The
common ground on which Baroque sculpture in 17th century Spain is based
has certain peculiar characteristics in Andalusia. The greater classical
tradition in the south of Spain had been reinforced in the last third of
the 16th century with the presence in Seville and Granada of a good number
of artists who, while maintaining the aesthetics of the latter Mannerists
(athletic figures, elegant composition and idealized beauty), manage to
incorporate the first effects of naturalism into the emotions they convey
- Ecce Homo by Gaspar Núñez Delgado. The artistic
formulas coined by these act as the basis for two decisive sculptors to
develop their own style defining the characteristics of this school:
Juan
Martínez Montañés (1568- 1649), known by his contemporaries
in Seville as "the god of wood" because of the exquisite quality
of his sculpting, succeeds in combining in his works a love of beauty,
balance and the serenity of the late classical manner with the naturalism
so typical of the Baroque. This symbiosis gives rise to elegant figures of
upright bodies in restful poses, yet profoundly human and lifelike in
their reflection of contained emotions - Saint John the Evangelist.
The influence of this artist's style spread into all of the sculpture of
Seville to maintain the maestro's interest in beauty and serenity as a
constant element.
As
in the case of Montañés,
Alonso Cano (1601-1667),
successfully combines in his works the persistence of Classicism with the
new dictates of the Baroque to create a new aesthetic ideal with great
repercussions in the sculptural production of Seville and Granada. This
model, based on the purity of form, delicacy and the containment of
expression, is materialized in sculptures with careful anatomy and slender
outline, beautiful oval faces, torn by eyes with a melancholic and pensive
gaze, seeming to enclose behind an external appearance of restfulness an
internal world of profound passion - Saint John the Baptist.The classical patterns marked out by Montañés and Cano were to be maintained as a constant element in the sculptors of Seville during the second third of the 17th century who assimilated their formal expression and repeated many of the iconographic types modelled by them - Child Jesus by Felipe de Rivas. The sculptures produced in the last third of the century added to these masters' teachings the dynamic and theatrical elements of the Baroque school in Europe - Apostle's head by Pedro Roldán.
In Granada, Cano was destined to become the model for generations of youths in the second half of the century, leaving behind him two important followers who, continuing loyally in the intimacy and formal simplicity of their maestro, introduced into their own works a greater exaltation of expressive values.
Pedro
de Mena (1628-1688). His art is based on the contributions of
two sculptors: his father, Alonso de Mena, from whom he learnt the basic
skills of his craft and his early leanings in Baroque naturalism before
Alonso Cano conveyed to him his aesthetic model. Following his contacts
with artists from Castile he met at Court, he evolved towards a greater
simplification of form and an additional spiritual content in his figures
to achieve through this combination an approximation to the perfect
definition of pure sentiments or states of mind - ecstasy in Saint
Peter of Alcántara, pain in Ecce Homo.José de Mora (1642-1724). His style is similar to that of Mena in his enjoyment of formal simplicity and expressive intensity, yet he opposes the realistic pain expressed by Mena with works that are distinguished by a stress that is closer to pathos and seems to derive from his own complex and sickly personality. The faces of his statues, with expressions of introspection and extremely sad gazes, are the vehicle for such concentrated and distant suffering that their resignation seems to deny any possibility of communication and consolation - Virgin of Solitude - attracting the spectator by the sense of defencelessness they convey.
The model recreated by these two sculptors remained in force in the 18th century although somewhat filtered by a gracefulness and refinement already approaching those of the Rococo - Virgin Mary by José Risueño - which transformed what had before been a true sense of pain into thoughtful meditation.
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