Spanish school; late 17th century.

Spanish school; late 17th century. "San Pedro de Alcantara". Oil on canvas. Relined. It presents faults and damages caused by humidity. Measurements: 56 x 43 cm. The saint protagonist of this work can be identified as a Franciscan, representing surely San Pedro de Alcántara, who decided to join the Franciscans at the age of 16 shortly after his stepfather sent him to the university in Salamanca. Returning home, he became a Franciscan friar of the strictest Observance in the convent of Manxaretes, Extremadura, in 1515. At the age of twenty-two he was sent to found a new community of the Stricter Observance in Badajoz. He was ordained a priest in 1524, and the following year he was appointed Guardian of the convent of Santa María de los Ángeles in Robredillo, Old Castile. A few years later he began to preach with great success. He was known for his preference for preaching to the poor and his sermons were largely taken from the Prophets and Wisdom Books. Spanish Baroque painting is one of the most authentic and personal examples of our art, because its conception and form of expression arose from the people and from the deepest feelings within them. With the economy of the State in ruins, the nobility in decline and the high clergy burdened with heavy taxes, it was the monasteries, parishes and confraternities of clerics and laymen who promoted its development, the works sometimes being financed by popular subscription. Sculpture was thus obliged to express the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when Counter-Reformation doctrine demanded a realistic language from art so that the faithful could understand and identify with what was represented, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content in order to increase the fervour and devotion of the people. The religious theme was therefore the subject matter.