Felipe de Guevara and his Commentary on Painting and Ancient Painters

Abstract

In the last years of his life, the Spanish courtier Felipe de Guevara wrote the first treatise on painting in Spain. This paper closely examines his life (c.1500–1563) in its entirety, taking into account his different roles as courtier, collector of paintings and ancient coins, antiquarian and art writer. Within this context, the significance and content of his Commentary on Painting and Ancient Painters is analysed in depth to assess his attempts to position himself as a cultural advisor to Philip II.

Notes

1 Felipe de Guevara, Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos, Prado Museum Library, Ms/8, p. 1r.

2 Juan Allende Salazar, ‘Don Felipe de Guevara, coleccionista y escritor de arte del siglo XVI’, Archivo español de arte y arqueología, May/August (1925), pp. 189–92; José Miguel Collantes Terán, ‘Felipe de Guevara humanista: ostentador de sonados títulos para ocupar un lugar de privilegio en la cultura hispana del siglo XVI’, Anales de Historia del arte, 10 (2000), pp. 55–70; Elena Vázquez Dueñas, ‘El testamento de Felipe de Guevara’, Anales del Instituto de Estudios Madrileños, 45 (2005), pp. 469–86; Vázquez Dueñas, ‘Felipe de Guevara. Algunas aportaciones biográficas’, Anales de Historia del Arte, 18 (2008), pp. 95–110; Vázquez Dueñas, ‘Felipe de Guevara (c.1500–1563). Biografía y análisis crítico de su Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos’ (PhD thesis, University Complutense of Madrid, 2011).

3 See Fernando Checa Cremades, Felipe II mecenas de las artes (Madrid, Nerea, 1993); Fernando Checa Cremades, Felipe II. Un monarca y su época. Un príncipe del Renacimiento (Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, 1998); Rosemarie Mulcahy, Philip II of Spain, Patron of the Arts (Dublin, Portland, Four Courts Press, 2004).

4 See Elena Vázquez Dueñas, ‘Los anticuarios del rey. La cultura del poder y el coleccionismo de antigüedades en la corte de Felipe II’, in Fernando Checa Cremades, dir., El Museo Imperial. Colecciones e Inventarios de los Habsburgo en tiempos de Carlos V y Felipe II (Madrid, Fernando Villaverde Ediciones, 2013), pp. 237–68.

5 In the following century, Velázquez would seek recognition at the court through his art. See Jonathan Brown, Velázquez, Painter and Courtier (New Haven & London, Yale, 1986).

6 See Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1984). See also Anne J. Cruz, ‘Self-Fashioning in Spain: Garcilaso de la Vega’, Romanic Review, 83.4 (1992), pp. 517–38.

7 Felipe de Guevara, Manuscript [henceforth Guevara Manuscript], pp. 1r–1v. Dolce in his Dialogo della Pintura commented: ‘There is no doubt that each art is the more noble, the more it is appreciated by men of high fortune and rare intellects. Painting has always, in every age, been held in high esteem by kings, emperors and men of the greatest discernment. It is therefore supremely noble.’ See Mark W. Roskill, Dolce's Aretino and Venetian Art Theory of the Cinquecento (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1999), pp. 104–05; and Ludovico Dolce, Diálogo de la pintura, Santiago Arroyo Esteban, ed./trans. (Madrid, Akal, 2010), pp. 110–11.

8 Anton de Arriola says that he knew Felipe de Guevara since his birth, by sight, contact, talk and conversation, and also that he knew he was native of Brussels, because he was there when Guevara was born. Archivo Histórico Nacional [henceforth AHN], Información sobre la concesión del hábito de la Orden de Santiago que pide don Felipe de Guevara, Ordenes Militares [henceforth OO.MM], Santiago, Expte. 3662, fol. 2v.

9 Archivo General de Simancas [henceforth AGS], Valladolid, Juros rasgados, leg. 163, fol. 32.

10 Véronique Gerard, De castillo a palacio. El Álcazar de Madrid en el siglo XVI (Bilbao, Xarait Ediciones, 1984), p. 140; Ramón de Mesonero Romanos, El Antiguo Madrid. Paseos históricos-anecdóticos por las calles y casas de esta villa (1861; reprint, Madrid, Trigo Ediciones, 1995), p. 31; Vázquez Dueñas, ‘Felipe de Guevara’ (2008), pp. 100–02; AGS, Valladolid, Tasación de la casa de Don Philippe de Gueuara, Casas y Sitios Reales, leg. 247, fol. 51; Archivo de la Villa, Madrid, Acerca de la casa de Felipe de Guevara en Madrid, situada entre el Alcázar de Madrid y la Puerta de la Vega: sobre las medidas y demarcaciones de la citada casa, Secretaría, 1-66-79. These archival documents contain information related to the price, size and location of Guevara's house.

11 ‘I cannot think why the merits of paintings on canvas and panel are not understood, nor the imperfection to be found in one and the excellence often to be found in another. But it is nothing new that what is cheap is called the destruction of the arts. I would rather have six perfect paintings than sixty reasonable ones at the same price. But I understand that there are others with different opinions who I do not intend to argue with, but who must be of the same opinion as a friend I had in Flanders in 1540. In Antwerp he asked me to take him to see the type of canvases painted with fresco for his house. I took him to the shop with the best canvases in Antwerp and I selected twelve from dozens of paintings that were shown to us. When it came to the price the master asked for two ducats for each one, my companion cancelled the negotiation as he felt the Price was very high. In the afternoon he admitted that he had gone back to those shops alone and returned bearing twenty-four canvases at one ducat each. He said to me that it was better to send twenty-four canvases home rather than twelve for the same Price’. Guevara Manuscript, pp. 16v-17r.

12 ‘In our Spain, where in ages past [painting] has never stood still, amongst the fine arts Your Majesty revives, you favour it by bringing and marshalling a mass of great minds and skilled individuals from a range of nations. They oblige our Spaniards to study and work just as hard so they will go on to merit filling their places and undertaking their responsibilities, although the truth is that there are many who could do this should the occasion arise.’ Guevara Manuscript, p. 1v.

13 ‘Having seen the favour Your Majesty grants to these arts [of painting and sculpture] I have been inspired to address and present you with these papers that I have compiled on ancient painting and sculpture, which you have provided with the fine company of architecture and agriculture, which is reason enough to praise Your Majesty forever, as architecture gives shelter to these arts [of painting] in places where they can be seen and praised. In my view Painting and Sculpture share the properties that Boethius says riches have: when amassed and concealed they are both fruitless and purposeless, as opposed to when they are divided up and shared out.’ Guevara Manuscript, pp. 1v-2r.

