ABSTRACT
Traditionally, Siguenza's anecdote has been used to highlight Philip's strict orthodoxy regarding religious iconography in the advent of the Counter-Reformation. At the same time, the inclusion of still life details in religious compositions became a hallmark of Spanish Baroque painting, as can be seen in examples by Pacheco himself, Diego Velazquez, Francisco Zurbaran, and many others. Zuccaro's failure at the Escorial vividly exemplifies the extent to which the decrees of the Council of Trent—iconographic correctness, clarity of message, and decorum in religious images—were applied in Spain. The painter and critic Vicente Carducho offers another related reason in support of the value of naturalistic details in religious painting in his Dialogos de la pintura. To explain the subject's iconography, Pacheco describes his own version of the theme originally for the refectory of the church of San Clemente in Seville, which is based on Cespedes's painting of the same subject for the refectory of the Jesuit Casa Profesa in Seville.
