Spanish school; 17th century.

Spanish school; XVII century.
"St. John Chrysostom.
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 75 x 65 cm.
Believed to be Sevillian of HERRERA's environment.
Juan Crisóstomo (347-407), bishop of Antioch, later patriarch of Constantinople, deposed, exiled and died there; he was an outstanding interpreter of the Sacred Scripture. Famous as a preacher and denouncer of the sins of the powerful. In this canvas he is portrayed in the foreground with his bust slightly turned, with the Holy Scriptures in one hand, a pen in the other and his gaze directed to heaven, as is usual in this type of devotional representations.
Spanish baroque painting is one of the most authentic and personal examples of our art, because its conception and form of expression arose from the people and the deepest feelings that nestled in it. With the economy of the State broken, the nobility in decline and the high clergy burdened with heavy taxes, it was the monasteries, the parishes and the 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 painting 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.