Murcia when a certain Jerónimo de Castro agreed to pay the artist s father for a Saint Vidal that Orrente had painted for him. It can be inferred that Pedro was away, possibly in Italy, and he is not referred to again in any document until 1607 when, back in Murcia, he contracted the services of a maid. Living in Murcia, he married in 1612 and that same year painted Joseph s Blessing (Contini collection), a work clearly influenced by the Bassanos. He also authorised Angelo Nardi to be paid on his behalf for a canvas that he had painted for a Madrid silversmith, implying friendly relations with the Italian painter whom he could have met in Italy or during an undocumented trip to court, where Nardi had established himself in Inclined to move from place to place as Jusepe Martínez described him, around 1616 Orrente must have been in Valencia, where he painted the monumental Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian for its cathedral and entered into rivalry with Francisco Ribalta. Dating from one year later is The Miracle of Saint Leocadia for Toledo cathedral. When receiving payment for it, Orrente described himself as a resident of Murcia. During one of these trips between Murcia and Toledo, Orrente may have spent time in Cuenca where the painter Cristóbal García Salmerón was clearly a close follower of his work and possibly a pupil. In Murcia in 1624 Orrente applied to be admitted as a lay member of the Inquisition but in 1626 he was again in Toledo where Alejandro de Loarte made him the executor of his

2 will. There he met and made friends with El Greco s son Jorge Manuel Theotocopoulos and Orrente and his wife acted as godparents to two of Jorge Manuel s children in 1627 and That same year, living in Toledo, he was contracted to execute the high altar and lateral altars of the Franciscan monastery in Yeste (Albacete), which have partly survived. In the contract Orrente is referred to as Painter to his Majesty, possibly referring to works by him that were used to decorate the new Buen Retiro Palace on the orders of the Count-Duke of Olivares. In 1630 the artist was paid a considerable sum by Toledo cathedral for a Birth of Christ for the chapel of the New Kings, competing with The Adoration of the Magi by Eugenio Cajés, a rivalry from which Orrente emerged with much advantage according to Palomino. There is information on his time in Toledo until 1632, when he was contracted to paint a now lost altarpiece for the convent of San Antonio de Padua. Orrente is next documented in 1638 in Murcia as the owner of two houses. Only a year later, however, he had once again left the city, as a painter called Lorenzo Suárez was obliged to take over the altarpiece of the Conception that Orrente left unfinished. It seems likely that he moved to Valencia where, on 17 January 1645, a prosperous widower with no children, he made his will. He died two days later and was buried in the church of San Martín in that city. Fig 1. The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, oil on canvas (306 x 219cm). Valencia cathedral

3 Orrente has been termed the Spanish Bassano and a pastoral scene by his hand in the collection of Charles I of England was attributed to the Spaniard who was an imitator of the style of the Bassanos. Orrente s knowledge of the work of the Bassanos in Toledo, where their paintings were copied by Sánchez Cotán and referred to with respect by El Greco, must have influenced his decision to travel to Venice where he was to be found in The influence of the Bassanos, particularly of Leandro, is evident not just in formal aspects of his work but also, and primarily, in the formulation of one of the key aspects of his output, namely his market-oriented transformation of biblical episodes (particularly Old Testament ones) into genre scenes of a pastoral type. Other Venetian painters left a profound mark on Orrente s style. Particularly important was Veronese, evident in Orrente s more complex New Testament scenes with their large numbers of figures and vaguely oriental clothes. Examples of this type include The Marriage at Cana in the parish church in La Guardia (Toledo) and various Crucifixions with their oblique arrangement of the crosses. The daring foreshortening evident in those works, in the large painting of The Apparition of Santa Leocadia for Toledo cathedral and in the impressive Martyrdom of Saint James the Less (Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes), with their low viewpoints, also recalls the work of Tintoretto as Lafuente Ferrari noted. Although influenced by the Bassanos in his subject-matter and in the treatment of his landscapes with their evening light, in the execution of these works Orrente differed from the Venetian style and moved towards a naturalistic tenebrism. This was noted at an early date by Francisco Pacheco who may have met Orrente on his visit to Toledo in When discussing animal painting, Pacheco noted that it was a genre of painting [that] for which our Pedro Rente has gained credit in Spain although he differs from the manner of the Bassanos and has adopted a style that he himself terms natural. In works such as the Saint Sebastian for Valencia cathedral, with its Venetian landscape, sculptural modelling and intense lighting, Orrente reveals his knowledge of the work of Caravaggio or at least of his followers, which he interpreted in a way comparable to that of his contemporary Luis Tristán. Also similar is his treatment of colour, in which the rich Venetian palette is reduced to a muted range of earthy and warm brown tones, occasionally enlivened by a patch of green, bright red or brilliant white. Orrente s work can be divided into his commercial output of large-format, Bassano-like series that must have involved a greater or lesser degree of workshop participation, and the execution of single, commissioned works into which he poured all his skills and creative powers, such as the present Last Communion of Saint Mary of Egypt. It reveals an encounter between the different Italian influences that characterise his painting as it is Caravaggesque with regard to the powerful lateral lighting and Venetian in the landscape. The two monumental figures express both gravity and a powerful naturalism, with the meditative Saint Zosimas about to administer communion to the kneeling Mary of Egypt, whose tear-streaked face conveys her emotion. Aside from the lighting and the characterisation of the figures, Orrente lingers on precise details such as the gilt-copper chalice, the draperies and the oak branch at the top of the composition. The colouristic, bucolic landscape once again looks to models by the Bassanos that Orrente used in his more commercial series.

