Painting ‘Divina Pastora’ by Alonso Tovar presented tomorrow
The painting ‘Divina Pastora’ by the Spaniard Alonso Miguel Tovar (1678-1758), who was the object of a restoration in Portugal, by José de Oliveira Mendes, is presented next Wednesday at the Literary Guild, in Lisbon, announced this institution.
The painting ‘Divina Pastora’ “was one of the earliest oil paintings on the canvas of this typically Sevillian invocation, and one of the most relevant ones known, since it is an offer from Tovar himself to the parish church of his native village,” Higuera de la Sierra, in the Andalusian province of Huelva, southern Spain.
The restoration intervention was sponsored by a Portuguese patron who put as a condition the painting to be presented in Lisbon, where it will be on display only on Wednesday in the Literary Guild.
In this presentation, which will be presided over by Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, Manuel Clemente, the historical, artistic and spiritual contextualization will be in charge of Father Román Villalón, scientific commissioner of the exhibition “Alonso Miguel de Tovar y la Divina Pastora”, which is inaugurated in January 22 in Huelva, Andalusia.
Professor José de Oliveira Mendes, for his part, will give a brief explanation on the procedures that were applied for the recovery of oil on canvas.
José de Oliveira Mendes is a member of the Center for Research in Science and Technology of the Arts (CITAR), the Portuguese Catholic University, and holds a Doctorate in Conservation and Restoration of Painting from this university, and has been a conservator-restorer of easel painting since 1996, collaborating , among other institutions, with José de Figueiredo Laboratory and the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage.
His research area is the old painting, highlighting, according to the same source, “the deepening of the technical study of the totality of the work attributed to the painter Nuno Gonçalves.
The Spanish priest Álvaro Román Villalón holds a doctorate in theology with a specialization in Mariology from the Pontifical Marian College in Rome in 2009, with the highest rank in defence of the thesis “La Divina Pastora in the writings of Friar Isidoro de Sevilla”. professor at the Center for Theological Studies of Seville of the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of that city and the Diocesan Seminary of Cadiz.
Román Villalón is a member of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, the Spanish Mariological Society and the Italian Interdisciplinary Mariological Association, and author of several books and scientific articles related to Divina Pastora’s dedication.
This Catholic devotion to the Divine Shepherd was spread by Friar Isidore of Seville, “based on the model painted by Tovar.”
The exhibition in January, in Huelva, will feature works from various institutions, such as the Prado National Museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
