Male figure. Sculptural group of Cerrillo Blanco (Porcuna, Jaén, Spain)

A sculpture with a round lump representing a male with a manipule. The character’s body is standing, very upright, in a frontal attitude. His left arm is bent by the elbow and holds in the forearm a manypule that folds very short on the waist and hangs up to the top of the thigh, with a vertical decoration and zigzag folds. On the biceps he wears a round bracelet with a brooch or deteriorated ornament. His naked torso carries a big mantle. In the back (just below the pallet) he sticks horizontally to the body by three horizontal folds. The shoulders are bare and in the lower half of his body appears another garment that falls to his feet, forming several folds in an oblique sense. This upper mantle overlaps the lower one. In front the dress changes. On the shoulders, the tunic that is observed in the upper back falls and what in the back are two well defined pieces, in the front they are confused and diluted becoming one. Under the mantle it does not carry anything, which allows the cloths to stick to the body. This sculpture was conceived for its frontal contemplation and possibly in its front part it would carry an offering or similar. Chronology: 440-400 B.C. Dimensions Height = 1.03 cm Width = 42 cm Thickness = 28 cm Weight = 72 Kg This figure belongs to the sculptural group of Cerrillo Blanco, found in 1975 in the municipality of Porcuna (Jaén). This set constitutes nowadays the most important Iberian sculptural group of the known so far. It is composed of more than forty pieces that represent heroic struggles of men with each other or men with animals, hunting scenes, images of fantastic animals or important characters. Specifically, it belongs to the group of ancestors, made up of five sculptures: This sculpture stands out for its great size, since it stands out above the other human representations. He stands and shoes holding the front legs of two male caprids. The size of the caprids is also oversize and the accentuated sex, visible in the rear view is a sign of their fruitful power. The horns are supported on the shoulders and adapted to the human body. The face of the cemetery is shown frontal with the wrinkles on the eyes that highlight his gaze. The frontality of the group insists on its character as an offering. - Woman with snake: it is a figure of simple structure and size, dense and closed in itself. She is dressed in a fine shirt and two robes. On top of it is a thick mantle that covers the back of the body, falling to the feet. The right arm sticks to the side, peeking under the mantle it controls; while the left arm bends through the elbow, so it is possible to think that it could hold a lost object. On the back goes up a serpent whose head serps descending on the lady’s chest, looking for food. It is a representation of a divinity or singular character that gives to drink the animal that belongs to it, a snake. It can also be the representation of a mythical ancestor, since the snake belongs to the space of the beyond the ancestors. - Woman with Child: A stylized female sculpture that tilts her body and extends her lonely arms forward. He falls a veil on his shoulders that covers him to his feet. The folds of the mantle fall into two bands on both sides and move strongly with the impulse of the body. It has the left leg forward, on the knee and the belly there are remains of what has been supposed a small child hand that occupies the attention of the lady. - Male with manipule: Described at the beginning of the text. This figure is one of the most hieratic of the whole of Cerrillo Blanco and next to the Goddess with snake and the Lady with child, is characterized by its soft modeling. Together with this group we must include a statue that represents a seated character. According to Olmos, this set of ancestors was located at the top of the tower. But it takes a step further by identifying them as the representation of the mythical Oikos, in which not only are the ancestors, but also the animals that like the steer that show the richness of the house of the lineage, in the same way that the young ancestor irrigates with his semen the land to fertilize it. Currently the sculptures from Cerrillo Blanco can be visited in the Provincial Museum of Jaén and the archeological site in Porcuna (Jaén) is also visible, since it is one of the stops of the cultural route “Journey to the time of the Iberos” with which it is intended to value the iberas first level traces existing in the province of Jaén. Bibliography: Chapa, T. (2015): “Los escultores del Cerrillo Blanco de Porcuna,” in A. Ruiz y M. Molinos (coord.): Jaén, ibera land. 40 years of research and transfer. University of Jaén. Jaén. Olmos, R. (2002): “The sculptural groups of Cerrillo Blanco de Porcuna (Jaén). A convergent iconographic reading essay.” Spanish Archive of Archaeology, 75 107-122. Ruiz, A. and Molinos, M. (2015): “The sculptural group of Cerrillo Blanco, Porcuna,” in A. Ruiz and M. Molinos (Eds.): Jaén, Iberian land 40 Years of research and transfer. University of Jaén. 67-84. Torrecillas, J. F. (1985): The late period cemetery of Cerrillo Blanco. Institute of Giennenses Studies. Jaén.