Luján Pérez Workshop

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: People

Luján Pérez was born on 7 May 1756 in Guía and died in Las Palmas in 1815. As a child, he caused great admiration among his fellow citizens because he made small figurines using a simple knife. His first steps in artistic learning were taken at the Drawing School created by Jerónimo de Roo. At this school, he befriended the architect Diego Nicolás Eduardo, with whom he completed his evolution towards classicism. He specialised in wood carvings, was the best image-maker and the first great figure in the art history of the Canary Islands. He has no civil sculpture, only religious, and almost all churches boast having some of his works. He has carvings in churches in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (the Cathedral is a museum of his work), La Laguna, Moya, Arucas, Guía, Garachico, etc.

He has been called "the Canarian Salzillo" due to the influence that this Levantine sculptor exerted on his works. Professor Hernández Perera believes that it is enough to observe the image of "Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación" from the parish of Santiago de Gáldar, or the "Virgen de la Gloria" from the parish of La Orotava, to see the influence of the Murcian master, although his art is more sober, closer to classicism in its angular folds and marked relief (Dolorosa of Santa Ana of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) which recalls the Castilian school.

His workshop was on Santa Bárbara street and he was a self-taught, bohemian, very interesting character. He never married, although he had two children he acknowledged. He became related through a daughter to the Martínez de Escobar family.

As an architect, he participated in the construction of the Cathedral of Santa Ana after the death of Diego Nicolás Eduardo in 1798. In the dome there are sixteen wooden sculptures of his, painted in the colour of the stone, representing the twelve apostles and the four evangelists.

In 2006, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his birth, the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria placed a bust in his honour in front of the gardens of the Palacio Episcopal, a work by the artist Santiago Vargas.

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