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St Francis

Statuette
ca. 1700-1750 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is a wooden statuette is a reduced variante (about half size) of a celebrated figure of Saint Francis of Assisi by Pedro de Mena in the Treasury at Toledo Cathedral. According to a fifteenth century account, St. Francis was miraculously seen standing in his tomb at Assisi, as he is represented here. Pedro de Mena, born Granada in 1628, was a pupil to Alonso Cano. In 1658 he transferred his studio to Malaga, where he died in 1688. He was one of the foremost sculptors of his generation in Spain.

This statuette is difficult to date accurately as it is a copy after another famous sculpture. Its slitghly freer folds in the drapery would however suggest a datation in the early eighteenth century. Pedro de Mena's statue in Toledo was the object of great veneration and an number of sculptures based on it were produced form the seventeenth century onwards, becoming cult figures in churches and chapels.




Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleSt Francis (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Polychromed pinewood, cord and glass
Brief description
Statuette, painted wood, St. Francis, after Pedro de Mena, Spanish (Andalusian), ca. 1700-1750
Physical description
Wood carved and painted statuette of Saint Francis. He stands, hands clasped togehter in front of him, covered by sleeves of his robe. Right foot extended and bare. Eyes turned upward and mouth open slightly. He stands on a painted base.
Dimensions
  • Height: 50cm
Object history
Bought in 1866 from Vavaletti in Madrid.
Production
A copy of a larger work by Pedro de Mena (1628-1688).
Subject depicted
Summary
This is a wooden statuette is a reduced variante (about half size) of a celebrated figure of Saint Francis of Assisi by Pedro de Mena in the Treasury at Toledo Cathedral. According to a fifteenth century account, St. Francis was miraculously seen standing in his tomb at Assisi, as he is represented here. Pedro de Mena, born Granada in 1628, was a pupil to Alonso Cano. In 1658 he transferred his studio to Malaga, where he died in 1688. He was one of the foremost sculptors of his generation in Spain.

This statuette is difficult to date accurately as it is a copy after another famous sculpture. Its slitghly freer folds in the drapery would however suggest a datation in the early eighteenth century. Pedro de Mena's statue in Toledo was the object of great veneration and an number of sculptures based on it were produced form the seventeenth century onwards, becoming cult figures in churches and chapels.


Bibliographic references
  • Xavier Bray (ed.), The Sacred made Real. Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600-1700 (exh. cat. London, National Gallery, 21 oct. 2009-24 jan 2010 and Washington, National Gallery, 28 feb.-31 may 2010), London, 2009, cat.34, pp.188-9.
  • Marjorie Trustes, The Arts of Spain: Iberia and Latin America 1450-1700, London, 2007, pp.54-6
  • Marjorie Trusted, "Art for the Masses: Spanish Sculpture in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries", in Sculpture and its Reproductions, eds A. Hughes and E. Ranfft, London 1997, pp.57-60
  • Trusted, Marjorie, Spanish Sculpture: Catalogue of the Post-Medieval Spanish Sculpture in Wood, Terracotta, Alabaster, Marble, Stone, Lead and Jet in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1996, pp. 64-67, cat. no. 24, pl. 8, fig. 4
  • Musèe du Louvre: Nouvelles Acquisitions du Dèpartment des Sculptures 1988-1991. Paris, 1992, pp. 50-53, cat. no. 15
  • Pedro de Mena y Castilla. cat. no. 33-36. Catalogue of the exhibition held National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, 1989-1990
  • [Catalogue entries]The Golden Age of Spanish Art. Catalogue of the exhibition held Nottingham University Art Gallery, 1980.
  • Ceballos-Escalera, L. de. Segovia Monumental. Madrid, pp. 26, 30
  • Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1866.Inventory of Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of Acquisition. London : Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., p. 28
Collection
Accession number
331-1866

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Record createdAugust 15, 2008
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