Sculpture of San Antonio de Ibarra

Description

Art used mainly to create religious images. Wood carving acquired great importance in Ecuador during the colonial era (16th-19th centuries), when the first schools of arts and crafts were established that gave rise to new cultural and artistic manifestations, a product of the syncretism that occurred.

Immersed in this scenario, the current province of Imbabura maintained a close relationship with this work initially developed in Quito, where the sculptor Daniel Reyes, a native of San Antonio de Ibarra, learned the art at an early age, and later mastered it thanks to contact with restoration artists from the Quiteña School. In 1884 he founded the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts, a space that trained the first artisans of the parish and whose later generations, heirs of this technique, contribute daily to the socioeconomic and cultural development of the area through the production of furniture, traditional, modern and religious sculpture.

A great diversity of methods such as carving, roughing, sanding, sandblasting and stuccoing are applied to wood of various species such as cedar, laurel, copal, pine, walnut and naranjillo. The essential tools that accompany the trade are gouges, chisels, mowers, saws and sandpaper. For decoration, known techniques are used such as stew, sgraffito, chinoiserie*, glued fabric, incarnate, polychrome, as well as the use of glass eyes, metals and precious stones.

In 2020, CIDAP recognized different artisans with the CIDAP Medal award and San Antonio was declared a Magical Town by the Ministry of Tourism of Ecuador, including the carving in its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. To date, different activities are carried out in this town that revitalize this tradition, such as the Chainsaw Sculpture Festival and the National Sculpture Biennial.

EnglishSculpture of San Antonio de Ibarra

This art is mainly used to create religious images. Wood carving acquired great importance in Ecuador during the Colonial period (16th-19th centuries), when the first schools of arts and crafts were established, which gave rise to new cultural and artistic manifestations, as a result of the syncretism that took place.

Immersed in this scenario, the current province of Imbabura maintained a close relationship with this activity, initially developed in Quito, where the sculptor Daniel Reyes, a native of San Antonio de Ibarra, learned the art at an early age, and later mastered it thanks to his contact with artists and restorers of the Quito School. In 1884 he founded the Liceo de Artes y Oficios, a place that trained the first artisans of the parish and whose later generations, heirs of this technique, contribute daily to the socio-economic and cultural development of the area through the production of furniture, traditional, modern and religious sculpture.

A wide variety of methods such as carving, roughing, sanding, sanding and stuccoing are applied to wood of various species such as cedar, laurel, copal, pine, walnut and "naranjillo". The indispensable tools that accompany the craft are gouges, chisels, chisels, saws, saws and sandpaper. For decoration, techniques known as estofado, sgraffito, chinoiserie*, tela encolada, encarne, polychrome, as well as the use of glass eyes, metals and precious stones are used.

In 2020, CIDAP recognized different artisans with the CIDAP Medal Award and San Antonio was declared a Magical Town by the Ministry of Tourism of Ecuador, including carving in its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. To date, different activities are carried out in this town that revitalize this tradition, such as the Motosierra Sculpture Festival and the National Sculpture Biennial.