SEBASTIÁN MARTÍNEZ DOMEDEL (Jaén, h. 1615 - Madrid,... Lot n° 35

Provenance: Dominican Convent of Corpus Christi in Cordoba. Bibliography: A.Palomino, A, "El museo pictórico y escala óptica", 3 vols., Madrid, 1715-24, ("In Córdoba in the church of the Convento de Religiosas de Corpus Christi, there are four canvases [...] The other is from San Jerónimo en la penitencia, very skinny and consumed; all of them show quite clearly the eminence and caprice of its author.") The little information we have about Sebastián Martínez, a court painter during the reign of Felipe IV, derives from Palomino's account in his Pictorial Museum and Optical Scale. According to the author: "Sebastián Martínez, who was born and lived in the city of Jaén, was a remarkable painter, due to his very inventive, imaginative and unusual style; but with good taste and correction, and a great harmony and smoothness of forms, as attested to by numerous works that can be seen in that city, both public and private: particularly those in the courtyard of the Jesuits; and, among others, a great painting of the Martyrdom of San Sebastián in the Iglesia Mayor, an admirable work with an inventive composition and well observed light". This unpublished canvas dates from the artist's period of maturity. He represents St. Jerome, one of the Doctors of the Latin Church, surprised as he writes by the sound of the trumpet of the Last Judgment. This episode relates to an apocryphal letter attributed to Jerome: "Awake or asleep, I always think I hear the trumpet of judgment. The rapid spread of the subject, from 1621 onwards, thanks to the work of the painter José de Ribera, exerted a notable influence on numerous Spanish Baroque painters, including Martínez, who, like Ribera, adopted a pronounced diagonal for the saint's body and made judicious use of light and shadow. Represented throughout its length and seated at the opening of a cave in the desert, St. Jerome holds a feather in his right hand. Resting on a ba