The Madrid School's Refined Hand Matías de Torres operated within the specific, rigorous framework of the seventeenth-century Madrid school. He did not emerge from a vacuum; his technical development was a direct result of shifting from the rudimentary instruction of his uncle, Tomás Porrino, to the sophisticated training of the era's elite. By 1657, his style had undergone a fundamental correction. This was not a mere change in preference but a structural evolution driven by his contact with Francisco de Herrera el Mozo and the high-level academic circles of the time. He moved away from the…