Page 103 - The mystery of faith

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4

he established the workshop necessitated by the many commissions he received over the years.
Although he worked in Cordoba between 1673 and 1679, and was in Granada again around 1680, he
returned to Malaga, where he died in 1688.

Pedro de Mena is particularly noted for several types of religious sculptures that were repeated a
number of times in his workshop: the half-length Ecce Homo (Fig. 4; see cat. no. 7 here); the bust-
length Dolorosa (Sorrowing Virgin); and the standing figure of the Penitent Magdalene. As is the case
with the refined facial features of this Franciscan saint and the delicate tracery of the veins and tendons
in his hands, the works from Mena’s workshop are of consistently high quality. However, the areas of
the figure that are articulated and meant to be covered with clothing were undoubtedly assigned to the
workshop. Most of the sculptors active in the south of Spain during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries depended on large workshops for the production of the many commissions they received.

103