14 ‘The subject of Agriculture and the delight it brings is something that neither bellicose men nor peaceful people have disdained. Thus Your Majesty should thereby include agriculture in this company which with the greatest of joy always earns victory over their enemies and governs their empires with perpetual justice and tranquillity throughout their many years.’ Guevara Manuscript, p. 3r.

15 Guevara Manuscript, p. 44r. Guevara discusses the nobility of painting and defends it as traditional art based on the faithful imitation of nature: ‘… painting is only imitation, because if painting does not do this, and mixes colours by chance and without consideration it would come to be held as an object of laughter…’. Guevara Manuscript, p. 3v.

16 In contrast, Philip II showed greater interest in Christian antiquity in order to underscore the ancient and above all Christian origin of the territories he governed. He thereby sought to demonstrate the superiority of the Catholic Church over the rising tide of Protestantism, as well as to exalt his own dynasty by claiming it was descended from Saint Isidoro. In so doing he commissioned loyal scholars to gather both relics of Spanish saints and manuscripts and also to write a series of accounts and chronicles that discussed Spanish antiquities. See Ambrosio de Morales, Las antigüedades de las ciudades de España que van nombradas en la Corónica con las averiguaciones de sus sitios y nombres antiguos (1575. Reprint en la oficina de Don Benito Cano, 1792. Reprint, Librerías París-Valencia, 2001).

17 Guevara Manuscript, p. 100r.

18 See Giovanni Becatti, ‘Plinio e Vasari’, in his Kosmos. Studi sul mondo classico (Roma, 1987), pp. 629–38; Sarah Blake McHam, ‘Pliny's Influence on Early Sixteenth-Century Theoretical Writers’, in her Pliny and the Artistic Culture of the Italian Renaissance. The Legacy of the ‘Natural History’ (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2013), pp. 257–71; David García López, ‘Convertirse en Apeles. Los pintores y la lectura de la Historia Natural de Plinio en el Siglo de Oro español’, in Sandro De Maria and Manuel Parada López de Corselas, eds, El Imperio y las Hispanias de Trajano a Carlos V. Clasicismo y poder en el arte español (Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2014), pp. 383–92.

19 See Richard J. Betts, ‘Si come dice Vetruvio. Images of Antiquity in Early Renaissance Theory of Architecture’, in Alina Payne, Anne Kuttner and Rebekah Smick, eds, Antiquity and its Interpreters, (Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 244–57.

20 See Hermann Dollmayr, ‘Hieronymus Bosch. Und die darstellung der Vier Letzten dinge in der Niederländischen malerei des XV und XVI’, Jahrhunderts, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen, 19 (1898), pp. 284–343; James Snyder, Bosch in Perspective (New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1973), pp. 28–30; Hans Belting, Hieronymus Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights (Munich, Prestel Verlag, 2002), pp. 60–61; Xavier de Salas, El Bosco en la literatura española (Barcelona, Imprenta J. Sabater, 1943), pp. 9–11; Ricardo del Arco, ‘Estimación española del Bosco en los siglos XVI y XVII’, Revista de Ideas estéticas, 10,40 (1952), pp. 417–31; Roger H. Marijnissen, Hieronymus Bosch. The Complete Works (Antwerp, Mercatorfonds, 1987), p. 23; Isabel Mateo Gómez, El Bosco en España, (Madrid, CSIC, 1991), p. 9; Pilar Silva Maroto, ‘Realidad, fantasía y búsqueda de lo infinito en los paisajes de El Bosco’, in El Bosco y la tradición pictórica de lo fantástico (Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado, Galaxia Gutenberg, Madrid, 2006), pp. 327–39.

21 See Elena Vázquez Dueñas, ‘Antigüedades y maravillas en el Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos de Felipe de Guevara’, in Congreso Internacional de Teoría y literatura artística en España (siglos XVI-XVIII) (Málaga, in press).

22 ‘I doubted for some time if the Romans had known about that genre of painting, which is carried out with wood, using a range of woods, some natural ones and others dyed various colours which we called enbutido, and the Italians Comeso di legno. Still today in Germany they use it to decorate desks and tables, depicting perspective views, animals and diverse effigies, to great acclaim from people.’ Guevara Manuscript, pp. 42v-43.

23 Guevara says: ‘In Italy the moderns, in imitation of this, have learned to show figures and animals on the walls with sea shells of different colours, which are found in the harbours of Romagna, Apulia and Calabria, and they are used in place of the coloured stones the ancients used for mosaics. I saw one such invention that had been built in the garden of the Secretary Marturano, outside Naples on the road to Calabria, in the year of XXXV, on the walls of a stairway that led down to a garden with a fountain towards the harbour. These shell mosaics have still not arrived in Spain, nor are they known of, except for those in Naples and Rome and some other parts of Italy where they are to be seen.’ Guevara Manuscript, pp. 36–36v.

24 Guevara says: ‘It is certainly a strange thing to see limbs and naked torsos, and garments, and animals composed of a variety of shells with the decorum adhered to as is appropriate to each part. Men have delighted so much in what curious nature with its variety can create for them, and in the genre of shell mosaics it deploys so many colours, which when well composed by an artisan can imitate all the animals in creation.’ Guevara Manuscript, p. 36v.

25 Guevara compares Egyptian hieroglyphics with pre-Columbian painting (Manuscript, p. 94v). He also emphasises the particular colours used in that form of painting, and gives special attention to paintings made of feathers: ‘Their Colours are remarkable, some are from the earth, some from the juice of plants, like those they say are left by the cochineal which is a very rare scarlet. It is just to grant that they have brought something new and unusual to painting, such as this painting with birds’ feathers, the variety of clothes and flesh tones and similar things, with a diversity of the colours of feathers that nature creates all around, and they with their industry choose, divide, separate and mix.’ Manuscript, p. 95.

26 Guevara Manuscript, p. 37r.

27 Guevara Manuscript, p. 42v.

28 See Saénz de Miera, ‘Lo raro del orbe. Objetos de arte y maravillas en el Alcázar de Madrid’, in Fernando Checa Cremades, dir., El Real Alcázar de Madrid. Dos siglos de arquitectura y coleccionismo en la Corte de los Reyes de España, (Madrid, Nerea, 1994), pp. 264–87; and Checa Cremades, Las maravillas de Felipe II (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, 1997).

