Italian school; Attributed to Johann Spillenberger, second half of the 17th century.

Italian school; Attributed to JOHANN SPILLENBERGER (1628-1679) ; second half of the 17th century.
"The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It shows damages caused by xylophagous.
It has a frame from the end of the XIX century.
Measurements: 87 x 55,5 cm; 103 x 71 cm (frame).
In this canvas the author represents a scene from the life of the Virgin Mary, her presentation in the Temple as a child. The narrative is set in an urban setting, dominated by a staircase that plays an important role in the story, and which serves to differentiate the two planes of the composition, and at the same time to order the figures. These, starting from the foreground, establish a diagonal reading rhythm. The canvas presents a scenographic composition, clearly counter-reformist. It should be noted that it was during the Baroque period when the representations of the Virgin became more popular and iconographically relevant because the Protestants did not believe in the figure of the Virgin.
Spillenberger began his training with his father, later with his uncle and from 1645 with Ulrich Loth in Munich. From 1650 onwards, he probably worked for several years as an itinerant laborer in various places in southern Germany. There is a record of a stay in Levo?a in 1658, and in 1660 he perfected his painting skills in Venice.
He moved to Munich and in 1663 participated in the decoration of the Bavarian electoral ceremonial ship Bucentaur. However, he received no further commissions from the Munich court, which was strongly oriented towards Italian artists at the time. In 1664, Spillenberger, who was a Protestant, settled in Augsburg, a city dominated by Lutherans. Presumably through the mediation of Benedikt Faistenberger, whom he knew from his time in Kitzbühel, he received commissions in Regensburg, where he also moved his workshop. On June 19, 1669 he was elevated to the hereditary imperial nobility and received the title of imperial court painter. His high reputation enabled him to receive numerous commissions from ecclesiastical and private patrons and, as a court painter, he was exempted from the guild requirement. In Vienna he experienced his most productive creative period, during which he produced numerous paintings for the whole of southern Germany and Upper Austria. His most important commission was the monumental painting "The Assumption of the Virgin Mary" for the Marian altar in the female choir of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, and during his extensive travels he painted, among other things, the picturesque decoration of Stockau Castle.
Spillenberger's models were Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese, but he was also influenced by Agostino Carracci, Domenichino and Johann Heinrich Schönfeld. In his altarpieces, he was mainly oriented by the traditional triangular composition. Due to the freer composition, the use of light and the lively expression of his figures, he is considered the most modern painter in comparison to the influential German painters of the 17th century, such as Pock and Sandrart.