Sevillian school of the 17th century. Circle of BARTOLOME ESTEBAN MURILLO (Seville, 1617 - 1682). "Pietà". Oil on canvas. Re-coloured in the 18th century. It has an inventory number. Eighteenth century frame. Measurements: 107 x 80 cm; 123 x 94,5 cm (frame). The painter, from the Andalusian school, took as his model La Piedad by Murillo, an oil painting currently in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Seville. Given its stylistic proximity to the Sevillian master and the period in which it was executed, it could be a work by a painter from his workshop. Compositionally it is also faithful to the original: the dead body of Christ is received by the Virgin, who is accompanied by two angels. One of them wipes away his tears. Three seraphim appear in the Glory break. Intense chiaroscuro models the bodies and emphasises the pathos of the scene. The instruments of the Passion rest beside the lifeless body. The sweetness of the faces, with their rounded features, is genuinely Murrillesque, as are the gentle gestures and attitudes. This work belongs to the golden age of the Sevillian school. The iconography of the Pietà arises from a gradual evolution of five centuries and, according to Panofsky, derives from the theme of the Byzantine Threnos, the lamentation of the Virgin over the dead body of Jesus, as well as from the Virgin of Humility. The first artists to see the possibilities of this theme were German sculptors, the first surviving example being found in the city of Coburg, a piece from around 1320. Over time the iconography spread throughout Europe and in the 17th century, after the Counter-Reformation, it became one of the most important themes in devotional painting. 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 which subsequently laid its foundations during the 18th century.