Juan de Valdés Leal

Juan de Valdés Leal (1622–1690) was a Spanish painter and engraver born in Seville, considered one of the leading representatives of Sevillian Baroque painting. He worked in Córdoba and Seville, becoming known for his intensely dramatic religious paintings. In 1660, he helped found the Seville Academy of Drawing, becoming its president in 1663. His best-known works include In Ictu Oculi and Finis Gloriae Mundi, created for the church of the Hospital de la Caridad, which explore the brevity of life and the inevitability of death.