Convent of the Incarnation, Mercedarian convent in Osuna, Spain.

The Convent of the Incarnation is a monastery building in Osuna with a brick front marked by distinctive pilasters and a divided pediment. Inside sits a church with a single nave covered by a barrel vault that spans its length.

Built in 1549 as the Hospital de la Encarnación del Hijo de Dios, the building was used in the early 17th century as a college of the Society of Jesus, which later moved to the church of San Carlos El Real. In 1626 it became a monastery of Discalced Mercedarian nuns under the patronage of Catalina Enríquez de Ribera, Duchess of Osuna.

The convent belongs to the Mercedarias Descalzas, an order founded for the redemption of captives, and its church holds the Virgin of Mercy sculpture framed by Solomonic columns on the 18th-century main altarpiece. In the museum rooms off the cloister hang a Dolorosa by Francisco Meneses Osorio dated 1703, a Hispano-Flemish panel of the Descent from the Cross from the early 16th century, and a fired-clay head of Saint John the Baptist.

The church is entered from the street through the brick facade; the cloister, with its marble columns and tiled base, is reached from inside the church. The museum rooms open off the cloister and hold the 1703 Dolorosa by Francisco Meneses Osorio, a Hispano-Flemish panel of the Descent and a fired-clay head of John the Baptist.

The cloister's tiled dado, made in 18th-century Seville, depicts the five senses, the seasons, views of Seville's Alameda de Hércules, nuns praying in the choir, and scenes of bullfighting and hunting. Look for the Alameda views, which tie the convent to a specific Sevillian streetscape.