THE HERMIT'S LOCUS AMOENUS: «EL ARTE Y MORAL PHILOSOFIA» OF LANDSCAPE PAINTING COLLECTIONS IN EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MADRID

Landscape paintings that included religious figures or events were an important facet of the many painting collections formed during the seventeenth century in Spain. The collection of Juan de Fonseca y Figueroa provides a valuable example for the study of this sub-genre and offers a contrast to celebrated case studies such as the landscape gallery of "anchorite paintings" created for the Palace of the Buen Retiro under the patronage of Philip IV. The task of this study is to explore the significance of this sub-genre, on the one hand in the context of the literary interests of Fonseca and on the other through a close reading of the discussion of the perception and representation of landscape in Vicente Carducho's Diálogos de la pintura.