Spanish, probably Seville, Andalusia, circa 1625 | The Christ Child (Niño Jesús)

This engaging and finely carved polychromed wood Infant Christ is indebted to the models created by the early 17th-century Sevillian sculptor Juan Martínez Montañés, known as 'el dios de la madera' (the god of wood). Montañés established the canonical depiction of the Sevillian Infant Christ with his Christ Child in the Cofradía del Santísimo Sacramento, Seville, of 1606 (see Proske, op. cit., fig. 31).

The present figure was attributed to the celebrated Spanish Baroque sculptor Alonso Cano (1601-1667) when it was in the Granados collection, Madrid, until 1999. The slight contrapposto pose, raised arms, and undulating s-profile of the body with projecting stomach, recalls a drawing of a Standing Angel by Cano formerly in the Spanish Royal Collection and today in the Museo del Prado (1630; inv. no. D000065).

Trusted has, however, suggested that an attribution to Cano is unlikely, arguing that his Christ Child in the Fernández Canivell collection, for example, is stylistically different, with a more slender body type and exaggerated contrapposto. Trusted points out that there were numerous workshops capable of producing high quality devotional statues of the Infant Christ in 17th-century Spain, particularly in Granada and Seville. In 1997 Patrick Lenaghan wrote an article which explored the different makers of such figures in relation to a Blessing Christ Child in the Hispanic Society of America which he attributes to Francesco de Ribas (op. cit.). Such sculptures were very popular in Spain and were often dressed and used in processions on feast days.

Returning to the present Infant Christ, Trusted cites a slightly smaller but similar figure made in lead (which was a cheaper alternative to wood as it could be cast) in the collection of the Museu Frederic Marès, Barcelona (this sculpture was catalogued as from the circle of Juan de Mesa by Jesús Miguel Palomero Páramo (in Martínez González and Garriga Riera, op. cit., no. 291). Trusted concludes that the present sculpture may have been made for a Seville convent and describes it as 'an impressive example of the devotional polychromed wood sculpture made all over Spain during the seventeeth century' (op. cit.).

The present Infant Christ is a particularly fine example from the period which is certainly of the high quality worthy of a leading workshop. 

RELATED LITERATURE

B.G. Proske, Juan Martínez Montañés: Sevillian Sculptor, New York, 1967, p. 51-52, figs. 31-32, 159, 182; J. Hernando Díaz, Juan Martínez Montañés (1568-1649), Seville, 1987; M. Trusted, Spanish Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1998; P. Lenaghan, 'Artists and Markets in Seventeeth-Century Seville: Francisco de Ribas's Blessing Christ Child at The Hispanic Society', Sculpture Journal, London, 2000; J.J. Martínez González and J. Garriga Riera (eds.) Fons del Museu Frederic Marès/3: Catàleg d’escultura i pintura dels segles XVI, XVII, i XVIII, Barcelona, 1996; S. L. Stratton-Pruitt and JL. Romero Torres, The Mystery of Faith: An Eye on Spanish Sculpture 1550-1750, exh. cat. Matthiesen Gallery and Coll & Cortes, London and Madrid, 2009

The present sculpture is the subject of a write-up by Dr Holly Trusted, and is also the subject of a report by Rafael Romero Asenjo of I&S Madrid.