When it was acquired by the Banco de España in 1975, this work was known as Visitation. However, there can be no doubt that it actually depicts the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, given that it mirrors the canonical narrative from the apocryphal Gospel of James.

It exemplifies the persistent influence of Corrado Giaquinto’s work on Spanish painters in the late eighteenth century. Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez writes that the obvious inaccuracies in the figures are made up for by the evident grace and brightness of the composition and a sense of colour based on the Rococo finesse of Giaquinto’s range of cool colours but enriched and interpreted in a more Baroque fashion which is somewhat provincial but not without charm. The figures in the foreground are particularly well done and are masterfully lit, perhaps to give a particular perspective effect in the final work.

It is not known where the misunderstanding regarding its subject matter originated. However, as Pérez Sánchez rightly states in Colección de pintura del Banco de España, there seems never to have been any doubt that it was intended as a sketch for a larger work, probably a mural. Before it was acquired by the bank it was attributed to Francisco Bayeu. Pérez Sánchez does not rule this out but suggests that it might well have been painted by Manuel or Ramón Bayeu, Francisco’s brothers and fellow in-laws of Goya. He also points out that it certainly shows a direct link with the styles that were developing in Aragonese painting in the late18^th century. When the work was first scientifically catalogued by the Banco de España Collection its authorship was declared to be uncertain, but it was eventually attributed with reservations to Francisco. This conclusion was reached, perhaps hastily, on the basis of tradition and because Francisco Bayeu specialised in murals and had produced quality works of a similar kind under various major commissions.

However, in its general appearance the sketch almost exactly matches one of the scenes in the cycle on the fresco painted by Manuel Bayeu (Francisco’s brother, known as “Bayeu the Carthusian”) in the charterhouse of Nuestra Señora de las Fuentes, also known as the charterhouse of Monegros, in the village of Sariñena in the province of Huesca. Julio P. Arribas Salaberri writes that this monastery was (at least when his study of Manuel Bayeu’s paintings in Huesca was published in 1972) practically unknown outside the local area. Even there it was only known for its use as a private spa for a brief period following the confiscation of church property in the 19^th century. The low profile of the location and the fact that until recently Bayeu the Carthusian was an obscure figure might explain why the work was initially attributed to his more widely-known, more prolific but shorter-lived brother Francisco. Indeed the brothers have certain major stylistic points in common and worked together on several commissions, including the murals at the Basilica of El Pilar in Zaragoza. In 2015, Huesca Provincial Council purchased the Charterhouse buildings, which had been privately owned since the expulsion of the monks in the 19^th century, and declared the complex a Cultural Heritage Site. Since then the paintings there have been thoroughly documented. This has enabled the sketch to be compared with the final work, located in the fourth section of the vault above the nave in the monastery church, next to the entrance, where it is the starting point for a cycle of paintings on the life of the Virgin Mary.

Recent studies of Bayeu the Carthusian seemingly dispel any doubts that he painted the cycles of paintings at the monastery where he lived for most of his life and probably died around 1809. José Ignacio Calvo Ruata took Manuel Bayeu as the theme for his doctoral thesis (presented in 1998 and published in 2016). His description of the final scene corroborates the earlier visual comparison and provides further evidence of a close match with the preparatory sketch owned by the Banco de España: “The moment when Saint Joachim and Saint Anne present their daughter, the three-year-old Virgin Mary, to the high priest at the temple in Jerusalem, to keep their promise to dedicate their daughter to the service of God.

The priest, at the top of the steps, stands with open arms to greet the child Mary, who kneels before him in meditation. The scene is completed by various onlookers. A cherub carrying a strip of cloth floats in a beam of celestial light above the scene. The temple interior is depicted in a classical architectural style. The basic composition line runs diagonally through the main characters up the steps to the terrace. The cherub is reminiscent of those that appear in the middle of the preliminary sketch made by Francisco Bayeu for The surrender of Granada (1763)”.

Calvo’s thesis also dates the painting of the cycle on the vault devoted to Mary to 1768­-1770. This is hard to confirm reliably, but is not at odds with the date when Bayeu entered the Charterhouse as a novice. Under this time-line the sketch owned by the Banco de España could be considered perhaps as slightly earlier. This would mean correcting the previous dating, which placed it around 1760.

There are two, albeit rather remote, potential caveats when it comes to attributing the work to Manuel Bayeu: he could have used an earlier sketch by Francisco (or by another Aragonese painter experienced in murals) as a model for his mural, or this could be an apocryphal copy. This second caveat is unlikely, especially considering the abandonment of the monastery and the relative lack of interest in Manuel Bayeu and his work until recently.

Carlos Martín