Andalusian School; second half of the seventeenth century. "Infant Jesus of Passion. Oil on canvas.

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By Setdart Auction House

Jul 14, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-07-14 06:30:00 2021-07-14 06:30:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : OLD MASTERS https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/old-masters-7202
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• Lot Description
  Andalusian School; second half of the seventeenth century. "Infant Jesus of Passion. Oil on canvas. Presents old inscription on stretcher, losses, and frame of the nineteenth century. Size: 69 x 53 cm; 83 x 67 cm (frame). Devotional painting, where the artist has represented Jesus Child. The figure of Christ is inscribed in an exterior dominated mostly by a dim light that leaves the view inscribed in a certain gloom. In the lower left zone of the canvas, one can appreciate with greater clarity a profuse landscape of green tonalities, bathed by a sky where the amber tones of the sunset can be appreciated. Returning to the presence of the Child, it is worth mentioning its large dimensions, a characteristic that added to its central position in the composition and the lack of large elements that distort the viewer's vision, gives rise to the prominence of the figure of the Child, which is preponderant. The representation shows iconography of the Child with the Cross alludes to the universality of the Christian doctrine, and consists of the representation of the Child carrying the Cross on his shoulders, thus announcing the moment of the Passion. In spite of this, the author shows us a Triumphant Child, Savior of the World, and symbolizes the idea of Jesus as man and savior, lord of all the Earth, which he redeems with his death and resurrection. It is an iconography that combines divine power and grace with the happy innocence and humble condition of God incarnate: the omnipotence of the Son. It is worth noting that, in spite of carrying the Cross, the other attributes of the Passion, such as the Cross, the Crown of Thorns and the Nails of the Cross, are not appreciated. Throughout its history, and especially in the Modern Age, Christian art delighted in projecting the shadow of the cross on the innocent infancy of Jesus. The contrast between the happy unconcern of a child and the horror of the sacrifice to which he was predestined was designed to move hearts. This idea was already familiar to the theologians of the Middle Ages, but the artists of that time expressed it discreetly, either through the worried expression of the Virgin, or through the bunch of grapes that the Child squeezes in his hands. It will be especially in the art of the Counter-Reformation where this funeral presentiment of the Passion is expressed by means of transparent allusions, as we see here. The 17th century marked the arrival of the Baroque in the Andalusian school, with the triumph of naturalism over Mannerist idealism, loose workmanship and many other aesthetic liberties. At this time the school reached its greatest splendor, both for the quality of the works and for the primordial rank of Sevillian Baroque painting. Thus, during the transition to Baroque we find Juan del Castillo, Antonio Mohedano and Francisco Herrera el Viejo, in whose works the rapid brushstroke and the crude realism of the style is already manifested, and Juan de Roelas, introducer of Venetian colorism. In the middle of the century the period reached its peak, with figures such as Zurbarán, a young Alonso Cano and Velázquez. Finally, in the last third of the century we find Murillo and Valdés Leal, founders in 1660 of an Academy where many of the painters active during the first quarter of the 18th century were trained, such as Meneses Osorio, Sebastián Gómez, Lucas Valdés and others.
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