The Sacrifice of Isaac by Alonso Berruguete

SCULPTURE CARD

Title/name: "The Sacrifice of Isaac"
Author: Alonso Berruguete.
Year: 1526.
Style: Spanish Mannerist art.
Technique: Gilding technique in polichromed wood.
Location: Valladolid.
General description: The piece represents the sacrifice of Isaac in which Isaac is going to be killed.


INTRODUCTION

This piece is called "The sacrifice of Isaac" because in it Isaac is going to kill to his son. The author is Alonso Berruguete. Alonso Berruguete was born in 1490. He was a Spanish sculptor and painter and some of their most famous pieces are "The Sacrifice of Isaac" and "The martyrdom of San Sebastian" He died in 1561. He was an author of the Mannerist art. The Mannerism was the artistic style which was started in Italy during the second half of XVI century and it was developed when the Renaissance elements stopped to be used. This piece was done in 1526 during the XVI century.


 ANALYSIS

The type of sculpture is high relief. The technical used is the Gilding technique in polichromed wood. In the piece we can see two men. The two figures are dramatics. They show the senses of pain. The volumes have the human figure. We can see that the figures are elongated. This is a characteristic of the pieces of Berruguete. We can see that in other of his pieces such as "Ecce homo". 
We can see the realism. The tunic of Isaac is gold colour and the skin has light colours, also, they have geometric formes in their body. This is to show the pain and the senses. 
It has religious funtion. The story is that God told Isaac that to show he loved God he killed his son, he was going to do it but God stopped him before do it. For that we can see the pain in the face of Isaac, the men who is going to kill. It has subject matter in the Bible.
The historic context is significative. In politics there was an increase in the Authoritarian monarchies, it was a period of increasing with the discovering of America and also there was an incrasing in the power of the bourgeoisie.
Other important sculptor of the Mannierism was Juan de Juni and one of his pieces was The Entombment of Christ.


CONCLUSION

Berruguete was inspired in Michelangelo and Laocoonte. This piece shows some of the new interests in the mannerism, the idealism and serenity, the human body, the elongated of the body and the expressivity. I like this piece because it is expressive and it transmits the pain to me.