"Virgen con el niño y San Juanito"

Educated in the sculpture workshop of the Mora -disciples and keepers of the artistic heritage of Alonso Cano in Granada-, the painter and sculptor José Risueño y Alconchel (Granada 1665-1732) has a privileged place in Spanish plastic from the end of the baroque thanks to the huge quality of his sculptures modeled in clay and often polychromed by his own hand. Among them, this excellent group that comes from the Franciscan nunnery of San Antonio of Granada, that in the first decades of the 20th century went to private hands, where it has been until the Government bought it for the collections of the National Museum of Sculpture. Its closed composition and clear pyramid diagram, show Saint John the Baptist as a child, dressed as a shepherd with his hands crossed over his chest as an offering gesture, surrounded by fennels kneeling in front of the seated Virgin with the Child on her lap, who turns her smiling face to the Baptist with a look full of tenderness and exquisite sensitivity, that foretell new 1800's styles. The detailed and thorough modeling, the contrast between soft and flat surfaces of the anatomies with the happy curves of the fabrics, as well as the resort of plain colors for the clothing, show that this group of sculptures belong to the most personal and mature work of the artist, already in the two last decades of his life, we he captures his prodigious skills for modeling.