ISIDORO TAPIA (Valencia circa 1712

ISIDORO TAPIA
(Valencia circa 1712 - Madrid, 1778)
“The Adoration of the shepherds”
“Annunciation”
“The Bethrothal”
“The Birth of the Virgin”
52.2 x 41 cm. each.
Oil on canvas.
Provenance:
Isidoro Brun Collection (1819 -1895). Important person in the artistic circles of the
XIXth Cent. He was a collectionist, a restorer and an art dealer.
Don Gonzalo Maria de Ulloa y Ortega-Montañés Collection (1833-1882) IX Count of
Adanero.
By descent to his brother Don José María de Ulloa y Ortega-Montañés (1839-1905),
VIII Marquis of Castro-Serna. Madrid.
By descent to the last owner.
Literature:
Gutierrez Pastor, I. Isidoro Tapia, pintor rococó en la Academia de San Fernando de
Madrid. Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte. Universidad
Autónoma. Madrid. 2011; Vol.23; pags. 147-150.
Little is known about the life of the valencian painter Isidoro Tapia; Juan Agustín Ceán
Bermúdez in his Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes
en España mentions him as an apprentice of the also valencian painter Evaristo Muñoz
Estarlich (Valencia 1684 – Valencia 1737); in 1743 he is in Madrid and in 1755 he is a
merit member of the Academía de San Fernando, where he will teach drawing skills. He
will paint the “Sacrifice of Abraham” for the Academy. Ceán also praises him for
being a great colourist and for giving major intensity his figures.
These four works are from the same set as the “Rest in the fleed to Egypt", “The
Trinity”, “The Visitation” and “The Adoration of the shepherds” (fig. 1,2,3 y 4) from
the Carmen Thyssen collection now exhibited with an old attribution to Jerónimo
Ezquerra. The eight works, all from the same provenance, set up a period in the Virgin’s
life.
Figs. 1-4