JUNI, Juan de
(b. 1506, Joigny, d. 1577, Valladolid)

Antigua Altar (detail)

1545-62
Polychrome wood
Cathedral, Valladolid

The detail shown is the panel with the relief Birth of the Virgin.

The iconography of the Valladolid altartpiece is somewhat confused; several statues of male and female saints are mixed with scenes of the childhood and the life of the Virgin. The same confusion is found in the alternation of large statues and relief panels. Juni was above all a statue maker, as can be seen from the relief representing the birth of the Virgin. His main preoccupation is the rendering of the third dimension. The carving is self-assured, the volumes well-defined in the expressive composition. The influence of Dürer's woodcuts has been suggested as the explanation for such clarity of outline.