Follower of Juan de Valdés Leal; 18th century.

Follower of JUAN DE VALDÉS LEAL (Seville, 1622 - 1690); XVIII century.
"Ecce Homo.
Oil on canvas. It preserves the original canvas.
It has a period frame.
Measurements: 80.5 x 60 cm; 101 x 79 cm (frame).
This work that collects a traditional theme in the history of art, stands out for the deep pathos expressed by the artist. The painting is close to the naturalistic reality of the Baroque, capturing a scene of great intimacy, simple and clear composition. The body of Christ is placed in the foreground, the absence of narrative details deepens the expressive power and pathos, designed to move the mood of the faithful who pray before the image, within a tremendist sense very typical of the Baroque in Catholic countries. The theme of Ecce Homo belongs to the cycle of the Passion, and precedes the episode of the Crucifixion. Following this iconography, Jesus is presented crowned with thorns, dressed in red, symbolic color of the Passion, and with a reed in his hand. The words "Ecce Homo" are those pronounced by Pilate when presenting Christ before the crowd; its translation is "behold the man", a phrase by which he mocks Jesus and implies that the power of Christ was not such in front of the leaders who were judging him there.
Stylistically the work follows the models established by the painter Valdés Leal, who nevertheless worked on all kinds of religious themes. We do not know at what date he moved to Cordoba, although it is likely that he had already received his first artistic training in his native city. It has been speculated that he was close to the workshop of Herrera el Viejo, and also to the art of the Cordovan Antonio del Castillo, as possible influences for his first known signed and dated work, the San Andrés de la iglesia de San Francisco de Córdoba, from 1647. In it he combined with visible success the monumentality of the figure of the saint with a naturalistic approach. In 1656 he settled in Seville, where he spent most of his life. In 1660 he was one of the founders of the Academy of Drawing, of which he became president in 1663. The following year Palomino established his trip to the court and to El Escorial, a journey that can still be understood as an apprenticeship, driven by his eagerness to know the works of the great masters present in the royal collections. In 1667 he joined the Brotherhood of Charity of Seville, whose founder had been Miguel de Mañara, the noble visionary author of the eschatological Discurso de la Verdad, to which Valdés would remain attached from then on. In 1671, Valdés Leal had the opportunity to work as an architect on the ephemeral decorations that the cathedral of Seville had installed to celebrate the canonization of Saint Ferdinand. Thanks to these works Palomino defines him as "a great draftsman, perspective and architect". He also made two engravings, reproducing his works in the cathedral, for Fernando Torres Farfán's book celebrating this event, which gives us an insight into his work as an architect. These are his most important works as a printmaker, although his engraving of the cathedral monstrance, a self-portrait and the posthumous image of Miguel de Mañara are also known. In 1672 he was in Cordoba, an occasion that Palomino took advantage of to meet him personally. This gives more value to the affirmation of the Cordovan treatise writer on the literary interest of Valdés Leal, because he makes him possessor of "the ornament of all the good letters, without forgetting those of poetry".