Around the feast of St. John the Baptist, Patron Saint of our city, the Museum of Chiclana has seen fit to dedicate its "Piece of the Month" and "Guest Piece" -these two forms of exposure that complement the temporary exhibitions that are scheduled each year. On this occasion, with a couple of peculiarities. On the one hand, a piece from the Museum's collection, yes, but a piece that has been shown to visitors since it was presented to the public by the mayor a few months ago: the San Juan by Roque Balduque.
This sculpture will have, as Piece of the month, with an explanatory poster that, succinctly, contextualizes it for better understanding while recalling the recovery of this piece for the heritage of Chiclana. On the other hand, and as a guest piece, a splendid bust of a San Juan Niño from the 19th century, stylistically far from the most reiterated topics, as well as an Estonian icon -also from the 19th century- that visually refers to the life of the saint. Piece of the month and guest piece well connected.
Alerted by Germán Reyes, a Chiclana native of proven knowledge about the historical-artistic heritage of our city, the process of recovery of the Bautista de Balduque -sculpture that presided over the original altarpiece of the primitive church of San Juan Bautista- then on sale at the prestigious London auction house Sothesby of London began. With the mediation of Domingo Galán -another Chiclana researcher pending of our heritage-, the process continued until the final acquisition by the City Council.
The work in question has a double value: the objective value of being a work of one of the most notable sculptors of his time and the local value of being a representation of the Patron Saint of Chiclana -since June 22, 1764-, representation in which, faithful to the style of his time, aesthetic echoes of Classical Antiquity resound. Roque Balduque (1500-1561), was a Renaissance sculptor and retablist of Flemish origin born in a place that in Spanish was known as Bolduque, but his name was Bois-le-Duc, in the current Netherlands.
Among other works, he worked on the altarpiece of the original church of San Juan Bautista in our town. Of this altarpiece, a single panel is preserved -the rest was dispersed in a not very remote time- exposed to veneration, and to the general public, in the Chapel of the Tabernacle in the current Church of San Juan Bautista -Church of Chiclana-, a neoclassical temple that came to replace, more or less in the same enclave, the original church of San Juan Bautista after the demolition of the latter. Apart from this extraordinary work, we abound in the iconography of the Baptist through the two aforementioned pieces that we welcome, within the section "The guest piece", during these days in the Museum of Chiclana: the orthodox icon of the nineteenth century, from Estonia, collects, as if it were not quite delimited vignettes, several episodes related to the life of the saint, from birth to his martyrdom by beheading. The other piece, of sculptural character, represents the Baptist child, age of which we have no news. Although with iconographic attributes that make him recognizable at first glance, such as the camel skin that covers him as the biblical texts refer.
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