Pacheco's "Art of painting" the "parangón" and the techniques of Spanish seventeenth-century polychrome sculpture

In Francisco Pacheco’s (1564–1644) words, "la escultura tiene el ser y la pintura el parecer…" (sculpture has existence, painting has appearance). In his treatise Arte de la Pintura (The Art of Painting, 1649), Pacheco describes in detail the best way of approaching the painting of sculpture arguing for a matte finish over the use of a glossy one for flesh tones. Juan de la Cruz and Teresa of Ávila also mention the illusionistic aspect of sculpture in their writings, concluding that images that are most realistic allow the mind to move toward a deeper state of devotion and contemplation. Seventeenth-century polychrome sculptures by artists such as Gregorio Fernández, Pedro de Mena, and Juan Martínez Montañés fool the eye and create illusions that can fool the mind. Because sculpture is a three-dimensional object that exists in our own space, it already has, inherently, the additional element of presence. This element is often highlighted by the further addition of postizos (additions) that create hyperreal sculptures. This chapter discusses the creation, perception, and use of illusionistic sculpture in Baroque Spain and its important connection to the particularities of painting sculpture and more specifically the encarnación (flesh painting) process.