The artistic production of the 17th and 18th centuries
An important patrimony as a symbol of social prestige.
The Baroque left numerous exhibitions in Baena both in the civil and religious spheres, those related to the brotherhoods occupying a prominent place.
Magnificent altarpieces, cloistered courtyards, carved stone portals… a whole compendium that shows a stage of artistic splendor reflected in numerous monuments in the town. The Casa del Monte , with its central niche full of rockeries, the stately homes on Mesones street, the courtyards of the Jesús Nazareno hospital and the Espíritu Santo school, are some of the most outstanding examples. However, it will be the churches of San Francisco and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe that show the most representative set of this artistic movement.
The first of these was declared a National Monument in 1983 and its main altarpiece, the work of Jerónimo Sánchez de Rueda, is considered one of the greatest exponents of Andalusian Baroque. Very worthy of appreciation are its mural paintings and the important collection of imagery that relates it to the Granada and Seville schools of the 18th century and whose most representative examples are the carvings of Ecce Homo (popularly known as Jesús de la Ventana), Jesús de Scourges and Jesus Nazareno. For its part, what was the church of the disappeared Dominican convent also stands out for its splendid main altarpiece and the chapel of the Virgen del Rosario, where an exuberant sample of plasterwork Baroque is a clear exponent of this art together with its own titular image or those of the Dulce Nombre brotherhood, including that of San Juan and Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, works by Pedro de Mena made at the beginning of the seven hundredth century.
