JUAN MARTINEZ

MONTARES (c. 1580-1649)  , Spanish sculptor, was born at Alcala-la-real, in the province of Granada . His master was Pablo de Roxas, his first known work (1607) being a boy Christ, now in the sacristy of the capella antigua in the cathedral of Seville . The great altar at Santiponce near Seville, was completed in 1812 . Montanes executed most of his sculpture in wood, covered with a surface of polished gold, and coloured . Other works were the great altars at Santa Clara in Seville and at San Miguel in Jerez, the Conception and the realistic figure of Christ crucified, in the Seville cathedral; the figure of St John the Baptist, and the St Bruno (162o); a tomb for Don Perez de Guzman and his wife (1619); the St Ignatius and the St Francis of Borja in the university church of Seville . Montanes died in 1649, leaving a large family . His works are more realistic than imaginative, but this, allied with an impeccable taste, produced remarkable results . The equestrian statue of King Philip IV., caste in bronze by Pietro Tacca in Florence and now in Madrid, was modelled by Montanes . He had many imitators, his son Alonzo Martinez, who died in 1668, being among them . See B . Haendeke, Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen Plastik (Strassburg, 19oo); F . Gomez, Historic de la escultura en Espana (Madrid, 1885) .