Zarcello executed numerous works: indeed a greater number of statues and statuettes—no less than eighteen hundred—than several men’s lives could have sufficed to have produced are catalogued to his name. Many of these present really admirable qualities. He was especially successful in the grouping of his figures, many of which, though showing exaggerated attitudes, are true works of art. His retablos in the churches of Murcia, and the realistic groups of the “Pasos,” guarded in the Ermita de Jesus (Plate 161), are remarkable examples of his power. We are able to forget the materialistic devices used—such, for instance, as the embroidered velvet robes which the Christ wears—by reason of the truth and religious passion which has inspired the artist. But all Zarcello’s figures display his faults, excited gestures, confused drapery, and a want of care in the modelling of the extremities.
Among his single statues we may mention the St. Jerome in the Cathedral of Murcia, of which there is a replica in the convent of the saint, three miles from the city. This statue is said by Antonio Alix, the latest historian of Zarcello, to be equal to Torrigiani’s St. Jerome, an estimate of praise which is surely excessive. Then there are the two busts of St. John the Baptist in the Church of San Juan, a St. Anthony—copied from Cano’s statue—a St. Francis, a Conception, and a Purissima, as well as numerous representations of the saints. Every church in Murcia contains some work of Zarcello. The statue of St. Veronica (Plate 162) in Ermita de Jesus is the best single figure that he achieved.
Zarcello stood alone. He was assisted in his studio work by the members of his family, but no one of them inherited his talent. He seems to have had no outside pupils. With his death, which occurred in the year 1748, the history of ancient Spanish sculpture closes.
Visigoth Crowns found near Toledo
Byzantine Crucifix and the Virgin in the Gothic Style. Provincial Museum of San Marcos, Leon