Page 157 - The mystery of faith

Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6

Its exterior entrance is majestic. The first part consists of four very tall Doric half-columns, with their
corresponding cornices. Between the columns there are three doors, the main one is arched and flanked
by two smaller square ones. Above the main portal there is a balcony and above the two smaller doorways
are two niches with images of Jesuit saints. Also between the two central columns is an image of the
Inmaculada, and in the other two niches, images of Saint Isidore and Saint Leandro; all made in clay by
the famous sculptor Pedro Roldán. On the cornice there is another balcony that [with] the image of Faith;
the whole thing capped by two attractive towers that grow on either side of a tall and airy half-domed
lantern...27

Based on formal analysis and accepting Bernales’s dating of the works to 1656, these sculptures of Saint
Francis Xavier and Saint Francis Borgia would fit perfectly into Roldán’s known corpus. They can be
placed between his first two documented commissions, the sculptures ornamenting the retablo of the
main altar in the convent church of Santa Ana in Montilla (Cordoba), which date between 1652 and
1654 (Fig. 1); and the two versions of Saint Michael Archangel in Seville, one in parish the church of
Marchena (Fig. 2), and the other for the Confraternity of the Seven Words, both of which date to 1657.
The masterly strokes of the gouge, used to suggest the scant Jesuit beards, and the finesse of the fingers
that give the poses a particular elegance are all hallmarks of Roldán’s work. Another example of
Roldán’s signature style is illustrated in a Saint John the Evangelist, a documented work from 1662,
which is conserved in the priory church of El Puerto de Santa María, Cadiz (Fig. 3). Even more
illuminating is the carving of Saint Ignatius Loyola in the Museo Nacional Colegio de San Gregorio in
Valladolid (Fig. 4). Here, the saint is depicted standing dressed in a Jesuit habit decorated in black and

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