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Lot Essay
This figure of the infant Christ belongs to a group called Nino Jesus, Salvador del Mundo (Infant Christ, Saviour of the World). It draws inspiration from the Andalucian school of sculptors from circa 1600, such as Martines Montanes, whose Infant Christ in wood from circa 1606-7 (J.H. Diaz, loc. cit.) displays the same characteristic child-like features; pot belly, large innocent eyes and a trace of a smile. Unlike the Montanes version that depicts Christ with arms outstretched in a 'redeemer' pose, the present figure is a variation of that, with one hand raised in benediction and the other outstretched, possibly to hold a flower.
This composition represents an extremely popular iconographical movement in Spain and Portugal, when the Spanish empire was stretching to South America in the West and the Indian states in the East. These movements in the late 16th and early 17th centuries took with them not only Catholicism as an alternative to the 'pagan' beliefs of these foreign worlds but this image of salvation in the form of a child.
This composition represents an extremely popular iconographical movement in Spain and Portugal, when the Spanish empire was stretching to South America in the West and the Indian states in the East. These movements in the late 16th and early 17th centuries took with them not only Catholicism as an alternative to the 'pagan' beliefs of these foreign worlds but this image of salvation in the form of a child.