El Martirio de san Esteban de Quintana y los orígenes de la ciudad santa idealizada

In the last stage of his life, Cristóbal Hernández de Quintana painted the Martyrdom of St. Stephen. The painting was purchased in 1781 to be placed in the main sacristy of the new church of La Concepción de La Orotava, still unfinished. The message of the painting was clear: to teach priests by the example of the saint’s death. Quintana had used various sources to compose the scene, some of them coming from engravings by important European masters, with a city of Jerusalem that was rooted in a utopian and idealized vision of long trajectory.