Page 138 - The mystery of faith

specific advantage of this feature (or lack thereof) to showcase his talents as a carver and painter to
render the virgin’s hair in great detail. The abundantly long curling tresses are formed closely and
somewhat flatly from the forehead and extend over the neck and back of the shoulders, issuing onto the
breast thick tendrils on either side of the neck. The precisely modelled stands which frame the face and
cover the shoulders, gradually diffuse down the upper back into more softly carved tendrils that
eventually terminate in simply brush stokes of brown pigment. This, perhaps is an example of how
Spanish Baroque sculptors borrowed from painters of the time, to incorporate a sense of optical illusion
into their work. The fine and precise strands that frame the face and cover the head dissolve into more
sketchy and lighter shapes on the back. This, perhaps, is an indication of the transformation of an
earlier Baroque aesthetic into pictorial concepts of optical illusionism, already seen in other Juan de
Mesa pieces.

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