Page 187 - The mystery of faith

1 The head was carved in two pieces so that to increase the
sense of realism the eyes were applied from the back and
then the two pieces of the head joined.
2 L. ALONSO DE LA SIERRA FERNÁNDEZ, ‘Nuevos datos sobre
la vida y obra del escultor José Montes de Oca’, in Atrio, no. los santos (de la G a la O), Barcelona 1997, pp. 381–385).
4, Seville 1992, p. 71.
3 A. TORREJÓN DÍAZ, El escultor José Montes de Oca, Seville
1987, p. 40.
4 Ibid., passim.
5 Ibid., pp. 42–43.
6 J. M. GONZÁLEZ GÓMEZ, ‘Imágenes del siglo XVIII en la
Semana Santa de Écija’, in Laboratorio de Arte, no. 2,
Seville 1989, pp. 153–155.
7 TORREJÓN DÍAZ, El escultor José Montes de Oca cit., p. 87.
8 See J. M. SÁNCHEZ PEÑA, Escultura genovesa. Artífices del
setecientos en Cádiz, Cadiz 2006, pp. 89–184.
9 In fact, the list of saints who originated from the African
continent is quite long, even by the seventeenth century.
However, most of these were Egyptians or North Africans,
and the colour of their skin was not a recognized part of
their iconography. Another possible identification of Saint
Martin of Porres was considered, but his inclusion in the
Order of Santo Domingo, with their very different black and
white habits, and the fact that he was not canonized until
1837, made this theory unsupportable.
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10 Saint Maurice was a Roman general in the third century.
His name is a corruption of Moses, and through popular
etymology eventually morphed into Moro or Mauro, which
to some degree explains his representation as a black man
(see L. REAU, Iconografía del arte cristiano. Iconografía de
11 AA. VV., Diccionario de los Santos, Madrid 2000, vol. I,
p. 339.
12 Often included within the ample diversity of
representations of Saint Benedict of Nursia in Abad (one of
the larger Benedictine communities) is an open book similar
to that in the present sculpture. This is a reference to the
Book of the Rule of Saint Benedict.
13 Likewise, in 1671, when King Ferdinand was canonized,
the canons of Seville Cathedral organized an entire series of
events and festivities. Apart from the architectural
monument known as the ‘Triomfo’, Pedro Roldán was also
commissioned to create a sculpture of San Fernando to
preside over the liturgical ceremony and then carried in a
procession on May 26 (see J. RODA PEÑA, ‘Los encargos
escultóricos de las instituciones sevillanas durante el reinado
de Carlos II’, in J. LUIS ROMERO TORRES and A. TORREJÓN
DÍAZ, Roldana, exhibition catalogue, Consejería de Cultura
de la Junta de Andalucía, Seville 2007, p. 80.