Baroque sculpture
Baroque sculpture is the
Baroque sculpture followed Renaissance and
The
In the 18th century much sculpture continued on Baroque lines—the Trevi Fountain was only completed in 1762. The Rococo style was better suited to smaller works.[5]
Origins and Characteristics
The Baroque style emerged from Renaissance sculpture, which, drawing upon classical Greek and Roman sculpture, had idealized the human form. This was modified by Mannerism, when artists strived to give their works a unique and personal style. Mannerism introduced the idea of sculptures featuring strong contrasts; youth and age, beauty and ugliness, men and women. Mannerism also introduced the figura serpentina, which became a major characteristic of Baroque sculpture. This was the arrangement of figures or groups of figures in an ascending spiral, which gave lightness and movement to the work.[6]
Another important influence leading to the Baroque style was the Catholic Church, which was seeking artistic weapons in the battle against the rise of Protestantism. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) gave the Pope greater powers to guide artistic creation, and expressed a strong disapproval of the doctrines of humanism, which had been central to the arts during the Renaissance.[7] During the pontificate of Paul V (1605–1621) the church began to develop artistic doctrines to counter the Reformation, and commissioned new artists to carry them out.[citation needed]
Bernini and Roman Baroque sculpture
The dominant figure in Baroque sculpture was Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680). He was the son of a Florentine sculptor, Pietro Bernini, who had been called to Rome by Pope Paul V. The young Bernini made his first solo works at the age of fifteen, and in 1618–25 received a major commission for statues for the villa of Cardinal Scipion Borghese. His works, highly dramatic, designed to be seen from multiple ponts of view, and spiraling upwards, had an immense impact on European sculpture. He continued to dominate Italian sculpture through his works on Roman fountains, the Baldequin of St. Peter and the tomb of Pope Alexander VII within St. Peter's Basilica, and his altar ensemble for the Church of Santa-Maria della Vittoria in Rome. He received his final fountain sculpture commission for the Fountain of the Elephant (1665–1667), followed by a series of angels for the Sant Angelo Bridge in Rome (1667–69).[8]
Bernini died in 1680, but his style influenced sculptors across Europe, particularly in France, Bavaria and Austria.[citation needed]
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Rape of Proserpina(1621–1622) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Borghese Gallery)
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Apollo and Daphne (1622–1625) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Borghese Gallery)
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David (1623–1624) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Borghese Gallery)
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The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647-1652), by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Santa Maria Della Victoria, Rome)
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Fountain of the Four Rivers, Rome (1648-1651)
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Angel with a Lance (1667-1669) Sant Angelo Bridge, Rome
Maderno, Mochi, and the other Italian Baroque sculptors
Generous papal commissions made Rome a magnet for sculptors in Italy and across Europe. They decorated churches, squares, and, a Rome specialty, the popular new fountains created around the city by the Popes. Stefano Maderna (1576–1636), originally from Bissone in Lombardy, preceded the work of Bernini. He began his career making reduced-size copies of classical works in bronze. His major large-scale work was a statue of Saint Cecile (1600, for the Church of Saint Cecilia in the Trastevere in Rome. The saint's body lies stretched out, as if it were in a sarcophagus, evoking a sense of pathos.[9]
Another early important Roman sculptor was Francesco Mochi (1580–1654), born in Montevarchi, near Florence. He made a celebrated bronze equestrian statue of Alexander Farnese for the main square of Piacenza (1620–1625), and a vivid statue of Saint Veronica for Saint Peter's Basilica, so active that she seems to be about to leap from the niche.[9]
Other notable Italian Baroque sculptors included
The Flemish sculptor
Major sculptors in the late period included
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Saint Cecilia (1599) by Stefano Maderno, Santa Cecelia in Trastevere
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Saint Andrew by François Duquesnoy (1629–33), St. Peter's Basilica
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Saint Veronica by Francesco Mochi (1640), the Vatican
