The sacred made Real

Went with a Mr.Archer to go see the Sacred Made Real at the National Gallery on Monday. Quite phenomenal. I first came into contact with Spanish Polychrome sculpture in University, while researching some paper I was doing. I vividly remember the book I was reading preferenced these sculptures, saying that whilst we only really highlight the painting from the Spanish Golden Age, in their own time it was these wooden sculptures that were the artistic highlight of any church or Cathedral. Having never seen any of these works in the flesh, it was with some delight that I saw that the National was putting on a show of these works, although a little sad that these hidden gems were surely to become perhaps bastardised by public popularity.


The show is by no means a blockbuster, and not that large in its scope or selection, but every piece was a revelation to me. The argument of the show is to connect these sculptures with the admired painting of the time, and that the new realism depicted in these sculptures transferred itself into these paintings. Whilst this argument I'm sure holds water I feel the curation does these sculptures a slight disservice. I was far more interested and inspired by the sculptures than by the paintings, and whilst the paintings themselves are amazing, the sculptures more than hold their own and didn't need the paintings there to 'validate' them.

The atmosphere of Spanish Catholic repression is evident in the gloomy and graphic nature of the works, to the extent that you feel that the artist is trying to make the viewing as uncomfortable as possible. My personal highlights were the severed head of St John the Baptist by Juan de Mesa and an unknown painter and the Dead Christ by Gregorio Fernandez and an unknown painter both from around 1625.

The show is gory and complatitive, skillful and mesmerising, a bit like a visiting a gallery and the London Dungeons simultaneously, highly entertaining, its all I could wish for from a show.All in all its a must.