Follower of Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo.

Follower of JUAN BAUTISTA MARTÍNEZ DEL MAZO (Cuenca, 1611-Madrid, 1667), XIX century.
Untitled.
Oil on canvas.
It has Spanish frame of the seventeenth century.
Measurements: 41 x 55 cm; 55 x 69 cm (frame).
The clothes of the protagonists, as well as the taste for drawing and the use of a palette of copper and earth tones, indicate the affinity of this work with Spanish Baroque painting, particularly with the work of Martínez del Mazo. It is important to mention the composition, which departs from the traditional canon and presents a more dynamic scene, with characters arranged in different positions: some with their backs turned, others in profile and others facing forward. In addition, the theme of the work adds a touch of exceptionality, showing a group of men in a hostile landscape, who converse in a lively and calm manner, while they seem to be expectant of an event that has not yet happened.
A Baroque painter and disciple of Velázquez, with whose hand his work is sometimes confused, Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo appears for the first time in documents in 1633, on the occasion of his marriage to his master's daughter, a fact that shows Velázquez's appreciation and the confidence that his pupil's art inspired in him. Under the protection of his father-in-law, Mazo then began his career in the Court, being especially linked to Prince Baltasar Carlos, of whom he was a drawing teacher and whom he accompanied to Zaragoza, where the prince died at the age of sixteen (1648), painting the last known portrait of the royal heir. He later traveled to Italy in 1657 and visited Rome and Naples, probably on the advice of his master. His work at the court made Mazo stand out from other contemporary artists, mostly employed in religious paintings. He, on the other hand, developed a singular profane vein, sometimes very personal. He also made abundant copies of the masters, required for the decoration of the Royal Sites. In his facet as a portraitist he is so close to Velázquez's wake, both in the iconography of the official models and in technique, that the task of attributing some of his works has been a particularly arduous one. In fact, it was believed that it was Mazo who, upon Velázquez's death, finished and retouched the portrait of the Infanta Margarita of Austria, although the latest research carried out at the Prado tends to grant the total authorship of the painting to Mazo, who in 1661 was appointed painter of the chamber upon the death of his father-in-law. On the other hand, it was in landscapes where Mazo showed himself to be truly original, being this a genre in which he stood out among his Hispanic colleagues. In his canvases he depicted classical ruins that he had seen in Italy, imaginary landscapes with ancient buildings populated by mythological characters on a small scale, views of cities of a more veristic type and landscapes in which he recreated the gardens of royal palaces. Although he undoubtedly took into account the Roman classicism that had been so deeply rooted in this genre, Mazo adopted a freer attitude towards nature, closer to the atmospheric capture of his master in works such as those of the Villa Medici. Today Mazo is widely represented in the Prado Museum, which holds a total of thirty-two canvases by his hand, as well as in the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan in New York, the National Gallery in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Municipal de San Telmo and the Palacio de Ayete in San Sebastian.