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The meeting of Attila the Hun and Pope Leo I by Alessandro Algardi
France
The major part of French Baroque sculpture was intended to glorify not the Church, but the French monarch,
In the early part of the Baroque period, French sculptors were largely influenced by the painters of Flanders and the Netherlands. particularly the Mannerism of
The best French sculptors were engaged to make statues for the fountains gardens of the
In the later years of the Baroque era,
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Basin of Saturn, François Girardon, Palace of Versailles (1672-1677)
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Jean-Baptiste Tuby, Chariot of Apollo, gardens of the Palace of Versailles (1668–70)
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Fame Riding Pegasus by Antoine Coysevox for Marly, now in Louvre (1701-1702)
The Southern Netherlands
The Southern Netherlands, which remained under Spanish,
The most prominent sculptor was
While the Southern Netherlands had witnessed as steep decline in the level of the output and reputation of its painting school in the second half of the 17th century, sculpture replaced painting in importance, under the impulse of domestic and international demand and the massive, high-quality output of a number of family workshops in Antwerp. In particular, the workshops of Quellinus, Jan and Robrecht Colyn de Nole,
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Luis de Benavides Carrillo, Marquis of Caracena by Artus Quellinus the Elder (1664), Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
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Hercules, by Lucas Faydherbe (1640-1650), Musée du Louvre-Lens
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Funerary monument for Marcas De Velasco, by Pieter Scheemaeckers (1694-1697), St. James Church in Antwerp
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Pulpit ofHendrik Frans Verbruggen(1695-1699)
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The last judgement by Willem Kerricx (1695-1699), St. Paul's Church, Antwerp
The Dutch Republic
After breaking sway from Spain, the predominantly
Pupils and assistants of the Flemish sculptor
Other Flemish sculptors who contributed to the Baroque sculpture in the Dutch Republic were Jan Claudius de Cock, Jan Baptist Xavery, Pieter Xavery, Bartholomeus Eggers and Francis van Bossuit. Some of them trained local sculptors. For instance the Dutch sculptor Johannes Ebbelaer (c. 1666-1706) likely received training from Rombout Verhulst, Pieter Xavery and Francis van Bossuit.[25] Van Bossuit is believed to have also been the master of Ignatius van Logteren.[26] Van Logteren and his son Jan van Logteren left an important mark on the entire 18th century Amsterdam facade architecture and decoration. Their work forms the last summit of the late Baroque and the first Rococo style in sculpture in the Dutch Republic.[27]
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Tomb of William the Silent by Hendrick de Keyser (1614-1622)
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Tomb of Van In- en Kniphuisen by Rombout Verhulst and Bartholomeus Eggers (1665–69), church of Midwolde
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Allegory of summer, by Jan Baptist Xavery (1726), Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
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Two laughing fools, by Pieter Xavery (1773), Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
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Bacchus, by Jan van Logteren, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum
England
Early Baroque sculpture in England was influenced by an influx of refugees from the
In the second half of the 18th century, the Anglo-Dutch sculptor and
In the 18th century, the Baroque style would be continued by a new influx of continental artists, including the Flemish sculptors
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Tomb of Lady Elizabeth Carey by Nicholas Stone (1617-1618), Stowe Nine Churches, Northamptonshire
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Panel in honor of the alliance between Tuscany and England, by Grinling Gibbons (1680–82)
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Sir John Cutler by Artus Quellinus III, (c. 1683) Guildhall
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Bust of Hans Sloane by John Michael Rysbrack, (1753) British Museum
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Handel by Louis-François Roubiliac, (1738) Victoria and Albert Museum
Germany and the Habsburg Empire
The Baroque movement flourished especially in the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century in Germany and the states of the
A number of sculptors came from the Netherlands to participate in the reconstruction. They included
One of the most unusual German sculptors in the late Baroque was Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, who was known both for religious sculpture and for a series of sculpted portraits portraying extreme expressions.[37]