29 Recently, Alejandra Giménez-Berger has analysed Guevara's treatise: ‘Ethics and Economies of Art in Renaissance Spain: Felipe de Guevara's Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos’, Renaissance Quarterly, 67/1 (2014), pp. 79–112. But this work cites only the Ponz edition (1788) in spite of referring to the existence of an earlier manuscript of the text in the Prado Museum Library (which was critically analysed as a part of my PhD thesis in 2011). Giménez-Berger stresses the ethical and economic purposes of Guevara's treatise. The first is manifested through the importance given to decorum. The second is made clear when Guevara's advice was addressed to Philip II in order to improve the economy of the country. By contrast, in the present article, I stress that the goal of Guevara is above all an artistic revival, not economic, with the objective of placing Spain at the same level as other countries like Italy and Flanders. In this way, Guevara aims to improve the training of Spanish artists for recovering classical techniques, but also gives advice to the King for creating cabinets of curiosities with rare and novel materials according to Mannerist taste. As a consequence, the Spanish court would gain in splendour and magnificence and it would be placed at the same artistic level as other European courts.

30 A category of gentleman-in-waiting whose duties included serving at the king's table, accompanying him on journeys, and military service in times of war. Rafael Dominguez Casas, Arte y etiqueta de los Reyes Católicos. Artistas, residencias, jardines y bosques, (Madrid, Editorial Alpuerto, 1993), pp. 573–5.

31 Allende Salazar says that her grandparents were tailors: ‘oficiales de hazer bolsas et agujetas’. ‘Don Felipe de Guevara’, p. 189; see also AHN, OO.MM., Expte 3662, fol. 3.

32 Archives Génerales du Royaume [hereafter AGR], Brussels, Etat et audience, leg. 22B, fol. 5, March 1496 (1497 new style), Etat de l'Hotel de Philippe le Bel Duc de Bourgogne en l'an 1496 à Bruxelles. Diego de Guevara is mentioned amongst the ‘ecuyers tranchant comptez par demi an 12 à la fois à 18 sols par jour’, in the first six months. His brother Pedro is mentioned in the second six months. In 1500, Diego de Guevara was maître d'hôtel of Philip the Fair. AGR, Etat et audience, leg. 22, fol. 108, Ghent, 1 February 1499 (1500 new style): ‘Autres deux maestres d'ostel seruans par demy an à XXX sols pour jour […] Diego de Ghebbara de second terme’. As maître d'hôtel, Diego de Guevara accompanied Philip the Fair on his journeys to Spain in 1501 and 1506. His brother Pedro is also mentioned as panetier. AGR, Brussels, Manuscrits divers, 1940, Etat de ceux de son entourage qui accompagneront l'archiduc Philippe le Beau dans son voyage en Espagne, 1 November 1501, fol. VI.

33 Diego accompanied Margaret of Austria on her journey to Spain in 1497. Archives Départementales du Nord [ADN], Lille, Quitt. d'une somme de 800l. sur R.G.F. par Diego de Ghevara, écuyer, qui accompagne en Espagne [Marguerite d'Autriche] princesse de Castille, B2157, no 70901.

34 AGR, Brussels, Manuscrits divers, 796, Etat de la maison de Charles Quint du 25 octobre 1515, fol. 68v. Diego de Guevara is mentioned as maître d'hôtel and his brother Pedro as chambellan. On 9 October 1515, Charles V appointed Diego contador mayor de cuentas. On 30 April 1517, Diego was appointed Knight of Calatrava, and on 9 June he received the position of clavero. Diego (as premier maestre d'ostel) and his brother Pedro (as chambellan) accompanied Charles V on his journey to Spain in 1517. AGR, Brussels, Etat et Audience, leg. 23, fol. 26v, Ghent, 21 June 1517.

35 See Lalaing, ‘Primer viaje de Felipe el Hermoso a España en 1501’, in José García Mercadal, Viajes de extranjeros por España y Portugal: desde los tiempos más remotos hasta fines del siglo XVI, vol. I, (Madrid, Aguilar, 1952), pp. 433–548; Anonymous, ‘Segundo viaje de Felipe el Hermoso a España en 1506’, in ibid., pp. 548–99; Vital, ‘Relación del primer viaje de Carlos V a España’, in ibid., pp. 626–788.

36 See Duque de Berwick y de Alba, Correspondencia de Gutierre Gomez de Fuensalida, embajador en Alemania, Flandes e Inglaterra (1496–1509) (Madrid, 1907), pp. 143, 207, 220, 266, 270, 289, 322, 330, 340, 351, 362 and 393.

37 Hendrik J. Horn, Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen. Painter of Charles V and his conquest of Tunis, vol. I, (Davaco, 1989), p. 215.

38 Max J. Friedländer, ‘Neues über Jan Vermeijen’, Oud Holland (1942), pp. 16–17.

39 See Elena Vázquez Dueñas, ‘Entre la política y el arte. Los embajadores de Felipe el Hermoso’, in Miguel Angel Zalama Rodríguez, dir., Juana I en Tordesillas: su mundo, su entorno (Valladolid, Ayuntamiento de Tordesillas, 2010), pp. 373–82.

40 Jan Karel Steppe, ‘Mécénat espagnol et art flamand au XVIe siècle’, in Splendeurs d'Espagne et les villes belges 1500–1700, vol. 1 (exhibition catalogue, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1985), p. 254.

41 ‘Un grant tableau qu'on appelle Hernoul-le-Fin, avec sa femme dedens une chambre, que fut donné à Madame par don Diego, les armes duquel sont en la couuerture dudit tableaul. Fait du painctre Johannes’. ADN, Inventory of Margaret of Austria's Paintings, 17 July 1516, Chambre des Comptes de Lille, nº123904, fol. 1; Fernando Checa Cremades, dir., Los inventarios de Carlos V y la Familia Imperial, vol. 3, (Madrid, Fernando Villaverde Ediciones, 2010), p. 2391; André Joseph Guislain Le Glay, ed., Correspondance de l'Empereur Maximilien Ier et de Marguerite d'Autriche, sa fille gouvernante des Pays Bas de 1507 a 1519, vol. 2 (Paris, Jules Renouard, 1839), p. 479.

