Spanish sculptor, born at Alcala-la-real, in the province of Granada. His master was Pablo de Roxas, his first known work (1607) being a boy Christ, now in the sacristy of the capella antigua in the cathedral of Seville. The great altar at Santiponce near Seville, was completed in 1812. Montañés executed most of his sculpture in wood, covered with a surface of polished gold, and coloured. Other works were the great altars at Santa Clara in Seville and at San Miguel in Jerez, the Conception and the realistic figure of Christ crucified, in the Seville cathedral; the figure of St. John the Baptist, and the St. Bruno (1620); a tomb for Don Perez de Guzman and his wife (1619); the St. Ignatius and the St. Francis of Borja in the university church of Seville. Montañés died in 1649, leaving a large family. His works are more realistic than imaginative, but this, allied with an impeccable taste, produced remarkable results. The equestrian statue of King Philip IV., cast in bronze by Pietro Tacca in Florence and now in Madrid, was modelled by Montañés. He had many imitators, his son Alonzo Montañés, who died in 1668, being among them.
See B. Haendeke, Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen Plastik (Strassburg, 1900); F. Gómez, Historia de la escultura en España (Madrid, 1885).
