Reliquary Bust of a Saint Protomartyr (Saint Vincent of Saragossa?)(Pablo de Rojas)
PABLO DE ROJAS
(Alcalá La Real 1549 1611 Granada)
WITH
PEDRO DE RAXIS
(Alcalá La Real 1555 c.1600 Granada)
1. Reliquary Bust of a Saint Protomartyr (Saint Vincent of Saragossa?)
Wood, polychromed and gilded
77.5 x 28 x 40 cm (30 ½ x 11 x 15 ¾ in.)
PROVENANCE: private collection, Granada
During the Middle Ages the marketing and distribution of sacred relics amongst the faithful,
a practice that dates back to the very beginning of Christianity, evolved dramatically in form
and intent. The practice of incorporating relics into imágines, such as the silver images
preserved in the Patrimonio Artistico Aragonés, or encasing them within gilded and
polychromed wood sculptures spread throughout Europe. However, it was in the wake of the Council
of Trent, that is, after 1563, that the cult of the saints and the veneration of their relics became actively
promulgated by the Church as a doctrinal goal, which in effect was meant to act as a weapon against
the Protestant influences sweeping Europe. In Spain, using an idea long established in the French
Church, Philip II promoted the foundation and construction of the Hieronymite Monastery of El
Escorial in direct association with the collection of sacred relics. Within the monastery, two altars and
various cabinets were dedicated to the preservation and display of relics gathered from shrines
throughout the Iberian peninsula, as well as relics obtained directly from Rome, through the offices of
the Spanish ambassador.1 By the end of Philips reign in 1598 more than 409 reliquaries were housed
at the monastery, including a series of the heads of saints in silver gilt, which were commissioned by
Philip from the silversmith Antonio de Arfe.
In form, reliquaries could be made in the shape of boxes, or small temple-like buildings, following the
medieval tradition, or could be more specific to the actual relic, such as an arm or leg, to contain a
saints bone. Another option, which is similar in intent (if not material) to the silver gilt heads would
be a partially hollowed, polychromed and gilded bust of a saint, such as examples in the Royal Chapel
in Granada, or, indeed, as illustrated in the present work. This includes a portal (formerly glazed or
inset with crystal) through which the relic it would originally have contained might be seen.
On a public level, the cult of relics was particularly active in any cathedral city or its environs, or indeed
in any town that boasted a Jesuit church. In terms of private devotion, the nobility, who naturally
wished to emulate their king, took to patronising special chapels dedicated to various cult saints. In
Andalusia one such example of this patronage was Don Enrique de Guzmán, Conde Duque de Olivares, who as Spanish ambassador was one of the leading nobles involved in the administration of those relics
Philip had received as gifts from the Pope, prelates and various religious orders. By presenting the
Hieronymite Monastery of San Isidro del Campo in Santiponce (an area close to Seville in the Aljarafe)
with the gift of a relic of Saint Eutiquio (obtained during the counts posting in the Vatican, and then
brought back to Spain) Guzmán had hoped to secure his family the patronage of a sacred space within
the monastery.2 Despite their acceptance of his gift, the order did not grant the count the patronage he
sought, so he focused his attention on the parish church of Olivares, another town in the Aljarafe,
which was also the name-place of his title. Here, he built his family chapel in direct proximity to the
churchs presbytery, which just happened to also house an extensive and varied collection of reliquaries,
arranged over several shelves.