42 His brother Ladrón de Guevara probably knew Jan van Eyck because both were in the service of Philip the Good. AGR, Brussels, Etat et audience, leg. 22, fols. 14–17: ‘Ordonnance de Philippe le Bon duc de Bourgogne faicte à Arras le 12 janvier 1437 [1438] sur le gouvernement des hôtels de lui, de la duchesse, la femme en sa comte de Charolail’, in particular, fol. 17: ‘S'ensuyuent les noms des dites conseilleurs, chambellans’, which lists Ladrón de Guevara third, indicated by his title, ‘le seigneur de Jonvelle’.

43 See José Manuel Cruz Valdovinos, ‘La clientela de El Bosco’, in El Bosco y la tradición pictórica de lo fantástico (Madrid, Fundación Amigos del Museo del Prado, Galaxia Gutenberg, 2006), p.115.

44 This confraternity was founded in 1318 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Today its account books, which include lists of members, may be consulted on the webpages of the Brabant Historical Information Centre. References to Diego appear on folios 176v and 186r. The first states: ‘Don D[i]ego de Gueuara int hoff ende is wals’ (‘Don Diego de Guevara in the court, and he is Walloon’). This entry also labels him as ‘intredegeld’ (meaning his membership fee was paid). The second reference mentions ‘Don D[i]ego de Gueuara int hoff van Brabant’ (‘Don Diego de Guevara in the court of Brabant’), and ‘doodschuld betaald tijdens het leven’ (‘indulgences paid for life’).

45 Archive de la Ville, Brussels, nº3413, fol. 118v, cited in John Oliver Hand and Martha Wolff, Early Netherlandish Painting (Princeton University Press, 1986), p. 234: ‘Don Diego's arms are superimposed on the red cross of Calatrava, which terminates in a fleur-de-lis at each point, with the date 1520 and Don Diego's motto hors du conte.’

46 According to J. Allende Salazar it must have lost the frame and doors in the 1734 fire. ‘Don Felipe de Guevara’, p. 191.

47 Rafael Domínguez Casas has suggested that, in order for it to be certain that van der Weyden had painted the portrait of Diego de Guevara, it could only have been when he was a child. It is thus more probable that the person represented is Juan de Guevara, count of Ariano and knight of the Golden Fleece, who had died in 1456 (Domínguez Casas, Arte y etiqueta de los Reyes Católicos, p. 625). In contrast, Martha Wolff suggests that Felipe de Guevara's ‘statement that Rogier van der Weyden painted his father probably resulted from the common tendency to attribute early paintings to only a few masters’. Hand and Wolff, Early Netherlandish Painting, p. 233, n. 11.

48 ‘[…] yo puedo mostrar en dos retratos de don Diego de Gueuara, mi padre, la una de mano de Rugier, y la otra de Michel, disçipulo del dicho Rugier. La de Rugier deue hauer çerca de sus nouenta años que esta hecha, la de Michel mas de sesenta, las quales si las juzgaredes por pintadas, jurareys no hauer un dia que se acabaron […]’. Guevara Manuscript, p. 70v.

49 In 1497, Diego de Guevara was in Spain and would probably have had the opportunity to meet Sittow for the first time and admire the quality of his portraits, as he was then in the service of Queen Isabella. On the basis of this portrait, Lorne Campbell concludes that Diego de Guevara must have been born around 1450. National Gallery Catalogues. The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools (London, National Gallery Publications, Yale University Press, 1998), p. 192.

50 This is confirmed by Esteban de Garibay, Biblioteca Nacional de España, ms.11111, fol. 316r.

51 ‘Al dicho don Diego retratado de bulto como andaba en tiempo del emperador’. AHN, Información sobre la concesión del habito de la Orden de Santiago que pide don Ladrón de Guevara, OO.MM, Santiago, Expte. 3668, fol. 42.

52 Antoine de Lusy, Le journal d'un bourgeois de Mons, 1505–1536, Armand Louant, ed. (Brussels, Palais des académies, 1969), p. 172.

53 See ‘El tratado y concordia entre don Pedro de Guevara y don Phelippe’, in AHN, Madrid, Información sobre el hábito de la Orden de Santiago que pide don Ladrón de Guevara, pp. 66–75. This document contains the clauses of Diego de Guevara's will translated from French into Castilian. This information was given by Steppe but without citation. Jan Karel Steppe, ‘Het overbrengen van het hart van Filips de Schone van Burgos naar de Nederlanden in 1506–1507’, Biekorf-Westvlaams Archief, (1982), pp. 217–18.

54 However, the will states that in the event of Felipe having no heirs, his half-brother Pedro will be entitled to the inheritance, and should the latter have already died, it will be inherited by his niece Margarita de Guevara, ‘so long as she lives a good and honest life and marries with consent a person of quality’. AHN, Madrid, Información sobre el hábito de la Orden de Santiago…, pp. 63–4.

55 AGS, Juros rasgados, leg. 161, fol. 28.

56 AHN, Información sobre el hábito de la orden de Santiago …, OO.MM, Santiago, Expte. 3668, 27; Collantes Terán, ‘Felipe de Guevara humanista’, p. 58. AGS, Convocatoria para las Cortes de Valladolid a nombre del Emperador Carlos V y la reina Juana, para el 22 de abril de 1555, Patronato Real, Cortes de Castilla, leg. 71, doc. 1; AGS, Poder del Concejo de Madrid a sus procuradores el doctor Jerónimo de Pisa y Felipe de Guevara, regidores, para asistir a las Cortes de Valladolid de 1555, Patronato Real, Cortes de Castilla, leg. 71, doc. 18; AGS, Lista de los procuradores de ciudades y villas con voto en Cortes que asisten a las Cortes de Valladolid de 1555 y de los porteros de las mismas, Patronato Real, leg. 71, doc. 2.

57 Archivo Histórico de Protocolos de Madrid [AHPM], Carta de donación de Pedro de Guevara a su sobrino Felipe, prot. 33, 29 November 1534, fol. 449, cited in Collantes Terán, ‘Felipe de Guevara humanista’, p. 4.

58 Juan Agustín Cean Bermudez, Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes en España, vol. II (1800, reprint, Akal, 2001), p. 239. Esteban de Garibay says that ‘Don Felipe de Guevara was owner of the estate of Jonuela having inherited it from his uncle Don Pedro de Guevara, commander of Valencia del Bentoso and Venameji of the Order of Santiago who died without heirs […]. Having benefitted from this for a number of years, it was taken from him by the aforementioned Emperor Don Carlos for reasons of his own, not for any disservice as he had served him since he was a young boy’. Despite this, Garibay also adds that Felipe de Guevara ‘[…] lived continually with the complaint of having had the said lands of his father and uncle being taken from him.’ BNE, ms. 11111, fols. 316–17.

