Utopía and an interesting sketch from the end of the 16th century: the sketches for a high altarpiece and ironwork screen in a Sevillian convent.

Abstract

Despite the importance which altarpiece architecture had in Sevillian artistic life in the 16th and 17th centuries, little evidence remains of the sketches and plans for these religious pieces. This makes the sketches which were made between 1585 and 1593 for the high altar of the convent of the Gracious St. Mary, which no longer exists, ali the more significan!. The altarpiece is characterized by the Romanistic preferences of the artists of the time, while the screen is in the mannerist style. Neither of these projects was in fact carried out, although they were of interest to such artists as Francisco Pacheco, Juan Martínez Montañés, Juan de Oviedo, Andrés de Ocampo, Diego López Bueno and others. These studies may have been kept in the care of the grand master of Cathedral works in Granada, Asensio de Maeda.