Spanish school of the XVI century.

Spanish school of the XVI century.
"San Marcos".
High relief in carved wood, with original polychrome and gilding.
Measurements: 73 x 34,5 cm; 78,5 x 40,5 cm (frame).

Spanish Renaissance high relief representing St. Mark the Evangelist, seated on his symbol in the Tetramorphos, the lion, and with the Gospel open on his lap. At his feet, the composition is completed with large vegetal scrolls in classical style. The figure appears full-length, on a golden background that evidences the gothic heritage still present in the 16th century. The saint's right hand stands out especially, worked almost in a rounded form, with elegantly bent fingers. The carving maintains the original polychrome and gilding.
Once the clash between tradition and modernity was overcome, the arrival of the Italian Renaissance influences in Spain, the 16th century was characterized by the great development of religious imagery. Likewise, stylistically, there was a confrontation between the classicist sculptors and those of Flemish origin, who sought more dramatic and emotional approaches. Thus, the diffusion of the religious image in Spain was based on two fundamental bases. On the one hand, the fact that the Nordic influence constitutes a clearly differentiated alternative to the Italian classicist model; on the other, that the emotional sense, which by its very function must be acquired by the religious image, will be oriented more to enhance the feeling, to move the faithful, than to follow the rationalist dictates of the Renaissance. So much so that in Spain the attention to the emotional was more relevant than in the rest of Europe. Thus, the image, associated with the words of the preachers, was the most suitable instrument for the indoctrination of the people and for the defense of the canons of the Church, following scholastic and not humanistic approaches.