Sevillian school; late seventeenth century.

Sevillian school; late seventeenth century.
"St. Joseph with Child.
Oil on canvas.
Preserves original canvas.
Measurements: 91 x 72 cm; 103 x 84 cm (frame).
The author presents an image of remarkable quality, starring St. Joseph and the Child, located in the central axis of the composition. St. Joseph holds the Child in his arms, establishing between them a gesture of complicity that reinforces the affective dimension of the scene. This intimate relationship, built through physical closeness and the exchange of glances, underlines the paternal bond from a human and emotional perspective very typical of baroque taste, even though St. Joseph is traditionally represented as the putative father of the Child.
The seventeenth century marked the arrival of the Baroque in the Sevillian school, with the triumph of naturalism over Mannerist idealism, loose workmanship and many other aesthetic liberties. At this time the school reached its greatest splendor, both for the quality of the works and for the primordial rank of Sevillian Baroque painting. Thus, during the transition to Baroque we find Juan del Castillo, Antonio Mohedano and Francisco Herrera el Viejo, in whose works the rapid brushstroke and the crude realism of the style is already manifested, and Juan de Roelas, introducer of Venetian colorism. In the middle of the century, the period reached its peak, 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.