A painting at the Louvre with a new attribution to Mazo

Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo
(c. 1610/1615-1667)
Portrait of a Lady of the Spanish Court
Oil on canvas - 129 x 101 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: C2RMF/Pierre-Yves Duval

18/5/08 — Discovery — Paris, Musée du Louvre — New attributions to works considered anonymous until now are as important as new acquisitions in enriching museum holdings. This is proven by the “Painting of the Month” currently showing at the Louvre through 2 June 2008.
The canvas was held in storage for a long time (ill.), and formerly considered as a Velazquez, it was quickly declassified as being from Carreno de Miranda’s workshop, then by an anonymous Madrid artist. Its recent restoration by C2RMF has enabled Pierre Curie to suggest a new attribution, which is now considered as sure by all of the specialists who were consulted, to Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo, a name which had already been put forth in 1961 by Xavier de Salas.

Readers may refer to the text published (in French) by Pierre Curie [1], available on the Louvre website, explaining all of his reasons for this attribution. The museum already owned a canvas, Group of Thirteen Figures, ascribed to Mazo by Véronique Gérard-Powell in the recent catalogue raisonné of the Spanish and Portuguese schools. Pierre Curie considers the attribution to be justified although the painting is reproduced in the Atlas database for the Louvre collections as “anonymous artist from Madrid” reflecting the problems for art historians when dealing with works in Velazquez’s circle.