Gregorio Hernández

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Gregorio Hernández

Spanish sculptor

Also known as: Gregorio Fernández

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Also called:: Gregorio Fernández

Born:: c. 1576,, Sarria?, Spain

Died:: Jan. 22, 1636, Valladolid

Movement / Style:: Baroque art and architecture

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Gregorio Hernández (born c. 1576, Sarria?, Spain—died Jan. 22, 1636, Valladolid) was a Spanish sculptor whose works are among the finest examples of polychromed wood sculpture created during the Baroque period. His images are characterized by their emotional intensity, spiritual expressiveness, and sense of dramatic gravity, as well as by their illusionistic realism.

Many of his best known statues, such as “St. Veronica” (1614) and the “Pietà” (1617), were once part of sculptural groups for pasos, or floats with scenes from the Passion, which are carried by Spanish religious confraternities during Holy Week processions. One of his iconographical innovations was that of depicting the dead Christ stretched out on a sheet, a well-known example being at the Capuchin monastery of S. Cristo at El Pardo near Madrid (1605). Besides devotional images and pasos, Hernández executed many altarpieces. Among the most important are those at S. Miguel (1606) and the Convento de las Huelgas (1616) in Valladolid, at the Colegiata de S. Pedro in Lerma (1615), and the high altar for the cathedral at Plasencia (1624–34).

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Pablo Gargallo

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Pablo Gargallo

Spanish sculptor

Also known as: Pablo Gargallo y Catalán

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In full:: Pablo Gargallo y Catalán

Born:: 1881, Mailla, Spain

Died:: December 28, 1934, Reus (aged 53)

Notable Works:: “The Prophet”

Movement / Style:: Cubism

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Pablo Gargallo (born 1881, Mailla, Spain—died December 28, 1934, Reus) was a Spanish sculptor who was among the first artists to work in iron. He introduced Pablo Picasso to metal sculpture.

After studying drawing and sculpture in Barcelona, Gargallo won a scholarship in 1903 to continue his studies in Paris; he was forced to return to Barcelona shortly thereafter to support his widowed mother and her family. From 1905 to 1911 Gargallo received commissions to create sculptural decorations for public buildings in Barcelona. Around 1907 he began to use copper and other metals in his work. When he returned to Paris in 1912, he met avant-garde artists and writers such as Amedeo Modigliani, Juan Gris, and Guillaume Apollinaire, and he began to experiment with a Cubist style. He lived and worked in Barcelona from 1914 until 1924.

Gargallo settled in Paris for the last decade of his life, during which he achieved recognition for the figure sculptures that he constructed from thin leaves of metal. In these works, such as The Prophet (1930) and Picador (1928), Gargallo used Cubist techniques without adopting complete abstraction. After his death he was honoured with four major posthumous exhibitions: in Madrid (1935), Paris (1935 and 1947), and at the Venice Biennale (1955).

"Deux Fantassins Casques (Two Helmeted Infantrymen)" Roger de La Fresnaye, 1917. Pen and black ink with wash, 30.8x19.4 cm

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