José Montes de Oca (¿Sevilla?, c. 1683 – Sevilla, 1754) San Martín de Porres Polychrome Wood 133 x 59 x 60 cm.

The historical information about the life of José Montes de Oca has been little and confusing. Even today the place and date of his birth are unknown with certainty, being among the candidate cities Seville or Cádiz. The relationship with the latter city will occur because of being the place of residence of his mother and brothers, but it is known that in the last decade of the seventeenth century he was in Seville as a disciple in the workshop of Pedro Roldán.

There is a complete absence of his work known until 1717, and even until

a decade later, in works such as Santa Ana and the Virgen Niña (Fig. 1) of the parish of La Puebla de Cazalla, we can trace the influence of his teacher. He will also take inspiration from the main disciple of Roldán, and fashion sculptor in the Seville of the moment, Pedro Duque Cornejo.

However, its true essence was manifested at the time when he neglected the most rational and tempered models of his time, and set his sights on the peak of Seville's Baroque, with Juan Martínez Montañés and Juan de Mesa as inspiration. An example of this trend is the Virgin Commander of Mercy (Fig. 2). It was that individuality that deserved more admiration from the scholars who would reflect on his work. Ceán Bermúdez, not long after the death of Montes de Oca, would already consider him as the last sculptor “of merit in Seville”.

Certainly, it is surprising that Oca could take in commission at a time - first decades of the eighteenth century - in which the orders had been drastically reduced compared to previous decades - largely because of the Civil War - and in which the change of taste, from a triumphant and very decorative Baroque towards an incipient rationalist Neoclassicism, would have as a consequence a lesser need for ornamentation.

The severity so celebrated in Oca is also found in this sculpture of San Martín de Porres (1579 – 1639). This saint, who was the first of African descent in Latin America1, was born in times of maximun splendour of the peruvian viceroyalty, at the end the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, period characterized by its marked religiousness and mistycism. Also, there was a proliferation of churches, monasteries and other worship places. Both circunstances lead to a remarkable influence of those aspects related with the religious belief on a closed society wich also had a tight relationship between its social layers2.

It was in this environment, in the lower and marginal levels of de Lima

society, where a mulatto called Martin de Porres lived 3 –curiosly, In the extraordinary sculpture presented here, Montes de Oca represents him by portraying purely African features (more than "mulattos") with the skin of an intense brown, large dark eyes and red lips–. Martin de Porres suffered since his childhood and early adolescece the poverty and limitations tipycal of a black servant community living in a wide black people getto. His annate keenness to service lead him to educate himself as assistant, “barber”, herbalist and finally to join, as a “lay brother”, to a monastery in Lima. Martin opted for a sort of religious life defined by the compliance to the humblest monastic tasks, as a way of overcoming its own personal condition and giving a meaning of penitence and expiation to his life4.

In his most frequent place of activity, the infirmary, he took care of those

patients coming from the poor people with no limit piety and abnegation. He obtained illness relief and healing which was soon interpreted as the result of miracles. The notice of his exceptional art spread all over the Lima society, including the viceroyal court and even the own viceroy. He was considered as a saint when he died and this was the image that everybody remembered from him since then. He lived during an exceptional part of the Lima history, plenty of mysticism, in which his life coincided with the lives of other saints as St.

1 Mariategui, J.: “Un santo mulato en la Lima Seiscentista. Martín de Porres” in Revista Peruana de Epidemiología, Vol.8 Nº2 de diciembre de 1995. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid 4 Ibid.

Toribio of Mogrovejo, St. Rosa de Lima and the blessed Juan Masías5. In fact, nowadays, San Martin de Porres is considered by peruvian people as one of the main saints for miracles and healings6.

Some parts of his personality are especially comented, including the

symbolism of his “broom”, an instrument of his humble work, which after him became a symbol of generous devoting to the fellow man7. Indeed, attending to the form and position of our sculpture’s hands, the figure once probably held a broom in the right hand and a crucifix in the left, –elements that configure the Saint’s iconography (Fig.3)–. A fact that, together with the absence of a Franciscan habit in our figure, leads us to dismiss the possibility of connecting it to Saint Benedict of Palermo (Fig.4); confirming our sculpture as an magnificent example of San Martín de Porres in polycrhome wood, by one of the most important masters in the spanish religious imagery. Bibliography: CORNEJO, Hernan: Cúrame con las manos: en las misas de sanación del P. Manuel Rodríguez, Instituto Peruano de Cultura, Lima, 1996, p. 50. CUSSEN, Celia, Martín de Porres. Santo de América, Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. 2016. MARIÁTEGUI, Javier: “Un santo mulato en la Lima Seiscentista. Martín de Porres” in Revista Peruana de Epidemiología, Vol.8 Nº2 de diciembre de 1995. ALONSO DE LA SIERRA FERNÁNDEZ, Lorenzo, “Nuevos datos sobre la vida y la obra del escultor José Montes de Oca”, en Atrio, 4, 1992, pp. 71-83. CÉAN BERMÚDEZ, Juan Agustín, Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes en España, t. III, Madrid, en la imprenta de la viuda de Ibarra, 1800, pp. 176-177. DÁVILA-ARMERO DEL ARENAL, Álvaro, “Una revisión bibliográfica acerca de la vida y obra del escultor José Montes de Oca”, en Laboratorio de Arte, 18, 2005, pp. 265-281.

5 Mariategui, J.: “Un santo mulato en la Lima Seiscentista. Martín de Porres” in Revista Peruana de Epidemiología, Vol.8 Nº2 de diciembre de 1995. 6 Cornejo, H.: Cúrame con las manos: en las misas de sanación del P. Manuel Rodríguez, Instituto Peruano de Cultura, Lima, 1996, p. 50. 7 Ibid.

RODA PEÑA, José, “Escultura en la Baja Andalucía durante el siglo XVIII: síntesis interpretativa e historiografía reciente”, en Mirabilia, 1, 2014, pp. 162-218. TORREJÓN DÍAZ, Antonio, El escultor José Montes de Oca, Sevilla, Diputación Provincial de Sevilla, 1987. FRACCHIA, Carmen, « (lack of) visual representation of black slaves in Spanish golden age painting » en Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, Volume 10, 2004 - Issue 1. pp. 23-34. BREWER-GARCÍA, Larissa, « Imagined Transformations: Color, Beauty, and Black Christian Conversion in Seventeenth-Century Spanish America » en Envisioning Others: Race, Color, and the Visual in Iberia and Latin America, 2015. STOICHITA, Victor, « The image of the Black in Spanish Art : Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries » en The Image of the Black in Western Art, Vol. 3, Parte I. 2010. pp. 191-235. BREWER-GARCÍA, Larissa, « Imagined Transformations : Color, Beauty, and Black Christian Conversion in Seventeenth-Century Spanish America » en Envisioning Others : Race Color, and the Visual in Iberia and Latin America. 2016. pp. 111-141.

Fig. 1. José Montes de Oca, The Virgin and Saint Anne, Parroquia de La Puebla de Cazalla.

Fig. 2. José Montes de Oca, Virgin of mercy, Capilla del Museo de Sevilla.

Fig.3: Recent Sculpture of San Martin de Porres, Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Dominic, Montevideo.

Fig. 4. José Montes de Oca, Saint Benedict of Palermo, Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Fig.: José Montes de Oca, San Martín de Porres, Nicolás Cortés Gallery.