Infant Baptist(Felipe de Ribas)
FELIPE DE RIBAS
(Cordoba 1609 1648 Seville)
13. The Infant Christ and the Infant Baptist
Wood, polychromed and gilded, with inset glass eyes
59 x 24 cm (23 ¼ x 9 ½ in.)
PROVENANCE: Antonio Plata, Seville; Emilio Espinosa, Madrid
As previously discussed in the catalogue entry for the Infant Christ by Juan Martínez
Montañés (cat. no. 11), the development of this very empathetic religious subject occurred in
the wake of the Council of Trent and was particularly popular in Andalusian sculpture.
Tridentine doctrine now demanded that artists should reproduce sacred images, particularly
sculptures, with the goal of achieving the highest possible level of physical verism and immediacy of
expression. Therefore, instead of portraying Jesus Christ and John the Baptist as men, artists began to
interpret them as the children they once must have been. From an aesthetic point of view, this allowed
sculptors to take advantage of the inherent physical and emotional appeal of children. Moreover, it
enabled them to produce religious images that could foster the deep personal communion with the
faithful, which was now utterly compulsory in such objects, without resorting to the literal or the
didactic. In constructing this particular iconography of the sacred infant, sculptors based their facial
types and hairstyles upon models established by Juan Martínez Montañés, and, more particularly, by
José de Arce (Jodocus Aaerts), a Flemish-born sculptor who established himself in Seville in 1635 and
was largely responsible for the dissemination of this type. To this established model, Arce contributed
a softer interpretation to the form, and an added dynamism to the pose, in order to suggest both infant
energy and a sense of monumentality. Although less of a formal perfectionist than Martínez Montañés,
Arce recycled several characteristic details from the earlier artist, including, in addition to the specific
treatment of the hair, a strong sense of chiaroscuro. The stylistic synthesis of the models established by
both Martínez Montañés and Arce is visible in the present sculptures, which mark them clearly as the
product of the sculptor Felipe de Ribas.
Felipe de Ribas first studied under Juan de Mesa between about 1621 and 1625. After a five-year hiatus
when he returned to Cordoba to cope with a family crisis, Ribas went to Seville to join the studio of
Alonso Cano. By the beginning of the 1630s, Mesa, previously the most prestigious sculptor working
in Seville, was dead, and his master, the now aged Martínez Montañés, was still producing works that
mark the stylistic shift from Mannerism towards naturalism, as was Francisco de Ocampo. In only a
few years José de Arce would arrive in the city. Canos Seville studio at this time also hosted Jacinto
Pimentel, Martín de Andújar, Gaspar Ginés and Juan Remesal, all Andalusians who would comprise an
artistic diaspora, eventually leaving Andalusia to establish careers in Cadiz, Tenerife and even the
Americas.1 Along with Ribas, these artists adopted the new smooth style, and their compositions became increasingly dynamic. Although tradition has it that they owed this style to Alonso Cano, in
reality it was influenced by José de Arce, whose style imported the refined emotionalism of the Flemish
sculptor François Duquesnoy.2
The present sculptures were first exhibited in 1983, where they were published as Circle of Ribas.3 In
her entry for the works included in the exhibition catalogue, Ana Marín Fidalgo compares the present
Infant Christ to another work of the same subject donated in 1644 by Francisco Dionisio de Ribas to
the Confraternity of La Amargura in San Juan de la Palma. Marín Fidalgo cited similarities between all
three works, and cited similarities between all three works and made the stylistic connection with the
work of José de Arce. Our Infant Christ, also shares remarkable similarities with another unpublished
version that once belonged to the parish church of the Immaculate Conception in the Almargen region
of Malaga.4 Two years after the Seville exhibition, María Teresa Dabrio González published an
exhaustive study of the Ribas family: Felipe, sculptor and altarpiece designer; Francisco Dionisio,
altarpiece designer; and Gaspar, painter, giving particular attention to their work in relation to that of
their contemporaries in Seville. In the section devoted to questionable attributions, she mentions the
present sculptures, but excludes them from the corpus of autograph works by the Ribas family,
cataloguing them, with certain reservations, as simply the product of a Granadine workshop. However,
owing to their size, technique and stylistic attributes, we in turn can exclude this hypothesis and conclude that these works date slightly later
than previously thought.5 Dabrio González
did not recognize Arces stylistic influence
in these works.
In recent years there have been major
advances in our understanding of Arces
influence on sculptors in Seville and Cadiz.
Previously, the impact of Arce on the
development of Andalusian sculpture had
not been given sufficient consideration.
