Attributed to Sebastian de LLanos y Valdés

Attributed to SEBASTIAN DE LLANOS Y VALDÉS (ca. 1605-1677).
"Head of St. John the Baptist and St. Paul".
Pair of oils on canvas. Relined.
Presents some flaws in the paint. Damaged frames.
Measurements: 55 x 88 cm; 69 x 93 cm (frame).

Pair of oil paintings of Spanish baroque school, in which the cut head of San Juan Bautista is represented and in an austere and dramatic composition, centered in the rawness of the martyrdom and the conversion of the saint in martyr. The influence of the Caravaggesque tenebrism can be appreciated in the use of contrasted lights and intense shadows, but the pathos is extreme through a genuinely Spanish expressiveness, especially Andalusian.

A Spanish Baroque painter, active in Seville and, apparently, a disciple of Francisco de Herrera the Elder, the style of Sebastián de Llanos Valdés shows much influence of Francisco de Zurbarán. He is known to be Mayor of the Painters Guild in Seville in 1653, and is supposed (according to contemporary texts) to have a comfortable economic position. In addition, he co-founded the Academy of Drawing of San Lucas in 1660, together with Murillo and Herrera el Mozo. His work is preserved in the Cathedral of Seville, in addition to some monumental Evangelists in the Casa de Pilatos of the same city. The 17th 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.