Juan Martínez Montañés

In thisSpanish name,the first or paternalsurnameisMartínezand the second or maternal family name isMontañés.

Portrait of MontañésbyDiego Velázquez,1636

'Saint John the Baptist', painted and gilded wood statue by Juan Martínez Montañés, Spanish, 1st third of 17th century,Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cristo de la Clemencía,detail; commissioned in 1603, Cathedral sacristy,Seville

Juan Martínez Montañés(March 16, 1568 – June 18, 1649), known asel Dios de la Madera(the God of Wood), was a Spanishsculptor,born atAlcalá la Real,in theprovince of Jaén.He was one of the most important figures of theSevillian school of sculpture,and is known for developing theencarnaciónsculpting technique.

Biography

Juan Martínez Montañés was born on March 16, 1568, in Alcalá la Real, Jaén, Spain. His master was Pablo de Roxas.

His first known work, dating to 1597, is the gracefulSt. Christopherin the church of El Salvador atSeville.HisBoy Christ(dated 1607) is in thesacristyof thecathedral of Seville.His masterpiece, the great altar ofSt Jeromeat San Isidoro del Campo,Santiponce,near Seville, was contracted in 1609 and completed in 1613. Montañés executed most of his sculpture in wood, which wasgessoed,polychromed and gilded.

Other works were the great altars at Santa Clara in Seville and at San Miguel inJerez,theImmaculate Conceptionand the realistic figure of Christ Crucified inCristo de la Clemencìa,commissioned in 1603,in the sacristy of Seville cathedral (illustration); the figure ofSt John the Baptist,and theSt Bruno(1620); a tomb for Don Pérez de Guzmán and his wife (1619); the highly realistic polychromed wood head and hands ofSt Ignatius of Loyola(1610) and ofSt Francis Xavierin the university church of Seville, where the costumed figures were used in celebrations.

Montañés achieved great fame in his lifetime; he died in 1649, leaving a large family. His works are more realistic than imaginative, but this, allied with an impeccable taste, produced remarkable results. In 1635, in preparation for the bronze equestrian statue ofKing Philip IVbyPietro Tacca,Montañés went toMadridand spent seven months there modelling a portrait of Philip IV. The work was sent to Tacca in Florence as primary reference for the King, and the statue was finished in 1640. During his stay in Madrid he had hisportraitpainted byDiego Velázquez,whose tutor had worked for him.

He had many imitators, including his son Alonzo Martínez, who died in 1668. His students includedJuan de Mesa.

Saint Christopher(1597)

Immaculate La cieguecita (1631)

Francis Borgia(1624)

Cristo de la Clemencia (1603)

Saint Bruno(1634)

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Montañes, Juan Martinez".Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.This work in turn cites:
  • B. Haendeke,Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen Plastik(Strassburg, 1900)
  • F. Gomez,Historia de la escultura en España(Madrid, 1885).

External links

• Euroweb Gallery:illustrations
• Marie Louise Adelaide Handley (1913)."Juan Martínez Montañés".In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Velázquez,an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Juan Martínez Montañés (see index)