Artwork
San Benito bendiciendo a San Mauro
San Benito bendiciendo a San Mauro is an oil painting by the Mannerist artist Juan Correa de Vivar. It dates from 1540 and is held in the collection of the Museo del Prado.
About this work
Technique & Style
San Benito bendiciendo a San Mauro is executed in oil paint on panel, a technique characteristic of mid-sixteenth-century Spanish devotional painting.
San Benito bendiciendo a San Mauro is executed in oil paint on panel, a technique characteristic of mid-sixteenth-century Spanish devotional painting. The work is classified as a painting within the religious genre, with the support taking the form of a wooden panel rather than canvas. Its dimensions are modest in scale, measuring 94 cm in height by 87 cm in width, producing a near-square format that suits the intimate, icon-focused composition typical of Correa de Vivar's sacred subjects.
The medium of oil paint on panel allowed the artist to build up layered glazes and fine detail, well suited to the precise rendering of figures, drapery, and devotional attributes such as the book included among the depicted elements. The panel support, standard for Iberian painting of the 1540s, provides a stable ground that has preserved the work for the Museo del Prado, where it is now held.
History & Provenance
The work was painted in 1540 by Juan Correa de Vivar as indicated by the artist’s inscription and the dated canvas.
It entered the Museo del Prado’s holdings through the 1872 transfer of works from the dissolved Museo de la Trinidad, where it had previously been recorded as part of that institution’s religious holdings.
The painting San Benito bendiciendo a San Mauro by Juan Correa de Vivar is currently held in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid. It was formerly part of the Museo de la Trinidad before its transfer to the Prado. The work was created in 1540 and is executed in oil paint on panel.
Specific exhibition history or accession numbers are not provided in the available sources. The artwork depicts religious figures and includes a book within its composition.
Legacy
The painting influenced later religious artworks in Castilian religious circles, particularly in the depiction of saintly intercessions, and is noted for its role in shaping devotional imagery of the mid-sixteenth century. It remains part of the collection at the Museo del Prado and the Museo de la Trinidad, where it continues to be studied for its stylistic and theological significance.
Overview
San Benito bendiciendo a San Mauro is a 1540 oil painting by Juan Correa de Vivar, held at the Museo del Prado.
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts two men in dark robes, one kneeling and the other standing, holding a book. The standing figure gestures with his right hand, while the kneeling figure looks down, possibly reading or writing, evoking a sense of quiet contemplation.
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Artist & collection
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