Sevillian school; late seventeenth century.

Sevillian school; late seventeenth century.
"Imposition of the chasuble".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 139 x 170 cm (frame).
The Imposition of the chasuble to St. Ildefonso was one of the most widespread themes in the Hispanic iconography of the Baroque, especially in the Sevillian environment. The scene is articulated in two clearly differentiated planes: on the right, the solemn moment of the Marian gift, where the Virgin, assisted by clergymen and religious, imposes the chasuble on the kneeling saint; on the left, an architectural space in semi-darkness hosts a group of nudes and secondary figures that reinforce the symbolic contrast between the earthly and the sacred, a frequent resource in Baroque painting to intensify the theological meaning of the whole.
From the stylistic point of view, the painting is fully inscribed in the late Baroque language of Seville, characterized by the balance between clear narrative and restrained emotion. The composition is complex but orderly, built from a vertical axis that separates the celestial and liturgical environment from the darker and secondary space. The use of color responds to a warm palette, dominated by ochers, earths and ivory whites, on which the liturgical habits and vestments stand out, treated with wide folds and a loose but controlled brushstroke.
The narrative clarity, the warm chromatism, the moderate emotionality and the attention to popular devotion, allow linking the work with the Sevillian pictorial tradition of the late seventeenth century, at a time when the baroque reaches a more gentle and persuasive expression, aimed at moving without resorting to dramatic excesses.
The Sevillian school of the late 17th century constitutes one of the fundamental nuclei of late Baroque Spanish painting. After the great figures of the first naturalism, the pictorial language evolved towards softer and luminous forms, destined to a wide and deeply religious public. Sevillian painters developed a rich and accessible iconography, centered on Marian and hagiographic episodes with strong local roots.