Pablo de Rojas and Pedro de Raxis

PABLO DE ROJAS, sculptor (Alcalá la Real, 1549-Jaén, 1611), and PEDRO DE RAXI, painter and estofador (1555-1626), gilder, XVI century - "San Nicolás de Bari".
"Saint Nicholas of Bari".
Carved and polychrome wood.
In good general condition according to its age, with small punctual losses in protruding areas and edges, typical of devotional use and the passage of time.
Measurements: 126 cm (height, without staff).

A work of great interest for bringing together in a single image the excellence of the Granadian carving of transition to Baroque naturalism and a highly qualified workshop polychromy, the result of the collaboration between two key names of the Andalusian focus: Pablo de Rojas, decisive sculptor in the renewal of devotional language, and Pedro de Raxis, painter-sculptor of first line and member of his family and professional circle.

The sculpture represents St. Nicholas of Bari as a bishop, in rounded form and with a monumental presence that works perfectly in an altarpiece or chapel. The composition is built vertically, emphasized by the mitre and crozier, but is animated by a contained contrapposto and a subtle twist of the torso that avoids frontal rigidity. This balance between liturgical hieratism and corporal life is one of the most attractive features of the Granada school of the time.

The treatment of the drapery is especially eloquent: the folds fall in wide and orderly bands, with strategic breaks that articulate the body and generate areas of deep shadow, reinforcing the scenographic reading from different angles. The face, serene and concentrated, seeks more "unction" and spiritual authority than dramatism, with a realistic characterization (beard, flesh tones) but refined and of great dignity.

Iconographically, the saint carries the episcopal crosier and the book with three spheres, an allusion to one of his miracles and a distinctive attribute, which reinforces the immediate identification of the figure for a devotional context. The polychromy -with the meticulous details in the vestments and gold work- completes the effect of visual richness, underlining the hierarchy of the figure and the solemn character of the whole.

The relevance of the binomial Pablo de Rojas - Pedro de Raxis in the consolidation of the Granada school has been widely studied in specialized historiography. The collaboration between both masters and their structural role in the evolution of Andalusian sculpture at the end of the 16th century is analyzed, among other publications, in: "The Mystery of Faith. An Eye on Spanish Sculpture 1550-1750" (MMIX), which contextualizes the production of Rojas and the intervention of Raxis in documented works from Granada.