Juan de Montejo workshop or circle.  Zamora. Last quarter of the 16th century.

Juan de Montejo workshop or circle.  Zamora. Last quarter of the 16th century.
 
"Saint Roch and Bishop Saint"
Pair of carved, polychromed and gilded wooden sculptures. 107 x 47 x 16 cm. and 100 x 48 x 17 cm. 
Juan de Montejo (Salamanca, mid-16th century – 1601?),  as Dr. Javier Baladrón notes, is one of the best Castilian sculptors of this period.  Born in Salamanca, almost all of his working life was spent in Zamora. Antonio Sánchez del Barrio, director of the Museo de las Ferias Foundation, notes on the catalogue card of a “Saint Joseph with the Child” by Juan de Montejo: “Juan de Montejo, a master originally from Salamanca who is currently considered to be one of the precursors of the well-known artistic renewal which took place in the city of Toro from the last decades of the 16th century. The most outstanding exponents of this period are the sculptors Sebastián Ducete and Esteban de Rueda” The figures of Saint Barbara and Saint Agatha at the Church of San Juan de Sahagún in Salamanca remind us of these sculptures. In both of the figures there are great similarities in the treatment of the cloth, the posture, the magnificent morphology of the hands, which is very characteristic, also the magnificent polychroming of the skin tones. Regarding Saints Barbara and Agatha, Alba Rebollar notes: “The cloth of their clothing, which covers their anatomy completely, is soft, with undulating movement, giving the figures a feeling of solemnity, heaviness and rotundity which is very characteristic of Montejo’s work.” 
There are also similarities to the Bishop Saint in the main altarpiece at the Parish church of Morales del Vino in Zamora. Regarding this, Santiago Saivianego Hidalgo writes in “El retablo zamorano a finales del siglo XVI: Montejo y Falcote” (Zamora altarpieces of the late 16th century altarpiece: Montejo and Falcote) we find a “Juan de Montejo very much influenced by Italian mannerism.”  
There are also similarities to the Moses in the altarpiece by Cristóbal González de Fermoselle. 
Other important work by Montejo includes the Saint John the Baptist at the church of San Juan de Alba in Tormes, the Saint Joseph and Child belonging to the Simón Ruiz Foundation, kept in the Museo de las Ferias at Medina del Campo in Spain, and the small altarpieces at the church of San Juan de Puerta Nueva, in Zamora,  We would like to thank Dr. Javier Baladrón for his help in identifying the author of these sculptures.  
Reference bibliography: Luis Vasallo Toranzo: “A propósito del escultor Juan de Montejo”. Goya: Revista de arte, Nº 299, 2004, pages. 68-79. 
Alba Rebollar Antúnez: “Escultores a caballo entre Salamanca y Valladolid a finales del XVI”