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Overview

Ildefonso, whose name is more familiar in its Castilian form, Alfonso, was appointed archbishop of Toledo in 657 and later became that city's patron saint. He was especially famed for his book defending the purity of the Virgin, which he was said to have written at her dictation.

El Greco represented the saint in a richly decorated room, seated at a writing table furnished with costly silver desk ornaments consistent with the style of the artist's own time. The contemporary setting notwithstanding, an otherworldly aura pervades the room as the saint pauses in his writing and, as though awaiting the next word, gazes attentively at the source of his inspiration, a statuette of the Madonna. The combination of strangely compacted space, the chalky highlights that play over the saint's sleeves and the velvet tablecover, and, not least, Ildefonso's fervent expression, remove the scene to a spiritual realm.

El Greco's image of the Virgin resembles an actual wooden figure that Ildefonso is said to have kept in his oratory until it was given by him to the church of the Hospital of Charity in the small Spanish town of Illescas, near Toledo. The statuette is preserved there today together with El Greco's larger version of Saint Ildefonso.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/spanish-painting-15th-19th-centuries.pdf

Inscription

lower left: (traces of a signature in cursive Greek)

Provenance

Probably in the artist's possession at the time of his death in 1614;[1] his son, Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli, Toledo, by 1621.[2] Presented 1698 to Carlos II [1661-1700] by Don Juan Varela Colima, the King's secretary and tax collector for the city and province of Toledo.[3] Condesa de Quinto, Paris; (sale, Paris, 1862, no. 64, as Un saint Évêque écrivant, les regards tournés vers l'image de la Sainte Vierge);[4] Alphonse Oudry; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 16-17 April 1869, no. 139, as Prélat écrivant l'histoire de la Vierge, for 500 francs);[5] Jean-François Millet [1814-1875], Paris; his widow, Catherine Lemaîre Millet; (her estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 24-25 April 1894, no. 261, as L'Évêque, for 2000 francs);[6] acquired by (Durand-Ruel, Paris) for Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas [1834-1917], Paris; [7] (his atelier sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 26-27 March 1918, 2nd day, no. 2, as Saint Ildefonso écrivant sous la dictée de la Vierge);[8] (M. Knoedler & Co., London and New York);[9] sold 7 February 1922 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.;[10] deeded December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[11] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] The inventory of El Greco's estate made in 1614 includes the following item: "Un S. ilefonso escribiendo" ("A Saint Ildefonso writing"); see Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, El Greco en Toledo, Madrid, 1910: 193.

[2] The painting is listed in the inventory of 1621 as follows: "Un san Ylefonso bestido de cardenal escribiendo, de bara y terzia de alto y casi un bara de ancho, con quadro dorado" ("A Saint Ildefonso dressed as a Cardinal writing, a vara and a third in height and almost a vara in width, with a gilded frame"); see Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández, "De la vida del Greco," Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueologia 3 (1927): 70, n. 15. A vara, a traditional Spanish measurement, equals about 84 cm. Thus, the painting was said to be 112 cm tall and almost 84 cm wide.

[3] Relación del magestuoso recibimiento y entretenido cortejo de una fiesta de toros celebrada en honor de Carlos II y su esposa en Burguillos en una casa de recreación de D. Juan Varela Colima, secretario de S. M. y recaudador de los servicios de millones de Toledo y su partido...3 de junio de 1698, Madrid, 1698. The relevant passage is transcribed in Francisco J. Sánchez Cantón, Fuentes para la historia del arte español, 5 vols., Seville and Madrid, 1923-1941: 5:509-510. The presentation is described as follows: "A la Reina se ofrecieron doce albanicas de láminas primorísimas y al Rey una pintura de vara y media de alto, original del célebre Dominico Greco, que representaba a San Ildefonso con nuestra Señora, objectos predeilectísimos de la devoción de Carlos II..." ("To the Queen were presented twelve fans with exquisitely decorated blades and to the King a painting a vara and one-half in height [i.e., about 126 cm tall], an original by the celebrated Dominico Greco, which depicts San Ildefonso with Our Lady, favored objects of devotion of Carlos II..."). The NGA painting is the only work by El Greco or his workshop which corresponds to this description.

