Granada School; end of the XVII century.

Granada School; late seventeenth century.
"San Francisco".
Wood, glued and polychrome canvas.
Measurements: 57 x 21 x 18 cm; 10 x 26,5 x 26,5 cm (base).
Wooden carving of round bulk of devotional character. The piece of elongated canon represents a saint, in praying attitude, moving a hand on his chest and the other in high, where there is a loss of what surely was the cross, with the figure of Christ. From his rope belt from which hang three knots, poverty, chastity and obedience, it can be deduced that the work represents St. Francis of Assisi (Assisi, Italy, 1182 - 1226) was the son of a wealthy Italian merchant. Baptized as John, he was soon known as "Francesco" (the little Frenchman), because his mother came from that country. His youth was joyful and carefree until the age of twenty-five, when he changed completely and began to dedicate himself to the service of God, practicing the evangelical ideal: purity, detachment and joy in peace. Francesco renounces the great inheritance received from his parents and decides to live poorly, giving an example of authentic Christianity. He soon had several young disciples, called by the saint "order of the Friars Minor". In 1210, Pope Innocent III granted them the foundation of the new order and encouraged them in their evangelical tasks. During a retreat on the mountain, Christ appeared to him, and legend has it that from his wounds came rays that caused Francis various stigmata. He was a legendary character during his lifetime, considered a living relic. Likewise, his exquisite poetry and his familiarity with nature add the most human accent known in a saint, as can be appreciated in his "Canticle to the Sun".
Stylistically, it is clear that the present work is strongly influenced by 17th century Baroque models of the Granada school, and not only in the iconography, but also in the model chosen as an influence for it, in the decoration of the clothing, in the coloring, in the features of the face, etc. The Granada school, which starts from the strong influence of the Renaissance period, counted with great figures such as Pablo de Rojas, Juan Martínez Montañés (who was formed in the city with the previous one), Alonso de Mena, Alonso Cano, Pedro de Mena, Bernardo de Mora, Pedro Roldán, Torcuato Ruiz del Peral, etc. In general, the school does not neglect the beauty of the images and also follows the naturalism, as usual at the time, but it would always emphasize more the intimate and the recollection in some delicate images that would be somewhat similar to the rest of Andalusian schools in another series of details but that do not usually have the monumentality of the Sevillian ones. The work can be inscribed, specifically, in the stylistic circle of the Mora workshop (José and Diego). One of the most important workshops in Granada in the 17th century. The artistic legacy of this family of image makers, which spanned from the last third of the seventeenth century to the second half of the eighteenth century, was a milestone in the Granada school. Influenced by the work of both Alonso Cano and Pedro de Mena, an influence that led him to create a very personal and characteristic style.