The present work, a reliquary of a saint protomartyr, is a good
illustration of the characteristic stiff composure of the Romanist
style, typical of the works of Pablo de Rojas. Carved as a bust or
torso, the saint is dressed in liturgical vestments, his arms hidden
beneath a dalmatic. The saints face wears a distant, inscrutable
expression, possibly to distance his image and its actual function of
housing his sacred remains from any sense of corporality. This
severity of mien is further emphasized by the straight, rigid fall of
the dalmatic. Professor Sánchez-Mesa Martín highlighted these
characteristics in his discussion of two sculptures attributed to
Rojas: the Saint Domingo and Saint Esteban which formed part of
the old altarpiece of the Virgen de la Antigua in Granada Cathedral
(Fig. 1).3 The distinctive facial features of the present work the
broad head and seemingly tacked on ears; the large, wide-open eyes
with their piercing frontal stare are also characteristic of Rojass
style. The combination of the constant gaze with the works stiff,
rigid pose evokes the image of a soldier on guard duty. The figures
hair is rendered compactly, combed forward, with few individual
locks except at the centre, and with a large tonsure at the back. The
polychromy incorporates the dark five oclock shadow of a
shaved beard that contrasts with the generally darkish flesh tones.
This reliquary has many similarities to the images by Rojas that are
preserved in the above-mentioned altarpiece in Granada Cathedral
and the characteristics of the piece, as well as its Granada
provenance, reinforce the attribution to Rojas.
Our sculpture shows a deacon saint who had simply been ordained and thus wears the liturgical dress
that deacons might have used in great religious ceremonies: dalmatic, collar and elaborately knotted
gilded laces. In Spain, the deacon saints that had the greatest following were Saint Lawrence, Saint
Esteban and Saint Vicente. The first two lived in the third century and died during the persecution
instituted by Valerian; the third was martyred by Diocletian in Valencia at the beginning of the fourth
century. Reliquary-sculpture often lacks any attributes that permit identification to a specific saint.
Moreover, in some cases, as in depictions of the three aforementioned saints, the physical features are
also somewhat mutable: they can be represented beardless, with short hair, tonsured, and so on.
Occasionally, the decoration of the dalmatic represents a scene of martyrdom, such as in the Saint
Esteban from the old chapel of the Virgen de la Antigua in the Cathedral of Granada (Fig. 2), sculpted
by Rojas with polychromy executed by his nephew, the painter Pedro de Raxis.4 This iconographic
technique can also be seen in a painting by El Greco, Entierro del Conde de Orgaz, in which the
dalmatic of Saint Esteban also carries a scene of martyrdom.
The polychromy and the type of estofado decoration in the present
piece are very similar to the style used by Pedro de Raxis, who was
also known as Padre de la Estofa, and an artist, like his uncle,
who was the product of several generations of creative endeavour.
The familys artistic interests began with the arrival in Spain of the
painter Pedro Sardo, an Italian, presumably from Sardinia, who
established himself in Alcalá La Real (Jaén) and had a dozen
children that used the paternal last name, Raxis, some of whom
went on to become painters or sculptors. His tenth son, Pablo, was
to become the most prosperous and would later change his last
name to Rojas. The majority of these artists began to settle in
Granada starting in the 1580s, where they established workshops.
The principal figures were the sculptors Pablo de Rojas and his
nephews Pedro and Gaspar de Raxis. The two Raxis brothers were
painters renowned for their skill in polychromy and their estofado
technique. Pedro remained in Granada, painting some of his uncles
sculptures, while Gaspar moved to Seville and executed the
polychrome on the renowned Infant Christ that Juan Martínez
Montañés carved for the Hermandad Sacramental del Sagrario in
Seville.
Pablo de Rojas was only rediscovered and revalued in the 1930s,
thanks to the research of Antonio Gallego Burín. His name was
only mentioned by Francisco Pacheco in Arte de la Pintura as the
master of Martínez Montañés, an artist who, like Rojas, was also
born in Alcalá la Real. Later Emilio Orozco, who continued an analysis of Rojas artistic personality,
added to the corpus of works attributed to the artist with a methodical formal analysis of his work, an
effective and useful contribution to our understanding of this artist, if however lacking in archival
evidence. Most recently Lázaro Gila Medina has been able to clarify the complex family tree of the
Raxis family and has also published documents relating to the painter and sculptor group
SardoRaxisRojas.5
The present reliquary still retains the original high-quality polychromy and estofado decoration on the
dalmatic, both of which are particularly beautiful features of the work. The painter recreated the
luxurious feel of the silk fabric, the weightiness of the garments and the volume of the embroidered
elements (particularly the pompoms on the scapular), as well as the oval box, which originally housed
the relic, represented as if it were a great medallion hanging from the saints neck. Also depicted is an
elaborately knotted silken cord by which this medallion is suspended, and two gilded cords that issue
from a knot below the collar and separate to frame the oval space on either side before rejoining in a
thick tassel below. The painter has composed the face with sunburned tones combined with rosy cheeks
and the slight darkening of the budding beard.