The painting is listed in the inventory of the collection at the Palacio Real, Madrid, made between 1701 and 1703, as follows: "Ytten otro lienzo de Vara y Quartta de altto y bara de Ancho poco mas de Un San Yldefonso escribiendo delantte de Una Ymagen de nuestra Señora y Un Retratto en el mismo lienzo del Griego todo tasado en treinto Doblones" ("And another painting one vara and a quarter in height [i.e. c. 105 cm] and a little more than one vara wide [i.e., c. 84 cm] of a Saint Ildefonso writing in front of an image of Our Lady and a portrait in the same painting [frame?] by Greco all valued at 30 doblones"); see Inventarios reales: Testamentario del Rey Carlos II, ed. by Gloria Fernández Bayton, 6 vols., Madrid, 1975-: 1(1701-1703):31, no. 130.

This entry seems to refer to two separate paintings which had been enframed together. Double enframing was not common, but it was sometimes utilized in the collection of paintings at the Palacio Real in Madrid. Among the 1,067 entries in the 1701-1703 inventory of the Madrid palace, there are five additional references to other small works enframed together.

It is impossible to know what portrait was enframed with Ildefonso; the portrait might be a now-lost work. Nevertheless it is tempting to posit that the Ildefonso was displayed with Greco's portrait of a Dominican or Trinitarian monk (now in the Prado). This is one of the few portraits by El Greco or his school that could be combined with the Ildefonso without significantly exceeding the measurements given in the 1701-1703 inventory. Because the subject of this portrait is a monk, the combination of this painting with the Ildefonso would accord with the practice otherwise followed in the royal collection of jointly enframing thematically related works.

[4] Manuel B. Cossío, El Greco, Madrid, 1908: 598-599, no. 299; and August L. Mayer, Domenico Theotocopuli, El Greco, Munich, 1926: 46, no. 287, maintained that Zacharie Astruc purchased the painting in Madrid and imported it to France. This is not possible if the painting was in the Condesa de Quinto's sale because Astruc made his first trip to Spain in 1864. See Sharon Fletcher, Zacharie Astruc: Critic, Artist and Japoniste, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1977 (published in the series, Outstanding Dissertations in the Fine Arts, New York, 1978): 305.

[5] The price is annotated in both the Frick Art Reference Library and the NGA copies of the sale catalogue.

[6] The price is annotated in the Frick Art Reference Library copy of the sale catalogue.

[7] Ives, Colta et al. The Private Collection of Edgar Degas: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1997: no. 599 give Durand-Ruel, who was an expert at the Millet sale, as the intermediary for Degas.

[8] In the 1990 NGA systematic catalogue (Jonathan Brown and Richard G. Mann, Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, Washington, 1990: 44), the painting was incorrectly identified as lot number 3 in this sale, which was Saint Dominique, now owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 23.272 and identified as Saint Dominic in Prayer. Diana Kostyrko, e-mail of 18 March 2015, in NGA curatorial files, kindly pointed out the error.

[9] For an interesting account of Knoedler's purchase of this painting, see Sir Charles J. Holmes, Self & Partners (Mostly Self), London, 1936: 335-340.

[10] The date of purchase is noted in David Finley's notebook of Mellon acquisitions; original in NGA Gallery Archives, and copy in NGA curatorial files.

[11] Mellon collection records in NGA curatorial files.

Exhibition History

1925
Paintings by Old Masters from Pittsburgh Collections, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1925, no. 21.
1928
Spanish Paintings from El Greco to Goya, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1928, no. 31.
1933
A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 175.
1937
Paintings and Sculpture Owned in Washington, Phillips Gallery, Washington, 1937, no. 13.
1982
El Greco of Toledo, The Toledo [Ohio] Museum of Art; Prado, Madrid; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1982-1983, no. 43, pl. 56.
1997
The Private Collection of Edgar Degas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997-1998, no. 599, repro.
2014
El Greco in the National Gallery of Art and Washington-Area Collections: A 400th Anniversary Celebration, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2014-2015, no catalogue.