59 Carl Justi, ‘Die werke des Hieronymus Bosch in Spanien’, Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 10 (1889), pp. 121–44 (reprinted in 1908 in Miscellaneen aus Drei Jahrhunderten Spanischen Kunstlebens, pp. 63–93). AHPM, Deed of Sale to Philip II, 16/01/1570, Prot. 165, fols. 101–08.

60 Antonio Matilla Tascón, ‘Felipe II adquiere pinturas del Bosco y Patinir’, Revista de arte Goya, March-April, 203 (1988), pp. 258–61.

61 AHPM, Prot. 165, fol. 106v.

62 ‘otro lienço guarnecido que es un retrato de la emperatriz de agora de dos varas de alto e una de ancho’.

63 See Isabel Mateo Gómez, ‘Tres Pintores didácticos moralizadores en la colección de Felipe II: Patinir, El Bosco y Brueghel’, in Felipe II y las Artes (Madrid, Universidad Complutense, 2000), pp. 489–97; Pilar Silva Maroto, ‘En torno a las obras del Bosco que poseyó Felipe II’, in ibid, pp. 533–51; Cruz Valdovinos, ‘La clientela de El Bosco’, pp. 97–125.

64 Robert A. Koch, Joachim Patinir (Princeton University Press, 1968), pp. 3–13; Walter S. Gibson, Mirror of the Earth. The World Landscape in Sixteenth-Century Flemish Painting (Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 40; Alejandro Vergara, ed., Patinir (exhib. cat., Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007), p. 20.

65 ‘Una tabla de vara y dos tercias de alto con dos puertas que abierto todo el tiene de ancho tres varas y es el carro de heno de gerónimo bosco de su propia mano.’ In Spain there are two signed versions of this triptych: one preserved in the Escorial and the other, smaller, in the Prado. Specialists are not in agreement over which is the original, and which was Guevara's painting. P. Silva has pointed out that the triptych preserved in the Escorial is the one that Philip II purchased from Guevara's family. Felipe II: un monarca y su época, pp. 451–2.

66 ‘E otro lienço quadrado donde se cura de la locura, por guarnecer por que todos los demas están guarnecidos.’ This is not the painting preserved today in the Prado. The painting belonging to Guevara was bigger and square in size. It was kept in the Alcázar in Madrid. In the inventories drawn up after Philip II's death, it is described as ‘un lienzo, de mano de Hierónimo Bosco, maltratado, pintado al temple, en que ay un surujano [sic] que está curando a un hombre la cabeza; que tiene de alto bara y media y de ancho otro tanto; sin marco: Tasado en ocho reales.’ Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón, Inventarios reales bienes muebles que pertenecieron a Felipe II, vol. II (Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 1956–59), p. 236.

67 This painting hung in the Alcázar de Madrid, but it must have been lost in the fire of 1734. It could be the same painting described in the Alcázar inventory of 1636 as ‘otra pintura al temple, de mano del dicho Geronimo Bosque de un viejo çiego que le adiestra y otra ciega detras asida de la capa”. Archivo General de Palacio [AGP], Madrid, Cargo de pinturas del guardajoyas de las cuales se hace cargo el ayuda de la furriera Simón Rodríguez, 1636/37, leg. 768, Exp. 02, cited in Silva Maroto, ‘En torno a las obras del Bosco, p. 541.

68 This painting also hung in the Alcázar de Madrid. In the inventory drawn upon Philip II's death it is described as ‘Un lienzo de pintura al temple, de mano de Hierónimo Bosco, en que ay una dança de hombres y mujeres; que tiene una bara de alto y dos de larga. Tasado en tres ducados’. Sánchez Cantón, vol. II, p. 246.

69 ‘Una tabla que es representacion de una batalla de vara y tres quartas de ancho y una vara de alto. Otra tabla de una vara de ancho y tres quartas de alto. Otra tabla del mismo tamaño que es una tormenta de la mar. Otra tabla de una vara de ancho y dos tercias de alto que es quando nuestro señor baxo al Ynbo’.

70 ‘Un libro [e]scrito de mano en pergamino que se llama Justino en latin’; this probably refers to the Corpus Iuris by Justinian or at least some sections of it. ‘E otro libro [e]scrito de mano en pergamino que se llama Quinto Curçio’. This manuscript probably refers to the Historiae Alexandri Magni Macedonis, the only work known by this author.

71 Guevara consistently recognises his perspective as that of an aficionado: ‘In addition to this are the other parts of painting, which are the reasons why we idiots do not consider the excellence of the finished art[work], even when it has been undertaken with great effort, lines drawn with the straightest extensions, and painting done with a very artful mixture of colours’. Guevara Manuscript, p. 52r. The emphasis is my own. And in another passage: ‘Perseus, the disciple of Apelles, to whom he dedicated the books he wrote on the art of painting, lived at that time, but he was by no means as skilled as Zeuxis and Apelles. Were these books still in existence, like the many others from that time, then we, the aficionados of painting, would have something to study.’ (p. 67v).

72 Guevara alludes to ‘the painter's fantasy or that of the person who has to judge whether a painting is good or bad’. Guevara Manuscript, p. 2r. Javier Portús has commented that in the following centuries Jusepe Martinez, Carducho and Palomino all highlighted the lack of judgment that was noted when those who were not painters spoke about painting. They did so as a means of self-defence against any interventions they considered as questioning key aspects of the classical model that they declared had to be taken into account when judging a painting or sculpture. As a result they argued that to judge a work of art adequately one had to possess practical as well as theoretical knowledge. Along similar lines a number of scholars such as Fonseca claimed that ‘one could hardly talk of the arts of war had one not fought a war, and likewise a painter who has never handled a brush cannot talk of painting’. (Miguel Herrero García, Contribución de la literatura a la Historia del Arte, (Madrid, 1943), p. 185). However, despite their lack of confidence in the aficionados, these writers admit that a grasp of theoretical knowledge, although not the only requirement to be able to judge a work of art perfectly, would help a great deal. In fact some of these treatises seem to be aimed at aficionados as well as painters, since there were few painters who were capable of reading such books. Furthermore, there were not enough painters to justify a publishing project aimed at them. Indeed Jusepe Martinez states, ‘Returning to the issue of those that do not want to undertake this work [of learning the foundations of art], and instead as a rule claim to understand a painting's quality, art and perfection with just a glance, so as to not leave them without help we will explain the essential parts needed for a painting to be perfect’. Pacheco in the prologue to his treatise justifies its publication with an allusion to the need to teach the many people who speak about painting without understanding it. Faced by this widespread prejudice amongst the writers of treatises against aficionados, an exception is encountered in the work of Felipe de Guevara, who sought to justify the rights of the non-practitioner to offer judgements on artistic practice. However, the fact that Guevara — and this is highly significant — unlike Carducho, Pacheco or Martinez, was not a professional painter, but a simple although qualified ‘aficionado’ should not be overlooked’. Javier Portús, Pintura y pensamiento en la España de Lope de Vega (Hondarribia: Nerea, 1999), pp. 50–51.

