Andalusian school; late 17th century. "Virgin's... Lot 14

Andalusian school; late 17th century. "Virgin's visitation". Oil on canvas. Re-framed. It has a frame from the first half of the 18th century. Measurements: 59,5 x 50 cm. Two feminine figures embrace each other in the foreground, starring this devotional scene. To the right of the composition, a robed man seems to be heading towards an area that is in the outer perimeter of the canvas, and that therefore the spectator cannot observe. However, his gesture and in particular his gaze indicate that he is addressing someone. Returning to the main scene featuring the two women, it should be emphasised that despite their closeness, they do not maintain any eye contact, their gaze remaining lost, directed in both cases at the ground. One of them brings her hand close to the belly of the other, forcing the eye to focus on the small, bulging belly. These characteristics indicate that the artist is depicting the visit of the Virgin, already pregnant with Christ, to her older cousin Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist, in the city of Hebron, a theme taken from the Gospel of Luke (1: 39-56). The 17th century saw the arrival of the Baroque in the Andalusian school, with the triumph of naturalism over Mannerist idealism, a loose style and many other aesthetic liberties. At this time the school reached its greatest splendour, both in terms of the quality of its works and the primordial status of Sevillian Baroque painting. Thus, during the transition to the Baroque period, we find Juan del Castillo, Antonio Mohedano and Francisco Herrera el Viejo, whose works already display the rapid brushstrokes and crude realism of the style, and Juan de Roelas, who introduced Venetian colourism. The middle of the century saw the fullness of the period, 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.