Sculptures of the Genoese school in the Catedral Nueva of Cadiz

During the seventeenth century, Cadiz acquired greater importance as a seaport, thus gaining importance with respect to Seville, the main port of the previous century. The emerging city attracted a large number of Genoese merchants, but with them also Ligurian artists who created a considerable amount of statues, altar pieces and façades for the various monasteries and temples of Cadiz up to the point that we speak of a “Genoese school”The “Genoese school” was a collection of artistic movements that developed in the Liguria area and then spread throughout Europe, especially in the early eighteenth century. Many of these artists, especially sculptors and painters, lived all their lives in Genoa, while others moved to European cities where there was greater demand for their works, as in the cases of Cadiz and Seville. in reference to the group of Genoese sculptors at the end of the seventeenth century who settled in Cadiz, or who worked in Genoa then exported their works in Spanish territory. The marble deposits in the province of Massa-Carrara, close to the Ligurian area, allowed the Genoese to develop great artistic activity focused on this material. Masters of processing techniques, the Genoese did not stop even in the face of serious practical problems, such as the weight of the pieces of marble or the risk that they might break on board the ships that transported the works from Genoa to Cadiz, keeping alive artistic communication between the two cities. The iconographic themes of Genoese artists fit perfectly into the Andalusian tradition. There are two types of Genoese sculptures in Cadiz between the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, both religious in theme: on the one hand, it followed models of Spanish saints, imitating the clothing, characterization and expression of the great statues of Andalusia; on the other hand, typically Genoese works. An example of this are statues in polychrome wood, which were well known in Genoa, but not in Cadiz until the beginning of the eighteenth century at the hands of the Genoese sculptor Anton Maria MaraglianoA sculptor from Genoa (1664-1739) who distinguished himself in the Baroque period as a reference for figure sculpture in polychrome wood. His works were very successful in Genoa and Cadiz, arriving, through his disciples and admirers, to the Canary Islands and America. Maragliano’s works are scattered in various convents and churches of Liguria, and they stand out among the Holy Week pageants used in processions depicting scenes from the Passion of Christ or the lives of the Saints., considered the “dean” of Ligurian sculpture. 

A good demonstration of the spread of Genoese sculpture in Cadiz is to found in the large number of sculptures which are located in the city’s Catedral Nueva (photo). All date back to the period between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century: a marble and jasper altarpiece in the capilla de la Asunción (chapel of the Assumption), two sculptures in polychrome wood of Saints Patrick and Nicholas of Tolentino in the chapel of the Reyes de la Adoración (the kings of adoration), two marble images of Saints George and  John the Baptist in the capilla de San José (chapel of Saint Joseph), and a representation of Saint Francis of Borja in the capilla de Santa Teresa.

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