SAINT PAUL\'S SCULPTURE. 16TH CENTURY

Spanish school of the 16th century. "Saint Paul". Carved and polychrome wood. A devotional image carved in wood, polychrome and gilded, representing the apostle Saint Paul, dressed in a tunic and cloak, with a parted beard, brown hair and a large sword, his main iconographic attribute. In the Middle Ages, numerous corporations were placed under his patronage, due to different aspects of his iconography, life and miracles. However, Saint Paul was never a popular saint, which proves the relative poverty of his iconography. In fact, the role he occupies in art is not proportional to his importance in the spread of Christianity. In early Christian art, his only attributes are a book or a scroll, and in the 13th century his emblem appears, the sword that was the instrument of his martyrdom. Once the clash between tradition and modernity was overcome, with the arrival of the influences of the Italian Renaissance in Spain, the full 16th century was characterised by the great development achieved by religious imagery. Likewise, stylistically there was a confrontation between the classicist sculptors and those of Flemish affiliation, who sought more dramatic and emotional approaches. Thus, the spread of religious images in Spain was based on two fundamental bases. On the one hand, the fact that the Nordic influence constituted a clearly differentiated alternative to the Italian classicist model; on the other, the emotional sense, which the religious image had to acquire due to its own function, was oriented more towards enhancing the feeling, to moving the faithful, than to following the rationalist dictates of the Renaissance. So much so that in Spain, attention to the emotional had a more relevant character than in the rest of Europe. In this way the image, associated with the words of the preachers, was the most suitable instrument for the indoctrination of the people and for the defense of the canons of the Church, following scholastic and not humanistic approaches.

· Size: 19x12x39 cms.