Page 123 - The mystery of faith

Adán was born in Pinto in 1532, and studied under the sculptor Esteban Jamete in Cuenca and with
Juan Bautista Vázquez the Elder in Toledo. When Vázquez moved to Seville around 1558–1559, he
took Adán with him along with the sculptor Jerónimo Hernández. Over the next forty years they,
together with other artists, comprised the early School of Seville, which evolved from those Mannerist
artists working in Seville who were informed largely by the work of Montañés, but increasingly focused
on naturalism. These artists were further connected by their relationship to the architect Hernán Ruiz
II, who facilitated most, if not all, of their major contracts.12 The School of Seville later became
galvanized through various family connections, such as Juan de Oviedo the Elder, who was the uncle
of the sculptor Juan de Oviedo. Oviedo then became father-in-law to the painter Diego de Salcedo, and
from 1596 engaged his son-in-law as his main painter. These artists lived and worked in the heart of
Seville and, along with Gaspar del Águila, were to become closely influenced by the work of Montañés.
They worked together on some of the most important main altarpieces of the old kingdom of Seville
(Alcalá de Guadaíra, Palomares del Río, Sanlúcar de Barrameda y Utrera), but their style is not clearly
identifiable because they often worked on such complex projects together and, moreover, several of
these artists overlap in style throughout differing phases of their career.

Amongst Adán’s followers were Juan de Oviedo and Luis de Haya. In 1610, Adán died in Seville,
shortly after Gaspar Núñez Delgado, bringing to an end the early Mannerist phase of the School of
Seville and opening the way to the new sculptural language of Baroque naturalism as typified by
Montañés.

1 Matthew 17:1–9. 7 E. GÓMEZ PIÑOL, La Iglesia Colegial del Salvador, Seville
2000, pp. 92–94, and pl. 476.
2 J. PALOMERO PÁRAMO, El retablo sevillano del 8 J. LUIS ROMERO TORRES, Martínez Montañés, escultor,
Renacimiento: análisis y evolución (1560–1629), Seville Madrid 2009 (forthcoming publication).
1983, pp. 438–440. See also A. PLEGUEZUELO, Diego López 9 GÓMEZ PIÑOL, La Iglesia Colegial del Salvador cit., pp.
Bueno, ensamblador, escultor y arquitecto, Colección Arte 309–313, pl. 395.
Hispalense, 64, Seville 1994, pp. 38, 39, 65 and 66. 10 B. NAVARRETE PRIETO, La pintura andaluza del siglo XVII
y sus fuentes grabadas, Madrid 1998, p. 287, pls. 290–291.
3 C. LÓPEZ MARTÍNEZ, Desde Martínez Montañés hasta 11 PALOMERO PÁRAMO, El retablo sevillano del Renacimiento
Pedro Roldán, Seville 1932, p. 65. cit., p. 364.
12 Ibid., pp. 207.
4 C. LÓPEZ MARTÍNEZ, Retablos y esculturas de traza
sevilliana, Seville 1928, pp. 128–130.

5 LÓPEZ MARTÍNEZ, Desde Martínez Montañés cit., p. 237.

6 Ibid., p. 67.

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