The Immaculate Conception with the Jurors of Valencia (1662). The fusion between sacred and secular painting in Seventeenth-century Spain

Abstract

This article compiles some of the results of the multidisciplinary research project dedicated to the analysis of ‘The Immaculate Conception with the Jurors of Valencia’, oil on canvas painted between 1662 and 1663 by Jerónimo Jacinto de Espinosa. The picture has been analysed in various different ways, but what is presented here is fundamentally the historical and documentary aspect of the research. This will involve a description and analysis of the documentation related to the commission of the painting, which will be framed within the wider context of seventeenth-century Valencia and its place in the system of kingdoms making up the Spanish Monarchy. The objective is to reconstruct the socio-historical circumstances surrounding the gestation of a painting that has traditionally been classed as religious. Nevertheless, it will be shown that Espinosa’s work lies on the permeable border between the sacred and the secular and is a clear example of the frequent fusion of the two worlds in seventeenth-century Spain