Valencian school of the first half of the 17th century

Valencian school; first half of the XVII century.
"Man of sorrows".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It presents restorations on the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 187 x 127 cm.
The representation of Christ as the Man of Sorrows is an iconic devotional image that shows Christ, generally naked to the waist, with the wounds of his Passion highlighted in his hands and side. In this case the image differs from the usual representations, focusing on a representation of theatrical character very much to the taste of the time. Most of the characters that attend and torture Christ are in the foreground, but it is the monumental figure of Jesus and the use of a tenebrist illumination that manages to exalt his figure above the other characters.

The Valencian school is different from the rest of contemporary Spanish artistic centers, thanks to the fact that during most of the 15th and 16th centuries there was an important settlement of Italian and Flemish painters. Thus, throughout the history of art, Valencia has been an important focus of Spanish art, along with other schools such as Andalusia and Madrid. In Valencia, the change from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century was not a break with the previous tradition, but a continuation of it. In 1768 the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos was created, and this institution will determine a change towards a classicism of baroque roots. Through it, young artists were trained by José Vergara, Manuel Monfort, José Camarón, Vicente Marzo, Vicente López and Mariano Salvador Maella. On the other hand, the economic recovery will result in a thriving industrial and commercial bourgeoisie, which will seek to distinguish itself socially through artistic patronage. At the same time, the Church was losing its monopoly as the only client of the artists. All this will determine a definitive change in taste, and also in the genres treated: religious painting will now coexist with bourgeois portraiture, still life, landscape, historical and mythological themes and genre painting.