However, the most recent publications
dedicated to José de Arce, his disciples and
followers (Felipe de Ribas, Jacinto
Pimentel, Alfonso Martínez, Francisco
Gálvez, Andres Cansino and Pedro Roldán)
contain a more detailed analysis of his
works. This analysis allows us to acquire a
closer understanding of their stylistic
development. This is, in fact, rather more
complex than, for example, plotting a
straight line between Martínez Montañés
and Pedro Roldán to explain the progress
of Mannerism into naturalism in Spanish
sculpture (a trajectory that would be
simplistic to the point of error, in any case). The first sculptors to absorb the technical advances of José
de Arce were Jacinto Pimentel and Felipe de Ribas, younger artists who studied in the workshop of
Francisco de Ocampo and Juan de Mesa, respectively. In the work produced by both Martínez
Montañés and Alonso Cano around the middle of the 1630s, a date that coincides with the arrival of
Arce in Seville, one can see their development of a smoother, more refined surface technique, the forms
articulated with a minimum of detail. Examples by Martínez Montañés include the Saint John the
Baptist altarpiece made for the Monastery of Saint Paula in Seville (on which Felipe de Ribas assisted);
the Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the Church of Saint Michael of Jerez; and the seated Saint John the
Evangelist by Alonso Cano, now in the Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladollid. One has only to
compare this last example with works made by Cano only a few years before for the main altarpiece of
Santa María de la Oliva, in Lebrija (Seville), to appreciate his shift in style.
Our greater understanding of Sevillian sculpture (which includes works in Cadiz, Huelva, Cordoba and
the south of Extremadura), however, does not allow us to securely attribute certain works based solely
on their high quality or evident artistic merit. This is simply due to the fact that throughout the first
twenty years of Arces presence in Seville and Jerez, the artwork produced remained formally somewhat homogeneous. Moreover, any related documentation is
relatively rare, as several commissions were unregistered and
were not notarized, as in the case of the present works. This is
a problem that was particularly noted by Martín Fidalgo in her
contributions to the 1983 Seville exhibition, and more recently
reiterated by Antonio Torrejón in his work for the section
entitled Teatro de Grandezas, part of the exhibition series
Andalucía Barroca.6
In seventeenth-century Seville sculpture was affected by three
major stylistic phases that were each instigated consecutively by
Juan Martínez Montañés, José de Arce and Pedro Roldán. The
two sculptures exhibited here, which are characterized by their
softness of form, smooth modelling and increased sense of
dynamism, should be attributed to this second phase, that is
when Arces influence dominated.
The Infant Christ paired with the Infant Baptist in the Church of
San Juan de la Palma in Seville are the first documented
sculptures in Seville that follow this Arcesque stylistic model, but
do not emulate the style of Martínez Montañés (Figs. 1, 1a, 2,
2a). This Infant Baptist, formerly attributed to Ribas, has more
recently been ascribed in fact to José de Arce.7 These works,
which have splendid polychromy and estofado decoration by the
painter Gaspar de Ribas, were donated by Francisco Dionisio de
Ribas in 1644, who is traditionally assumed to be their author.8
Like his brother Felipe, Francisco was known to have been
influenced by Arce. However, to date, he is known only as an
architect of altarpieces; the sculptures incorporated into his
works having been carved by other artists, for example, the
altarpiece in the Convent of la Merced de Jerez de la Frontera,
where the sculptures were executed by Francisco Gálvez, another
disciple of Arce. Dabrio González defined the sculptural style of
Francisco Dionisio de Ribas by those sculptures that were
incorporated into his known altarpieces, but since some of these
works are documented as being by Gálvez, this has led to some
confusion.
The present exhibited Infant Christ stands with his right foot
advanced to instil a sense of movement, a pose that would appear
to be a direct reaction against the more static nature of Montañés earlier models. The head is broad with an increased
sense of volume that is not entirely the result of the thick,
compact arrangement of hair. The rounded cheeks heightened
with touches of coral-pink and the arched eyebrows impart a
sense of vulnerability to the face that recalls the Virgen de la
Granada, formerly in the parish church of Our Lady of Granada
in Moguer (Huelva), which was one of Felipes last works (Fig. 3).
The gaze is frontal and framed by the hair combed with a left-ofcentre
parting, falling in long waves on either side. Antonio
Palomino wrote that Pedro Roldán was the first person to sculpt
childrens heads with naturalistically composed hair; because
previously they had all been fashioned with three small buns, one
on top of the head and one on each side.9 However, this
innovation should be credited to José de Arce because his Infant
Christ in San Juan de la Palma, which has the same hairstyle as
that described in Palomino, actually predates Roldáns arrival in
Seville (Fig. 2a).
The left hand is raised high, and the half-closed fist would have
originally held a tall thin cross to refer to the infant Christs
future role as Saviour. Interestingly, unlike previous infant
incarnations, here, the figure is not posed to bestow a blessing
with the right hand, but instead holds it low and half-closed,
possibly to carry a basket with the symbols of the Passion. This
placement of the hands at different levels also contributes to a
sense of childlike movement in the work. The sense of energy
combined with the tenderness of facial features, and the richly
decorated tunic, which reveals a small part of the upper chest,
all hint at the preciousness and vulnerability of infancy, and
allow the work to communicate a more accessible, more
humanistic image of Christ. The base of the work is comprised
of five seraphim, three of which are arranged frontally, but each
gazing in a different direction. According to known documented
works, this use of seraphim first occurs in the Infant Christ in
San Juan de la Palma, which, it should be noted, has the slightly
more attenuated proportions of a small boy, rather than the
chubby solidity of the infant figure seen here.
