MATÍAS DE TORRES

Ceán Bermúdez says in the Historical Dictionary, published in Madrid in 1800, that Matías de Torres got his first education from “a vulgar painter from the neibourhood”- so to say, the lowest in the scale of values in Spain in the XVII century, - who was, besides, his uncle, by the name of Tomás Torriño. According to the declaration that he made in 1694, he moved to Madrid at the age of eleven, which was in 1646, at the zenith of the Madrid painters generally and Velazquez particularly. To what he had learned from his uncle Matías had to add what he got to know in the course of his studies, starting with the originals of Francisco de Herrera el Mozo who arrived in Madrid and was at the court approximately in 1657, experience that had an indelible effect on his art. He managed to work in the Palace where he painted frescos in some of the rooms but all of them were destroyed after the devastating and notorious fire in 1734. He also dedicated himself, according to Ceán, to the ephemeral art, in “the works which were done hastily and which show the necessity of money and not a good name”. His name is particularly associated with celebrations of the canonization of Santa Rosa de Lima in 1671 and the decoration that was mounted in Madrid for the pompous entrance of María Luisa de Orleans in 1679. He also cooperated with Claudio Coello and José Donoso in the preparation of the so called Queen’s Chamber in the palace, probably thanks to his fame as an agile and competent artist.  He painted landscape and combats with know-how, and the best of his art is reflected in the canvases of small size which he painted more frequently and delicately, and which convey influence of Rubens and Bassano and flamenco engravings that were very popular in Madrid at the end of the XVII century. Take for example the Adoration of Shepherds that is kept now by the gallery, the colour spectrum is warm and refined and there is a certain delicacy that is peculiar to the painter and which comes out especially in the children and in the female characters. He played very often with the contrast of light and shade – the fact that is connected with a funny anecdote told by Palomino in his Spanish Parnassus in 1724. He says that one day the painter Francisco de Solís was asked by a companion what saint was depicted in the canvas San Diego which Matías had painted for the convent of the Victory, and Solís answered, “San Brazo”, which means “Saint Arm”, because that was the only part of the canvas that one could see belonging to a secondary character painted in the first place. The story, true or not, served to Palomino as a justification of one of his interpretations that he presented in the first volume of his book The Pictorial Museum and Optical scale, where he describes the equilibrated distribution of lights and shadows in the canvases. The most famous work of Matías de Torres is the alter decoration that he painted for the church of the Trinity in Atienza between 1668 and 1670. At the end of his life he was supported by his son Gabriel, but as the latter died before him, as well as his daughters, who had taken all his savings as a dowry, and as the rest of the money was spent in the course of those tragic events, Matías de Torres died in the extreme poverty and was buried on the charity in the Madrid churchyard of San Luis in 1711.

Adoration of the Shepherds

Claudio Coello 6 28001 Madrid tel. (34) 91 435 0174 galeria@josedelamano.com