Attributed to Sebastián LLanos Valdés

Attributed to SEBASTIÁN LLANOS VALDÉS (ca. 1605-1677).
"San Pablo".
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 53 x 68 cm; 63 x 79 cm (frame).
In this scene of intense dramatism, direct heir of the baroque tenebrism, the light becomes the main expressive vehicle. The painter concentrates all the attention on the face of an old man, isolated on a dark and silent background, with closed eyelids and a recollected, almost meditative expression. To his right emerges a knife, reduced to the essential but loaded with symbolic meaning: it is the attribute that allows us to identify the character as St. Paul, apostle and martyr of Christianity. The economy of elements reinforces the psychological power of the image, inviting the viewer to an intimate encounter with the saint.
St. Paul, born in Tarsus at the beginning of the first century, was a Hellenized Jew - Jewish by origin, Greek by culture and Roman by citizenship, initially known as Saul. After being educated in Jerusalem and standing out as a persecutor of Christians, his life changed radically around the year 35, when, on his way to Damascus, he had a visionary experience that marked his conversion. Since then he became one of the main spreaders of Christianity, developing an intense missionary work in the eastern Mediterranean.
Despite his decisive theological importance, St. Paul never enjoyed great devotional popularity, which explains the sobriety of his iconography. In early Christian art, he is identified by the book or the scroll, symbols of his doctrine, and from the 13th century onward, the sword-or knife-is incorporated as an attribute of his martyrdom.
The work is stylistically linked to the production of Sebastián de Llanos Valdés, a Spanish baroque painter active in Seville and, according to sources, a disciple of Francisco de Herrera the Elder. His pictorial language shows a notable influence of Francisco de Zurbarán, especially in the compositional severity, emotional restraint and the use of a concentrated light that models the forms with resounding clarity. Llanos Valdés enjoyed a relevant position in the Sevillian artistic panorama: he was mayor of the Painters Guild in 1653 and co-founder, in 1660, of the Academy of Drawing of San Lucas, together with Murillo and Herrera el Mozo. His work is preserved today in places as significant as the Cathedral of Seville and the Casa de Pilatos, where some monumental Evangelists stand out. All this places this artist as a key figure of the Sevillian Baroque, capable of combining spiritual intensity and formal rigor in images of profound introspective force.