Attributed to Diego Valentín Díaz

Attributed to DIEGO VALENTÍN DÍAZ (Valladolid, 1586-1660).
"Angel appearing to Doña Marina de Escobar".
Oil on brass.
It presents faults and restorations.
Measurements: 9.5 x 8 cm.
We know that the protagonist of this scene is Doña Marina de Escobar, because there is a very similar work in terms of composition that is currently in the Monastery of the Brigades of Valladolid. In it we see the protagonist dressed with the same habit and the same disposition of the gesture of the hands. However, the angel that accompanies her in this case is more flowery, her clothing being much more complex, detailed and opulent than in the Valladolid cure. Marina de Escobar Montaña (1554 - 1633) was a Spanish Catholic mystic of the Counter-Reformation period. Her mother was Margarita Montaña, daughter of Emperor Charles V's physician. Her father, Diego de Escobar, was a professor of civil and canon law, and for a time governor of Osuna. Limited in her activity due to poor health, she devoted herself to prayer and contemplation under the guidance of her Jesuit confessors and spiritual advisors. Marina had visions of several saints, and during her lifetime she acquired fame as a saintly woman throughout Spain, especially in her hometown of Valladolid.
Despite taking a vow of chastity, dedicating her life to prayer and service, and gathering around her a small community of women, Marina never entered a religious order. After a vision in 1615, she worked to found a modified branch of the Brigitine Order, but died before she could join it. She was popularly venerated after her death, and her confessor, Luis de la Puente, collected and prepared accounts of her spiritual experiences. After a long investigation by the Spanish Inquisition, they were published and Marina was declared Venerable. The Marvellous Life of the Venerable Virgin Doña Marina de Escobar, elaborated by Father Luis de la Puente, was published in Madrid in two parts, in 1665 and 1673. It was translated into Latin by the Jesuit M. Hanel, and published in that language in Prague in 1672 and 1688, and in an enlarged edition in Naples in 1690, becoming a very popular reading at the time.

Aesthetically the work is close to the postulates of the Valladolid artist Diego Valentín Díaz, who had an artistic training linked to the Mannerist aesthetics. During his time he achieved great notoriety both for his pictorial work and for his great erudition and culture, coming into contact with the most renowned artists of the time such as Pacheco and Velázquez.