During 2020, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, two original works by Friar Juan Bautista Maíno appeared on the art market, in both cases attributed to two different Italian painters.
This phenomenon was quite underheard of, given Maíno was not a prolific artist, due on the one hand to his many obligations at the Court of Philip IV, to whom he served as drawing master, and on the other to his position as a Dominican monk. Even the treatise writers of his day mention the lack of paintings by him on display in public places, the majority of which were intended for the churches and monasteries of his Order and to decorate the royal residences, such as the Buen Retiro Palace.
Throughout the 20th century, and in the first years of the 21st, the Maíno corpus has seen its ranks gradually swell, though often with works whose definite authenticity has divided the critics. As we will see, the two paintings we are revealing here are unquestionably Maíno originals. The first of these, an Adoration of the Magi, is the pendant of another previously-published and exhibited work, despite being in private hands. The other, our Visitation, is a documented and photographed work, or at the very least an exact replica of the one that was displayed on the since-lost altarpiece from the Hieronymite Monastery in Espeja (Soria).
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