Page 97 - The mystery of faith

sculptor attached to Cano’s workshop and later, when his own workshop was at its peak between 1658
and 1688, producing most of the sculptures depicting Ecce Homo and the Mater Dolorosa that were
distributed on Spanish and colonial markets. This spurt of activity was a result of the success achieved
by his pair of sculptures depicting these very subjects made in 1673 in his studio in Malaga, and
commissioned by the royal family. These signed and dated works are now in the collection of the
Monastery of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid. In the case of all of the aforementioned works, the figures
are truncated at the hips.

In a sculpture depicting the Penitent Magdalene, made around 1664 for the Jesuit Casa Profesa in
Madrid, de Mena sealed his reputation at court as one of the most important sculptors in Spain.2 Both
the nobility and the merchant classes now sought to emulate court tastes by commissioning from the
artist his Andalusian versions of Ecce Homo and the Mater Dolorosa. A great number of these works
have been catalogued, including works similar to the royal commissions now in the Descalzas Reales
Monastery, such as two versions dated 1674 that are now in the parochial church of Buida
(Guadalajara). These are half-length and bust-length versions, both with and without hands.

In the present version, the sculptor depicted Christ half-length, his torso nude, his arms crossed at the
waist with wrists placed one above the other and bound by the ends of the rope encircling his neck.
Despite the simple composition, the pose and gesture of the hands leads the eye upwards to the face,
with its ‘lost’ expression, so removed as to be almost haughty. Sporting a finely trimmed beard and a
fine, deeply modelled form, de Mena’s depiction of the suffering Christ
progressively evolved towards an even greater naturalism, in which
expressive features such as the mouth, half-opened to reveal ivory teeth,
took on an even stronger sense of realism. The hair is smoothly modelled
in long, finely waved, ‘wet’ strands, a recognized trait of de Mena’s style.
The crown of thorns is made of twigs of medium and uniform thickness,
twisted and interwoven, like those preserved in other examples. Below,
tied at the hips, the folds of Christ’s shroud are just visible, formed in
smooth folds and painted white. In another version in the collection of the
Museo de Artes Decorativas, Madrid (at present in the Museo Nacional
de Escultura, Valladolid), the shroud is painted red (Fig. 1).3 Yet another
added element is the cane held indifferently in Christ’s right hand, the
reluctance of his grasp hinted at the strong horizontal pose of his crossed
arms.

The smoothly modelled anatomy of the torso is distinguished only by the
evidence of Christ’s suffering, accentuated by drips of blood and the
marks of the lash. This technique of using polychrome, rather than
carving, to depict wounds, in an effort to avoid excessive emphasis on
pain and suffering, was an approach used by La Roldana (as opposed to
Pedro Roldán, who favoured more plastic expression), as can be seen in

Fig. 1

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