Spain, probably Toledo, circa 1560

Private collection, Spain.

Highly popular under the reign of Philip II, reliquary busts were generally conceived as expressions of profound devotion rather than as works of artistic ambition. Within this devotional tradition, however, this subtle and deeply moving reliquary bust of Saint Agatha stands apart, displaying remarkable affinities the work of Juan de Juni (1506–1577).

Born in Catania or Palermo around 231, Saint Agatha, renowned for her beauty, devoted herself at an early age to chastity. When she refused to obey the consul Quintianus’s command to renounce her vows, she was condemned to the most cruel torments—the final outrage and emblem of her martyrdom being the mutilation of her breasts. Saint Peter is said to have appeared to her as she lay dying in her cell, miraculously healing her wounds. Over time, Agatha came to be venerated as the patron saint of women—invoked for protection against illness and for safety in childbirth, as well as against all forms of violence.

A singular and independent figure, Juan de Juni occupies a unique position in the history of Spanish sculpture. Born in Joigny, Burgundy, he was first trained in the Burgundian and Champenois traditions, later enriching his art through travel in Italy and southern France. Upon settling in León in 1532, he encountered the works of Bartolomé Ordóñez and Diego de Siloe, and, together with Alonso Berruguete, became one of the leading figures of the emerging Castilian school of sculpture. By the 1560s, Juni’s art evolved toward greater sobriety and naturalism, while retaining the emotional intensity and expressive power that define his mature style. These qualities are particularly evident in the female saints he carved for the main altar of La Antigua (Valladolid Cathedral), one of his most ambitious undertakings alongside the monumental altarpiece of Burgo de Osma.

The magnificent Sala Relicario of San Miguel in Valladolid, preserves an exceptional group of reliquary busts, notably by Juan de Ancheta (1462–1523), Juni’s closest collaborator. The present bust, however, stands out from these examples through the refinement of its modeling and the extraordinary quality of its polychromy and gilding. Only four reliquary busts by Juni are known today: the Saint Anne in the Museo Nacional de Escultura (Valladolid), the Saints Martha and Mary Magdalene in the Hispanic Society (New York), and an Ecce Homo in the Museo Catedralicio (Valladolid), all dating from Juni’s early Castilian period, around 1545. The present Saint Agatha appears to have been executed some fifteen years later.

The saint, her head gently inclined, gestures with her right hand toward her wounded breast and holds in the other the palm of martyrdom. Her serene and idealized features recall those of Juni’s Virgin and Child in Becerril de Campos (1576) or his Immaculata in the Museo Provincial, Ourense. The sumptuous polychromy—combining a delicate, semi-translucent enamel-like paint, estofado, and lavish gilding—is comparable to the works of Juan Tomás de la Celma, with whom Juni collaborated on major commissions. The grutescos motifs, fairly well preserved here, are likewise akin to those found in their collaborations, notably the Saint John dating circa 1570 now in the Yale University Art Gallery (2021.11.1).

The motivation for this sculpture, however, might lie in Juni’s Virgen de las Angustias, created around 1560 for the Confraternity of Our Lady of Sorrows in Valladolid, of which he was a member. Tradition holds that Juni took inspiration from his daughter María, who died of a “female illness” around 1559, and that he offered the sculpture to the confraternity in her memory. At that same period, the Hospital de la Quinta Angustia opened its doors to the confraternity, along with the Hospital de San Lázaro on the outskirts of Toledo. An inventory of San Lázaro from 1639 mentions a small chapel dedicated to Saint Agatha, containing “a painted and gilded sculpture in the round of the saint” (A.H.P.T., Protocol 2943, 1639, Esno. Juan de Salcedo). Tragically, the hospital buildings—converted into an orphanage at the end of the 19th century—were heavily bombed during the Civil War, and the artworks they housed were either destroyed or dispersed.

The present Saint Agatha thus epitomizes Juni’s mature style of the 1560s, defined by a pursuit of greater naturalism and restraint. The exceptional richness of its polychromy and gilding attests to the hand of a master sculptor. It may have originated as part of a prestigious commission—or perhaps as a personal expression of the artist’s own piety and generosity.

RELATED LITERATURE

"Selected Acquisitions," in Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2020–21), pp. 166–67, ill. ;

A. Martínez Ripoll, La escultura del Renacimiento en España, 1500–1570. Madrid, 1991 ;

M. Estella Marcos, Alonso Berruguete y su época. Madrid, 2004 ;

J. Urrea Fernández, Escultura del siglo XVI en Castilla y León. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 1993 ;

S. Béguin, La sculpture espagnole au siècle d’or, Paris, 1989.

This lot is offered in support of Think Pink Europe, an association dedicated to the fight against breast cancer, whose mission is to promote prevention, early detection, and patient support across Europe.