MANUEL LÓPEZ CEPERO AND THE REFORM OF THE UNIVERSITY CHAPEL OF SEVILLE

Abstract

The disclosure of the neoclassical style that Antonio Ponz developed in his Viage de España exerted a decisive infl uence on the artistic circles in Spain. For instance, the opinions expressed in this work were used in many churches like a plan to remove the baroque adornments. This happened in the old Jesuit Church of the Annunciation in Seville, owned by the Hispalense University since 1771. We study in this paper the restoration of the building under the direction of the priest and art collector Manuel López Cepero between 1836 and 1842, when the ancient baroque altarpieces, that Ponz had strongly criticized, were replaced by renaissance tombs coming from the convents extinguished by the disentailment of ecclesiastical propierties.