(b ?Toledo, c. 1574; d 1620). Spanish sculptor. He lived in Toledo but in 1603 was associated in Madrid with Antón de Morales ( fl 1586–1625) who was a member of the circle of Pompeo Leoni. Merlo followed the classical style of Juan Bautista Monegro. He executed the sculptures for the principal retable in the monastery of S Pedro Mártir, Toledo, in collaboration with Jorge Manuel Theotocopoulos. Merlo’s marble group of St Joseph and Child (1608; Ávila, Convent of S José, façade) was commissioned by the royal architect, Francisco de Mora, architect and benefactor of this Carmelite foundation. In 1609 Merlo was commissioned to carve the choir-stalls of S Pedro Mártir, Toledo, which incorporate a complete series of Dominican saints. In 1610 he was in Sigüenza, where he executed the important principal retable in the cathedral. This work, with pilasters, statues and pictorial reliefs flanking the large central Assumption and Calvary, shows the high quality of his carving. The retable of 1611 for the church of the Virgen del Prado, Ciudad Real, is also composed of numerous reliefs. In 1615 Jorge Manuel and Merlo were contracted by royal commission to carve the sculpture for the principal retable designed by Juan Gómez de Mora, of the royal foundation of Guadalupe (Caceres), but almost all the carving is by Merlo, including the great relief dedicated to St Jerome. In the same church he also carved in stone the kneeling funerary statues of Henry IV of Castile and León (reg 1454–74) and Mary of Aragón. In 1619 Merlo and Jorge Manuel collaborated again to complete the principal retable in the Hospital de Tavera in Toledo (hospital de S Juan Bautista or de Afuera), originally commissioned in 1608 from El Greco, but unrealized. Merlo did not complete the carving before his death, but it is possible that he used El Greco’s designs.

• Merlo, Giraldo de
  • Guadalupe
  • Toledo, §II, 2: Art life and organization, after c 1500