Master from Madrid; last third of the XVII century.

Master from Madrid; last third of the 17th century.
"The vision of St. Bruno"
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It presents faults in the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 71,5 x 131,5 cm.
This painting of the Madrid school of the last third of the seventeenth century, represents the mystical vision of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order. It is a deeply symbolic composition that combines the dramatism of the Spanish baroque with an intense spirituality, typical of the counter-reformist context that characterized the sacred art of the time.
The scene takes place in a somber interior, where Saint Bruno, dressed in the white habit characteristic of the order, is kneeling in front of a richly decorated altar. His ecstatic gesture, with open arms and face illuminated by a supernatural light, denotes a moment of divine revelation. In front of him, suspended among the clouds, an angel appears and points to the altar, where an image of the Virgin and Child is placed on a baroque monstrance. The disposition of the characters and the theatricality of the attitudes respond to the visual resources typical of the baroque, whose objective was to move the spectator and to reinforce the ideals of the Catholic faith.
The upper sky is populated with cherub heads and golden glows that emphasize the celestial manifestation. On the right, an open window offers a view of a twilight landscape, which contrasts with the supernatural scene inside and expands the pictorial space with a melancholic note. This resource reinforces the mystical isolation of the saint and his detachment from the earthly world.
The theme of St. Bruno's vision has a profound relevance in Counter-Reformation iconography. Saint Bruno, an austere and contemplative figure, was vindicated by the Church as a model of holiness and recollection. His eremitical life and his founding of the Charterhouse made him a symbol of the return to spiritual purity, in opposition to the corruption of the world. For this reason, his figure was the object of a specific iconography that exalted his ecstasies, his visions and his role as intermediary between the divine and the human.
The painting demonstrates the high technical quality of the seventeenth-century Madrid school, heir to the great masters of the Golden Age such as Francisco Rizi, Claudio Coello and Juan Carreño de Miranda. The execution shows a remarkable mastery of chiaroscuro, an expressive handling of earthy color and great skill in the representation of textures, as seen in the treatment of the habit, the clouds and the damask of the altar. The composition, with a strong theatrical charge, responds to the principles of Spanish baroque art, where the spiritual and the emotional are intertwined to provoke a profound devotional experience.