Sebastián de Llanos y Valdés

SEBASTIÁN DE LLANOS Y VALDÉS (ca. 1605-1677).
"Head of St. Paul.
Oil on canvas.
Presents faults.
It has a frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 53 x 67.5 cm; 63 x 78.5 cm (frame).
In this canvas is represented the head of Saint Paul decapitated, clearly recognizable thanks to the physiognomy of the Evangelist: his hair and beard. The image is set against a dark background that enhances his physical presence, located in the foreground, next to the sword with which he has been beheaded. The character is presented as a totally earthly man, with a face far from any idealization and totally expressive, heir to the forms of the Genoese Bernardo Strozzi. Formally, the tenebrism stands out, also derived from the Italian painter, which is based on a focus of artificial, directed light that penetrates the painting through the lower left corner and strikes the face of the saint and the edge of the sword. The chromatism is also typical of the Sevillian school, very limited around the ochres, earthy, reflecting the warm and naturalistic atmosphere.
As for the theme, it is the beheading of St. Paul, who after being imprisoned for two years in Caesarea for proclaiming the word of Jesus, suffered martyrdom and was subsequently beheaded (and not crucified) because of his Roman condition. This type of representations were very common in the Baroque, since they united the desire to highlight the martyrdoms with theatricality and the desire to reach the faithful through the feeling, and were made both in painting and in carved and polychrome wood sculpture.
A Spanish Baroque painter, active in Seville and, apparently, a disciple of Francisco de Herrera el Viejo, 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 it is assumed (according to contemporary texts), with 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 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.