Juan Simón Gutiérrez Workshop

Workshop of JUAN SIMÓN GUTIÉRREZ (Medina Sidonia, Cádiz, 1643 - 1718).
"Child Jesus as a good shepherd.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Presents restorations on the pictorial surface.
Measurements 48,5 x 71 cm; 74,5 x 97,5 cm (frame).
This work is based on the model of the master Juan Simón Gutiérrez, reproduced in Valdivieso Marques Argudín Collection, Madrid. Christian art delighted throughout its history, and especially in the Modern Age, projecting on the innocent infancy of Jesus the shadow of the cross. The contrast between the happy unconcern of a child and the horror of the sacrifice to which he was predestined was designed to move hearts. This idea was already familiar to the theologians of the Middle Ages, but the artists of the time expressed it discreetly. This iconography was relatively common in the Spanish Baroque, with such well-known examples as that of Francisco de Zurbarán from 1630 (Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla), or the one linked to Murillo's workshop in the Museo Félix Cañada in Madrid, or the one in the Museo del Prado in Madrid from the 17th century. This type of relationship with important themes was very common in Catholic Baroque painting, in which the Counter-Reformation encouraged a series of themes to support everything that the Protestants attacked. And themes similar to the present one had the softness that was then considered appropriate for women's convents, hence the devotion to the Child Jesus was encouraged, above all, by this type of institution. The total absence of the usual dramatism of Baroque painting is striking.
Juan Simón Gutiérrez was trained in Seville, where he must have come into contact with Murillo, as evidenced by the great imprint that the master left on his works. His presence at the Seville Academy is recorded between 1664 and 1667, the year in which his marriage is documented. In 1680 he obtained the position of mayor alamir, being responsible for the entrance exams of the new students of the Academy. His works are preserved in religious centers such as the convent of La Trinidad de Carmona or the main church of Santa María la Coronada de Medina Sidonia, as well as in the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville and the Museum of Fine Arts of Los Angeles, in the United States.