Project Outline
‘Virgin and Child with Infant Saint John and Saint Dominic’ is an oil on wood panel by the Spanish artist Luis de Vargas (Seville, 1505/6-1567). The panel measures 55.3 × 39.5 cm, and is signed and dated 1566. It was bought by the Scottish collector and scholar Sir William Stirling Maxwell in 1853 and is now in a private collection in Scotland.
This project builds on two strands of previous research. In 2019, the painting was borrowed for investigation as part of the Stirling Maxwell Spanish Paintings Project and examined by Mark Richter. In 2019-20, the painting was also the focus of a dissertation project by Clara González Fernandez for our MLitt in Technical Art History programme.
Clara returned to Glasgow during June 2022 as a research affiliate of the Stirling Maxwell Research Project. Together with Mark, they will be exploring the findings of a technical examination of this painting. This research aims to develop further insights on studio practice of sixteenth-century Spanish painting.
Luis de Vargas moved to Rome in 1527 to learn from Italian artists. Fascinatingly, the scientific analyses reveal how those journeys, from Seville to Rome to Glasgow, materialise in this beautiful little panel.
Project Links
Learn more about the Stirling Maxwell Spanish Paintings Project.
TAHG Participants
Gallery
Acknowledgements
The Stirling Maxwell Spanish Paintings Project is a collaboration between the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Museums and the National Trust for Scotland, with the support of the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.
The project is funded by Santander Universities.