Biography

Juan de Montejo (1550-1601) was born in Salamanca and was baptized in the now disappeared church of San Adrián (Pérez Martín, 2022). He was the son of Juan de Montejo, a painter, and Luisa de Oviedo, a couple who had five descendants. The premature death of his father prevented him from being trained in his father's workshop; however, it is possible that he received some instruction from his uncle, Francisco de Montejo, also a painter. According to Vasallo Toranzo (2004), it is probable that Montejo trained with Lucas Mitata, a sculptor active in the Leonese environment at the end of the 1540s. It has also been suggested that he may have completed his apprenticeship in the artistic center of Valladolid (Pérez Martín, 2024). Everything seems to indicate that the young man from Salamanca joined one of these workshops between 1569-1571, reaching the rank of journeyman in 1575. According to Pérez Martín (2022), Montejo's style is characterized by its Romanesque forms, the echoes of Juan de Juni and the influence exerted by Juan Ducete el Mozo (Casaseca and Samaniego, 1988). There are numerous works attributed to Juan de Montejo scattered in museums and institutions. See, for example, the following: Virgen de la Candelaria in the Church of Santa María del Castillo (Fuentesaúco, Zamora), Dolorosa and San Juan Evangelista in the Sacristy of the Church of San Miguel (Peleagonzalo, Zamora), San Pedro and San Pablo (Sagrario del retablo mayor de Villaralbo, Zamora), Antonia Rodríguez and her maiden in the Convent Church of the Discalced Carmelites (Alba de Tormes, Salamanca) or the funerary monument of Alonso de Mera (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Bibliography

• CASASECA CASASECA, Antonio y SAMANIEGO HIDALGO, Santiago (1988): "Aportaciones a la escultura zamorana del siglo XVI: El testamento de Juan de Montejo", nº 9, Studia Zamorensia, pp. 37-41.
• PÉREZ MARTÍN, Sergio (2024): El escultor Juan de Montejo (1555-1601). Un último aliento de la estética juniana, Biblioteca de Historia del Arte. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid.
• PÉREZ MARTÍN, Sergio (2022): El escultor Juan de Montejo y su entorno (1550-1615), en Tesis doctoral inédita, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid.
• VASALLO TORANZO, Luis (2004): "A propósito del escultor Juan de Montejo", nº 299, Goya, pp. 68-79.