Josefa de Obidos

(Seville, 1630-Óbidos, Portugal, 1684)

Holy Family

ca. 1660

oil on canvas

67.8 x 98.3 cm

Inv. no. 32064

BBVA Collection Spain



Work on deposit at the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia

Josefa de Ayala y Figueira, better known as Josefa de Óbidos after the town where she spent the best part of her life, had been largely forgotten from the time of her death until the mid-twentieth century when, thanks to the research of a number of renowned academics, the major role she played in seventeenth-century Portuguese painting was brought to light. Today she is rightly acknowledged as one of the leading exponents of Portuguese baroque naturalism, a style she introduced to the country on the back of her first-hand knowledge of Spanish baroque painting—she had been working since at least the age of ten as an assistant in the workshop of Francisco Herrera the Elder (1576-1656), the painter from Seville—and particularly of the work of Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), whose influence can be readily discerned in her own painting.

This oil on canvas was correctly attributed thanks to Benito Navarrete, a professor and expert in seventeenth-century painting from Andalusia and Madrid. It is a major addition to the body of Hispanic historiography given that, as the artist is generally classified within the Portuguese baroque school and as the greater part of her work is found there, it is rather unusual to find one of her works in Spain. As such, this painting is a very welcome addition to Spanish collections.

Josefa developed her own artistic vision following her exposure to artworks in many ecclesiastical institutions like the Convent of Santa Ana in Coimbra, where she entered as a boarder in 1644, remaining there until her return to Óbidos almost ten years later. The time she spent in the convent most likely had an influence on her choice of the subject matter of Jesus’s childhood, a theme explored in this Holy Family. The arrangement of the figures calls to mind one of her later works, The Adoration of the Shepherds from 1669 (Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga), while the cartouche with the cord and garlands of flowers framing the scene recalls the versions she painted of Agnus Dei in Braga (Basílica dos Congregados) and in Évora (Museu Regional).

The ornateness of the decorative frame, which has the quality of a true still life, a genre that reached the peak of its splendour in Portuguese baroque painting and in which the artist excelled, was a recurrent compositional element in Josefa’s work. Often used to enhance the significance of scenes like this of the birth of Jesus, in which the refinement of the treatment of the figures with gentle and tender faces is clearly evident, here this device reaches heights of technical mastery in the execution of ornaments and flowers. Equally of note is the study of light that emphasizes the profound contrasts. In fact, these are key features in the highly personal style of the painting of Josefa de Óbidos, who was able to assimilate the artistic innovations of the period and introduce them into Portugal through this and other major works, such as the still lifes on view in Museu Municipal de Santarém, Museu Regional de Évora, Museu Municipal de Óbidos and Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon.