The Granadan school of sculpture or Granadine school of sculpture—the tradition of Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 religious sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 in Granada

Granada

Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

, Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

—began in the 16th century and constituted a clear tradition of its own by the 17th century. The extraordinary artistic activity of Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 Granada brought artists to that city from various regions of Spain and from other parts of Europe.

The Granadan school began with Diego de Siloé, was developed especially by Pablo de Rojas, and culminated with Alonso Cano.

15th and 16th centuries

Gothic

Gothic art

Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...

 sculptures were brought to Granada in the era of the Catholic Monarchs

Catholic Monarchs

The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...

 Ferdinand and Isabella. Although these were objects of devotion, they did not begin a local tradition of sculptuer. Rather, it was in the era of the Holy Roman Emperor

Holy Roman Emperor

The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...

 Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

 (Charles I of Spain) that an initial nucleus of sculptors came together to work on sculptures for the Capilla Real. The tomb of the Catholic Monarchs was the work of Italian sculptor Domenico Fancelli

Domenico Fancelli

Domenico Fancelli was an Italian sculptor who worked primarily in Spain, where he was one of those who introduced Renaissance art. His most notable works are the tomb of Cardinal Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, in the Cathedral of Seville, and the tombs of the Catholic Monarchs in the Royal Chapel of...

; the tomb of Joanna of Castile

Joanna of Castile

Joanna , nicknamed Joanna the Mad , was the first queen regnant to reign over both the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon , a union which evolved into modern Spain...

 and Philip I of Castile

Philip I of Castile

Philip I , known as Philip the Handsome or the Fair, was the first Habsburg King of Castile...

 the work of Bartolomé Ordóñez

Bartolomé Ordóñez

Bartolomé Ordóñez was a Spanish Renaissance sculptor.-Life and work:Little is known about Ordóñez before the last five years of his life. His will indicates that he was an hidalgo born in Burgos, and that he had a sister named Marina in that city...

; the great altarpiece was by Felipe Bigarny

Felipe Bigarny

Felipe Bigarny , also known as Felipe Vigarny, Felipe Biguerny or Felipe de Borgoña, etc. and sometimes referred to as el Borgoñón , was a sculptor born in Burgundy but who made his career in Spain and was one of the leading sculptors of the Spanish Renaissance...

 and pieces such as the Incarnation and the Entombment of Christ-now in the Museum-by Jacopo Torni

Jacopo Torni

Jacopo Torni , also known as Jacobo Fiorentin, L'Indaco, and Jacopo dell'Indaco, was an Italian painter. He was a student of Domenico Ghirlandaio , and the brother of painter Francesco Torni...

 of Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

. All are masterworks, all were innovative in their time, but they do not represent any one particular style. More of a focus would come from the immense output of Diego de Siloé, especially in the Monastery of St. Jerome and the Granada Cathedral

Granada Cathedral

Granada Cathedral is the cathedral in the city of Granada, capital of the province of the same name in the Autonomous Region of Andalusia, Spain.-History:...

; and also in the decoration of the Palace of Charles V

Palace of Charles V

The Palace of Charles V is a Renacentist construction in Granada, southern Spain, located on the top of the hill of the Assabica, inside the Nasrid fortification of the Alhambra. It was commanded by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who wished to establish his residence close to the Alhambra palaces...

; among the artists involved in decorating the Palace were Nicolao de Carte and his student Juan de Orea, as well as the Fleming

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 Antonio de Leval. De Orea, in particular, brought together a vigorous realism with an Italian sense of composition and movement.

Of all of these artists it was Siloé who, not only because he remained based in Granada but also by the power and variety of his art, came to attract and create a group of followers that came to constitute a local school. The most faithful continuation of his work was by Diego de Aranda, but more personal notes were struck by Baltasar de Arce and Diego de Pesquera. De Arco's Christ at the Pillar in the church of the Hospitallers shows violently concentrated movement typical of the mannerist

Mannerism

Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...

 style, but with a pre-Baroque

Baroque art

Baroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states throughout Western...

 expressive intensity. He brought more brio and grandiosity to the central figure of the fragmentary main altarpiece of the church of San Cristóbal.

