Martyrdom of St Agnes

In Valencia, the Italian Renaissance was established on firmer foundations than elsewhere in Spain. Valencian painting from about 1520 to the end of the century revolves around the dynasty created by Vicente Masip whose style was formed in the period just before Fernando Llanos and Fernando Yanez arrived in Valencia, bringing Italian Renaissance influences to Valencian painting. Masip subsequently assimilated the style of these more advanced artists. In his art, Masip embodied four distinct stages of Italian painting, beginning with the Emilia-Paduan style of the later Quattrocento and passing through Leonardo and early Sebastiano del Piombo to Raphael. Although he lived until 1550, his interest in Italian art seems to have ended with Raphael; there are no traces of Mannerism in his work.

The Martyrdom of St Agnes, executed for the Convent Church of San Juli�n, Valencia, incorporates motifs from Raphael’s Stanza d’Eliodoro and the tapestries of the Acts of the Apostles, woven for the Sistine Chapel.