The period between 1610 and 1612 was occupied with an important work, the designing and carving of the altar-screen and statues for the old monastery of San Isidoro at Santiponce, in the suburb of Seville. Montañés is noteworthy as a carver of altar-screens, and in this he returned to the methods of earlier artists. Seville owes to him three great retablos; those of Santa Clara and San Lorenzo in the city itself, and the one at Santiponce, which of the three is perhaps the most beautiful. It is in two registers with an attic. In the centre of the first portion stands the magnificent statue of St. Jerome, one of the finest figures of Montañés; placed on the right and left are St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, and two bas-reliefs of the Adoration of the Magi and of the Shepherds. The last group is especially beautiful. San Isidoro, Archbishop of Seville and patron of the church, occupies the centre of the second register, while the bas-reliefs on either side represent the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. In the attic are figures of the Cardinal Virtues and an Assumption of the Virgin, which surmount a Crucifix and two kneeling angels. In this great work it seems certain that Montañés must have been aided by his pupils. The St. Jerome, however, was carved entirely by himself. It was coloured by Pacheco, who was for many years the collaborator of the Sevillian master. The work is perfectly executed, indeed it is impossible to say more of this magnificent polychrome than that it merits the praise which has been lavished upon it. There are also in the Church of Santiponce the tombs of Don Alonso Perez de Guzmán el Bueno and his wife Doña Maria Coronel, who founded the monastery. They are carved in marble and polychromed. Cean Bermudez attributes to Montañés the figure of the hero of Tarifa. This is an error; both monuments are clearly by the same hand, and the style is not that of Montañés. But they are fine works, harmonious and simple, and the polychrome is very good indeed. It is unfortunate that their author is unknown. The masterpiece of Montañés, and the work by which he is most widely known, belongs to the year 1614: it is the Crucifix now in the sacristy of the cathedral (Plate 142), but originally executed for the Carthusians of Santa Maria de las Cuevas, and given to the monastery with the stipulation that the figure was never to be removed. This statue, once seen, can never be forgotten. What impresses us is the dignity of the nude figures, wonderfully carved, without any violent attitudes, and the colouring, perfectly harmonious; it is the incomparable refinement, the sobriety with which the divine drama is represented, that moves us so profoundly. Montañés expresses perfectly the deep religious feeling which animated Spain in the seventeenth century. A passage in the _Arte de la Pintura_ tells us that the polychrome was done by Pacheco in the “_mat tone_” which he used with such splendid effect.