73 In this light Guevara states: ‘[…] they [painters] then consider that our ideas do not advance, and even many times do not touch on what they show us as painted, they disregard to endeavour to achieve greater perfection in the imitation of natural things and in the art of painting, realising that what they have achieved with only a little work and art they find interested spectators and buyers for their work […]’ Guevara Manuscript, p. 5.

74 ‘If the Gentiles, amidst their ignorance and falsehoods, cared for decorum and decency as greatly as we see they do, how much more proper is it that we Christians should care for that part of painting and sculpture which relates to holy images and which represents our intercessors, whom we have with God in Heaven. Those that have this task in their republic should look at who and how they commission the making of such holy and saintly images, so that they are painted and sculpted with the appropriate decorum, decency and honesty, gravity, and sanctity, and what their sanctity and what they represent merits’. Guevara Manuscript, pp. 93–93v.

75 ‘While on the subject of Hieronymus Bosch I would like to inform the common folk, and some others who are less than common, of an error in their judgment of his paintings. Any monstrosities that go beyond the limits of nature that they see in painting they attribute to Hieronymus Bosch and thus make him the inventor of monsters and chimeras. I do not deny that he painted strange figures, but he did so only because he wanted to portray scenes of Hell, and for that subject matter it was necessary to depict devils and imagine them in unusual compositions’. Guevara Manuscript, pp. 13v-14; Snyder, Bosch in Perspective, pp. 28–9. See also Elena Vázquez Dueñas, ‘Bosch: More than just an Inventor of Monsters and Chimeras. Felipe de Guevara and his Commentary on Painting and Ancient Painters’, in Jo Timmermans, ed., Jheronimus Bosch: His Patrons and His Public (‘s-Hertogenbosch, Jheronimus Bosch Art Center, 2014), pp. 284–304.

76 See Marcel Bataillon, Erasmo y el erasmismo (Barcelona, Crítica, 2000), pp. 162–78.

77 Ambrosio de Morales translated into Spanish a work of Greek philosophy, ‘The Tablet of Cebes’. At the end he included his own commentary, in which he compared this literary work with Bosch's Haywain. It was published in the volume of his works produced by his uncle, Maestro Pérez de Oliva, in 1586, although it was probably written earlier, in about 1549. Ambrosio de Morales, Las Obras del Maestro Fernán de Oliva, natural de Córdoba, Rector que fue de la Universidad de Salamanca y Catedrático de Teología en ella; y juntamente quince discursos sobre diversas materias compuestos por su sobrino el célebre Ambrosio de Morales, Cronista del Católico Rey D. Felipe II, vol. II (Córdoba, 1586; 2^nd edn, Madrid, Imprenta de Benito Cano, 1787), pp. 244–320; Abdón M. Salazar, ‘El Bosco y Ambrosio de Morales’, Archivo de arte, (April/June 1955), pp. 117–38.

78 ‘That which Hieronymus Bosch did with wisdom and decorum others did, and still do, without any discretion and good judgment; for having seen in Flanders how well received was this kind of painting by Hieronymus Bosch, they decided to imitate it and painted monsters and various imaginary subjects, thus giving to understand that in this alone consisted the imitation of Bosch.’ Guevara Manuscript, p. 14; Snyder, Bosch in Perspective, p. 29.

79 ‘However, it is only fair to report that among those imitators of Hieronymus Bosch there is one who was his pupil and who, either out of reverence for his master or in order to increase the value of his own works, signed them with the name of Bosch rather than with his own. In spite of this fact his paintings are very praiseworthy, and whoever owns them ought to esteem them highly; for in his allegorical and moralising subjects he followed the spirit of his master, and in their execution he was even more meticulous and patient than Bosch and did not deviate from the lively and fresh qualities and colouring of his teacher.’ Guevara Manuscript, pp. 14–14v; Snyder, Bosch in Perspective, p. 29.

80 Among the paintings by Bosch cited in the document related to their sale to Philip II, dated 1570, only one appears as on panel (the Haywain). The rest are canvases. In regard to this, Cruz Valdovinos has commented that ‘to date no painting on this support has been attributed to Bosch; on the contrary many times it has been a proof that it was not a piece by the master’. ‘La clientela de El Bosco’, p. 116.

81 Guevara Manuscript, p. 65v.

82 See Roskill, Dolce's Aretino; Dolce, Dialogo de la pintura (2010 Arroyo Esteban edn).

83 Roskill, Dolce's Aretino, p. 104; Dolce, Dialogo de la pintura, pp. 108–09.

84 Leon Battista Alberti, De picture, C. Grayson, ed., Book I, 1, 5–7, (Biblioteca degli scrittori d'Italia degli Editori Laterza, 1975), pp. 10–11.

85 Rocío Bruquetas, Técnicas y materiales de la pintura española en los siglos de oro (Fundación de Apoyo a la Historia del Arte Hispánico, 2002), p. 25.

86 ‘We mine for steel so they refine it in Milan, we produce wool for Flanders, so that with all this they will later rescue us as brutes […]’. Guevara Manuscript, pp. 47–47v.

87 This university was founded by Cardinal Cisneros (1436–1517) in 1499 to address the need for real religious reform, in accordance with the teachings of Erasmus. Classical studies gained importance, because they were considered the basis of all branches of study and fundamental for the development of a good understanding of the Holy Scriptures, and for the improvement of the ecclesiastical training of the Castilian clergy. A further consequence of the foundation of the University was that it fostered studies of antiquity and classical texts. A number of significant contributions were made by students from the University, who included Diego de Sagredo, Fernán Pérez de Oliva (Ambrosio de Morales’ uncle), Cristóbal de Villalón, and Diego de Guevara (Felipe de Guevara's son).

