4. Real Iglesia de San Andrés Apóstol

Art direction: Paco Azorín

Design and production: Pedro Chamizo

The Flight into Egypt, Alessandro Turchi

Prado National Museum  

Alessandro Turchi was, together with Marcantonio Bassetti and Pasquale Orrino, one of the three leading Veronese artists of the first half of the seventeenth century. In this oil painting, he portrays the Virgin, with the Child on a donkey, led by the halter by an angel. It was part of an altar at San Romualdo in Rome, as described in texts of the period. An autograph replica is kept in the Manchester City Galleries. A small copy is in the Museum of Naples, and others are in private collections.

The Virgin nursing the Child, Master of don Álvaro de Luna

Prado National Museum

The artist of this panel is traditionally referred to as the Master of the Luna Family. His relationship with the Mendoza family, which was close to the court, gave him access to some Flemish paintings, which he used when producing his own. The Master of the Luna Family sets the Virgin in a bourgeois interior, much in the taste of Flemish painters. The fireplace on the right and the window on the left are found in works by the School of Tournai. Mary is shown in front of a brocaded canopy, resting her feet on a brocade cushion and seated on a heavy wooden throne set on a tiled floor. The four lions that crown the chair arms make this the throne of Solomon, exalting Christ as the King of Israel and his mother.

San Andrés is one of the oldest parish churches in the City. The saints, San Isidro Labrador and Santa María de la Cabeza, were parishioners. They attended the church, and he was buried here. During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, the church was reformed in the Gothic style. A raised passage was also constructed for direct access from the palace of the Laso de Castilla family. In the sixteenth century, the Bishop’s chapel was built adjoining it. The chapel later became a separate church, and the saint’s body was moved there in 1535. The old church collapsed in 1656 and was rebuilt modestly while the San Isidro chapel was being built.

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