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| El Salvador church, exterior |
The city's Archaeological Museum contains two pieces
which are of very special interest. The "anthropomorphic idol
of Marroquíes Alto", dating back to the year 1800 B.C.,
is a stylised statue in marble with geometrical features. This extraordinary
carving belongs to the period of transition between the schematic
and abstract style to the representation of the natural body, and
therefore is a pioneer in the concept of giving the human body its
full, rounded shape in sculpture. The discovery of the Iberian statues
of Porcuna, from the 5th century B.C., contributed greatly to the
current prestige of Iberian art and culture. They were intentionally
destroyed in around 400 B.C. and the fragments were buried in a
deep trench.
Two masterpieces housed in the Cathedral are the
Altarpiece of San Pedro de Osma, by Pedro Machuca, built in 1546,
with its many beautiful panels, carved and painted in the purest
Italian Renaissance style, and the Immaculate Virgin Triumphing
over Original Sin, by the 18th century artist Sebastián Martínez,
a semi-circular painting with interesting and unusual motifs, baroque
in style but also displaying Venetian and Flemish influences.
In the town of Baeza, the Church of San Andrés
has a fine altarpiece entitled "The Life of Christ", built
at the end of the 15th century), which is a good example of painting
on wood in the Gothic style known as Hispanic-Flemish. And the town
of Quesada is home to the Zabaleta Museum, which possesses works
of the various periods of this painter, who lived between 1907 and
1960, notably a series of landscapes and farm scenes in a post-Cubist
style, as well as the series of surrealist drawings known as The
Dreams of Quesada, created for the Venice Biennal.
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