FRANCISCO GUTIERREZ CABELLO (MADRID, 1616 - BETWEEN 1668 and 1670) MOSES SAVED FROM THE WATERS Canvas Old restorations Finding of Moses, canvas, with restorations 108 x 165 CM - 42,5 x 65 IN. Few archival records document the life of our painter. The most important of these concerns the survey of one hundred and forty-eight character witnesses when the famous painter Diego Velásquez became a nobleman by joining the Order of Santiago de Compostela in 1658. Gutiérrez declared that he was forty-two years old and a native of Madrid, "although he came from the Barcena valley in the Burgos mountains". He states that he had known Velázquez for twenty-eight years, i.e. since 1630, when he was fourteen and undergoing his apprenticeship. It is assumed that he was Velázquez's assistant during these years, when the master returned from a long trip to Italy and changed his style, adopting Venetian tonal painting and a glittering, baroque touch. Perhaps also an earlier pupil of Juan de la Corte (c. 1585-1662), Gutiérrez specialised in fantastic architecture, with perspectives animated by biblical or evangelical scenes, such as the six canvases signed in 1662 for the collegiate church of Villagarcía de Campos (Valladolid) and those for the convent of Serradillas (Cáceres). The Prado has three paintings in this genre from the Spanish royal collection, and the Louvre has a Festin d'Esther (Esther's Feast) from 1666. Influenced by Juan de la Corte, the works of Claude Lorrain commissioned by Philip IV and, above all, the Flemish prints of Hans Vredeman de Vries, his great "caprices" were intended to decorate the palaces of the Madrid aristocracy. The numerous characters, dressed in luxurious costumes, and the circle of maids accompanying the pharaoh's daughter form a colourful crowd. Extravagant rowing galleys ply the Nile, while white horse-drawn carriages wait at the water's edge. The intense blue sky contrasts with the golden facades of the buildings. There are other versions of this subject by the artist. Although the broad outlines of the composition are similar, the architecture depicted, the position of the figures and every detail are different, in various formats: one in the Royal Palace in Madrid, another acquired by the Fine Arts Museum in Bilbao and from the Caylus Gallery in Madrid in 1997-1998 (103 x 163 CM). The one closest to our painting, but also containing important variants, was sold in London in 1992 (168 x 216 CM, Sotheby's, Old Master paintings), (8 July 1992, no. 1, then New York, Sotheby's, 1 February 2018, no. 66; probably dated 1653, the spelling of the ten is not very precise).