Page 256 - The mystery of faith

arms over their chests in an act of devotion. In Catalan art, the lack of other attributes attesting to their
status as allegories of virtue is not unusual in atlantes, but would have been more so for caryatids; the
figures in the altarpiece at Tarassa, for example, bore attributes. Rovira has, instead, appeared to place
particular naturalistic emphasis on the cushions and the thick locks and lush facial hair that lend a
venerable mien to the faces, which appear concentrated in deep thought or veneration. The artist
reveals a good classical appreciation of anatomy in the nude torso of the older bearded Atlante, while
the deep, wide, diagonal folds of the drapery have a controlled Baroque sensibility. The figure is of high
quality and the hair and facial features in both works are strongly reminiscent of Rovira’s Sant Pau.

The expression of the younger moustachioed Atlante, while serious, is more serene and focused
downwards. The figure is more youthful, is not bearded and is therefore rather less comparable to the
aforementioned Sant Pau. However, his drapery – a tunic and a mantle – gathered in severely incised
but elegant folds over the left arm, is remarkably similar to that worn by Sant Pau. In addition, the
treatment of the polychromy is also similar to the Sant Pau, so that it is quite clear that all three works
are by the same hand.

In conclusion, these figures of Atlantes, as well as the extraordinary representation of Sant Pau (which
is considered by the many authorities that have published it to be of exceptional quality) are not only
sculptures of beguiling elegance and beauty in their Baroque severity, but also sculptures that retain a
sense of classicism. It seems clear to the author that they must have been executed between 1640 and
1650 and that they should be attributed to Domènec Rovira. Our suggestion that they probably formed
part of the sagrario of Santa María del Mar must for the time being remain a hypothesis, but the
inherent quality of the figures merits further investigation in this vein.

1 Other Catalan altarpieces including atlantes or caryatids of columns and, depending on their gender, were termed
that survive only in photograph are those attached to the either caryatids or atlantes and telamones. Vitruvius reported
former Convent of Bon Succés, in Barcelona; in the parish that atlantes derived from the Porticus Persica built at Sparta
church of L’Arboç, (photograph in the archives of the out of the spoils of the battle of Plateae and, again, described
Institut Amatller d’Art Hispànic, Barcelona); the Church of these figures as conquered and enslaved Persian soldiers
Santa María, Mataró; and in the Church of Espíritu Santo, (VITRUVIUS, Book I, chap. 1, no. 6). Pausanias, however,
Tarrasa. See A. PÉREZ SANTAMARÍA, ‘Alegorías en los órdenes describes these same statues as identified Persian nobles: ‘On
atlántico y paranínfico del retablo catalán (1611–1740 ca.)’, the pillars are white-marble figures of Persians, including
in Los clasicismos en el arte español, X Congreso del CEHA, Mardonius, son of Gobryas. There is also a figure of
1994, p. 261–266; A. PÉREZ SANTAMARÍA, ‘Tradición e Artemisia, daughter of Lygdamis and queen of Halicarnassus.
influencias en el retablo de San Martín de Palafrugell’, in It is said that this lady voluntarily joined the expedition of
Estudios de Arte. Homenaje al profesor Martín González, Xerxes against Greece and distinguished herself at the naval
University of Valladolid, Valladolid 1995, pp. 407–412; and engagement off Salamis’ (Descriptions of Greece, trans. W.
A. PÉREZ SANTAMARÍA, ‘L’art religiós a Palafrugell’, in H. S. JONES and H. OMEROD, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard
Quaderns de Palafrugell, Ajuntament Palafrugell/Diputació University Press, Cambridge, William Heinemann Ltd.,
Girona, 2007, no. 16, p. 64–72. London 1918, 3.11.3). Architectural historian Luciana
Müller Profumo however, believes that such figures have a
2 VITRUVIUS, The Ten Books of Architecture (Spanish trans. different antecedent, see L. MÜLLER PROFUMO, El ornamento
by J. L. OLIVER DOMINGO, with introduction by D. RODRÍGUEZ icónico y la arquitectura, 1400–1600, Cátedra, Madrid 1985,
RUIZ), Alianza, Madrid 1995, chapter I, pp. 60–62. Known pp. 203, 206–207.
as Persae or Statuae Persicae, these figures were used in place

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