Attributed to Alonso Miguel de Tovar

Attributed to ALONSO MIGUEL DE TOVAR (Huelva, 1678-Madrid, 1752).
"Santiago Apostle baptizing the Hispanics".
Oil on canvas.
Presents faults and restorations.
It has a stretcher frame with part of the canvas folded on the back (approx. 50 cm) and frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 183 x 235 cm; 215 x 264 cm (frame).
This work reflects the moment in which Santiago, after the resurrection of Jesus, traveled to Hispania and preached the Gospel, converting many people to Christianity. The arrangement of the monumental figures and the format of the work itself, which has a part of the canvas folded to adapt it to the frame, indicate that the piece was probably conceived to be seen from below and as part of an ornamental cycle composed of more pieces, probably referring to evangelization. In this particular case Santiago is standing in the center of the scene with a rod in his hand and the shell with which he baptizes in the other. At his feet a man with a naked torso prostrates himself before the apostle and with his back to the spectator receiving the baptism. A large number of characters complete the scene, highlighting anecdotally that they are taking off their clothes.
Aesthetically the work is close to the painting of Alonso Miguel Tovar, who was trained in the workshop of the painter Juan Antonio Osorio, a great admirer of the work of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, like Tovar. Because of his detailed knowledge of Murillo's technique, the Cathedral Chapter commissioned him to restore the painting of the Nativity of the Virgin in the chapel of the Immaculate Conception in the cathedral of Seville. Around 1723 he painted an Immaculate Conception for the chapel of the Casa de Contratación, which was then in Cadiz. This work is currently kept in the cathedral of Cadiz. Isabel de Farnesio, wife of Felipe V and fond of Murillo, called Tovar to the Court between the end of 1723 and the beginning of 1724. Tovar's arrival in Madrid coincided with the hiring of many artists to decorate the palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso. In 1726 Teodoro Ardemans died and Alonso Miguel Tovar was appointed painter of Felipe V's chamber. Currently, Tovar's work is housed in the most important Spanish and international art galleries: the Prado Museum, the National Gallery of London, the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville, the Museum of Cadiz, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon or the Museum of Fine Arts in Nancy, among many others.