Balthasar Permoser (1651–1732) spent fourteen years in Italy, from 1675 to 1689, before becoming court sculptor in Dresden. He worked in Venice, Rome and Florence, and brought the Italian Baroque to Dresden, particularly in the gardens, and the interior decoration of the Zwinger Palace. His most famous work was a sculpture of The Apotheosis of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the general who had defeated the invasion of the Ottoman Turks. The Prince is portrayed with his foot on a defeated Turk, and with the attributes of Hercules. His sculpted pulpit for the Hofkirche in Dresden is another masterpiece of Baroque sculpture.[38]
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Hubert Gerhard, Fountain of Augustus in Augsburg, 1589-1594)
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Adriaen de Vries, Hercules slays a dragon (now at Waldstein Palace, Prague)
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Fountain of the Archangel Michael by Hans Reichle in Augsburg (1603-1606)
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The Hercules Fountain inAugsbourg by Adriaen de Vries(1596-1602)
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Yawning by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (circa 1770)
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Pulpit of the Hofkirche in Dresden, by Balthasar Permoser
The most dramatic theater for Baroque sculpture in Germany was church architecture. Particularly complex retables and high altars. crowded with statues and rising almost the ceilings, were created by Hans Riechle, Jorg Zurn, Hans Degler, and other artists. The Michael Zürn family produced several generations of very productive sculptors, making figures of polychrome or gilded wood and stucco. Other artists producing remarkable retables included Thomas Schwanthaler.[37]
In Vienna, the later years of the 18th century produced some extraordinary works, that marked the transition from Baroque into
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High Altar atUeberlingen, by Jorg Zurn (about 1613)
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Saint Sebastian, by Michael Zürn
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Interior of theAsamkirche in Munich, by Egid Quirin Asam, with sculpture blended into the architecture
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Friesing Chapel by Egid Quirin Asam
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The Fall of the Angels, in St. Michaels's Church, Vienna, by Karl Georg Merville (1781)
Spain
The emergence of the Baroque style in Spain, as in Italy, was largely driven by the Catholic Church, which used it during the Counter-Reformation as a powerful weapon against the Protestants. The great majority of works were made for tombs, altars and chapels. At the same time, the 17th century was a period of economic decline and political and cultural isolation; few Spanish artists traveled abroad, and only a handful of northern European sculptors, notably the Flemish artist José de Arce, came to Spain. As a result, the Spanish Baroque developed independently of the rest of Europe, and had its own specific characteristics.[39]
The crowning of the French
Large numbers of sculptures were commissioned for retables, reliquaries and funereal monuments in churches, as well as statuary for religious processions. New themes appeared, particularly works devoted to the cult of the
There were two important schools of Spanish sculpture in the early 16th century, that of Castile and that of Andalusia. The emphasis in the Castile school was more on sacrifice and martyrdom, with an abundance vivid suffering. The school of Andalusia generally used greater ornament, and less violence; the infant Christ and the Virgin Mary were more frequent subjects than in Castile.[41] The first center of the Castile style was Valladolid, where King Philip III of Spain resided from 1601 to 1606. The most important artist of the early Castilian school was Gregorio Fernández (1576–1636). His early work showed extraordinary realism and naturalism, showing all the wounds. His Descent from the Cross in Valladolid, highly detailed and realistic, was made to be carried in processions.[40] His success enabled him to create a large workshop with many assistants, and to make very large-scale works, most notably the retable of the Cathedral of Plasencia made between 1625 and 1632, considered one of the high points of Spanish art in the first half of the 17th century.[42]
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Christ martyred, by Gregorio Fernandez (about 1619), polychrome wood, Valladolid, Vera Cruz
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Descent from the Cross by Gregorio Fernandez (1623-1625), polychrome wood, Valladolid
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Saint Francis Borgia by Juan Martínez Montañés (1624)