This sculpture was made specifically for contemplation in certain ceremonies and because it is carved
and decorated in the round, including the polychromy, we may suppose that it was intended to be
carried in processions, and viewed from any angle. On the back of the saint is a complexly knotted
arrangement of the silken cord which is divided into two levels with three tassels each. The polychromy
of the dalmatic is of a rosy tone over a gilded layer with floral motifs painted with the point of the brush
in a variety of colours (green, red, blue, yellow, white, greys, pinks, violet, and so on). Special
importance is given to the painted decoration of the sleeves and the back of the collar. The pedestal is
a simple horizontal platform, of modest height, with a narrow, flat, sunken edge over a gilded cavetto
moulding. The gilded tones of the mouldings predominate, with the exception of the greenish tones on
the top of the pedestal, and in the painted floral decoration which, despite the perfect state of the
gilding, is not continued on all four sides.
The inscrutable expression of the face and rigid pose are relieved only at the breast by the different
curved shapes intertwined on the reliquary box, the circles, the handkerchief, the painted embroidery,
all of which may have been incorporated specifically to attract the eyes of the faithful to the relic. The
entire purpose of this sculpture was to enhance and recall the religious contemplation of the saint by
presenting a fragment of his human remains in order to make history a reality for the faithful.
1 F. CHECA, Felipe II, mecenas de las artes, Nerea,
MadridToledo 1992, pp. 284290.
2 J. LUIS ROMERO TORRES, Relicario de San Eutiquio, c.
1600, in San Isidoro del Campo (13012002), Fortaleza de
la espiritualidad y santuario del poder, exhibition catalogue,
Consejería de Cultura, Santiponce (Seville) 2002, pp.
302304.
3 D. SÁNCHEZ-MESA MARTÍN, La escultura, in El libro de la
Catedral de Granada, Granada 2004, vol. I, p. 454.
4 Ibid.
5 A. GALLEGO BURÍN, Pablo de Rojas, el maestro de
Martínez Montañés, in Homenaje a Martínez Montañés,
Seville 1937; A. GALLEGO BURÍN, El Barroco granadino,
Granada 1956; M. E. GÓMEZ-MORENO, Escultura del siglo
XVII, colección Ars Hispaniae, Madrid 1963, vol. XVI; E.
OROZCO DÍAZ, La estética de Montañés y su formación
granadina, in Martínez Montañés (15681649) y la
escultura andaluza de su tiempo, Madrid 1971; M. PÉREZ
LOZANO, Pintura de Pedro Raxis en la Asunción de
Villacarrillo, in Apotheca, no. 5, Cordoba 1985, pp. 7987;
L. GILA MEDINA, Los Raxis: importante familia de artistas
del Renacimiento andaluz. A ella perteneció el gran escultor
Pablo de Rojas, in Archivo Español de Arte, no. 238,
Madrid 1987, pp. 167177; L. GILA MEDINA, En torno a los
Raxis Sardo: Pedro de Raxis y Pablo de Rojas en la segunda
mitad del siglo XVI, in Atrio, Seville 1992, vol. IV, pp.
3548; F. MARTÍN ROSALES and F. ROSALES FERNÁNDEZ,
Pablo de Rojas. Escultor de Imaginería. Maestro de Juan
Martínez Montañés, Alcalá La Real Ayuntamiento, Jaén
2000.