Possibly by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, 'Don Adrián Pulido Pareja', after 1647

Don Adrián Pulido Pareja

Possibly by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo

Not on display

About the work

Overview

A commanding male figure stares out at us, his white lace collar, shimmering silk sleeves and red sash standing out against his sombre black clothing and the nondescript background. This is Don Adrián Pulido Pareja, a distinguished captain in the Spanish royal navy.

He wears the Knight’s badge of the Order of Santiago, awarded to him in 1647, in the form of a gold medal decorated with a red cross in the shape of a sword. In his left hand he holds a wide-brimmed hat, and he grasps the wooden baton of a commander in his right.

When the National Gallery bought this portrait at the end of the nineteenth century, it was thought to be by Diego Velázquez, whose name appears in the inscription centre left, along with the date ‘1639’ (both have since been shown not to be original). The portrait has plausibly been attributed to Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, Velázquez’s son-in-law and principal assistant.

In-depth

A commanding figure stares out at us, his expression unsmiling. His white lace collar, shimmering silk sleeves and red sash stand out against his sombre black clothing and the non-descript background. This is a portrait of Don Adrián Pulido Pareja, a distinguished captain in the Spanish royal navy – his name is inscribed in Latin in the lower left corner, though this was probably added later. He fought against the French fleet in several major naval battles: near Fuenterrabía in 1638, near Cádiz in 1640 and off Cape St Vincent in 1641.

The portrait was painted in or after 1647, the year in which Don Adrián joined the Order of Santiago – the Knight’s badge, a gold medal decorated with a red cross in the shape of a sword, hangs off the sash across his chest. He holds a wide-brimmed hat in his left hand and grasps the wooden baton of a commander in his right. We can just see the hilt of his sword at his waist, a nod to his role within the military.

When the National Gallery bought this portrait at the end of the nineteenth century it was thought to be by Diego Velázquez, whose name appears in the inscription centre left, along with the date ‘1639’. The handwriting is unlike any other signed painting by Velázquez and the inscription has been shown not to be original, but a similar painting by Velázquez probably did exist. His biographer Antonio Palomino described seeing a life-size portrait of Don Adrián bearing Velázquez’s signature and the date 1639. Some art historians have suggested that our picture is the work mentioned by Palomino, although Don Adrián did not receive his badge of honour until 1647, or it may be a copy after it by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, Velázquez’s son-in-law and principal assistant, who succeeded him as court painter to Philip IV after his death in 1660.

The portrait is skilfully executed, but on closer inspection the head and costume seem to lack Velázquez’s characteristically vibrant and economical handling of paint. If you compare Don Adrián’s silk sleeve with a similar detail in Velázquez’s Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver, you can see how much more masterful the latter’s application of paint is. Even so, Mazo shows an accomplished familiarity with Velázquez’s technique. This includes the brush marks in the background, created by wiping excess paint off the brush – something for which Velázquez is especially known.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Don Adrián Pulido Pareja
Artist: Possibly by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo
Artist dates: about 1612/16; died 1667
Date made: after 1647
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 203.8 × 114.3 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Inscribed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1890
Inventory number: NG1315
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 17th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

Probably the picture seen by Palomino in the collection of the Duke of Arcos, before 1724. In the sale of property belonging to John Calcraft of Ingress Abbey, Kent († 1772), London, 18–25 June, 1788 (lot 31; £210), bought by Hudson. Later in the possession of [Benjamin] Vandergucht, who sold it to the 2nd Earl of Radnor in 1790. Exhibited Royal Academy, 1873 (no. 149). Purchased from the 5th Earl of Radnor with the aid of gifts from Charles Cotes, Sir E. Guinness, Bt. (Lord Iveagh), and Lord Rothschild, in 1890. Included in the exhibition of paintings from Woburn Abbey, Royal Academy, 1950 (no. 97). Exhibited, Madrid, Velázquez y lo velazqueño, 1961 (no. 96).

