OLD MASTERS, COLONIAL ART, JEWELS & WATCHES
Lot 379:
With an important plateresque base in wood gilded with the fine gold of the time. Size measurements: 76 x 46 x 30 cm. Total measurements with base: 90 x 52 x 33. Origin: Catalan private collection. Very good state of conservation in both the polychrome of the face and hands, as well as the base and the Saint’s clothing. Juan Martínez Montañés (Alcalá la Real, Jaén, March 16, 1568 – Seville, June 18, 1649), the greatest exponent of the Sevillian early Baroque, was a student of Pablo de Rojas, almost twenty years older than him. He was baptized in the parish church of Santo Domingo de Silos, on March 16, 1568, having as godparents Mr. Gil Fernández, provisor of the Abbey of Alcalá la Real, the most important position after that of abbot, and María de Mendoza, wife of councilor Francisco de Aranda. Once the apprenticeship period with Rojas was over, he moved to Seville, where his entire family would follow him. Several artists from Alcalá were already settled there, such as Gaspar de Rages or Raxis, nephew of Rojas. In this city he began to work in a sculpture workshop, which is believed to have been that of Gaspar Núñez Delgado. In 1632 he drew the architectural part of the main altarpiece of the church of San Lorenzo. The sculptures and reliefs were made by Felipe and Francisco Dionisio de Rivas between 1645 and 1652. Reference bibliography: Roldán Salgueiro, Manuel Jesús (2015). MONTAÑÉS, Juan Martínez Montañés and his Sevillian Works. Seville: Maratania Editorial. ISBN 978-84-942411-3-0. Related works: a Saint Ignatius of Loyola, of which Martínez Montañés sculpted the head and hands in 1610, of very similar workmanship, on the occasion of the beatification of the founder of the Society of Jesus, currently preserved in the church of the Annunciation of Sevilla.
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