Page 76 - The mystery of faith

and the lamb against a landscape background painted
in atmospheric tones of blue and green. In the river
landscape of the 1628 version, they also included a tiny
scene of baptism, not unlike that incorporated by
Sánchez Cotán in his canvas of the subject.8

Fig. 10 That this particular genre of sculpture incorporating
pictorial compositions originated in Granada is proven
by the existence of three other sculptures of the same
subject: two in Granada, one of which is in the Orozco
Díaz Collection (Fig. 10),9 and a third conserved in the
church attached to the Convent of the Agustinas
recoletas in Cabra,10 outside Cordoba. This last work
is similar to the 1628 Baptist in that the figure of the
saint, though larger than the present examples, is
placed within a wooden vitrine, or a deep frame
decorated with inlay. Traces of a painted landscape
also survive on one side, though the original painted
background is now lost.11 In all of these versions, the
Baptist is depicted with an oval face modelled with
smooth full cheeks, an arched, or slightly knitted,
brow, slightly parted lips, and an upward gaze
imparting a faint sense of the mystic. Equally, the hair
is uniformly modelled into a thick helmet that further
emphasizes the round shape of the head. However, the
curls, which cover most of the forehead, are treated
with great attention to detail, and draw attention to
the line of the profile. This type of round sensually featured face framed by thick lush curls is
particularly associated with the ideal of youthful male beauty embodied in the work of Caravaggio,
most obviously his well-known depictions of the young Bacchus and the artist’s many sensual
allegories/genre scenes involving dark-eyed youths. It should also be noted that none of these painted
terracotta sculptures of the Baptist can be related formally or stylistically with the aforementioned
Baptist in polychromed wood in Granada Cathedral (Fig. 3), which has been alternately attributed to
Alonso Cano and to the brothers. In this latter work, the saint is depicted nude, seated in a strongly
Mannerist contrapposto pose, which closely follows the Caravaggesque model illustrated in the artist’s
many paintings of the subject, all of which depict the saint nude, and often explore various aspects of
naturalism, that is, facial expression, intensity of colour, texture and even (arguably) the saint’s
psyche.12 Caravaggio’s interest in the subject obviously differed from the more devotional focus the
brothers sought in their versions, but it is a comparison worth making, if only because the brothers
clearly pursued a similar ideal of youthful beauty, albeit to very different effect.

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