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised by Allan Braham, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School’, London 1988; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2008

Picasso et les Maîtres

Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais

8 October 2008 - 2 February 2009
2009

The Discovery of Spain: British Artists and Collectors, Goya to Picasso

National Gallery of Scotland

18 July 2009 - 11 October 2009
2014

Velázquez Exhibition

Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais

25 March 2015 - 13 July 2015

Bibliography

1848

W. Stirling-Maxwell, Annals of the Artists of Spain, London 1848
1853

J.S., Catalogue of the Pictures at Longford Castle: With Notes, Biographical, Critical, and Descriptive, Salisbury 1853
1854

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
1855

W. Stirling-Maxwell, Velázquez and His Works, London 1855
1885

G.C. Villaamil, Anales de la vida y de las obras de Diego de Silva Velazquez: Escritos con ayuda de nuevos documentos, Madrid 1885
1888

P. Lefort, Les artistes célèbres: Velazquez, Paris 1888
1906

A. de Beruete y Moret, Velázquez, London 1906
1907

'Review: Aureliano de Beruete, Velazquez, 1906', The Burlington Magazine, X/47, 1907, pp. 326-7
1909

A. de Beruete y Moret, The School of Madrid, London 1909
1913

V. Loga, 'Zur Zeitbestimmung einiger Werke des Velazquez', Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, XXXIV, 1913, pp. 281-91
1916

A. de Beruete, Retratos de Pulido Pareja. Datos para un problema pictórico (Velázquez y Mazo), Madrid 1916
1917

A. Beruete, 'Velázquez ou Mazo? Les portraits de Pulido Pareja', Gazette des beaux-arts, 1917, pp. 236-52
1923

H.F. Cook, 'Further Light on del Mazo', The Burlington Magazine, XXIII/126, 1923, pp. 322-3
1925

J. Allende-Salazar, Velazquez: Der Meisters Gemalde in 275 Abbildungen, Berlin 1925
1952

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, London 1952
1953

C. Justi, Velázquez y su siglo, Madrid 1953
1958

J.A. Gaya Nuño, La pintura española fuera de España: Historia y catálogo, Madrid 1958
1960

E.L. Ferrari et al., Velázquez y lo Velazqueño (exh. cat. Casón del Buen Retiro, 10 December 1960 - 23 February 1961), Madrid 1960
1970

N. MacLaren and A. Braham, The Spanish School, 2nd edn, London 1970
1980

E. Harris and P. Troutman, The Golden Age of Spanish Art: From El Greco to Murillo and Valdés Leal: Paintings and Drawings from British Collections, (exh. cat. Nottingham University Art Gallery, 11 February - 29 March 1980), Nottingham 1980
1988

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Allan Braham, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1988
1990

P. Cannon-Brookes, 'Connoisseurship and Picture Framing in the 1990s', Museum Management and Curatorship, IX/2, 1990, pp. 183-90
1991

N.A. Mallory, 'Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo: Retratos y paisajes', Goya, 221, 1991, pp. 265-76
1999

N. Glendinning, E. Harris and F. Russell, 'Lord Grantham and the Taste for Velázquez the Electrical Eel of the Day', The Burlington Magazine, CXLI/1159, 1999, pp. 598-605
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2004

C.S. Oropesa and J.C.S. Herranz, Juan Bauptta Martínez del Maço: Pintor de cámara de Felipe IV, Yerno de Velázquez y conquense, Cuenca 2004
2004

M.C. de Carlos Varona, 'Sobre el supuesto boceto de Las Meninas y otros Velázquez que poseyó el Duque de Arcos', in A.J. Morales and C. Sánchez de las Heras (eds), Symposium Internacional Velázquez, Actas, 8-11 de noviembre, Sevilla, 1999, Seville 2004, pp. 329-40
2006

D. Carr (ed.), Velázquez (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 18 October 2006 - 21 January 2007), London 2006
2008

P. Cherry, 'Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, copista', in B. Navarrete Prieto (ed.), En torno a Santa Rufina: Velázquez de lo íntimo a lo cortesano, Seville 2008, pp. 250-7
2009

C. Baker, D. Howarth and P. Stirton, The Discovery of Spain: British Artists and Collectors (exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh), Edinburgh 2009
2009

D. Carr, El Greco to Goya: Spanish Painting, London 2009

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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