-Underneath its ornate exterior,
the sculpture Saint Ginés de la Jara has a core made of two
hollow wooden structures. On the bottom is a
large box-like section, which is reinforced
inside with a small wood block attached on
the front left. On the top is a
smaller hollow section. The two sections are then
glued and nailed together. Next, boards are attached
to the sides, which will become the Saint's robe. A piece of wood carved
to depict a knotted rope is nailed to the front. The arms and scapular,
or sleeveless vestmest, are carved then
glued onto the core. Now the rope appears to
hang behind the scapular, from the Saint's waist. Once the glue has set,
final carving is completed. To strengthen the joins,
nails are then added. The Saint's feet, hands, and
forearms are carved separately. The left forearm
and hand are made up of two individual pieces,
which are glued to a dowel. The Saint's face is carved
separately, almost like a mask. The eyes, made of glass,
are inserted into the face from behind and glued
to the carved eyelids. The face, with eyes attached,
is then glued onto the head. With the general
structure now complete, the sculpture is ready for the
intricate surface treatments of estofado and encarnaciones,
creating the life-like cloth and flesh we see today. -Beginning to shape
the block of wood, the form would be drawn
on one of the surfaces that the sculptor chose. To start reducing
the bulk of the wood, quite big tools would be
used initially to move fast, like saws or big chisels. Once the basic shape
had been achieved, it would be the equivalent
of a rough sketch but in three dimensions. Then, the sculptor
would move along to using slightly finer
tools-- for example, chisels of various sizes. And then using
increasingly fine tools, the shape is actually brought
out of the block of wood. Both in Central Spain
and in Andalusia was a great concern
for the quality of wood to be used in the
carved figures. So the craftsman and the
artists and the sculptors were very, very aware
of what sorts of choices would be longer-lasting, be
more worthy of admiration, and so on. So there was a great concern for
this high quality of materials. As the tools become smaller
and more delicately shaped, it's possible for
the sculpture to work on a much smaller scale, perhaps
carving the shape of a finger and tapering it at
the point, perhaps creating the relief of the nail. And he would be much
smaller blades or cutting edges to do that. Sandpaper would be
the finishing steps in the actual
carving of the wood. There's a constant
dialogue in play between the
three-dimensional form and the two-dimensional
surface decoration. They're really meant
to go hand-in-hand. One doesn't make sense
without the other. Estofado is the two-dimensional
decorative layer that is the skin
of the sculpture. To prepare the glue, sheepskin
would be boiled in water by clipping parchment
scraps to extract the glue. The next layer is
called yeso grueso in Spanish, the thick gesso. It's the glue with calcium
carbonate or calcium sulfate, kind of natural
chalks, mixed into it. After the yeso grueso and
yeso mate was applied, they would be smoothed. The next stage in
this laborious method of building up these layers
would be to apply the red bole. Bole is a special kind of
clay that has traditionally been used since antiquity as
the under layer for applying what we call water gilding. When it was dry, it
would first be polished, and then, very importantly,
a burnishing stone, which is usually an agate,
compresses the layer of bole and brings a luster
to the surface, and also, once again,
smooths the texture. It's then ready to
receive the gold leaf. The gilder would
pick up the gold leaf with a special
brush, called a tip. And with a tiny puff
of air, just apply it on to the surface
of the bole which had been dampened with
water and alcohol. Just that tiny bit
of moisture would activate the glue
in the bole layer, and it would adhere the gold. When it's dried and burnished,
on top, over the layer of gold, a layer of temper
paint could be applied. Tempera paint is traditionally
made of egg yolk. The artist would prepare the
paints by grinding pigments and the egg yolk together. This would be applied over
the gold in various areas. In order to keep the
pattern consistent, a paper pattern would be
prepared that could be pricked. Then, tiny bits of pigment
would be transferred through those tiny holes
and onto the surface to be decorated. And once the design is
transferred in this way, then the polychromer can
start to scratch or scrape the designs. By doing this, he would
remove that top layer of paint, the tempera paint, and
reveal the gold underneath it. And then further accents can
be given by using punches. And punches are
metal tools that I was struck with a hammer to
make a little indentation so the light plays across
them with a little more drama than just in the
scratched areas. To finish and give
greater subtlety to these surfaces and
the texture and material, shading and highlighting
can then be done. Estofado technique of
scratching away and revealing the gold underneath
gives more points for the light to reflect
from and sort of give greater definition to the
three-dimensional form. The encarnaciones
mattes, matte flesh tones were more lifelike, they
were more realistic, because clearly it
differentiates the hands and face from the decorative
surfaces of the fabrics. The wood would be
initially sealed with all of these layers
of glue by brushing on to the sanded wood. Then, the next layer of
the preparation is chalk. This layer is called yeso matte. It's the matte gesso. Dried yeso would be
mixed into the glue as well to start building
up the yeso layer. This would then be applied with
a soft brush and sort of rubbed into the wooden
surface so it's really well integrated to that surface. When these preparation
layers of yeso in the glue have been well
dried for 24 hours, they can then be published
to give a smooth surface that will be receptive to the paints
that will then be applied. The pigments for the flesh
tone would be prepared in oil. In matte encarnaciones,
you would simply paint the oil paint
onto the surface that's been very beautifully
prepared in the gesso layer. And you would do a first layer
using a middle flesh tone, and using blue for areas
where there might be veins near the surface of
the skin, and so on. Once that layer was
dry, again, the artist would return and
would paint everywhere with just a single
flesh-tone color, but very, very thin, so that
layers underneath would subtly show through. And then, finally, detail. For example, pink highlights
around the fingernails would be applied very delicately
on top of this general flesh tone layer. The Roldana Workshop was
a family workshop, so, in some ways, it's one of
the tightest collaborative relationships that we know
about in 17th century Spain.