Page 129 - The mystery of faith

Fig. 2a Fig. 2b

almond-shaped eyes, with a very slight bulge at the bottom lid, suggest a distant gaze, deliberately
removed from the viewer, again an impression that is very different from the naturalism and sense of
communion seen in the later work in Seville. However, the hairstyle of the Villamartín piece differs from
that in the present work. It is closely modelled, without volume, and ends in tendrils about halfway to
the shoulders, which separate to reveal delicate ears. This particular feature is repeated in another ‘life-
size’ Infant Christ on Tenerife in the Church of San Pedro, El Sauzal (Fig. 4). Here, the Child is fully
clothed in long robes that reveal only the feet and the Sacred Heart at the neckline, which is probably
a later addition.5 The fact that the Villamartín piece and the sculpture in Tenerife share similarly shaped
heads and fringed hairstyles therefore indicates that the 1606 Infant Christ could not have been the
sculptor’s earliest version of this subject, but instead must have evolved from these earlier works made
during the last years of the sixteenth century.6 These works were possibly influenced by the knowledge
of Dutch examples of the Christ Child that were incorporated into figure groups made for convents in
the Netherlands,7 and indeed certain stylistic features, like the almost triangular hairstyle arranged in
three small tufts to evoke his place in the Holy Trinity, which is shared by both the present work and
the 1606 sculpture, possibly derive from Flemish Mannerist engravings of the subject.

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