Museo Carmen Thyssen

Seventeenth-century Spain, ruled by the Habsburg monarchy, made an intense and determined effort to promote the religious art of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, whose purpose was to persuade souls through the senses in order to strengthen their faith. To achieve this, importance was attached to visual culture as a means of conveying religion, and the functions of sacred images were clearly defined: to teach, to delight and, above all, to move. Much of Spanish Baroque art was dominated by naturalism, sometimes stark. From the late 1500s onwards and throughout the following century, the appearance of reality pervaded the work of sculptors and painters such as Gregorio Fernández, Zurbarán, Martínez Montañés, Velázquez, Espinosa, Murillo, and also the Ribaltas (Francisco and Juan), whose paintings are the focus of this exhibition.

In Valencia, where Francisco Ribalta (1565–1628) produced his mature works and his son Juan (1596/1597–1628) spent the whole of his brief career (cut short by his death at barely more than thirty), the implementation of the Counter-Reformation precepts and their artistic consequences blossomed during the archbishopric of Saint Juan de Ribera (1532–1611). Under the archbishop’s guidelines, artists were encouraged to abandon the Mannerist aesthetic and embrace naturalism, particularly through themes of the Passion of Christ and images of sanctity.

The selection of ten works from the Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia on display in this room provides an insight into this production of religious iconography, featuring saints and biblical scenes, in Valencian and Spanish Baroque art. Above all, it enables visitors to admire the mastery of realistic depiction imbued with intense emotion and pathos in the paintings of Francisco Ribalta and his son and pupil Juan, which contributed to stimulating the devotion and feelings of the faithful in the context of Golden Age religious fervour.