One of the three portraits that Velázquez of Mother Jerónima de la Fuente painted, for sale at the Tefaf Fair in Maastricht

Stuart Lochhead Sculpture has not provided any estimate on the price of Velázquez, which was preserved in A convent of Toledo Until he arrived at the hands of a Madrid family in the 1940s, the Fernández de Araoz Marañón familywhich has asked the Board of Qualification, Valuation and Export of Assets of the Historical Heritage of the Ministry of Culture a temporary export permit For his departure to Maastricht, as ABC has been confirmed.

Both Velázquez and the bronze of the body of Christ tell a history of artistic influence, spiritual resonance and cultural exchange that is deeply linked to the life of two extraordinary women of the early modern era: the Roman mystical poet Vittoria Colonna and the Spanish nun Jerónima de la Fuente.

‘The venerable mother Jerónima de la Fuente’ (1620, oil on canvas, 150 for 105 centimeters), from Velázquez, is one of few female portraits of the painter’s catalog, which immortalized the religious in three canvases. One is in The meadow. It is whole body, like that of the Fernández de Araoz Marañón family. Both come from Santa Isabel Toledo convent. It only differs between the two the position of the crucifix. There is A third, half a bodytoday in the Appellable Collection of Santiago de Chilewhich shows the crucifix in the same position as that of the meadow, although it presents a somewhat dry and hard technique. The priority between them is not clear, but perhaps the half -body precedes the others, which show more brush, as recorded in the information of the painting on the website of the Prado.

The 64th edition of the ‘The Guest Work’ program of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum presented the public for the first time in 2021 Three works of Greco, Velázquez and Goya, who were gathered by Carmen Marañón-Fernández de Araoz (San Sebastián, 1912-Madrid, 2005), Dr. Gregorio Marañón. He gathered an interesting art collection, one of whose jewels was the ‘Lazarillo de Tormes’ (c. 1808-1810), of Francisco de Goyawho was inherited by his daughter Carmen, married to politician Alejandro Fernández de Araoz, governor of the Bank of Spain during the Second Republic. Inherited from her husband ‘San Francisco in ecstasy’ (1594-1604), of the Grecoand ‘The venerable mother Jerónima de la Fuente’ (1620), by Diego Velázquez, one of the few works by the Sevillian teacher in private hands.

The painting is one of the first real -scale portraits conceived by Velázquez and a testimony of its early talent. The young artist received the commission to paint the portrait of a intrepid nun that passed through his hometown, Sevilleon the way to one of the most remote positions of the vast Spanish empire. Bruiding from Cádiz, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Pacific Ocean for Found a nun convent in Manilathe first in the Far East. In the painting, Jerónima is standing on a dark background and looks directly at the viewer with penetrating eyes.

He holds a book in his left hand, while he wields a crucifix, almost as if it were a weapon, on the right. Rediscovered in 2023an exquisite will be exhibited next to the painting Mold of a bronze crucifix, ‘Christ on the cross’ (c. 1560-70), from a model of Miguel Ángel Buonarroti. The mold would reflect the crucifix that holds the right hand of the religious. It is known that a Michelangelo bronze crucifix mold He arrived in Seville in 1597. It represented Christ crucified with four nails, which finally became the standard model for the representation of the crucifixion throughout Baroque Spain and its colonies. Velázquez would have been familiar with this model through his time in his teacher’s workshop Francisco Pacheco.

The London gallery comments that, «when presenting these works together, we intend to weave a narrative that goes beyond the familiar, observing the original connections between artists, patron and objects. By rediscovering these threads, we are not only expanding the history of each work, but we also join them in a dialogue that transcends time, geography and context. It is a deep pleasure and a unique privilege to be able to do so focusing on Two undisputed masterpieces. It is rare that an exhibition of two objects produce such a wealth of stimulating considerations, and the incredible stories that these objects allow us to tell are a testimony of their artistic and cultural value ».

Stuart Lochhead Sculpture has a history of important sales In museums in Tefaf Maastricht. His successes include a bust of François Girardon acquired by the Palace of Versailles (2020), a ‘Virgin with the Child’ of the French Renaissance sold to the Kimbell Museum of Art (2022) and a rare relief of Massimilian Terracota Soldani acquired by the Institute of Fine Arts of Detroit (2023). In 2024, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum acquired a rare mold of ‘Mars walking’ by Giambologna.