Juan de Valdés Leal

JUAN DE VALDÉS LEAL (Seville, 1622 - 1690).
"The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and Saint Zoilo".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Works exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts of Murcia.
Works reproduced in the catalog "Masters of the Spanish Baroque, Granados Collection, Unpublished Work. Museum of Fine Arts of Murcia. 2020-2021. p. 144.
They present restorations and flaws in the pictorial surface.
They have a 17th century frame.
Measurements: 75 x 52 cm (x2); 95 x 71,5 cm (frames, x2).
Pair of paintings by Juan de Valdés Leal. The models, composition, colors, and, above all, his quick and courageous technique are characteristic of this painter. Due to their similarity in measurements, subject and composition, it seems logical that they are the result of the same and specific commission to the painter. Their degree of completion is very hurried, so they would not be sketches. On the other hand, they could have been part of a series of scenes of martyr saints. The representation of effigies of saints in landscapes, complemented with small figures, is typical of Sevillian Baroque painting. It can be said that it was popularized by Zurbarán. And we know that Valdés himself made several series of lives and effigies of saints, mainly of founders of orders for their respective convents (St. Jerome, life of St. Ignatius, etc.) with a similar scheme. Regarding the first of these, its main figure can be compared to that of Saint Sebastian that, around 1659-60, Valdés Leal painted for the altarpiece of the chapel of the Quinta Angustia, in the church of Magdalene in Seville. There are evident similarities between the two figures in the model, the soft and luminous treatment of the skin, the contraposto of the figure with the waist backwards, the inclined torso and the weight of the body supported on the forward left leg. However, its narrow format -obliged by its original location in the main altarpiece of the disappeared church of San Benito de Calatrava- makes the posture of the Quinta Angustia more recollected. On the contrary, the posture of the present Saint Sebastian is more open and dynamic. The arms are open and the author demonstrates his mastery by placing his forearm and left hand extended foreshortened towards the viewer, a gesture that is balanced with the saint's right leg bent in the opposite direction. The composition is ordered by means of two imaginary diagonals that converge in the face of the martyr, who looks at the sky, while a couple of little angels, -link with the celestial divinity-, flutter in the center of the scene. Regarding the model used, it will be none other than the classic one by Guido Reni, which was widely used by Spanish artists, of which Pedro Orrente gave a good account in the painting made for the Cathedral of Valencia. Moreover, in his drawing of The Flagellation of Christ (brown wash, pen on laid paper, yellowish, 350 x 253 mm.) which is preserved in the Museo Nacional del Prado, we can see a similar compositional scheme, as well as interesting similarities in the treatment of the characters and their way of conveying the drama of the scene. Sebastian's red clamid and feathered helmet, symbols of his rank as an officer, add an intense note of color to the composition. On the other side, the landscape opens up and, in the background, a group of soldiers, one on horseback, also wearing a cape and a feathered helmet, and in front of him two men wearing Moorish-style turbans, complete the scene. In the background, more soldiers summarily described with blurred strokes merge into the same. As a singular detail with respect to the flying angels that complete it, it is possible to indicate how the little angel in the center grabs with his right hand the cloth that falls from the sky, a peculiar detail that Valdés Leal also used in the angels that decorate the lunettes of the vault of the presbytery in the church of the Venerable Priests of Seville. A more faithful follower of some of the stamps seems to be shown in the composition of the Martyrdom of Saint Zoilo, the famous martyr from Cordoba who died at the end of the 3rd century -during the persecution of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian-, after having his kidneys removed (see Santos Urbaneja, 2003).
Nevertheless, the description of the saint, half-naked and tied to the tree in an unstable position and in a reclaiming condition, is similar to that of Saint Sebastian in the way he presents his head turned towards the angels who carry the palm of his martyrdom. Behind his back, the infamous torturer is executed in earthy tones. The composition is also arranged with two diagonals that converge on the martyr's face, although the secondary characters and the background are more developed here. Diocletian and Maximian would be the two characters on horseback and with crown that appear in the background on the right, behind a group led by a woman, who would point to the rest of Zoilus' fellow martyrs. To the left, in front of a crenellated tower with a door, another group with a prominent figure in the center, in yellow and covered head, who would be the judge who ordered the martyrdom. Finally, above the saint, two angels carry a martyr's palm and crown. Both paintings must be related to the Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew that is preserved in the church of Segura de León, Badajoz, (fig.1) work that was discovered in 2013, and therefore, like these two, not included in any of the catalogs of Valdés Leal published previously. This painting was studied by Valdivieso González, dating it between 1683 and 1686, the artist's last period of maturity in which he devoted himself to painting large decorative cycles, such as the Hospital de la Caridad, Monasterio de San Clemente and the church of the Hospital de los Venerables in Seville.