Pedro Duque Cornejo came from a family that produced a great many artists, especially sculptors. His father was a sculptor, his mother was a painter, and he was a nephew of the famous Luisa Roldán, “La Roldana” (1652–1706). But it was surely his grandfather, Pedro Roldán (1624-1699), who influenced him the most. Trained as a carver, painter, and engraver, Duque Cornejo produced altars in Seville, Granada, Córdoba, and Madrid.[1] Echeverría identified him in his inventory under no. 15 of the "Escuela Española” as follows: “By D. Pedro Duque Cornejo, a native of Seville; was a painter, sculptor, architect, and pupil of D. Pedro Roldán."
In 1725, Duque Cornejo received his most important commission: decorating the sanctuary of the charterhouse “El Paular,” which was founded in 1390 in Rascafría, north of Madrid.[2] He made various images for that setting, including a figure of Saint Bruno (ca. 1031-1101). This sheet was produced in that context, although it does not depict the figure ultimately produced.[3] In the present drawing the saint stands on a plinth, meditating, and holding the cross before him with both hands. A skull is visible to the right. In the completed sculpture, the skull is absent and the saint props a book against his hip with his left hand while holding a ring in his raised right. Duque Cornejo also produced a painting of Saint Bruno for the Cartuja de Santa María de las Cuevas in Seville, which hung in the prior's cell.[4] But during the Disentailment of 1835-36, the paintings went missing.[5]
The drawing appears to be a swiftly executed study, with no concern for details. It was probably meant to capture the pose and volume of the figure. The somewhat more precise lines detailing the contours of the saint's Carthusian habit give the figure a slight forward movement, though it is essentially motionless, bent slightly forward and introspective. The resulting diagonal[6] — altogether typical of Duque Cornejo-is produced in part by the fact that the fabric appears to have been caught on a tiny tree in the lower left.
The additional figure studies on the verso use similarly emphasized outlines to document the artist's conceptions of other sculptures, making it clear that the entire sheet is comprised of preliminary studies.

Jens Hoffmann-Samland


1 Regarding Duque Cornejo, see Taylor 1982 and Hernández Diaz 1983.
2 Ceán Bermudez 1800, 2:22; Taylor 1982, 24; and Hernández Diaz 1983, 61-62.
3 Stubbe (dir.) 1966, 16.
4 Ceán Bermúdez 1800, 2:24.
5 Taylor 1982, 41.
6 "La agitación de los paños dispuestos casi siempre con el fin de acentuar la linea diagonal."

Details zu diesem Werk