Page 83 - The mystery of faith

traditional attribution to Cano for these polychromed terracotta series since the artist’s documented
biography makes such an attribution impossible. In the versions of the Penitent Saint Jerome, including
the version in the Ponce Museum that is incised with the date ‘En 15 de March 1619’, the saint is in
the same pose and orientation as the works in Granada (San Jerónimo Monastery), Ponce and Madrid
(Granados Collection), although the pose of the lion and the approach to the painted landscape
backgrounds differ.4 There is also the aforementioned very refined version in the Museo Nacional de
Escultura in Valladolid (Fig. 7), which is extremely close to the Penitent Saint Jerome in the Thyssen
Collection (Fig. 6),5 the orientation of the landscape and the pose of the saint’s arms being the only
distinctive differences. Like the present exhibited work, as well as all the aforementioned versions of
this subject, the focus, tone, and modelling of the distinctive red mantle is identical.6 Based on a later
false signature, the Thyssen work has been published as by a follower of Cano. This conclusion would
again have been based on the traditional assumption that only Cano could have been capable of the
work’s evident quality. Nevertheless, together with the work in Valladolid, this work should also be
attributed to the brothers García. The Thyssen sculpture is dated 1633 and we must remind ourselves
that Cano was in Seville in 1633, where he was working in the very different style influenced by
Martínez Montañés. Moreover, this sculpture is in many ways similar to the 1625 Baptist, both in the
pose, overall composition and approach to the painted background. If the date of 1633 is correct, it
would make this sculpture another magnificent example by these enigmatic and innovative brothers –
one which is wholly sympathetic to the works exhibited here – and in consequence their last known
dated work.

1 J. M. PALENCIA CEREZO and J. DEL CAMPO, ‘Alonso Cano, oil on linen, 170 x 225 cm, Granada, Museo des Bellas
San Jerónimo penitente’, in Espíritu Barroco. Colección Artes.
Granados, exhibition catalogue, Madrid 2008, pp.
178–179. Although this piece should correctly be reassigned 4 S. STRATTON, Spanish Polychrome Sculpture 1500–1800 in
to the Hermanos García the owner has not permitted its United States Collections, exhibition catalogue, The Spanish
reproduction. Institute, New York 1994, pp. 116–117.

2 This relief, like the present Saint John the Baptist in the 5 See M. BAKER, ‘Saint Jerome in Penitence, by a Follower of
Wilderness (1628; cat. no. 4), is conserved in a small Alonso Cano’, in A. RADCLIFFE, M. BAKER and M. MAEK-
wooden vitrine. See L. GILA MEDINA, ‘Obras selectas del GÉRARD, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Renaissance
Patrimonio Artístico granadino de la época del Arzobispo and Later Sculpture, London 1992, pp. 432–434, no. 87
Fray Hernando de Talavera (1492–1507)’, in Fray (cat. entry by M. BAKER).
Hernando de Talavera. V Centenario, 1507–2007,
exhibition catalogue, Curia Metropolitana, Granada 2008, 6 This version in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
pp. 83–86. Medina notes that the nuns adhere to the portrays the saint in a different pose with the legs held in a
traditional attribution to Cano, but does not discuss this. similar position to that of the exhibited 1625 Baptist, but
See also C. MARTÍNEZ ET AL., El Real Monasterio de San leaning slightly to the right, his head cast down in mediation
Jerónimo, Coll. Acordes, Granada 2006, p. 42. Here, the and his right hand to his chest. The later signature: ‘Alº Cº
work is described as being of exceptional quality, but the FA’ is a complete fabrication, or at the very least an erroneous
author does not recognize the historical attribution. extrapolation, probably made in the process of restoration
of what could have been the original signature, for example the
3 Such as Alonso Cano’s The Penitent Saint Jerome, c. 1660, original ‘G’ of García having been mistaken for the ‘C’ of
Cano.

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