Fernández y Montañés, carving with purpose

Valladolid,

There is no evidence that they knew each other, nor that through third parties they could exchange knowledge or experiences in carving, but both, one from Valladolid and the other from Seville, were most responsible for the golden period of imagery in Spain in the last bars of mannerism and the first of the Baroque.

In a lucky winter for those interested in 17th century polychrome sculpture, with exhibitions at the Prado Museum (“Shaking hands. Sculpture and color in the Golden Age”) and the National Museum of Sculpture of Valladolid (“Luisa Roldan, Royal Sculptor), the Ages of Man Foundation also presents in the Cathedral of the latter city “Gregorio Fernández and Martínez Montañés: the new art of making images”, an exceptional exhibition that gives an account of their common motivations – a spirituality that they knew how to bring time and again to their pieces – and their distances, the latter aesthetic: if the Castilian author focused on the expressiveness of the flesh and the transmission of the religious message through eloquent modeling, The Andalusian gave greater importance to grandeur or grace, the care of tones and contours.

It is significant that neither Fernández nor Martínez Montañés were born in the cities with which their work would associate them in history and where they would establish influential workshops in which they would define their respective styles: the first did so in the Lugo town of Sarriá and the second in Alcalá la Real, in Jaén; little less than a decade separated them.

When Fernández arrived in Valladolid, its urban planning was being remodeled after, in 1561, a vast fire devoured part of it. Elevated from a town to a city, it also became the seat of the bishopric at the end of the reign of Philip II and it was then that the construction of the current Cathedral was undertaken, with a design by Juan de Herrera (unfinished, because this temple went through many vicissitudes). ). But the fact that mainly determined the rise and attraction of this center was the installation of the Court there in the first five years of the 17th century: Alonso de Berruguete and Juan de Juni coincided working here, making Valladolid an early sculptural focus of the Baroque, before of Fernández’s maturity.

As for Seville, it was growing since the middle of the 13th century, when it became the usual place of establishment of the Court, and especially since the discovery of America and the opening, beginning in the 16th century, of the Casa de Contratación: the port of the Guadalquivir. It was then one of the busiest river routes in Europe. Both the monarchy and the nobility, as well as the Church and the wealthy merchants, promoted artistic development in this southern pole with their patronage; In the field of sculpture, in this case they would be major figures Juan Bautista Vázquez, Jerónimo Hernández or Gaspar Núñez Delgado.

Returning to Fernández, his activity in carving did not begin in Valladolid, but in his father’s workshop in Sarriá; I would go to the city hoping to find opportunities. In addition to knowing the production of Juan de Juni, he was then able to come into contact with the realistic and Roman-inspired creations of Francisco del Rincón and the solemn and refined ones of Pompeo Leoni; The influence of the latter can be seen in his early images. For his part, Martínez Montañés was the son of an embroiderer and in Granada he learned with Pablo de Rojas and the García brothers, initiators from this city of a refined style that advanced towards naturalism. When he moved to Seville, in 1582, his references would be authors linked to Romanism and also the aforementioned Gaspar Núñez, a native of Ávila, who walked in that same naturalist direction; Furthermore, in certain noble collections he was able to contemplate ancient sculptures of Roman harmony and proportions (he did not travel to Italy like a growing number of his contemporaries).

Presumably, for Fernández, the artistic collections of the Court and the nobility would also be a source of learning, as well as the processional sculptures from the late 16th century. Very pious and attached to the doctrine of Trent, he did not carry out numerous nudes, but when the subject required it (in flagellations, recumbent or crucified Christs) he demonstrated an anatomical mastery that probably derived from the study of treatises such as those of Valverde de Amusco or Juan de Arfe.

In the case of Martínez Montañés, he tried to bring together this naturalistic tendency with the search for idealization and grace, presenting a sublimated image of the Christian Good both in his Crucifieds and in his carvings of saints and virgins. In addition to the classical imprint that could be imbued in collections such as that of the Casa de Pilatos, he would admire foreign authors who then arrived in Seville, such as Pietro Torrigiano. In pieces in the exhibition such as his San Bruno for the Cartuja de las Cuevas or his great San Cristóbal for the Savior of Seville, he combined classical connotations with a sense of grandeur that brings the natural closer to the supernatural, the human gesture at the root. divine.

Gregorio Fernández and Martínez Montañés: the new art of making images. The Ages of Man Foundation. Valladolid Cathedral

We mentioned before the Council of Trent: both, really, worked from the reflection of the forms and themes that it fostered, since one of the issues addressed was the importance of bringing images closer to the sacred and, later, they delved deeper In this matter, several treaties and Synodal Constitutions established a notion of decorum, in religious art, linked to moderation, dignity linked to the supernatural character of what is represented, and restraint. The two adhered to these postulates from their different languages: we know that Francisco Pacheco, Velázquez’s father-in-law and author of Art of painting, its antiquity and its greatness -where he even compared painters to sacred orators and referred to the goodness of the images, for their ability to transmit both religious messages and emotions- he had a very close relationship with the man from Jaen. Fernández and Montañés would apply this supernatural aura both to their representations of canonical events and to those of episodes not mentioned in the gospels, but capable of motivating the viewer’s closeness, such as the Virgin’s pain after the death of Christ or the images of the Holy Family.

Trent promoted, precisely, Marian devotion, and the fervor towards the Immaculate Conception grew in our country at the beginning of the Baroque, reflected in the compositions of both artists: elegant, model of beauty, the Andalusian Virgins; those of Fernández are solemn.

A central chapter in the exhibition is dedicated to the saints, past and more recent, who were to be models for the viewer: both were carved, giving them enormous dignity and sometimes, especially Montañés, grandiloquence; These creations had the specific purpose of also increasing their devotion, sometimes declining in the previous time, as in the example of Saint Joseph; others in need of impulse due to their novel character (Saint Ignatius of Loyola). The two also made images of angels and archangels, whose cult also developed in the last years of the 16th century.

And another section of the tour is offered to the polychromists, relevant participants in the final result of these pieces and, often, prestigious painters; As the Prado exhibition points out, sculpture and painting went hand in hand with the ultimate objective of breathing life into the carvings and transmitting the message of the Church. Diego Valentín Díaz, from Pucelano who corresponded with Pacheco, completed the chromaticism of Fernández’s images and portrayed him; Pacheco himself and, above all, Baltasar Quintero collaborated with Martínez Montañés.

The exhibition, which also includes works by other artists who learned from their path, culminates by remembering the imprint of both in the consolidation of types: this is the case of the Immaculate Conception and the flagellated or recumbent Christs, speaking of Fernández, and especially of his steps. processions – we can see in the Cathedral one of the most impressive, a Descent – and of the Nazarenes, Crucified, Immaculate and holy penitents of Mountaineer.

Although space and musical accompaniment are in its favor, those who visit this exhibition will appreciate that its creations remain valid and they breathe by moving, the primary purpose to which they have not stopped responding.