88 Scholarship and the arts were two key elements in Philip II's political and ideological projects. See note 4.

89 Like other universities such as Salamanca, at Alcalá the professors could earn additional income by accommodating students in their homes under a tutelary regime, which included accommodation, food and the supervision of their studies and behaviour. See AHN, Sección de Universidades, leg. 65 (2), no 26; Violeta Pérez Custodio, ‘Sobre los ingresos de los catedráticos de retórica de Alcalá en la segunda mitad del XVI’, Calamus Renascens 1 (2000), pp. 277–98. This activity was regulated by Juan de Ovando's Reform in 1565. AHN, Reformas de la Universidad de Alcalá, Sección de Universidades, Book 525. Morales taught Diego poetry, grammar and eloquence while the geographer and mathematician Pedro de Esquivel undertook his scientific training. Morales noted that Diego was a precocious student, to the extent that at the age of twenty he had already learnt all they he could teach him (Morales, Las antigüedades de las ciudades de España, pp. 36–8). However, the promising career of Diego de Guevara was cut short by his early death at aged twenty-eight.

90 See Roberto González Ramos, La Universidad de Alcalá de Henares y las Artes. El patronazgo artístico de un centro del saber. Siglos XVI-XIX, (Universidad de Alcalá: Servicio de Publicaciones, 2006), pp. 582–88.

91 As pointed out by Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón: ‘Encounters and exchanges with Ambrosio de Morales, Álvar Gómez de Castro, Juan de Vergara and other humanists prompted his interests in archaeology that led him to develop a collection of coins and medals of great rarity that were the origin of a book on Roman coins that is today lost.’ Fuentes literarias para la historia del arte español, vol. I (Madrid, Imprenta Clásica Española, 1923), p. 150.

92 Álvar Gómez de Castro, Las fiestas con que la Vniuersidad de Alcala de Henares alço los pendones por el Rey don Philipe nuestro señor (Alcalá de Henares, en casa de Iuan de Brocar, 1556), fol. C2v.

93 In his treatise on painting, Guevara also made reference to this when he commented on the price of painting in Antiquity: ‘This is a tedious subject in this context, so we will leave it until the first book of the discussion on Roman coins that I have written, where, as is appropriate, it will be addressed in more detail’. Guevara Manuscript, p. 98v.

94 Emile Gigas, ‘Lettres inédites de quelques savants espagnols du XVe siècle’, Revue Hispanique, 1 (1909), pp. 429–58. The Latin manuscript is ‘Veterum Nomismatvm interpretatio D. Philippo Guevara avtore’ and ‘De antiqvis romanorum numis libri tres de externis liber vnvs D.Philippo Gvevara avtore’, AM373, 320 pages. Crossed-out passages and spaces reserved for coin drawings suggest it is unfinished.

95 Gloria Mora, ‘Origen de los estudios numismáticos en España: el manuscrito perdido de Felipe de Guevara y otros tratados del siglo XVI’, in XIII Congreso Internacional de Numismática (Madrid, 2005), pp. 77–83.

96 Ambrosio de Morales emphasised the diversity and importance of Felipe de Guevara's coin collection: ‘Conforme a esto traeré algunas veces testimonios de las monedas que tienen nombres de las ciudades de España. Y destas yo he visto muchas, aunque no hubiese visto sino las de Don Felipe de Guevara, que son las mas escogidas y diversas que creo en España se han juntado. Porque entendia mucho en ellas aquel caballero, como lo manifestará lo que dellas dexó escrito quando salga en publico. […] Y el haber sido muy señor mio, y amádome mucho, me dio mucha parte en esta su riqueza de monedas mientras vivio.’ Morales, Las antigüedades de las ciudades de España, pp. 34–5.

97 Real Academia de Historia [RAH], 9/6002.

98 María del Carmen Vaquero Serrano, En el entorno del Maestro Álvar Gómez. Pedro del Campo, María de Mendoza y los Guevara, (Toledo, Oretania Ediciones, 1996), pp. 119–96.

99 Elena Vázquez Dueñas, ‘Felipe de Guevara (c.1500–1563), anticuario’, in De Maria and Parada López de Corselas, eds, El Imperio y las Hispanias, pp. 407–18.

100 The classical texts he cites are Tacitus's Historiae, Livy's History of Rome, Pliny's Naturalis Historia, Plautus’ Comedies, Cicero's De legibus, Quintilian's De institutione oratoria, Libanius's Declamationes, Suetonius’ De vita Caesarum, Dio Cassius’ Historia romana, Martial's Tritemio and the Epigrams, amongst others. Included amongst the contemporary authors were Flavio Biondo (1396–1463?) with his Roma Triumphans, Francesco di Vannozzo (c.1330-40-1389), Andrés de Resende (1498–1573), Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), Juan Verzosa (1523–1574) with his letters, Jacobo de Strada (1515–1588) with his Epitome Thesauri antiquitatum, hoc est, Imperatorum. Romanorum orientalium & occidentalium iconum, ex antiquis numismatibus quam fidelissime deliniatarum, Juan Huttich (c.1480–1544), Pierio Valeriano (1477–1558) with his De Hierogliphicis, Guillaume Budé (1468–1540) with his Annotationes in Pandectas, Florián de Ocampo (c.1499–1558), Andrea Alciato (1492–1550), Enea Vico (1520–1567) with his Discorso sopra le medaglie degli antichi (Venice, 1555) and Jacopo Sannazaro (1456–1530) for the Arcadia (Venice, 1502).

101 ‘[…] yo tenía aparejado de enviar la pintura que escreví y la [e]scultura por no ser argüido de corto […]’. ‘Dos partidos he movido de las cosas que allá están: o dar el Marte solo por la moneda o la tablilla de Sant Antón con los reales del peso’. Letters from Felipe de Guevara to Álvar Gómez, 27 June 1558 and 1 July 1558. See Vaquero Serrano, En el entorno del Maestro Álvar Gómez, pp. 166–7.

102 RAH, Madrid, La fiesta con que la Universidad alço los pendones por el Rey don Philipe nuestro señor, 3/2657.

103 Fernando Checa Cremades, ‘Un programa imperialista: el tumulo erigido en Alcalá de Henares en memoria de Carlos V’, Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, 82.2, (1979), pp. 369–79.

