The worship of the Immaculate Virgin is one of seventeenth-century Spain´s identity traits, especially following a considerable argument between her defenders and her detractors, which took place in S [+]
Founder of the order of la Merced Calzada, the saint is depicted kneeling, leaning on a church pew. In his dream, an angel appears to him and shows him heavenly Jerusalem, conceived as a walled city w [+]
Saint Peter Nolasco, founded the order of Our Lady of Mercy, also known as the Mercederians, whose main objective was to rescue Christians held captive by the Muslims. The convent of la Merced Calzada [+]
Born as princess of Aragon in 1271, the daughter of Peter III "the Great" and grand-daughter of James I "the Conqueror" married King Dinis of Portugal in 1293 and became queen of the country. Like her [+]
The Immaculate Conception was one of Zurbarán’s most frequent subjects, as it was particularly popular with institutional and private clients in Seville, as well as very compatible with his ski [+]
The Greek hero’s deeds that took place in the Iberian Peninsula, of which this is one, were interpreted as demonstrating his status as mythical forerunner of the Spanish monarchy.Hercules is shown mak [+]
This painting depicts the moment after Hercules has killed King Geryon, identified by the crown on his head. The monarch had come to defend his herd of oxen and cows after the god Eurystheus had order [+]
A lion was ravishing the region of Nemea and frightening its inhabitants to such a degree that they could no longer work the land. The Marquis of Villena’s Twelve Labors of Hercules, along with Juan P [+]
Hercules’s encounter with the Erimanthean bore is not the best known of his labors. At first glance, it would appear to be nothing more than a new demonstration of his capacity to vanquish evil and sa [+]
At Eurystheus’s behest, Hercules killed the Cretan Bull, a dangerous and ferocious animal that was decimating Crete. The Cretan Bull was a handsome bull that Poseidon had asked the king of Crete to sa [+]
Hercules puts the North-African giant to death in yet another demonstration of his capacity to combine cleverness and strength. The creature’s mother was Gaea, goddess of the Earth, who doubled his st [+]
Hercules is depicted here fighting with his club against Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the entrance to Hades, which lunges at him with its three ferocious mouths. According to the classical [+]
Hercules looks at the viewer from the left side of the composition, cheerful after having rerouted the Alpheus river in response to a challenge by Augeas, King of Elis. The description of this episode [+]
The inhabitants of Lerna were terrorized by a multiheaded serpent that left a path of destruction behind. The creature was impossible to defeat because every time it lost one head, two grew in its pla [+]
This episode, which illustrates Hercules’s death, was narrated in great detail by Baltasar de Victoria, who tells how the hero killed Nessus the centaur for having attempted to rape Hercules’s bride, [+]
The event depicted is Cadiz’s defense from the attack of an English fleet of one hundred ships and ten thousand men commanded by sir Henry Cecil, Viscount of Wimbledon, which occurred on November 1, 1 [+]
Eufemia was martyred in the year 310 for refusing to worship the god Ares or participate in pagan ceremonies. As punishment, she was subjected to numerous torments. Zurbarán depicts her with a [+]
A dark background and a gray table are the setting for this painting’s only motive: a merino lamb between eight and twelve months old. Still alive, it lies with bound feet in an unmistakably sacrifici [+]