Josefa de Ayala D’Obidos’s Physical and Spiritual Realms of Nature: Flora and Fauna Symbolism
The writings of Barbara von Barghahm, Luis de Moura Sobral, and Victor Serrão bring new insight into Obidos’s artistic career and accomplishments, demonstrating her celebrity status during the seventeen and eighteenth centuries as a painter of still-lifes as well, Still-Life with Sweets and Flowers (1660), now in the Museu Regional, Évora. Earlier studies on Obidos by Luís Reis-Santos provide comprehensive analysis of her signed and dated works. Later documents erroneously describe her work and personality as pious and mystic, but recently discovered legal documents, such as her last will and testament edited by Luis Filipe Marques de Gama, reveal that she was an active member of her community, landowner, and animal lover with a good sense of humor, naming her cows Elegant, Cherry and Beauty.
Josefa de Ayala D’Óbidos was born in Seville of Spanish parents, Baltasar Gómes Figueira and Catalina de Ayala. In 1634, she moved with her family to Óbidos, Portugal. After completion of her education at the Augustinian convent of Santa Ana in Coimbra, Obidos trained under her father, a portrait painter, and her maternal uncle Bernabé Ayala, a follower of the Spaniard Francisco de Zurbarán. She was the godchild of the renown painter Francisco de Herrera the Elder. Obidos became a member of the Lisbon Academy of Art because of her artistic talents in painting still-lifes and religious and portrait paintings. Records are unclear about Obidos’ marriage and activities before going from Seville, Spain, to Obidos, Portugal, what is known is that she was commissioned to do numerous religious paintings, including the altarpiece of the Virgin and Child for the church of Santa Maria de Obidos (1657) now in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisboa, Virgin of the Milk (1650) (Private Collection), Agnus Dei (1670), now at The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, USA.
The purpose of this presentations is to discuss the natural conceits of Josefa de Ayala D’Óbidos in her still-life paintings; in particular, her emblematic employment of flora and fauna to reveal her love for nature as a physical matter (substance) and nature as a metaphysical concept (mysticism) in reference to the religious spirit of the Counter-Reformation.