Vicente Carducho. Dibujos. Catálogo razonado

This is the first comprehensive study of the oeuvre on paper of Vicente Carducho (Florence, c. 1576 – Madrid, 1638), one of the most significant Spanish Golden Age painters, whose work as a draughtsman is complementary to and inseparable from his activities as a treatise writer, theoretician and advocate of painting as a liberal art. A total of 131 drawings attributed to him, together with two dozen sheets from his workshop and a similar number that may have been executed by him, his brother Bartolomé or his immediate followers are thoroughly analysed in this volume, which makes a decisive contribution to current knowledge of the artist’s creative process and his extensive oeuvre. Many of the works – from 30 public institutions and about 10 national and foreign private collections – were previously unpublished or have only now been attributed to Carducho. They trace the various stages in his long career in the service of two kings – Philip III and Philip IV – and various religious orders, from his beginnings at El Escorial to the commissions received in Valladolid, El Pardo and Madrid, which culminated in the large cycle of paintings for the charterhouse of El Paular (1626–32).