Technical Summary

The original support is a coarse, plain-weave fabric. Before 1937 the tacking edges were flattened, and the picture was lined to a larger, medium-weight, plain-weave fabric. The white ground layer and the dark red imprimatura do not conceal the weave texture. X-radiographs reveal that the ground layer is applied roughly; striations indicate that the artist may have used a palette knife or small trowel. The imprimatura was left exposed in several places, notably along the edges of the saint's left arm and hands. The paint was applied in a moderately thick, textured paste with translucent layers in the table covering and the Madonna's robe.[1] The original right and left tacking margins are covered by daubs of paint; those on the right were left exposed after the recent treatment. Small areas of loss are scattered throughout, but significant losses of paint are confined to the edges of the original picture surface. The painting was cleaned and treated in 1988.

[1] Pigment analysis in September 1987 detected lead white, iron oxide, and possibly red lead in the red table covering. X-ray fluorescence cannot detect the crimson lake dyes assumed to have been used in the glaze. Red lake pigment, which gives a purplish hue, was mixed with lead white and azurite in the blue robe of the saint, which may also contain blue verditer and ultramarine. The yellow highlights of the hem of the Madonna's robe are probably lead-tin yellow, mixed with yellow ochre and possibly massicot. On El Greco's blue pigments, see Susanna Pauli, "Two Paintings by El Greco: Saint Martin and the Beggar. Analysis and Comparison" (forthcoming publication, conservation department papers, National Gallery of Art).

Bibliography

1875
Tillot, Charles S. Catalogue de la vente qui aura lieu par suite de décès de Jean-François Millet, peintre. Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10-11 May, 1875: ix.
1906
Lafond, Paul. "Domenikos Theotokopuli dit Le Greco." Les arts 58 (1906): 25-26.
1908
Cossío, Manuel B. El Greco. Madrid, 1908: 334, 598-599, no. 299 (also rev. ed., ed. Natalia Cossío Jímenez. Barcelona, 1972: 194, 383, no. 255).
1911
Mayer, August L. El Greco. Munich, 1911: 83.
1918
Frappart, A. "Chronique des ventes." Les arts 168 (1918): 26.
1920
Field, Hamilton Easter. Editorial. The Arts 1 (1920): 6, repro. 7.
1926
Mayer, August L. Domenico Theotocopuli, El Greco. Munich, 1926: 46, no. 287, pl. 63.
1928
Burroughs, Bryson. "Spanish Paintings from El Greco to Goya." Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 23 (1928): 39, repro. 40.
1930
Rutter, Frank. El Greco. New York, 1930: 96, no. 67.
1936
Holmes, Sir Charles J. Self & Partners (Mostly Self). London, 1936: 340.
1937
Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: 42-43.
1937
Legendre, Maurice and Alfred Hartmann. Domenikos Theotokopoulos Called El Greco. Paris, 1937: 433, repro.
1938
Goldscheider, Ludwig. El Greco. London, 1938: pl. 181 (also 1954 rev. ed.: pl. 187).
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 92, no. 83.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 215.
1945
Cook 1945, 73-74, fig. 5.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): xii, repro.
1958
Gaya Nuño, Juan Anotonio. La pintura española fuera de España; historia y catàlogo. Madrid, 1958: 206, no. 1397.
1960
Evans, Grose. Spanish Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Ten in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 18, color repro.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 20.
1962
Wethey, Harold E. El Greco and His School. 2 vols. Princeton, 1962: 1:fig. 113; 2:19 (under no. 23), 239, no. X-361. (also Spanish ed. 2 vols., Madrid, 1967: 1:pl. 117; 2:34 [under no. 23], 254-255, no. X-361).
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 309, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 62.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 54, repro.
1969
Manzini, Gianna, and Tiziana Frati. L'opera completa del Greco. Milan, 1969: no. 125e.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 162, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 237, no 302, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 186, repro.
1990
Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 43-47, color repro. 45.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 67, color repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 81, repro.
1993
Griswold, Susanna P. "Two Paintings by El Greco: Saint Martin and the Beggar." Studies in the History of Art 41 (1993): 133, 142, 148, repro. no. 3.
1997
Ives, Colta et al. The Private Collection of Edgar Degas: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1997: no. 599.

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