JUAN CORREA DE VIVAR (Mascaraque, Toledo, c. 1510 - Toledo,

Oil on panel. Provenance: Collection of the Counts of Cardona. Reference bibliography: Chandler Rathfon Post, "A History of Spanish Painting, Volume IX, part I, "The beginning of the Renaissance in Castile and Leon, Harvard University Press", 1847, p. 322, fig. 100; Ruiz Gómez, L., “Juan Correa de Vivar c.1510-1566. “Master of the Spanish Renaissance,” exh. cat., Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, 2011. This work and its companion piece (see lot 104) come from a disassembled altarpiece of which we have no record. Both paintings stand out for their refinement and compositional balance, with the painter displaying a great command of perspective through the incorporation of background scenes, landscapes, and the introduction of architectural elements. Based on their formal and technical characteristics, they could have been executed between 1550 and 1560. There is a version of this painting, of inferior quality, which Post tentatively attributed to Correa. This version was held in the Annmary Brown Memorial Collection (Providence, Rhode Island). The three Magi adopt the same pose and a similar type of clothing, while the position of the Virgin and Child shows a slight variation. The architectural elements are more developed in the American panel, resulting in a more complex composition, while in the panel presented here, the composition is much more balanced and Clear, open to a wide landscape in the background. Dimensions: 83 x 53 cm.