A court painter linked to the academic world, his contemporaries considered him one of the finest painters of the time.

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1 BERNARDO LORENTE GERMÁN (Seville, ) Saint Agnes Oil on canvas 81.8 x 59.7 cm With an elaborate polychrome frame from Seville with gilt carving dating from the end of the 17 th century by Bernardo Simon de Pineda. Bernardo Lorente Germán was one the painters that followed Murillo who knew how to adapt to the new aesthetic tastes of the 18 th century, which coincided with the arrival of the court of Phillip V in Seville, during the five-year period referred to as the Lustro Real ( ). A court painter linked to the academic world, his contemporaries considered him one of the finest painters of the time. The Count of Águila, in one of his letters addressed to Don Antonio Ponz in which he refers to the painter, states the following: Dióse, como todos los de estos tiempos, a copiar e imitar a Murillo; con eso, y un manejo, facilidad de colorido y fuerza o valentía en los toques se ha granjeado una reputación a que no corresponde su dibujo, su invención ni la extravagancia de las actitudes de sus figuras y caracteres. Sus mejores pinturas son en pequeño. Like everyone at this moment, he likes to copy and imitate Murillo; with this, and a handling and ease of colour and strength and boldness in his touches he has earned himself a reputation, which is not merited by his drawing, his imagination or the extravagance of the attitudes of his figures and characters. His finest paintings are small in size. Cean Bermúdez and Cavestany believe him to be the creator of the iconography of La Divina Pastora (The Divine Shepherdess), as he was the painter who did the most to disseminate this theme as its devotion increased.

2 Lorente Germán was extremely successful with these small format paintings of a devotional nature and normally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. During the 18 th century, they were to be found decorating all the major households in Seville, and many of them were taken out of Spain as works by the hand of Murillo. An inventory drawn up in 1737 following the death of his wife, Úrsula Navarro, confirms the huge demand there was for these little paintings, cuadritos, of the Blessed Virgin. Of the 135 paintings recorded, on canvas, plate and copper, there are. Seis Bírgenes de a uara seis Bírgenes chiquittas seis lienzezittos de vida de Nuestra Señora. Six Virgins of one vara (yard) six little Virgins six small canvases of the life of Our Lady Apart from religious painting, Lorente Germán pursued other genres in which he excelled, such as the trompe-l oeil, which was popular in Seville following the Dutch tradition, which produced some of his best-known paintings: the magnificent pair of trompe-l oeils in the Louvre museum, Allegory of wine and Allegory of tobacco. Also popular are his portraits that reveal the adoption by painters in Seville of the court models of Ranc and van Loo.

3 Fig. 1 The Saint Agnes has the same framework, technique and measurements as the Saint Thomas Aquinas in the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville (fig. 1), attributed to Francisco Herrera el Mozo (the Younger), whereby it can be considered its pair. In the case of the former, this attribution is not credible, as the dress, hairstyle and headdress date from the first quarter of the 18 th century, as featured especially in paintings by Domingo Martínez. (fig. 2). Don Francisco Herrera García, in a study on baroque frames from Seville, attributes these frames to Bernardo Simón de Pineda, the author of the most important altarpiece projects in Seville in the second half of the 17 th century. Furthermore, he mastered the technique of drawing and regularly attended the Academia de Murillo. His most important altarpiece is the one he made for the church at the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville.

4 Fig.2 The eye-to-eye contact with the onlooker, the sophisticated headdress and the jewels worn by the saint remind us of a divine portrait. Portraits of this type were much in vogue during the baroque in Seville. There are other known examples in paintings by Zurbaran and Murillo, such as the Saint Catherine, a divine portrait in the Focus Abengoa Foundation (fig. 3). This work by its technique and finishing would also be closely related to the signed San Fernando in private collection in Dos Hermanas, Seville (fig.4). What s more, the colouring and ash-coloured flesh tones on the saint are typical of Lorente Germán. The model s physique, which almost reminds us of a divine portrait, is the same as the one that appears in the Virgin and Child and the Virgin of the Bandage, both in private Spanish collections (fig. 5). The hands with slender, tapering fingers are repeated in both these paintings, as are the agitated and diaphanous folds on the fabrics. These characteristics coincide with the technique of Herrera el Mozo, which may have led to the attribution to this artist of the canvas in the museum in Seville, as the existence of the Saint Agnes was not known at the time.

5 Fig.3 Fig.4 Fig.5