Santa Margarita

This small canvas was acquired by Manuel Gómez-Moreno in Madrid (there is no previous data). The character represented is identified with Santa Margarita; in it the saint appears standing, almost in profile, in an attitude of walking with her head turned towards the viewer. She is dressed as a shepherdess, with a wide-brimmed hat and a brown skirt gathered in front. The saddlebags are striking, with brightly colored stripes. With her left hand she holds a half-closed book and with her right hand she holds a stick with which she is wounding the dragon, which is barely perceptible. This work seems to be a copy, perhaps attributable to the workshop, of the painting cited by Ceán in the Royal Palace of Madrid and which is only known today through an engraving by Bartolome Vázquez of 1794 and another by Et. Lingée, before 1808, which illustrates the Voyage pinttoresque et historique de l’Espagne by A. de Laborde (1820). The composition is close to that of the Saint Margaret in the National Gallery in London, with respect to which it presents, however, sensitive differences in the position of the head and the right hand and also in the attire. In publishing the Institute’s painting, Mª Elena Gómez-Moreno considered it “more like a sketch than a replica”, referring to “its exquisite technique, but loose, without the insistence of a copy”. However, except for the execution of the saddlebags, the quality of the painting does not seem to justify the attribution to the master and this has not been picked up later by critics who have ignored the canvas. / Extracted from: A.A.V.V.: Gómez-Moreno Institute (catalog). Granada, 1992, p. 125-126