La Purissima at the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca: Italian Baroque in

La Purissima at the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca: Italian Baroque in Salamanca

A recent event at the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca focused on the Agustinian complex in Salamanca and its annexed church, known as La Purissima. The subject is also the object of a newly published edited volume that traces the presence of Italian art in this significant Spanish site.

The book, edited by Paola Setaro and released by Campisano Editore (2025), gathers essays by historians and scholars that address artistic, architectural and patronage aspects, offering both rigorous scholarship and the emotive power characteristic of the Baroque.

• Main themes: the movement of Italian artists and works to Salamanca and the role of La Purissima as a cultural bridge between Italy and Spain.
• Key figures: painters such as Ribera, Reni, Lanfranco and Stanzione, and the architect-sculptor Cosimo Fanzago, responsible for the church's rich marble decoration.
• Patronage: Manuel de Zúñiga y Fonseca, 6th Count of Monterrey, a pivotal figure in bringing Italian taste and artists to Spain in the 17th century.

The presentation at the Accademia also examined technical and logistical details, including the prefabrication of the retablo in Naples and its shipment to Salamanca in the 1630s — an example of the complex processes behind major Baroque commissions.

Further information: the event recording is available on the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca's YouTube channel; the edited volume by Paola Setaro can be found through the publisher and specialist bookstores.

For exhibition-goers and scholars of the Baroque, the attention on La Purissima offers a clearer view of transnational artistic networks and presents opportunities to learn about restoration, patronage, and exhibition strategies that keep this chapter of European cultural history alive.