Page 190 - The mystery of faith

FELIPE BIGARNY

(Langres, France c. 1475 – 1542 Toledo)

19. Bust of a Veiled Woman

Marble
43 cm (approx. 17 in.)
PROVENANCE: Galeria Caylus, Madrid

E vidently inspired by Roman models of female portraiture, this expressive bust of a veiled
woman was sculpted with a sense of torsion that allows it to be viewed from a variety of
angles, though it was probably made to be displayed in a niche. Since we have no concrete
evidence of the work’s original provenance, its subject must remain a matter for conjecture.
The idealized features and canonical proportions of this clearly Italianate marble sculpture point
towards a late Renaissance or Mannerist sculptor inspired by the antique. The sculpture was made by
Felipe Bigarny (Felipe Vigarny, Felipe Biguerny or Felipe de Borgoña), a Burgundian-born artist who
worked for almost his entire career in Castile and was one of the key figures responsible for importing
Italian Renaissance motifs into Spanish sculpture during the sixteenth century.

When the bust is viewed frontally, that is, squarely in line with the plinth, as it would no doubt
originally have been installed, the face and hairstyle appear perfectly symmetrical. However, if we draw
an imaginary line down the centre of the face, bisecting it along the vertical axis, we can see that the
parting of the hair is actually to the right of centre, almost as if the sculpture were wearing a wig that
had slipped. Bigarny appears to have deliberately included this asymmetry so that the image would have
appeared utterly balanced in its intended position, and probably worked the block of marble carving
from side to side, first from left to right, and then from right to left. On this same imaginary central
axis, we can also see that the artist divided the face into three equal zones: the forehead, the nose, and
the mouth and chin. The work, therefore, appears to have been based not only on classical models, but
also on classical technique, specifically in the use of point measurement in which the sculptor followed
a formal canon. This was often derived by directly measuring points on the surface of a successful
finished sculpture and working out a geometric formula of proportions to adapt its shape and
individual features to a specific size.1

Bigarny divided the head effectively into six sections: three from top to bottom that are bisected by the
central axis. The facial features are strongly delineated, and a clear curve runs from the brow along the
part of the thick waves of hair that frame the heart-shaped face. This primary curve is flanked by the
two great semicircular areas of the eyes and eyebrows. A third curve describes the jawline containing
the complex interplay of small expressive lines forming the lips and chin.

Bust portraiture, specifically of female subjects, was particularly popular in ancient Rome and reached
its technical zenith during the first and second centuries, partly because both the Julio-Claudian and

190