BERNARDO GERMAN Y LLORENTE (Seville, 1685-1757) TROMPE-L'ŒIL STILL LIFES: SCULPTURE AS ALLEGORY OF TOUCH AND MUSIC AS ALLEGORY OF HEARING Pair of paintings The Allegory of Touch is signed on the print "Bernardo Luis Lorente Fec"; Inscription on a letter "To Don Miguel de Molina? Sr. D. Juan Bejarano q? de Dios ? Sebilla"; inscription on a book "Ciceron"; the music score describes the Fugue by Agostino Agazzari (1578-1640), Italian theorist and composer. Old restorations Trompe-l'œil still lifes : Sculpture as allegory of Touch and Music as allegory of Hearing, pair of canvases, with restorations 69 x 50 CM - 27,1 x 19,6 IN. PROVENANCE Private collection, United States ; Private collection, Madrid in 2018. EXHIBITION Sacer, El Martirio de las Cosas, Seville, Espacio Santa Clara, March-May 2016. BIBLIOGRAPHY E. Valdivieso, La Escuela de Murillo, Seville, 2018, pp. 261-264, reproduced in colour. Our two paintings can be compared with the two paintings acquired by the Louvre in 1955, The Allegory of Taste and The Allegory of Smell (RF 1955 17 and RF 195518). The four paintings, which may belong to a series of the Allegory of the Senses, have the same composition: objects on a shelf, prints hanging on the wooden wall and sculptures suspended from the wall, all in the same format. This comparison allows us to date our paintings to around 1730-1740. Bernardo Lorente was Bartolomé Murillo's most talented disciple. He is known as the "Pintor de las Pastoras" for his depictions of the Virgin as a shepherdess. He excelled in portraits and trompe-l'œil, gaining great renown during the presence of the Spanish Court in Seville between 1729 and 1733. He painted the Portrait of the Infante Philip (Seville Museum of Fine Arts). In 1756, he became a founding member of the San Fernando Academy, consolidating his position as one of the most esteemed painters of his time.