Tabernacle door. Spain, 17th century. "Bishop, possibly Saint Augustine". Carved, gilded, polychromed and stewed wood. Measurements: 39,5 x 24 cm. Relief in carved, polychrome, gilded and stewed wood, with the representation of Saint Augustine of Hippo. It was originally the door of a tabernacle. The Spanish Baroque sculpture is one of the most authentic and personal examples of our art, because its conception and form of expression arose from the people and their deepest feelings. With the economy of the State in ruins, the nobility in decline and the high clergy burdened with heavy taxes, it was the monasteries, parishes and confraternities of clerics and laymen who promoted its development, the works sometimes being financed by popular subscription. Sculpture was thus obliged to express the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when Counter-Reformation doctrine demanded a realistic language from art so that the faithful could understand and identify with what was represented, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content in order to increase the fervour and devotion of the people. Religious themes were therefore the preferred subject matter of Spanish sculpture of this period, which in the early decades of the century was based on a priority interest in capturing the natural world, gradually intensifying over the course of the century in the depiction of expressive values, which it achieved through movement and the variety of gestures, the use of light resources and the representation of moods and feelings.