Page 39 - The mystery of faith

dark skin tones of the saint’s face, Montes de Oca did not include it. As in the hands, the sculptor did
not include encarnadura, but instead painted the face in deep brown and black tones over a red-toned
ground.

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I n contrast, the small figure of Saint Anthony of Padua was carved as an articulated imagen de vestir
by Pedro de Mena and his workshop between c.1660 and 1688, either in Granada, Cordoba or
Malaga. This type of sculpture was made to be displayed dressed in real clothes, in this case a simple
brown Franciscan cassock belted by a cord. Mena himself carved the head, hands, lower legs and feet
of the saint, but the articulated arms, hinged at the lower shoulder and the elbow, the shoulders, the
torso and the upper legs (amusingly carved to represent the saint in his underwear) were probably
carved by workshop assistants (Fig. 3). While there is no awkwardness or crudity of form in the rest of
the figure, it was left completely unfinished with several areas of only rudimentary carving, since it was
meant to be little more than a scaffold for the saint’s vestments. Finally, because these mannequin-like
figures were usually unable to stand by themselves, the undersides of the saint’s sandalled feet were
drilled to allow the sculpture to be fixed to the base.

The Saint Anthony is fully finished and polychromed with full encarnadura on the head and neck,
extending to the upper shoulders and chest, on the hands, extending to the middle of the forearm, and
the feet, extending up to the lower calves. After the head, neck and upper shoulders, hands, forearms,
lower legs and feet had been completely carved, all dirt and sawdust was removed from these surfaces,
and they were prepared according to the requirements of the final finish. In his early seventeenth-
century treatise, El arte de la pintura, Francesco Pacheco outlined clear qualitative and technical
guidelines for the mixing, application and aesthetics of painted flesh tones, and generally argued that
execution of matt flesh tones (encarnaciones mates) demanded more skill than the painting of glossy
flesh tones (encarnaciones de polimento).4 It would appear that all of the polychromed areas of Mena’s
sculpture were painted in glossy flesh tones, though the calves and feet appear somewhat more matt.5
To realize the areas of encarnaciones de polimento either Mena himself, or his aparejador, first applied
a layer of gíscola, a mutton glue cooked with several heads of crushed garlic which added to its adhesive
and possibly its binding properties.6 After this glue layer had dried, several hot layers, in this case, of
thin, finely sifted gesso mixed with animal glue, were applied (Fig. 3a). Most likely one layer quickly
followed the next in succession in order to avoid any cracking between the layers. After the gesso layers
were thoroughly dry the surfaces were gently sanded as necessary to remove any surface imperfections.
They were then covered by one, or several, thin layers of a sized lead-white ground. The areas intended
for encarnaciones de polimento were then first painted in a pigmented primer coat, which was usually
pink-based for female and infant subjects, or, as is the case here, ochre or red earth-based employed by
painters for male subjects (Fig. 3b). This latter technique allowed them to create specific realistic effects
such as the five o’clock shadow of the tonsure, sides and back of the saint’s shaved head. A further fine
example is seen in the Reliquary Bust of a Saint Protomartyr by Pablo de Rojas (cat. no. 1).

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