104 Real Biblioteca de El Escorial, Epithalamivm Philippi et Isabelis Hispaniarum Regum, authore D. Didaco Gueuara Madricensi D.Philippi Gueuara filio, in officina Ioannis Brocarij, anno MDLX, 38-V-3 (2°). Another copy is RAH, 3/2657. See Antonio Serrano Cueto, ‘El epitalamio latino (1560) de Diego de Guevara en honor de Felipe II e Isabel de Valois’, Calamus Renascens, 9 (2008), pp. 245–92; Vaquero Serrano, En el entorno del Maestro Álvar Gómez, pp. 198–200 and 209–39.

105 Pedro de Esquivel studied philosophy, theology and mathematics, and eventually was awarded the chair in the last of these subjects. As a chaplain to Philip II from 1554, he was named palace mathematician in 1559. Esquivel additionally undertook civil engineering projects such as improving communication by use of river routes and the building of canals. He was also the author of a text on the arts of divination which included tables called ‘the wheels of Pythagoras’, developed by Esquivel himself.

106 ‘The description that Your Majesty has ordered to be undertaken makes certain that there is no palm's breadth of land that has not been seen, paced or discovered by the author, thereby assuring you of the truth of everything, in so far as mathematical instruments for this task replace my own hands and eyes.’ Guevara Manuscript, p. 88.

107 Morales, Las antigüedades de las ciudades de España, pp. 12–13.

108 Generally, it is believed that Esquivel died in 1570. However, Antonio Serrano Cueto has shown that his death may have been between 1563 and January 1565. ‘Incoherencias históricas en las fechas del proyecto cartográfico de Pedro de Esquivel y matemático de palacio de Felipe II’, Calamus Renascens, 5–6 (2004–05), pp. 237–47.

109 See ‘Parecer de Ambrosio de Morales dado a Felipe Segundo, sobre los libros e instrumentos matemáticos del Maestro Esquivel’, in Ambrosio de Morales, Opúsculos castellanos de Ambrosio de Morales, Francisco Valerio Cifuentes, ed. (Madrid, 1793), vol. II, pp. 88–91.

110 These maps were not published. Some authors have pointed out that they are preserved in the Escorial.

111 ‘Pense ver muchas porque el Principe Nuestro Señor tiene entre todas hasta once mil que quedaron aquí en el Alcazar, embio a mandar que me las diesen para disponérselas en alguna orden que estan rebueltas en sacos puso achaque en el mandato el que las guarda. Yo ahorre mucho trabajo por un pequeño placer que fuera tres dias ver variedades’. RAH, Letter from Felipe de Guevara to Doctor Juan de Vergara, 28 December 1555, 9/6002, ms.s.XVIII, fols. 282v–283, cited in Collantes Terán, ‘Felipe de Guevara humanista’, p. 62; and Vázquez Dueñas, ‘Felipe de Guevara’ (2011), p. 160.

112 According to the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘A lover of the fine arts; originally, one who cultivates them for the love of them rather than professionally, and so = amateur as opposed to professional.’

113 ‘un viejo mozo que al cabo de la vida empieza lo que otros al principio de ella’.

114 It is apparent that Felipe de Guevara relied on his son Diego for the translation into Latin of a Greek epigram by Nilos Escolástico. It is therefore probable that, although Felipe did learn Latin at a late age, he did not know Greek. Guevara Manuscript, p. 34v.

115 See Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón, La librería de Juan de Herrera (Madrid, CSIC, 1941); Luis Cervera Vera, Inventario de los bienes de Juan de Herrera (Valencia, Albatros Ediciones, 1977).

116 A member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando since 1776. His most important work was Viaje de España.

117 See reviews of this second edition: Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón, ‘Felipe de Guevara. Comentarios de la Pintura’, Archivo Español de Arte, 22. 87 (July/Sept. 1949), pp. 265–6; Julián Gállego, ‘Felipe de Guevara. Comentarios de la pintura’, Revista de Ideas estéticas 25.7 (1949), pp. 112–14.

118 Javier Barón, Javier Docampo and José Manuel Matilla, ‘Colección y biblioteca Madrazo’, Museo Nacional del Prado. Memoria de actividades 2006, (2007), pp. 51–60; Javier Docampo, ‘La biblioteca de José de Madrazo’, Boletín del Museo del Prado, 25 (2007), pp. 97–123 (specifically p. 115, n. 57). See also S. Blasco and M.P.J. Martens, ‘Documentos y fuentes bibliográficas relativas a Joachim Patinir’, in Vergara, ed., Patinir, p. 372, n. 40. This manuscript is not the original one, but most probably a seventeenth-century copy. See Elena Vázquez Dueñas, Juan Carlos Galende Dias and Maria Carmen Hidalgo Brinquis, ‘El Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos de Felipe de Guevara. Estudio para la datación del manuscrito’, Documenta & Instrumenta, 11(2013), pp. 99–125.

119 Sánchez Cantón in his Fuentes literarias para la historia del arte español (pp. 149–50) stated that there was no surviving manuscript of this work. According to him, it was only known from Ponz's edition, which he considered deficient and incorrect. Elena Vázquez Dueñas, ‘El manuscrito del Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos de Felipe de Guevara en el Prado’, Boletín del Museo del Prado, vol. 27, no 45 (2009), pp. 33–43.

* This article is dedicated to the memory of Professor Rosemary Mulcahy, who took part in my thesis jury and encouraged me to publish this article. It is based on a part of the book El ‘Comentario de la pintura y pintores antiguos’ de Felipe de Guevara, which will be soon published by Editorial Akal (Madrid) in Spanish. I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Fernando Checa Cremades, not only for helping me discover this important and forgotten figure of the Renaissance Spanish court, but also for his support. I express also my gratitude to Abigail D. Newman for her comments and interest on my work and to the anonymous reviewer and Jonathan Spangler for their suggestions. This article is developed thanks to the support of a postdoctoral contract ‘Juan de la Cierva’ (JCI-2012-12602) financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. All translations into English of Guevara's text have been done by Jeremy Roe unless otherwise noted.

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Elena Vázquez Dueñas

Elena Vázquez Dueñas is a postdoctoral researcher ‘Juan de la Cierva’ associated with the Carlos de Amberes Foundation in Madrid. She is also a member of the research project Espacios del coleccionismo en la Casa de Austria: siglos XVI y XVII. El Real Alcazar de Madrid, El Palacio del Pardo y El Monasterio de El Escorial, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.