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This grandiose altar, whose construction required more than four thousand pieces of wood, inaugurated Baroque 18th-century architecture. It was designed in 1693 by José Benito Churriguera, who had won fame at Salamanca in 1689 with his design of a huge catafalque for the funeral ceremony of Dona Maria Luisa de Barbón, wife of Charles II. José belonged to a family of Salamanca architects who enriched their city with some very fine monuments. If we compare this altarpiece with that executed by Bernardo Simon de Piñeda in 1670-1673, for Santa Caridad in Seville, it is clear that the latter is still the work of a sculptor; the San Esteban altarpiece is the first example of 18th-century Baroque style 'entallador', which obtains its effects from the rhythm of the decorated surface, supported by a robust, monumental structure.
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