Page 228 - The mystery of faith

LUIS FERNÁNDEZ DE LA VEGA

(Llantones, Asturias fl. 1601 – 1675 Oviedo)

24. Inmaculada Concepción

c. 1650–1660
Wood, polychromed
64 cm high (25 ¼ in.)
PROVENANCE: Francisco Marcos, Salamanca

T he attribution to Luis Fernández de la Vega is once again based on certain formal similarities
that the present sculpture shares with documented works by this artist.1 While we do not
know where Fernández de la Vega received his sculpture training, his style reflects a certain
familiarity with sculpture produced in Valladolid during the first third of the seventeenth
century, most particularly the work of Gregorio Fernández (Sarria, Lugo, c. 1576–1636, Valladolid).
Therefore, Fernández de la Vega should be considered a follower of Gregorio, and one who was
especially aware of the latter’s work in Asturias and its influence on local artists.

Fernández de la Vega’s earliest documented work is his altarpiece in the Monastery of San Vicente,
Oviedo (1638), and his altarpiece and sculpture for the Chapel of the Vigiles in Oviedo Cathedral,
which he began in 1641. This latter work is a mature example of his knowledge and control of the
aesthetic lessons he had gleaned from the work of Gregorio Fernández and the School of Valladolid.2
All of the sculptor’s artistic activity took place in Asturias, first in Gijón and then in Oviedo, extending
throughout the middle decades of the seventeenth century, a period that includes his commission for
important altarpieces in Oviedo Cathedral, such as the work in the Chapel of the Vigiles and the
sculpture in the Chapel of Santa Barbara (after 1658).3

In the present Inmaculada, Fernández de la Vega followed a model, which was created by Gregorio
Fernández in the School of Valladolid and subsequently spread throughout Spain by his disciples and
followers.4 The model was based on a symmetrical frontal composition, sculpted in the round,
probably around a hollow core, and these features necessarily impart a sense of calm and stasis.
Following theological and dogmatic guidelines of the time, the Virgin Mary is represented as a young,
barely pubescent girl, with a rounded head and cylindrical neck, her hands clasped at her breast in
prayer. The head is held slightly stiffly, with the gaze directed on high. The hair falls in thick undulating
locks over the shoulders, leaving the forehead and face framed by short curls, but otherwise
unobscured. As is customary, the dress is reduced to two garments: a white tunic with estofado
decorations of large floral bouquets. The tunic is cinched just above the waist by a blue cord girdle, and
covered by a blue mantle decorated with gilded stars that falls symmetrically on both sides creating
cylindrical folds, which are carved to appear gathered at the back by a pin, creating more elaborate
patterns of folds. The mantle is decorated with a wide gilded border figured with foliate motifs, painted
with the point of the brush.

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