Pedro de Mena

PEDRO DE MENA (Granada, 1628–Málaga, 1688).
“Saint Peter of Alcántara.”
Carved wood.
Work exhibited in *From the Middle Ages to the Baroque: Spanish and European Sculpture*. Ansorena. Madrid.
Measurements: 73 x 40 x 20 cm; 83 x 37 x 29 cm (base).
As for the saint depicted, his Franciscan habit and physical features identify him as Saint Peter of Alcántara, who decided to join the Franciscans at the age of 16 shortly after his stepfather sent him to the university in Salamanca. Upon returning home, he became a Franciscan friar of the Strict Observance at the monastery of Manxaretes, in Extremadura, in 1515. At the age of twenty-two, he was sent to found a new community of the Strictest Observance in Badajoz. He was ordained a priest in 1524, and the following year he was appointed Guardian of the convent of Santa María de los Ángeles in Robredillo, Old Castile. A few years later, he began preaching with great success. He was known for his preference for preaching to the poor and for his sermons, drawn largely from the Prophets and the Wisdom Books.
Stylistically, the work belongs to the circle of Pedro de Mena, who was the son of the sculptor Alonso de Mena, whose workshop was the most important in Granada until the arrival of Alonso Cano. Trained by his father, upon the latter’s death he took charge of the workshop and worked alongside Bernardo de Mora. During this period, he created four sculptures for the Church of San Matías in Granada, the Sagrada Familia of the Capuchins in the same city, and the San Antonio at the Municipal Museum of Málaga. He later worked with Alonso Cano after the latter settled in Granada in 1652. He carved four large sculptures of saints commissioned from Cano for the Convent of the Guardian Angel, as well as a sculpture of the Immaculate Conception for the parish church of Alhendín in the Granada valley. Later, in 1658, he moved to Málaga to carry out the commission for the cathedral’s choir stalls, which had been designed in 1633 by Luis Ortiz de Vargas, who had begun the carving but left it unfinished. José Micael y Alfaro continued the work, but it was ultimately Mena who carried out the bulk of it, carving the forty-three remaining panels and the crowning elements of the choir stalls. In this work, he demonstrated his great technical skill and his ability to create a wide variety of faces, figures, and compositions. In 1662, he traveled to the court at the request of Don Juan José of Austria. During this brief trip, he also visited Toledo. For Don Juan José, he carved a sculpture of the Virgin of the Pillar with St. James the Apostle at her feet. In Madrid, he also created a Crucifix for Prince Doria, which was sent to Genoa. In Toledo, he carved the Saint Francis now housed in the Cathedral Treasury, which is one of his most notable works. Small in size, as was customary in Granada’s art, the figure stands upright, with his head slightly raised and his eyes turned toward the sky. He was appointed sculptor of the Toledo Cathedral. Toward the end of his journey, he began work in Madrid on *The Penitent Magdalene* (Prado), which he completed upon his return to Málaga. There, he established an important workshop and produced numerous works.