Pesquera, who Manuel Gómez Moreno believed may have learned his art in Rome, came to work with Siloé, providing details within the work of the latter, bringing a finesse to expressions of tenderness and of fainting. A particularly notable example of this can be seen in the figures of Virtues in the chapter house in the Cathedral. After Granada, Pesquera went on to Seville

Seville

Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

; after 1580 nothing is known of his fate.

17th century

Pablo de Rojas is said to have studied under Rodrigo Moreno

Rodrigo Moreno

For the Colombian racewalker with the same name see Rodrigo Moreno For the naturalized Spanish footballer currently playing for Bolton Wanderers see Rodrigo Moreno Machado....

, who sculpted a Crucifixion for Philip II

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

. De Rojas settled in Granada, where one of his apprentices was Juan Martínez Montañés

Juan Martínez Montañés

Juan Martínez Montañés , known as el Dios de la Madera , was a Spanish sculptor, born at Alcalá la Real, in the province of Jaén. He was one of the most important figures of the Sevillian school of sculpture.His master was Pablo de Roxas. His first known work, dating 1597, is the graceful St...

, who would go on to be the most important figure of the Sevillian school of sculpture

Sevillian school of sculpture

The Sevillian school of sculpture—the tradition of Christian religious sculpture in Seville, Andalusia, Spain—began in the 13th century, formed a clear tradition of its own in the 16th century, and continues into the present....

. These artists mark the beginning of a new era in Andalusian imagery.

Among de Rojas's notable work was an expansion of the altarpiece of the Monastery of St. Jerome, where his collaborators included Martín de Aranda and Bernabé de Gaviria. The former carried out some of de Rojas's designs in a workmanlike, if uninspired manner; the latter showed more of a style of his own, bringing a Baroque brio and dynamism. From Gómez Moreno we know some dates of de Rojas's activity between 1603 and 1622, when he died. Among his surviving work, particularly notable is the colossal Apostolate in gilded wood—completed in 1614—in the main chapel of the Cathedral. The ten figures he sculpted are distinguished for the grand courage and dynamism of their gestures and attitudes, which in some cases show a violently mannerist complexity, and in others a Baroque impetuousness of movement.

Among de Rojas's famous contemporaries were the brothers Miguel and Jerónimo García who, outside the life of the ateliers, worked together and were famous by 1600, especially for their clay sculptures. Among the works attributed to them are several outstanding and varied Ecce Homo

Ecce Homo

Ecce Homo are the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of the , when he presents a scourged Jesus Christ, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before his Crucifixion. The original Greek is Ἰδοὺ ὁ ἄνθρωπος . The King James Version translates the phrase...

s, all executed with careful technique and deep emotion. Some of these are quite small, finely modeled, and polychromatic; in contrast, one the charterhouse is larger than life, combining noble, muscular forms with well-observed, realistic detail, fitting for popular devotion. Similar to this last, and thus attributed to the brothers, is the Crucifixion in the sacristy

Sacristy

A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...

 of the Granada Cathedral, which strongly influenced Montañés's Cristo de la Clemencia in the sacristy of the Seville Cathedral

Seville Cathedral

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See , better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville . It is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world....

.

With echoes of these artists, but with a direct and strong link to the art of de Rojas, the sculptor Alonso de Mena, was a naturalistic observer, albeit his was an external realism of static, impassive gestures. He lived until 1646, and his studio was the center of Granadan artistic activity, with his son Pedro

Pedro de Mena

Pedro de Mena or Pedro Mena y Medrano was a Spanish sculptor.-Biography:He was born at Granada, in Andalusia. He was a pupil of his father Alonso de Mena as well as of Alonzo Cano. His first conspicuous success was achieved in work for the convent of St...

, Bernardo de Mora and Pedro Roldán

Pedro Roldán

Pedro Roldán was a Baroque sculptor from Seville, Andalusia, Spain. His daughter Luisa Roldán, known as La Roldana, was also a major figure of Spanish Baroque sculpture.- Life :...