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Retable of Plasencia Cathedral, by Gregorio Fernandez (1625–32)
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Altar of the Hospital de Caidad in Seville (1670–72) of by Pedro Roldán (1624-1699)
The other early center of Spanish baroque sculpture was the city of Seville, which had been greatly enriched by the wealth of the Spanish colonies in the New World. The most important sculptor of the early Seville school was Juan Martínez Montañés (1568–1649), whose works portrayed balance and harmony, with a minimum of violence and blood.[42] Another important Seville sculptor was Pedro Roldán (1624–1699), whose major work was the lavish retable depicting the descent from the Cross of Christ, made for the Hospital de Caidad in Seville (1670–72). The daughter of Roldán, Luisa Roldán (1654–1704), also achieved fame for her work, and became the first woman appointed a royal sculptor in Spain.[43]
Other notable Spanish Baroque sculptors include Alonso Cano of Granada (1601–1634), who was also active as a painter and sculptor, and whose works featured an idealized naturalism. His pupil, Pedro de Mena (1628–1688), became one of the most important sculptors of the Seville school, with his delicate and realistic life-size statues of Saints.[44]
The early 18th century saw the creation of several lavishly Baroque works, including the altar El Transparente by Narciso Tomé in Toledo, an enormous altar created so that, as light changes, it seems to be moving. It was one of the rare works in Spain to be made of bronze and marble, rather than wood. It was the centerpiece of an enormous complex of art composed of sculpture, painting and architecture which occupies the center of the cathedral.[45]
With the arrival of the Bourbon Dynasty in power, the center of the art world shifted to Madrid, the source of royal commissions. The isolation of Spanish art from the art of the rest of Europe ended, with the arrival of French and Italian artists, who were invited to decorate the royal palace. It also brought new works of art leaning toward the extreme, including the tortured The Head of Saint Paul by Juan Alonso Villabrille y Ron, along with more delicate works, including a sculpture of Saint Florentine by Francisco Salzillo.[citation needed]
The reign of Charles III of Spain (1760–1788), brought an abrupt end to the Spanish Baroque, and a transition to neoclassicism. The King decreed in 1777 that all altar sculptures and retables had to be approved in advance by the Royal Academy of San Fernando, and that marble and stone, not wood, should be used whenever possible in sculpture.[citation needed]
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The Entombment of Christ, by Luisa Roldán (1654-1704)
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The Immaculate Conception by Alonso Cano, polychrome wood, Granada Cathedral (1655)
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Mary Magdalene the Penitent by Pedro de Mena (1664)
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The Transparente by Narciso Tomé, marble and bronze, Toledo Cathedral (1704)
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Saint Francis Xavier by Luis Salvador Carmona (1750)
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Saint Florentine by Francisco Salzillo (1755)
Latin America
The earliest Baroque sculptor and architect to work in Latin America was
The Baroque style of sculpture was transported to other parts of Latin America by Spanish and Portuguese missionaries in the 18th century, who commissioned local artists. It was used primarily in churches. The
Aleijadinho (1730 or 1738 to 1814), was the son of a Portuguese colonist and an African slave. He is notable for a group of monumental soapstone statues of Saints (1800–1805) for the Santuário de Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He also made a series of life-sized Passion figures, depicting the events leading to the Crucifixion of Christ (1780–90).
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Choir stalls, Cathedral of Lima, Peru, by Pedro de Noguera (1619-)
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Nativity scene byCaspicara, (Metropolitan Museum of Art) (18th century)
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The Prophet Daniel by Aleijadinho in Congonhas (1800-1805)
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Head of Christ, by Aleijadinho, in Congonhas, Brazil
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The Road to Golgotha by Aleijadinho in Congonhas (1780–90)
Notes
- Cornaro chapel; see index for Bernini generally
- ^ Boucher, 16–18
- ^ Honour and Fleming, 450
- ^ a b c Helena Bussers, De baroksculptuur en het barok Archived 2021-04-10 at the Wayback Machine at Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen (in Dutch)
- ^ Honour and Fleming, 460–467
- ^ a b Geese 2015, p. 274.
