Domingo Beltrán de Otazu

Domingo Beltrán de Otazu was born in Vitoria in 1535 and entered the College of Alcalá de Henares of the Society of Jesus in 1561. Given his artistic prowess, he urged the General of the Order to send him to Rome in 1568 to perfect his technique in Italy. Back in Spain, he worked in Murcia, where a Jesuit college and a church dedicated to Saint Stephen the first martyr, who was bishop of Cartagena, had been founded. In those years, he carved the sculptures located in the niches of the altarpiece of San Esteban, the expression of the Classicism learned in Italy. In Madrid, the prestige he gained through his work brought him great popularity at court, to the point that Philip II wanted the artist to work at the Escorial and him to entered the monastery of the Hieronymites (Jerónimos). Alerted to this, the superiors of the Society of Jesus decided to remove him from the court and send him in a more peaceful place. Thus Beltrán went to Alcalá (1587), where he carved the image of Cristo de los Doctrinos and where he lived until his death, on 27 April 1590.

Read more:

• Marchamalo Sánchez, Historia de la ermita, cofradía y efigie del Christo universitario de los Doctrinos de Alcalá de Henares, Guadalajara 2011.