Page 163 - The mystery of faith

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3a

was commissioned by the brotherhood of the same name. This work, which is currently undergoing
restoration at the Instituto Andaluz de Patrimonio Histórico, provides us with a prototypical example
of this sculptor’s treatment of infant anatomy and shares several formal similarities with the present
Infant Baptist.

In July 1680, the former Confraternity of Saint John the Evangelist (now called the Confraternity of the
Seven Words) commissioned Gijón to make its processional platform. This project included eight reliefs
bristling with twenty-four sculptures of cherubim, with four angels at the corners. Apparently, however,
the work was not completed until eight years later and in fact the brotherhood actually engaged
Bernardo Simón de Pineda to construct the platform according to a finished drawing. By 1688, the
angels had been completed (Fig. 2) and possibly some of the cherubim. However, these were presumably
similar to the cherubim incorporated into Gijón’s processional litter for the Confraternity del Gran
Poder (Fig. 3a). This platform, completed between 1688 and 1692, was meant to carry the superb
image of the Jesus of Nazareth by Juan de Mesa. It formed the model for other such processional litters
commissioned by the various Sevillian confraternities. The Gran Poder contract does not list everything
required of this commission and there were probably modifications and additions to the final work
since its completion was delayed for four years. However, this platform does incorporate precisely
twenty-four putti, which in style and form are startlingly similar to the present work (Fig. 3b).

A year earlier, in 1687, Gijón was hired to make the processional litter and sculptures for the
Confraternity of San Isidoro. Recently found within the precepts of the brotherhood are two of the

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