- ^ Geese 2015, p. 276.
- ^ Geese 2015, pp. 288–289.
- ^ a b Geese 2015, p. 292.
- ^ Geese 2015, p. 294.
- ^ Geese 2015, p. 295.
- ^ Geese 2015, p. 300-301.
- ^ Article by Uwe Geese in L'Art Baroque – Architecture, Sculpture, Peinture, (2015) H.F. Ullmann, pp. 302–315
- ^ Paul Fréart de Chantelou, Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France, 1985, ed. Anthony Blunt
- ^ Geese 2015, pp. 305–309
- ^ Geese 2015, pp. 314
- ^ a b "Valérie Herremans, Baroque sculpture in the southern low countries". Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
- ^ Matthias Depoorter, Jerôme Duquesnoy II at Baroque in the Southern Netherlands
- ^ Rombaut Pauwels at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
- ^ Geoffrey Beard. "Gibbons, Grinling." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 10 April 2021
- ^ Kai Budde. "Grupello, Gabriel." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 10 April 20214
- ^ De Inventaris van het Onroerend Erfgoed: Lucas Faydherbe (in Dutch)
- ^ Geese 2015, p. 316
- ^ Rombout Verhulst, Virgin and Child at the Rijksmuseum
- ^ Jan Ebbelaer at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
- ^ Ignatius van Logteren at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
- ^ Pieter M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18de eeuw, Canaletto/Repro-Holland, 2005 (in Dutch)
- ^ Geese 2015, p. 320
- ^ V&A exhibition information, accessed 18 January 2013
- ^ "Gibbons, Grinling", in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 22, pp. 29–30 : "The attribution of these works is complicated by the presence of the highly trained Flemish sculptors whom Gibbons had gathered into his workshop by the end of the 1670s. These included Arnold Quellin (the nephew of Artus Quellinus I), John Nost, and Anthony Verhuke, joined in the next decade by, among others, Laurent Vander Meulen and Pierre Van Dievoet. Their experience and skill as makers of statues may have exceeded his own".
- ^ Arnold Quellin in: A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660–1851
- ^ Robert Williams and Katharine Eustace, Rysbrack family [Rysbraeck] at Grove Art Online, accessed 25 March 2021
- ^ a b Louis-François Roubiliac (c. 1705—1762) sculptor at Oxford Reference
- ^ Jackson, Anna, ed. (2001). V&A: A Hundred Highlights. V&A Publications.
- ^ Geese 2015, p. 321
- ^ a b Geese 2015, p. 322
- ^ a b Geese 2015, pp. 346–47
- ^ Geese 2015, p. 338
- ^ Redondo, Baroque Sculpture in Spain, pg. 354
- ^ a b c Redondo, pg. 354
- ^ Redondo, pg. 356
- ^ a b Redondo, pg. 361
- ^ Redondo, pg. 364
- ^ Redondo, pg. 365-68
- ^ Redondo, pg. 368-69
Bibliography
- Boucher, Bruce, Italian Baroque Sculpture, 1998, Thames & Hudson (World of Art), ISBN 0500203075
- Geese, Uwe (2015). "Section on Baroque sculpture". In Toman, Rolf (ed.). L'art baroque architecture, sculpture, peinture. Cologne: H.F. Ullmann. ISBN 978-3-8480-0856-8.
- Jeancolas, Claude (1992). Sculpture Française (in French). Paris: CELIF. ISBN 2-86535-162-9.
- Redondo, José Ignacio Hernánez, Baroque Sculpture in Spain, from Baroque Art - Architecture - Sculpture Painting, H.F. Ullmann, Cologne, 2015. (ISBN 978-3-8480-0856-8)
- ISBN 0333371852