ALONSO DE VILLANUEVA (Active in the first half of the 16th century). "Saint Clare". Oil on panel.

ALONSO DE VILLANUEVA (Active in the first half of the 16th century).
"Saint Clare".
Oil on panel.
Provenance: Convent of Santa Clara in Úbeda (Jaén).
Bibliography: Los primitivos de Santa Clara de Úbeda.
Repainting and restorations.
Measurements: 159 x 94 cm .
This panel, together with four other panels, The Annunciation, The Nativity, The Epiphany and The Crying over the Dead Christ, all dedicated to the life of the Virgin, by the painter Alonso Villanueva, originated in the disentailed convent of Santa Clara in Úbeda, from which they left in 1922 to go to the collection of Carlos Pickman in Seville.
Alonso de Villanueva worked in Córdoba between 1510 and the 1540s and is therefore connected with the group of artists who, with Pedro Romana at their head following the departure of Alejo Fernández to Seville in 1508, supplied the demand for painting in the area, with their output reaching as far as the kingdom of Jaén. The formal characteristics attributed to Romana (expressive restraint, balanced compositions and architectural backgrounds) are in keeping with Villanueva's style, although with a greater emphasis on the Flemish tradition. The length of his production, which reaches the middle of the century, suggests that his aesthetic later took a fully Renaissance turn. Villanueva was in Úbeda on several occasions, attending to the pictorial commissions of a city.