Project for a monument for Holy Thursday

This drawing is an exceptional graphic document of the monuments that covered the altars of churches during Holy Week, from Holy Thursday onwards, to conceal the consecrated host. The most important ones consisted of a removable wooden structure to which wooden or plaster canvases and sculptures were attached, recreating a mock architectural and decorative scene as a trompe l’oeil. The fact that they could be dismantled meant that they could be stored and reused in subsequent years. However, their ephemeral nature and the changing decorative tastes meant that – although this was a widespread practice in Spain since the 17th century – only a few examples remain in small churches and mainly on canvases used as backdrops, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries.

A few drawings give an idea of what these Baroque monuments were like. Bearing in mind that they were intended to cover an architectural space, the monuments – as backdrops – used to recreate another kind of mock architecture in which decorative and transparent excesses were allowed and which the reality of construction did not usually allow due to high costs. These mock architectures were profusely decorated with three-dimensional sculptural elements, or painted, with figures alluding to the Passion and the Eucharist. In this case, for example, starting from the upper part, the cross carried by angels, the sanctuary, and a recumbent Christ in the lower part are clearly visible. A detail that stands out is the figure of this Christ, similar to the models of Gregorio Fernández (which are present in Madrid’s El Pardo palace and the Monasterio de la Encarnación) thus implying that this project could be considered to be close to the works carried out for the monarchy. This figure in particular represents one of the most singular elements in the drawing, as it is portrayed in a vaulted space, open in the background to Mount Golgotha, and in the foreground a reclining, sleeping soldier who becomes a linking element for the viewer. Arches, balustrades, cartouches and female figures of Virtues complete a profuse decoration that places us in the last decades of the 17th century.

The drawing – which is very worn from use, as so often happened with the drawings from this period that were used as part of a creative process and then must have been reused in art workshops – shows only the left half of the composition. This is something that was common in architectural decoration projects of the period, as the other half would have been symmetrical. This demonstrates the economy of means applied in these eminently utilitarian drawings: they were to be used for the approval of the project and its subsequent execution. Produced in an exceptionally large format, it is initially drawn in pencil, over which a quill is superimposed. In certain areas, a greyish wash was applied to shade in the areas of greatest volume.

At the time of its sale, the drawing was attributed to Teodoro Ardemans (Madrid, 1661–1726) by Ángel Rodríguez Rebollo. We maintain this attribution for the time being in the absence of any other that would allow us to locate it more accurately. In any case, it belongs to the aesthetic of the late 17th and early 18th centuries and can be related to the decorative projects of Francisco Rizi or Ardemans himself.

Matilla, José Manuel, 'Atribuido a Teodoro Ardemans. Proyecto de monumento para el Jueves Santo'. en: Memoria de actividades 2021 Museo Nacional del Prado, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, 2022, p.46-48