Attributed to José Risueño

Attributed to JOSÉ RISUEÑO (Granada, 1665 - 1732).
"The vision of St. Bruno.
Oil on canvas.
Preserves original canvas.
Measurements: 71 x 132 cm.
This painting of the last third of the XVII century, represents the mystical vision of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order. It is a deeply symbolic composition that combines the dramatism of the Spanish baroque with an intense spirituality, typical of the counter-reformist context that characterized the sacred art of the time.
The scene takes place in a somber interior, where Saint Bruno, dressed in the white habit characteristic of the order, is kneeling in front of a richly decorated altar. His ecstatic gesture, with his arms open and his face illuminated by a supernatural light, denotes a moment of divine revelation. In front of him, suspended among the clouds, an angel appears and points to the altar, where an image of the Virgin and Child is placed on a baroque monstrance. The disposition of the characters and the theatricality of the attitudes respond to the visual resources typical of the baroque, whose objective was to move the spectator and to reinforce the ideals of the Catholic faith.
The upper sky is defined by a set of cherubim heads and golden glow that emphasize the celestial manifestation. On the right, an open window offers a view of a twilight landscape, which contrasts with the supernatural scene inside and expands the pictorial space with a melancholic note. This resource reinforces the mystical isolation of the saint and his detachment from the earthly world.
The theme of St. Bruno's vision has a profound relevance in Counter-Reformation iconography. Saint Bruno, an austere and contemplative figure, was vindicated by the Church as a model of holiness and recollection. His eremitical life and his founding of the Charterhouse made him a symbol of the return to spiritual purity, in opposition to the corruption of the world. For this reason, his figure was the object of a specific iconography that exalted his ecstasies, his visions and his role as intermediary between the divine and the human.
The painting demonstrates the high technical quality that approaches the work of the painter and sculptor from Granada, son of the also artist Manuel Risueño, José began his training in his father's workshop with the sculptors Diego and José de Mora and the painter Juan de Sevilla, all of them disciples of Alonso Cano, head and initiator of the Granada school of the Baroque. Throughout his life Risueño made an abundant artistic production of religious themes, characterized by the combination of the influence of Cano's models with a taste for naturalism and the use to build his compositions of Flemish prints by Van Dyck.