Juan de Mesa y Velasco (1583–1627) was a Spanish Baroque sculptor. He was the creator of several of the effigies that are used in the procession during the

Holy Week in Seville Holy Week in Seville (In Spanish: ''Semana Santa de Sevilla'') is one of two biggest annual festivals in Seville, Andalusia, Spain, the other being the ''Feria de Abril'' (April Fair), which follows two weeks later. It is celebrated in the week l ...

Biography

De Mesa was born in Córdoba and baptized on 26 June 1583. He entered the workshop of

Juan Martínez Montañés Juan Martínez Montañés (March 16, 1568 – June 18, 1649), known as el Dios de la Madera (''the God of Wood''), was a Spanish sculptor, born at Alcalá la Real, in the province of Jaén. He was one of the most important figures of the Sevill ...

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

in 1606. He died in the city in 1627. His early death, coupled with the large gaps in his biography, has led to speculation that he suffered from a chronic disease such as

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. Like his master, Montañés, de Mesa's works were realistic rather than imaginative in form, his sculptures closely replicate the human form. This was in line with the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

's aesthetic program for the visual arts following the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...

, which sought to make the arts accessible to the poorly educated by using realistic forms. Processional effigies make up the bulk of de Mesa's extant work and are still objects of devotion. These works include ''Cristo del Amor'', ''Cristo de la Buena Muerte'' and ''Jesus del Gran Poder''.

References

1583 births 1627 deaths People from Córdoba, Spain 17th-century Spanish sculptors Spanish Baroque sculptors Spanish male sculptors Catholic sculptors {{Spain-sculptor-stub

Biography

See also

References