PESQUERA, Diego de
(b. ca. 1540, Granada?, d. after 1581, Sevilla?)

Biography

Spanish sculptor. He divided his career between Granada (1563-72) and Seville (1572-1580). With a style influenced by the Italian Renaissance and that of Michelangelo, he may have trained in Italy.

For Granada, he worked on the gate of the Sala Capitular at the cathedral and in 1567 at the church of San Pedro. In April 1567 he was commissioned to make a retablo - an altarpiece decorated with reliefs - for a parish church in nearby Ogijares. One of his most important works from that period was the group of Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child in Granada Cathedral.

For the Capilla Real (royal chapel) of Seville Cathedral, he produced sculptures of Saint Justa and Saint Rufina. His reliefs for the chapter-house anteroom at Seville Cathedral also survive from his final period.

He also worked on non-sacred themes, in 1574 producing sculptures of Julius Caesar and Hercules for La Alameda. Another work on this theme was his Flight of Mercury on the Plaza de San Francisco in Seville.