Spanish or Italian school of the 16th century. "Saint... Lot 39

Spanish or Italian school of the 16th century. "Saint Peter. Limestone. It presents damages caused by the passage of time. Measurements: 174 x 60 x 40 cm. Sculpture worked in limestone in round bulk representing the apostle Saint Peter, who is recognisable by the Gospels, although he does not keep the keys. His slightly stylised canon and harmonious features are inspired by Renaissance and Gothic models that seek naturalism in expression and drapery. Saint Peter (Bethsaida, c. 1 BC - Rome, 67) was, according to the New Testament, a fisherman, known to be one of Jesus' twelve apostles. The Catholic Church identifies him through the apostolic succession as the first Pope, based among other things on Jesus' words to him: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the power of Death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven". St. Peter could be said to have been Jesus' confessor, his closest disciple, the two being united by a very special bond, as narrated in both the canonical and apocryphal Gospels. During the Gothic period, free-standing sculpture, independent of the architectural framework, considerably increased its repertoire, both in terms of typology (sepulchres, pulpits...) and iconography (new saints, new orders...). With the arrival of the Gothic period, a substantial aesthetic change took place throughout Europe, both in architecture and in painting and sculpture. The symbolic and timeless hieratism of the Romanesque gave way to a desire for reality and narrative meaning that had its roots in classical sculpture and forced artists to take nature as their model. Gothic sculptors therefore sought to represent the visible world as it is. In this way, the gestures and attitudes of the figures are humanised, and they acquire individuality. Aesthetic conventions - such as the large eyes standing out from the rest of the face, which symbolised the character's soul - were left behind and a naturalistic representation of faces, anatomy, clothing, etc. was sought. Following this new aesthetic line, the figures abandoned their vertical, symmetrical and hieratic postures to adopt increasingly more expressive and gestural ones, with greater realism in their movement. At the same time, the aim was to represent the emotions of the figures through eloquent gestures of the face and hands.