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The painter, engraver and mathematician Lucas Valdés (1661-1725) was the only son of Juan Valdés Leal (1622-1690) and has traditionally been considered his only true successor. However, despite the dependence of his early work to the activity of his father’s highly regarded workshop, Lucas Valdés was a learned, self-sufficient and original artist, endowed with an outstanding technique thanks to the variety of his oeuvre, consisting of wall decorations, prints, canvas paintings and drawings. The scarce bibliography devoted so far to Lucas Valdés verifies the sheer complexity of demarcating his autograph work, which largely lies in the lack of attention paid to his academic training and scientific knowledge, both fundamental to the development of his artistic career.

Este artículo analiza la disputa que suscitó en el siglo XIX la conservación de las pinturas murales barrocas realizadas por Lucas Valdés en el atrio del Hospital de Venerables Sacerdotes (Sevilla). Frente a los defensores de la restauración de los murales por su alto valor artístico, otros justificaron su sustitución por su lamentable estado de deterioro. El debate involucró a las principales instituciones decimonónicas responsables del patrimonio y reclamó el dictamen de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando y la Real Academia de la Historia, en Madrid, como máximas autoridades responsables de la custodia del patrimonio nacional.