Sebastián de Llanos y Valdés

SEBASTIÁN DE LLANOS Y VALDÉS (ca. 1605-1677).
"Ecce homo.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the upper right corner.
It has an Italian frame of the eighteenth century.
Measurements: 75 x 57 cm; 104 x 84 cm (frame).
In this devotional canvas, painted for an altar or private chapel, the theme of Ecce Homo is represented, very common in this type of paintings. Of simple and clear composition, with the face of Christ in the foreground, the absence of narrative details deepens the expressive power and pathos, designed to move the soul of the faithful who prays before the image, within a tremendist sense very typical of Catholic countries.
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.