Juan Martínez Montañés

[1] He was one of the most important figures of the Sevillian school of sculpture, and is known for developing the encarnación sculpting technique.

Juan Martínez Montañés was born on March 16, 1568, in Alcalá la Real, Jaén, Spain.

His masterpiece, the great altar of St Jerome at San Isidoro del Campo, Santiponce, near Seville, was contracted in 1609 and completed in 1613.

Other works were the great altars at Santa Clara in Seville and at San Miguel in Jerez, the Immaculate Conception and the realistic figure of Christ Crucified in Cristo de la Clemencìa, commissioned in 1603,[2] in the sacristy of Seville cathedral (illustration); the figure of St John the Baptist, and the St Bruno (1620); a tomb for Don Pérez de Guzmán and his wife (1619);[1] the highly realistic polychromed wood head and hands of St Ignatius of Loyola (1610) and of St Francis Xavier in the university church of Seville, where the costumed figures were used in celebrations.

Montañés achieved great fame in his lifetime; he died in 1649, leaving a large family.

Portrait of Montañés by Diego Velázquez , 1636
'Saint John the Baptist', painted and gilded wood statue by Juan Martínez Montañés, Spanish, 1st third of 17th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Cristo de la Clemencía , detail; commissioned in 1603, Cathedral sacristy, Seville