Andalusian school circle of SEBASTIAN DE LLANOS; 17th century. "Saint John the Baptist". Oil on panel. Measurements: 30,5 x 42 cm. In this type of work there is no cult of the mortuary and macabre but, by representing the head of the saint, an attempt is made to pay homage to those Christians who knew how to give their lives in defence of the Faith. In these works there is no recreation of the gruesome, but rather an exaltation of martyrdom, an idea propagated by the Counter-Reformation through the Church. A Spanish Baroque painter, active in Seville and apparently a disciple of Francisco de Herrera the Elder, Sebastián de Llanos Valdés' style shows much influence of Francisco de Zurbarán. He is known to have been Mayor of the Painters' Guild in Seville in 1653 and is assumed (according to contemporary texts) to be well off. He also co-founded the San Lucas Academy of Drawing in 1660, together with Murillo and Herrera el Mozo. His work is preserved in Seville Cathedral, as well as monumental Evangelists in the Casa de Pilatos in the same city. The 17th century saw the arrival of the Baroque in the Sevillian school, with the triumph of naturalism over Mannerist idealism, a loose style and many other aesthetic liberties. At this time the school reached its greatest splendour, both in terms of the quality of its works and the primordial status of Sevillian Baroque painting. Thus, during the transition to the Baroque period, we find Juan del Castillo, Antonio Mohedano and Francisco Herrera el Viejo, whose works already display the rapid brushstrokes and crude realism of the style, and Juan de Roelas, who introduced Venetian colourism. The middle of the century saw the fullness of the period, with figures such as Zurbarán, a young Alonso Cano and Velázquez. Finally, in the last third of the century we find Murillo and Valdés Leal, founders in 1660 of an Academy where many of the painters active during the first quarter of the 18th century were trained, such as Meneses Osorio, Sebastián Gómez, Lucas Valdés and others. Dimensions 30.5 x 42 cm.