17th Century, Wood and Polychrome Sculpture, 'Child of the Ball' - Salvator Mundi (Spanish)

The Child Jesus Saviour Of The World (Salvator Mundi), represented naked, has his right hand raised in a blessing gesture, holding in his left hand the orb, as a symbol of the world, this Infant Jesus sits on a polychrome wooden pedestal. He has a round face with blushing cheeks and his hair fans out in a halo of curls. The Christ Child was dressed for processions and special days. In the top of the apple is a hole for the attachment of a cross.

This work is stylistically related to the Spanish Baroque, it reveals a special influence of the great master of the Sevillian sculptural school of the XVII century, Juan Martínez Montañés. The material preferred by Montañés was always polychrome wood, counting on the collaboration of great painters, among them Francisco Pacheco, Velázquez's master. He enjoyed great fame and popularity, becoming known in Seville as "the god of wood" and in Madrid as "the Andalusian Lysippus". His art, which he transmitted to his disciples in his workshop, was inspired above all in the natural, denoting characteristics more classicist, at times, than baroque. 

CONDITION:

Signs of historic repairs where the arms meet the torso (as shown), and where the fingers have been reattached. Wear to statue and base commensurate with age.

PROVENANCE:

Purchased in Barcelona, Spain from an art and antiques collector.