Bartolomé Pérez

(Madrid, 1634–1693)
St. ANTHONY WITH THE INFANT CHRIST
 
C. 1680/90
Oil on canvas, height: 99 cm, width: 71 cm, framed
      
PROVENANCE

• Collection of Zita, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary (according to sticker on the back of the frame)
• Private collection, Switzerland
• Art dealer, Switzerland

Representations of St. Anthony of Padua with the infant Christ was a popular subject in Italian and Spanish painting. The saint, sometimes also called Anthony of Lisbon, was a Portuguese priest and a friar of the Franciscan Order. He was born in Lisbon in 1195 and sent to the then unrestful province of Romagna as a teacher and repentance preacher in 1223. Already in his lifetime, he was considered the greatest preacher of his time. He died in Padua in 1231.
 
With Bartolomé Pérez, the saint gently puts his right hand around the Christ boy who stands on top of a book, while holding a lily, the symbol of purity, in his left hand. The figures are surrounded by a lush flower garland, typical of the artist, as well as a red curtain and are skillfully staged through precise lighting.
The painting fascinates with warm and contrastive color tones, the delicate detailing of the tulips, peonies, hydrangea, and lilies and the apparent approachability of the represented.
 
Sitting on the back of the 17th-century frame is a glued-on label that says “Private property of Empress Zita of Habsburg, Vienna”. Another sticker indicates a furniture storage warehouse in Vevey, Switzerland. It is conceivable that the painting is from the possession of Empress Zita and was sold during Charles I of Austria’s and Zita’s time in exile in Switzerland. There is documentary evidence that objects from the property of Charles and Zita were sold in Switzerland in 1921 and ’22 before the couple left for their permanent exile in Madeira.


Bartolomé Pérez
 
Little is known about the early apprenticeship of Bartolomé Pérez, although it is generally assumed that he was a pupil of Juan de Arellano, the great Spanish still-life painter and his father-in-law. He is best know fur his luxuriant flower still-lifes. He also received commissions from the Spanish royal family to paint stage sceneries for the theater of Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid. In 1693, while working on a ceiling fresco in the palace of the Duke of Monteleón, he fell from the scaffold and died. Works of Bartolomé Pérez are kept, e.g., in the collections of the Prado Museum in Madrid.