Page 137 - The mystery of faith

Child (Alcalá de Henares, Antezana Hospital, 1611; Fig. 5) and Virgin and Child (much repainted;
Seville Museum, c.1623; Fig. 6). Since the piece under discussion lacks a fully detailed provenance
other than that it originated in a private collection in Cordoba and twenty years ago was in the hands
of a collector–dealer, any argument for an attribution must derive from stylistic comparison.

This Inmaculada composition has a significantly majestic pose. The emphasis, despite full detailing in
the round, is on the frontal viewpoint so as to hold the viewer’s attention. In this respect it differs from
similar pieces made by Mesa’s master, where the head tends to be tilted and slightly turned with grace
and modesty. This characteristic is strongly reinforced by the joined hands that are held together on the
same axis with the head, the only contrapposto being the Virgin’s slightly flexed right leg. The entire
figure is swathed in an extravagantly estofado decorated abundance of swirling drapery, whose
luxurious sense of movement counteracts the static monumentality by conveying a very Baroque
reverberation of the essential sacred purpose of the imagery.

The mantle, pinned at the breast, enfolds the body in a vigorous curve that covers her right arm, falling
from her left arm in gentle vertical undulations. This decorous sensuality is the result of the artist’s effort
– and indeed that of an entire school - to construct the iconography of the Virgin Immaculate, a dogma
which is by its very nature antithetical to the sensual world, without sacrificing any sense of the
naturalism or expression which Spanish Baroque sculptors had taken such pains to achieve. Another
naturalistic detail of this work is the absence of a veil, which is a traditional signifier of feminine modesty
and gravitas that dates back to ancient Rome. But in the iconography of the Virgin Immaculate, Mary is
depicted as young woman or even a girl, and therefore unveiled. Therefore, it appears that Mesa took

Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6

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