The piece of the month for January 2026
AN UNPUBLISHED ENGRAVING BY JOSÉ EZPETILLO
Ricardo Fernández Gracia
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art
José Ezpetillo (†1784), originally from Salamanca, worked as a silversmith in Pamplona during the Age of Enlightenment, where he completed his training the workshop of his uncle Antonio Ripando and with Juan Antonio Hernández. He took his examination in January 1727, creating a tray with Baroque-style floral decoration. Although much of his work has not been preserved, judging by his long artistic career, he gave rise to a dynasty of silversmiths, as his sons, Juan Francisco and Tomás Vicente, had their own workshop in the Navarran capital. Among his activities, Mercedes Orbe documents some work for the mint in 1748, making dies. He died in the Navarran capital in February 1784.
Engraving of the Crucifixion by José Ezpetillo, mid-18th century. Private collection.
Among the unpublished documentation on the master, a dispatch from 1726 stands out, preserved in the file , which certifies the freedom to marry for José Manuel Rosario Ezpetillo, then a silversmith's apprentice, born in Salamanca, son of Antonio and Antonia Ripando, who was 24 years old. According to the document, he was born in Salamanca, moved to Valladolid when he was two years old, and arrived in the Navarran capital at the age of five. The certificate requested because he wanted to marry Catalina Larumbe y Montalbo, daughter of José Larumbe. Among the witnesses was his uncle Antonio Ripando, who claimed to be a native of Madrid, 36 years old, and a resident of Pamplona for 14 years.
Some proceedings preserved in the royal courts section of file of Navarre provide information about some lawsuits in which he was involved. In 1744, Ezpetillo and his wife Catalina Larumbe y Montalbo, residents of Corella, sued Josefa de Eleta, widow of José Larumbe, Catalina's father, for the payment of 539 ducats for the inheritance of Josefa Montalbo, José's first wife and Catalina's mother (AGN. Royal Courts, case no. 137574). A few years later, in 1754, the prosecutor brought a lawsuit against Isabel Riper, sacristan of the Basilica of San Martín in Pamplona, already in custody, and José Ezpetillo's son, Juan Francisco Ezpetillo, absent, for the minting of counterfeit coins in an attic room on Calderería Street in Pamplona (AGN. Royal Courts, case no. 290795).
From the work recorded by the silversmith, we know of some heraldic coats of arms made by him, such as that of the Octavio de Toledo-Larramendi family, studied by Eduardo Morales, and that of the town of Puente la Reina.
Detail of the signature silversmith and engraver José Ezpetillo
The Calvary Engraving
The continued and frequent use of some liturgical books, such as missals, caused some of their pages, the oldest and most worn, to deteriorate to the point where replacement was considered. In one of them, kept in a private collection, the illustration corresponding to the canon of the Mass, depicting the Crucifixion, was perhaps replaced with others that have since disappeared when the piece was rebound in the second half of the 18th century.
The new engraving is signed by José Ezpetillo, who copied it verbatim topic a print topic same topic Cornelis Bloemaert in 1662, one of which is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum. Cornelis Blombaert (1603-1692) was a Dutch painter and engraver, born in Utrecht and trained by his father, along with two other brothers. In 1630 he traveled to Paris and in 1633 to Rome, where he had his own workshop.
The success of the composition was guaranteed by its Baroque component, as instead of presenting the Crucified Christ frontally, it was done with a very pronounced lateral foreshortening, which adds movement and theatricality to the composition. The figures of the kneeling Magdalene and St. John the Evangelist with the Virgin Mary, both standing, complete the composition. Among the missals that copied the same outline the engraving of the canon is the one published in 1725 by the Balleoniana Printing House in Venice.
The engraving in question is signed by José Ezpetillo—Jhos Espetillo—and naturally, it does not match the quality of other copies of model , among other things because it is an intaglio engraving made by a silversmith who was not specialized in the art of engraving.
Engraving by Cornelis Bloemaert, 1662, photograph from the Metropolitan Museum. Heritage Art / Heritage Images
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FERNÁNDEZ GRACIA, R., Image and Mentality. The Baroque Centuries and Devotional Prints in Navarre, Madrid, Ramón Areces Foundation, 2017, p. 48
GARCÍA GAÍNZA, M. C., Ancient Drawings of the Silversmiths of Pamplona, Pamplona, Publishing Services the University of Navarre, 1991, pp. 103-104
MORALES SOLCHAGA, E., Artistic Guilds in Pamplona during the Baroque Centuries, Pamplona, Government of Navarra, 2015, p. 359
MORALES SOLCHAGA, E., "Cover of the Larramendi-Octavio de Toledo nobility decree," report the Chair Navarrese Heritage and Art 2015, Pamplona, Chair Navarrese Heritage and Art, 2015, pp. 255-258
ORBE SIVATTE, M., Silverwork in the Pamplona workshop during the Baroque period, Pamplona, Government of Navarre, 2008, p. 280