. These and several less talented others continued the studio and the style after Alonso de Mena's death, until the return of Alonso Cano in Granada in 1652 brought a new impulse, imposing a new style on the entire school of Granada. Pedro de Mena evolved into this new style, while maintaining a vigorous personal note of intense realism. José de Mora, son of Bernardo de Mora also distinguished himself for a subtlety of expression approaching mystical reverie. The work of his brother Diego de Mora, on the other hand, was more superficial and decorative. The art of Jose Risueño

Jose Risueño

Jose Risueño was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in his native city of Granada. He initially trained with Alonso Cano, under whom he studied both painting and sculpture. He helped decorate the cupola of the Church in the Carthusian monastery. He died at Granada.-References:...

 flows with brio, showing the influence of Cano and of the direct study of nature, giving a note of sober realism, but also a sensibility open to grace and delicate beauty.

The Baroque continued powerfully in Granada in all of the arts and letters, and the studio of Diego de Mora brought forth other sculptors who continued in that style. One example is Torcuato Ruiz del Peral, born in 1708 in a small village near Guadix

Guadix

Guadix, a city of southern Spain, in the province of Granada; on the left bank of the river Guadix, a sub-tributary of the Guadiana Menor, and on the Madrid-Valdepeñas-Almería railway...

. After apprenticing with Diego de Mora, by 1737 Ruiz had a studio of his own.

Independent of the echoes of the Italian Baroque and the French Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

, the sculptors of Granada, especially José de Mora sought new compositional and expressive effects bringing together the smoothness of faces, the vigorous movement of large folds of cloth and a violent polychrome. This can best be seen in the processional image of the Virgen de las Angustias ("Virgin of Sorrows") of Santa María de la Alhambra, but it was also visible in the small figures of the choir stalls of the Guadix Cathedral

Guadix Cathedral

The Guadix Cathedral, Cathedral of Guadix, or Cathedral of the Incarnation is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Guadix, province of Granada, Spain. Construction of the building began in the 16th century and was completed in the mid-18th century...

, destroyed in 1936. Another fine example of this style is San José con el Niño de la mano ("Saint Joseph with the Christ Child in his hand") in the parish church of Guadix. The studio of José de Mora continued to be very active until his death in 1773.

From this same studio, Agustín de Vera Moreno shows less of an individual touch, but had some quite successful pieces, above all the sculptures of Saint Joseph in the Carmelite Monastery of Granada. He is particularly noted for his wood sculptures, as can be seen in the Iglesia del Sagrario and the retrochoir of the Cathedral. He died in 1760.

In the era of Ruiz del Peral and Vera Moreno, many other sculptors were active in Granada, working in a similar style but with less individual personality in their art. These include Juan José Salazar, Ramiro Ponce de León, Pedro Tomás Valero, and Martín José Santisteban. Quite distinct from these is the highly cultured work of painter and sculptor Diego Sánchez Sarabia, an academic of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando , located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery....

.

Pedro Duque de Cornejo, from Córdoba

Córdoba, Spain

-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...

 worked in Granada between 1714 and 1718, producing several notable works, but his vigorous art, with its baroque Italian showiness, had little influence on the sculptors of the school of Granada. Nor were the Granadans particularly influenced by the arrival in 1780 of the French sculptor Miguel Verdiguier, who worked in the Cathedral on the reliefs of the façade and the chapel of Saint Cecil, with a style that marked the passage from the rococo to the neoclassical

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

. Even less was there any significant influence from the neoclassical sculptor Juan de Adán, who worked on the Cathedral and had one Granadan apprentice, Pedro Antonio Hermoso; nor, after de Adán, the Catalan

Catalan people

The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...

 Jaime Folch Costa.

The Granadan school continued with modestly important artists following Ruiz del Peral. Among the most notable was Felipe González, whose works link to those of his son Manuel González; the latter lived into the mid-19th century and is responsible for such works as Niño Nazareno in the Convento de los Ángeles and Soledad in the Church of San Domingo, both of which were once thought to be mid-18th century works. His work marked a return to the style of Cano and his disciples, a tendency that continued in Francisco Morales and Fernando Marín, who sculpted in clay in the mid-19th century. Both worked with their families and apprentices, maintaining a clear continuity of the school of Granada to the end of the 19th century. Among their apprentices, Pablo de Loyzaga and, in turn, his apprentice José Navas-Parejo carried the tradition into the 20th century.