(Escacena del Campo ? - 1760 Seville)
The Assumption of the Virgin,
oil on canvas, 205 x 134.5 cm, framed

We are grateful to Enrique Valdivieso for suggesting an attribution to Andrés Rubira for the present painting and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

The Madonna is depicted with her hands on her chest with a pensive expression and she is surrounded cherubs, some of whom hold Marian symbols from the Loreto Litanies, such as a lily, roses, a palm leaf and a mirror.

Andrés Rubira was born in Escacena del Campo (Huelva), and died in Seville in 1760. He moved to Lisbon with by the painter Francisco Viera and returned to Seville around 1745, where he married and his son José was born there in 1747. He trained in the studio of Domingo Martínez, and his artistic style was inspired by his master, both in the physical prototypes as well as in composition, though Rubira’s style of drawing was sharper and his figures have a more defined sense of volume.

The figure of the Madonna derives from a model by Domingo Martínez and is replicated in a painting of the same subject in a private collection in Seville. However, the stylistic features of the painting and the colours used are closer to the production of Andrés Rubira, in whose corpus of work this painting can be included.