agenda_y_actividades_conferencias_2007_cristo-lekaroz-alonso-cano

March 28, 2007

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

THE SCULPTURAL IMAGE IN THE HOLY WEEK

Christ of Lekaroz by Alonso Cano

Ms. Mª Concepción García Gainza.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

The lecture dealt with the circumstances surrounding the shipment of Alonso Cano's Christ from Lekaroz in 1891 and its previous location in the Benedictine convent of Monserrate in Madrid, where it is recorded in 18th century sources, and its subsequent transfer to the Academy on the occasion of the disentailment in 1837. The Crucifixion was made by Cano in Madrid between 1656 and 1658 at the request of Queen Mariana of Austria, which gives the work a special significance.

The lecturer then made a critical review of the supposed restorations and modifications that the sculpture had undergone to conclude that it was a work entirely by the hand of Cano without subsequent modification.
 

Christ of Lekaroz

Alonso Cano. Christ of Lekaroz (XVII Century). Church of San Antonio de Pamplona.


The affiliation of the iconographic subject of Christ with three nails was also analyzed in relation to the Sevillian school where Alonso Cano made his training starting with the Christ painted by Francisco Pacheco, his teacher, followed later by the Christ of Clemency by his teacher Martínez Montañés to also relate it to those of the Sevillian Juan de Mesa. During his stay in Madrid Alonso Cano would know the Christ of San Placido painted by Velázquez and the Crucified of the chapel del Olivar by Manuel Pereyra and perhaps the Christ that Bernini made in 1655 for Philip IV for the pantheon of El Escorial. With all these references Cano proposed in the Christ of Lekaroz an original model of which there is a painted version in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Granada. A sublimated Christ, idealized, almost divine in which the beauty of the body is translated into spiritual beauty.
 

Christ of the Chalices

Martínez Montañés. Christ of the Chalices. Seville


As a final evaluation this image was considered one of the most beautiful sculptures of the Spanish Golden Age and a fundamental work to gauge Alonso Cano as a sculptor, since it is the only sculpted crucifix of the artist.

This great work belongs today to the artistic heritage of Navarre and is considered an Asset of Cultural Interest. It currently presides over the penitential chapel of the church of San Antonio de los Padres Capuchinos in Pamplona.