4 Saint Mary of Egypt (ca /422ad) was an ascetic who retired to the desert following a life as a prostitute. The principal source of information on her is the Vita by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem ( AD). Saint Mary was born somewhere in Egypt, running away at the age of twelve to Alexandria where she lived a dissolute life. Many texts refer to her as a prostitute during this period but the Vita states that she often refused to accept money for her sexual favours. According to that account she was compelled by an insatiable desire and an unstoppable passion. Similarly, the Vita says that she lived primarily from begging, while also working as a flax winder. After seventeen years of this lifestyle Mary travelled to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. She undertook this journey in the manner of an antipilgrimage, declaring that among the pilgrims she expected to find still more companions for her licentious activities. She obtained the money for her trip by offering sexual favours to other pilgrims and briefly continued with her habitual lifestyle in Jerusalem. According to the Vita, on attempting to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the celebration of the feast, an invisible force prevented her from doing so. Aware that this strange phenomenon was caused by her impurity, Mary experienced powerful remorse. Catching sight of an icon of the Theotokos outside the church, she prayed for pardon and promised to renounce the world. Mary made a second attempt to enter the church and on this occasion was not prevented from doing so. After venerating the relic of the Cross, she returned to the icon to give thanks to it, hearing a voice say: If you cross the Jordan, you will find a glorious rest. Mary immediately went to the monastery of Saint John the Baptist on the banks of the River Jordan, where she received communion. The following morning she crossed the river and retired to the desert to spend the rest of her life as a hermit. According to legend she only took three loaves of bread with her (symbolising the Eucharist) and lived on what she could find in nature. Around one year before her death, after 47 years alone in the wilderness, Mary of Egypt recounted her life to Saint Zosimas of Palestine who had come across her in the desert. When he unexpectedly encountered her she was completely naked and almost unrecognisable as a human being. Mary asked Zosimas to throw her his cloak to cover herself and then proceeded to recount the story of her life, revealing astonishing clearsightedness. They agreed to meet again by the Jordan on Holy Thursday of the following year where Zosimas would bring her communion. The following year Zosimas went to the same spot where he had first met Mary, around twenty days journey from his monastery, only to find her dead. According to what was inscribed in the sand by her head, she had died on the very night the year before that he had administered communion and had been miraculously transported to the place where she was now found, her body preserved uncorrupted. Once more according to the legend, Zosimas buried her in the desert with the help of a lion. On his return to the monastery he recounted the story of Mary to his fellow monks, who preserved the story by oral tradition until it was written down by Saint Sophronius.

5 Saint Mary of Egypt is traditionally depicted with very dark, tanned skin from her years in the desert, either naked or covered with the cloak that she borrowed from Zosimas. She is often shown with the three loaves that she purchased before setting out into the desert. The theme of the Eucharist is one of the most widely depicted in the iconography of the Counter-Reformation and is associated with images of the Penitent Magdalen and Saint Mary of Egypt. In addition, both these subjects frequently recur in Baroque art due to their association with another sacrament, that of Penitence, which was called into doubt by the Protestant Reformation. At the same time, in a defence of its doctrinal positions, the Catholic Church popularised these subjects through devotional images, presenting in a didactic manner the Church s doctrine of the sacraments as the means to eternal salvation. Among the numerous examples of the theme of the Eucharist in Baroque painting are The Last Communion of Saint Buenaventura, painted by Zurbarán for the Franciscans in Seville; The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, executed by Annibale Carracci for the Carthusians in Bologna; and The Communion of the Apostles, which Ribera painted for the Charterhouse in Naples. Similarly, in terms of Christian piety, Saint Mary of Egypt s repentance offered both a subject of meditation and an example. The present painting can thus be interpreted as an affirmation of Baroque dogma, which exalts penitence as a pathway to the purification of sin and as the prior step to receiving the Eucharist as sacrament, as laid down in sessions 13 and 22 of the Council of Trent.