Spanish School; XVII century. Lot n° 16

Spanish School; XVII century. "Saint Ruperto" and Blessed Francisco". Oil paintings on panels. They present losses of pictorial layer. Measurements: 18,5 x 22 cm (x2). Pair of oil paintings on panels representing an image of devotional character. In both cases the works present a similar composition in which the figure of the saint is the protagonist. In one case San Ruperto, and in the other Blessed Francisco, which is deduced from the inscriptions that are collected in each of the pieces. Baroque painting is one of the most authentic and personal examples of our art, because its conception and its form of expression arose from the people and the deepest feelings that nestled in it. With the economy of the State in ruins, the nobility in decline and the high clergy burdened with heavy taxes, it was the monasteries, parishes and confraternities of clerics and laymen who promoted its development, the works sometimes being financed by popular subscription. Painting was thus forced to capture the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when the Counter-Reformation doctrine demanded from art a realistic language so that the faithful would understand and identify with what was represented, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content to increase the fervor and devotion of the people. The religious subject is, therefore, the preferred theme of Spanish sculpture of this period, which in the first decades of the century began with a priority interest in capturing the natural, to progressively intensify throughout the century the expression of expressive values.