José Marcelo Contreras Y Muñoz (1827-1889) - Bathsheba In The Bath (after Francesco Solimena)

- Oil on canvas. Original canvas.- The biography of José Marcelo Contreras y Muñoz (Granada, 1827 - Madrid, 1889) is the chronicle of a genius who overcame adversity and rose to the pinnacle of 19th-century Spanish historical painting. Born into a modest family in Granada, his talent for drawing manifested itself so early that at the age of sixteen he had already conquered his city's Academy, receiving the unprecedented title of Honorary Lieutenant-Director, a distinction never before granted to such a young student. After perfecting his coloring technique with Agapito López de San Román, he moved to Madrid to train with Federico de Madrazo, thus immersing himself in the grandeur of the haute école. His career was consolidated by a succession of academic triumphs: from his directorship of the Provincial Museum of Córdoba to his return to court after being unanimously elected to the chair of color at the Academy of Cádiz. His work "The Doubt of Saint Peter" earned him the second gold medal at the National Exhibition in Madrid in 1864, ensuring his permanence at the National Museum and consecrating him as a master. Contreras y Muñoz not only excelled in easel painting of historical subjects and portraits, but also left an indelible mark on the capital's great mural decorations, including the sumptuous decor of the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande and the curtains of the Teatro de Lara, thus consolidating his status as a monumental artist and Commander of the Order of Isabel the Catholic, whose tireless work honored and magnified the Spanish art of his century. - Exquisite copy of one of the great Baroque paintings in the collection of the Archbishop's Palace in Salzburg, the work of one of the greatest masters of Neapolitan Baroque, Francesco Solimena, which captures one of the great voyeuristic moments of the Bible, recounted in the Second Book of Samuel: King David, seen in the distance, perched on a tower, watches the wife of one of his lieutenants bathe and commits the worst sins imaginable to possess her.- Unframed image dimensions: 123 x 98 cm / 135 x 110 cm, in a magnificent classical-style frame.