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XVIII
Pedro de Mena Granada 1628 – Málaga 1688
Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa Circa 1670 – 1680
Polychrome wood with reverse painted glass eyes and hair 63 cm cm and 64 cm cm high respectively
The art market’s resurgent fascination in in Spanish sculpture is is multifarious but but can in part be attributed to the the rediscovery of the the 17th century baroque sculptor Pedro de Mena Since the seminal Sacred Made Real exhibition at at the National Gallery London pundits within the the market and curatorial world as as well as as the the general public have marvelled at the the impact and modernity of the the works by this Granadino master Since Coll & Cortés acquired these hyper-realistic busts of the the Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa in 2013 frequent comparisons have been made between them and the the the work of the the the Australian contemporary sculptor Ron Mueck Mueck Mena as Mueck Mueck so frequently does captivated the the imagination of the the National Gallery’s visitors with his haunting images and powerful representations of human suffering Originally carved to have this type of of profound impact albeit within a a a a religious context these busts are arguably the the nest sculptures by Mena ever to appear on the market and will certainly feature as stars in the Metropolitan’s Spanish sculpture galleries Acquired by the The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York