Attributed to Roque de Balduque (Den Bosch? Sevilla 1561)
Attributed to Roque de Balduque (Den Bosch? -Sevilla 1561)
Saint John Baptist
Carved wooden sculpture, polychrome, gilded and stewed. With inscription on the back 1705 and with an old label with the inscription Nº ENQUETA: 1705 / ALTO-130ms .
Dr. Jésus Porres Benavides has attributed this impressive sculpture to the Seville Renaissance sculptor Roque de Balduque or Roque Balduque who worked in the central decades of the 15th century, applying all the advances of the Renaissance to his work, without losing the reference to the tradition of sculpture early.
Carved in a single block of wood, it represents the Saint with its attributes: the skin of a camel, a symbol of the holy hermits and holding the lamb (Agnus Dei) towards which it points with the finger. The bowed head with the low gaze reminds us of the Corpus de Balduque del Cristo de la Vera Cruz de Alcalá del Río in Seville. As well as the features of the elongated face with droopy eyelids and beards are very close.
It is known that Balduque made the altar today disappeared from the parish church of Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz, which was dedicated to San Juan Bautista. There are still remains of this altar in the church but no trace of San Juan Bautista, so if Porres Benavides is right, this sculpture would be the centerpiece of the altar, since this church was dedicated to San Juan Bautista.
Bibliography.
Porres Benavides, J. (2018). About a new San Juan Bautista attributed to Roque Balduque. Trocadero, (30), pp. 317-340.
Provenance. Sevillian private collection. Possibly it was an order for the altar, today dismantled, of the parish church of Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz.
Size: 134 cms.