Seville Cathedral acquires a painting by Valdés Leal depicting the apparition of the Virgin of Antigua in San Fernando

The Cathedral Chapter includes in its heritage a painting by Valdés Leal dedicated to the reconquest of Seville. The canvas represents the miracle of the appearance of the Virgin of Antigua in San Fernando during her entry into the city.

The work ‘The … The Virgen de la Antigua opening the doors of Seville to San Fernando is an exceptional event testimony of Marian devotion and 17th century Sevillian Baroque painting.

Made in oil on canvas and measuring 45.5 × 35.5 centimeters, as the Cathedral points out on its website, the work could be linked to the commission of a first triumph on the occasion of the beatification of Saint Ferdinand that the Cabildo carried out for Juan de Valdés Leal and Bernardo Simón de Pineda, a project which was ultimately never realized. A drawing of this order is kept at the Colombina Library.

Last September the Cabildo purchased another work of art with San Fernando as the protagonist. This is the canvas “Saint Ferdinand guided by the Angel”, attributed to Ludovico Gimignani (1643-1697), from the Magalhaes & Santos gallery. The composition depicts the Castilian monarch, later canonized as San Fernando, at a key moment in the Reconquista. The king appears accompanied by the figure of an angel who guides him, emphasizing the providential and sacred dimension of his military and political enterprise.

These purchases, in addition to the artistic value, represent a strengthening the link that the capital of Seville maintains with the figure of San Fernandoking with a decisive role in the history of Seville and in peninsular Christianity.