Pintura barroca en Valencia (1600−1737) sheds light on a very little-known area of Spanish art history. Developing in parallel to the main artistic centres of Madrid (capital of the Spanish monarchy) and Seville (hub of trade with Spain’s vast overseas territory), Valencia is shown to be a leading place of production for painting during the 1600s and early decades of the 1700s. Through its commercial and cultural ties with Italy, it was directly influenced by foremost artists such as Sebastiano del Piombo, Jusepe de Ribera, Pietro da Cortona, Carlo Maratta and Corrado Giaquinto. The local tradition, which survived under the protection of foremost figures like Juan de Juanes and Juan Sariñena, was enriched by these influences and flourished thanks to the novel contributions of outstanding artists including Francisco Ribalta, Pedro Orrente and Antonio Palomino.

The painting that emerged in their wake was innovative, ambitious and produced by talented artists whose oeuvre makes up a corpus with characteristics of its own which has received only partial attention from art history until now. This book at last studies all Valencian Baroque painting as a whole and for the first time provides biographies of the main painters of the period together with a catalogue of their works, making it an essential aid for learning about and appreciating the art of the period in the kingdom of Valencia and a starting point for future research in this field.

Víctor Marco García (Valencia, 1976), who holds a European PhD in Art History and an Extraordinary Doctorate Award from the University of Alcalá (2010), has focused his studies on Valencian painting of the Modern Age and its connections with other artistic centres. The author of El pintor Vicente Salvador Gómez (Valencia, 1637−1678) (2006) and articles in various specialised publications, he has furthermore contributed to international conferences and exhibitions, such as La luz de las imágenes. Pulchra Magistri. L’esplendor del Maestrat a Castelló (2013), which he curated.