(Madrid 1642–1693)
Ecce homo,
inscribed centre left: C. Coello f.,
oil on panel, octagonal, 72 x 57.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Infante Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza (1811-1875), Madrid (according to a panel mark on the reverse);
Private European collection

Claudio Coello was one of the most important Spanish painters of the seventeenth century and is one of the last of the great masters of the Siglo de Oro. He was not only a painter, but also an architect who was active in Madrid, Toledo and Zaragoza. He was the son of a sculptor and he trained with Francisco Rizi and, thanks to his access to the Spanish Royal Collections, he was able to study the paintings of Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck and the Italian masters of the sixteenth century, all of which contributed to shaping his style, in addition to the influence of Diego Velazquez and his friend Juan Carreño de Miranda. In 1684 his success was made concrete by his appointment as court painter to Charles II.

Claudio Coello primarily produced sacred paintings of a kind exemplified by the present panel. Here the suffering Christ turns his gaze heavenward; in style this work is close to various saints represented in other works by the artist such as the Saint Dominic in the Museum of Fine Art, Budapest and the Saint Joseph in the Saint Joseph and the Christ Child in the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.

On the reverse of this painting are the initials ‘S. G.’, which refer to the celebrated collection in Madrid of the Infante Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza (1811–1875) who formed a substantial collection of Spanish works of art, as well as of other European schools.