The present Infant Baptist displays an even greater sense of
dynamism with its forward striding posture, and position of the
arms. As with the previous sculpture, the Infant Baptist does not retain its customary attribute, which, in this case, would have been a tall cross with the insignia of
Ecce Agnus Dei. Although the shape and size of the head is similar, the hairstyle, with its short chopped
locks, is closer to the Infant Baptist by Arce. The Baptist is dressed in a camel skin, which leaves his
right shoulder and his lower legs bare; his back is covered by a mantle. Like the Infant Christ, the Ribas
modelled his Infant Baptist with a smooth soft body, but instead of a seraphim base, stood this figure
upon on a craggy mass modelled to suggest sedimentary, or possibly volcanic rock.
Both sculptures retain their full original polychromy. The flesh colours are white with soft rosy-peach
shades in the chubby cheeks. However, past cleanings may have clarified what was an originally slightly
darker tonality. The estofado decoration of the drapery incorporates a variety of colours and motifs:
red with a chevron pattern in the mantle of the Infant Christ and punched poppy pod motifs on the
tunic. The predominantly gold and brown tones of the Baptists camel skin are enlivened with punched
Cross of Malta motifs in green. Even the rocks of the Baptists base have this golden tone visible beneath
the earthy brown.
An attribution of the works to Francisco Dionisio de Ribas can be excluded, as we really only know
him to be an architect of altarpieces, not a sculptor, and, moreover, that he contracted other sculptors
to produce work for his retablos. Given that these works display many of the main formal
characteristics that derive directly from the work of José de Arce, and yet lack the monumentality that
typifies his actual work, we can therefore place these sculptures within the production of his followers
and date them to the late 1640s when Felipe de Ribas and Pedro Roldán were active in Seville. Known
works by Roldán during this initial period of his in Seville are too scarce for us to form a clear idea of
his nascent style. But we do know that both artists filtered the styles of their respective masters through
the prism of José de Arce. Our understanding of this stylistic synthesis in Andalusian sculpture is closely
associated with known late works by Felipe de Ribas that were produced during the 1640s, which is
precisely the period to which we would date these two sculptures.
149
not retain its customary attribute, which, in this case, would have been a tall cross with the insignia of
Ecce Agnus Dei. Although the shape and size of the head is similar, the hairstyle, with its short chopped
locks, is closer to the Infant Baptist by Arce. The Baptist is dressed in a camel skin, which leaves his
right shoulder and his lower legs bare; his back is covered by a mantle. Like the Infant Christ, the Ribas
modelled his Infant Baptist with a smooth soft body, but instead of a seraphim base, stood this figure
upon on a craggy mass modelled to suggest sedimentary, or possibly volcanic rock.
Both sculptures retain their full original polychromy. The flesh colours are white with soft rosy-peach
shades in the chubby cheeks. However, past cleanings may have clarified what was an originally slightly
darker tonality. The estofado decoration of the drapery incorporates a variety of colours and motifs:
red with a chevron pattern in the mantle of the Infant Christ and punched poppy pod motifs on the
tunic. The predominantly gold and brown tones of the Baptists camel skin are enlivened with punched
Cross of Malta motifs in green. Even the rocks of the Baptists base have this golden tone visible beneath
the earthy brown.
148
1 With the exception of Remesal who died prematurely. See
J. LUIS ROMERO TORRES, La escultura barroca sevillana y su
relación con otros focos artísticos, in Teatro de Grandezas,
exhibition catalogue, Regional Ministry of Culture of
Andalusia, Seville 1927, p. 73.
2 J. LUIS ROMERO TORRES, Alonso Cano en el context de la
escultura sevillana (16341638), in Actas del Symposium
Internacional Alonso Cano y su época, University and
Regional Government of Andalusia, Granada 2002, pp.
751761.
3 A. MARÍN FIDALGO, Atribuido al círculo de los Ribas.
Niño Jesús, San Juan Bautista Niño, in Sevilla en el siglo
XVII, Ministry of Culture, Seville 1983, pp. 196197.
4 R. CAMACHO ET AL., Inventario artístico de Málaga y su
provincia, Ministry of Culture, Madrid 1985, vol. II, p. 146,
fig. 244. In the photographic reproduction she erroneously
states that the sculpture was from Alameda (Malaga).
5 M. TERESA DABRIO GONZÁLEZ, Los Ribas, un taller
andaluz de escultura del siglo XVII, Monte de Piedad,
Cordoba 1985, p. 480.
6 A. TORREJÓN DÍAZ, Círculo de José de Arce. Niño Jesús,
in Teatro de Grandezas, exhibition catalogue, Seville 2007,
pp. 258259.
7 A suggestion made by Torrejón Díaz.
8 However, some scholars, including Antonio Torrejón Díaz,
now believe these works to be by an artist in the circle of
José de Arce, possibly the sculptor Alfonso Martínez.
9 A. PALOMINO DE CASTRO Y VELASCO, El Parnaso español,
pintoresco laureado, Madrid 1724 (re-ed. 1947), p. 1080.