PAIR OF POLYCHROMED WOODEN SCULPTURES. “SAINTS APOSTLES JOHN AND PAUL”. CASTILLA SCHOOL, 16TH CENTURY.

Pair of polychrome wooden sculptures. “Saint John and Saint Paul”. Castilian school, 16th century. Both male figures are depicted standing, with their main iconographic attributes and dressed in the timeless tunics that the period reserved for sacred persons. The younger one holds a chalice in his hand, from which a snake emerges, and an eagle at his feet; the bearded man holds a sword with the hilt visible. The first is Saint John, with the Tetramorph eagle alluding to his Gospel, and the chalice related to the episode of the Golden Legend of James of the Voragine in which he tells how the Emperor Domitian tried to kill him with poisoned wine, which escaped in the form of a snake after the evangelist blessed the cup. The second is Saint Paul, with that characteristic appearance that relates him to much earlier paleo-Christian works and with the sword of his martyrdom, which also refers to a text from his Letter to the Ephesians. Stylistically, both devotional carvings in the round show a marked Italian Renaissance influence in the drapery, contrapposto, proportions and gestures, distancing the works from the other trend of the time which was closer to Flemish models, which preferred greater drama. Gothic has been left behind, as demonstrated by the naturalness of the faces, folds, anatomy and gestures, after much effort. It was necessary to first accustom the clientele to the new tastes and for the artists to learn the technical and aesthetic novelties that the arrival of the Renaissance entailed, and it developed in different periods and at very different levels depending on the region or the artist. Compare the works, for example, with the San Juan de circo by Juan Rodríguez from the Fundación Simón Díaz (work housed in the Museo de las Ferias in Medina del Campo, Valladolid).

· Size: 26x26x76 cms.