Page 17 - The mystery of faith

‘A PECULIAR STYLE OF SCULPTURE’

The altar-piece is by Roldan. It is an Entombment of the Saviour (Fig. 1), done in relief, and in the same
style as the Descent from the Cross, by the same artist, which is the altar-piece of the Sagrario or parish
church attached to the Cathedral. I mention them, as very remarkable specimens of a peculiar style of
sculpture, said by some to be found only in Spain, though existing, as I have heard, in some parts of
Northern Europe. They are carved in wood, and coloured to life. The back-ground is painted likewise.
The groups are fixed in planes successively receding, and the figures are in greater or less relief, according
to the exigencies of the composition. It is impossible to form an idea of the effect of these works, from
any product of the chisel that is to be seen elsewhere; for to the ordinary capabilities of sculpture, they
add every illusion within the compass of the sister art, and a truthfulness of perspective which neither
marble nor canvas can command. Standing at some distance from them, you seem to have the very life
before you. You feel as if you had broken in upon the solemn ceremonies they commemorate, and for a
moment you restrain your steps in awe. Until I had seen these works, I had indulged the common and
very sapient contempt for coloured sculpture: but what is there that is contemptible, in the hands of a man
of genius?1

M r Wallis’s appreciative response to Pedro Roldán’s
altarpiece in the church of the Hospital of Charity
in Seville is carefully described to a reader whom
he assumes is unfamiliar with this ‘peculiar style
of sculpture’. He correctly notes that ‘coloured sculpture’ was
not only created in Spain, but in Northern Europe (from the
fifteenth century until Protestant iconoclasm). Certainly, not all
sculpture made in Spain by Spanish artists was of this ‘peculiar
style’, for columns and their historiated capitals and portals
guarded by saintly figures had long been carved from local stone.
Alabaster was favoured for tomb sculptures; marble was
imported from Italy during the Renaissance; and, following the
death of Queen Isabella in 1504, the Spanish court favoured
Italian artists and their works in marble and bronze.

When King Philip II (r. 1556–1598) wanted large bronze
sculptures for the main altarpiece in the basilica of the
monastery/palace at El Escorial he commissioned them from
Pompeo Leoni in Milan, and the finished pieces were transported
over the Pyrenees to Spain. In the seventeenth century, the Italian
sculptor Pietro Tacca was commissioned to create a bronze
equestrian statue of King Philip IV (r. 1621–1665). The Sevillian

Fig. 1

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