Attributed to BERNARDO LORENTE GERMÁN (Seville, 1685 - 1757). "St. Joseph with Child. Oil on canvas.

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Oct 20, 2021

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  Attributed to BERNARDO LORENTE GERMÁN (Seville, 1685 - 1757). "St. Joseph with Child. Oil on canvas. Size: 106.5 x 82.5 cm; 119.5 x 95.5 cm (frame). This painting is a copy of the canvas currently preserved in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid, a work of Murillo's workshop. The work shows St. Joseph, identified by the flowery rod, seated with the Child on his lap, in a family scene full of tenderness typical of the Sevillian master. Until the Counter-Reformation, it was common for the figure of St. Joseph to remain in the background, since he was not given any theological importance. However, after Trent, his protagonist role as Jesus' protector during his childhood, as a guide during his youth, was recovered, and as such he is represented here. In contrast to the tenderness, defenselessness and candor of the infant figure, St. Joseph is presented as a monumental character, typically baroque, an impression that is reinforced by the pyramidal composition. Through this form of representation, the author visually enhances the decisive role as protector of the putative father of Jesus. Formally, the work is fully within the naturalistic baroque style, with a simple and clearly understandable composition, without anecdotal details that detract attention. Joseph and the Child appear in the foreground, occupying most of the pictorial surface, on a neutral and dark background. They are also strongly illuminated by the tenebrist light typical of this naturalistic school, a spotlight, artificial and directed, which falls directly on the face and flesh of the characters leaving the rest in semi-darkness, creating subtle shadows and expressive games of chiaroscuro that model the volumes and reinforce the illusion of three-dimensionality so sought after in the Baroque period. Likewise, the chromatism is typical of the naturalistic baroque, a palette centered on earthy and carmine tones, with touches of white that illuminate the whole without stridency. This chromaticism is very different from that of the contemporary classicist baroque, which uses large fields of classical colors, delicately balanced. In contrast, the naturalists use warm colors that reflect the light and convert the scene represented in an image closer to the faithful, seeking their identification with the figures or events narrated. Bernardo Lorente Germán began his training with his father, also a painter, and later studied with Cristóbal López. When he finished his apprenticeship, he was so far ahead of his teachers and became so well known that when he traveled to Madrid, he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the infant Don Felipe. This work was so well received that Queen Isabel de Farnesio gave him a series of prints by the French painter Charles Le Brun as a token of her gratitude. He was then proposed to be the king's painter but Lorente refused the position because he did not want to leave Seville. He was named an individual of merit by the Royal Academy of San Fernando in 1756. In Seville he was known as "the painter of the Pastoras", since he painted numerous times the theme of the Divine Shepherdess. He was also the main portraitist of the aristocracy of Seville, with works that show the French taste prevailing at the time, which coexist with others clearly indebted to Murillo, whose cottony forms and pastel colors, on the other hand beautiful, agreed perfectly with the subject of which Ceán Bermúdez makes Lorente Germán the creator, that of the Divine Shepherdess. His best known works are kept in the Carthusian monastery of Jerez de la Frontera, and are spread throughout numerous churches in Úbeda and Baeza, as well as in the cathedral of Jaén, in the Louvre Museum in Paris and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville. He also painted still lifes and genre scenes, and became an accomplished master of the trompe l'oeil genre.
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