The Duke of Alcalá: His Collection and its Evolution

Abstract

Fernando Enríquez Afán de Ribera, third Duke of Alcalá (1583-1637), was an important statesman and art collector and a member of a leading noble family of Andalusia. His artistic and literary interests are partially recorded in scattered references in Pacheco's Arte de la pintura. He is also known to have been a patron of Jusepe de Ribera. The discovery of an inventory of the contents of his palace in Seville, the famous Casa de Pilatos, now permits a fuller reconstruction of Alcalá's collection of painting and sculpture. Compiled shortly after the duke's return from his tenure as viceroy of Naples (1629-31), the inventory not only lists the works but also furnishes some indication of when and where they were acquired. A second inventory made after the duke's death documents a further stage in the formation of a collection that contained pictures attributed to important Spanish and Italian painters, including Velázquez, Pantoja, Reni, Arpino, and Artemisia Gentileschi, among others.

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Notes on contributors

Jonathan Brown

Author of monographic studies of the art of Murillo, Ribera, and Zurbarán, Jonathan Brown most recently published Velázquez: Painter and Courtier (1986). [Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1 East 78th Street, New York, NY 10021]

Richard L. Kagan

Richard L. Kagan, Professor of History, is a specialist in early modern Spain. He contributed to the exhibition, El Greco of Toledo (1982), and is the editor of Spanish Cities of the Golden Age: The Views of Anton van den Wyngaerde (forthcoming). [Department of History, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218]