The Northern influences of Flanders and Germany, though far-reaching in
their effects on Spanish sculpture, were not long-lived, and in the last
decade of the fifteenth century they gave way to a new influence from
Italy. Always responsive to newly imported art methods, her
architecture, sculpture, and painting were invaded by the forms of the
Italian Renaissance, and thanks to the flourishing condition of
architecture and sculpture, and to a taste refined by the busy practice
of these arts, the new influence found not only a willing, but an
intelligent following. The Renaissance influences were not harmful to
architecture and sculpture as they were to the sister art of painting.
For one reason, both architecture and sculpture were much more advanced
at this period than was painting. Then the new elements of taste made
their way slowly, and the old influences remained active side by side
with the new.
But it must be remembered that in Spain the Renaissance was never a
movement from within; rather its causes were external and political. In
1504 Naples had been conquered by Spain, and at the same time the
Sicilies had become an appanage of the House of Aragon. Many Spaniards
of position were attracted to Italy to take part in the wars, and with
them travelled native artists. At the same time Italian artists came to
Spain. Another influence was the close relation which at this time
existed between Spain and Rome. Then a thriving trade communication
arose between the cities of the two countries, and especially was this
so between the prosperous harbours of Barcelona and Genoa. The impulse
of art is curiously interbound with economic causes; interchange of
trade inevitably results in interchange of culture.
The charm of the new style arose from its novelty; it inspired imitation
and suggested new theories of art. It found an expression chiefly in the
direction of decoration, where the old sumptuousness was united with
elegance and delicacy of execution. Thus the Renaissance entered Spain
by numerous channels. We find many Spanish nobles employing Italian
workmen to decorate their palaces; for instance, Rodrigo de Mendoza
entrusted the ornamentation of the castle of Calahorra to Genoese
workmen in 1510. Italian marble-cutters were occupied in the production
of sumptuous monumental tombs, of which some were carved at Genoa, while
a still greater number were executed in Spain by Lombard and Florentine
artists summoned thither for the purpose. The mural monument of
Archbishop Mendoza in Seville Cathedral was executed by Miguel of
Florence about 1509, and by him too is the terra-cotta relief over the
Puerta del Perdon, representing the Expulsion of the Money-changers from
the Temple and the Annunciation, between the large figures of St. Peter
and St. Paul. The monument of P. González de Mendoza in the Capilla
Mayor of Toledo Cathedral, with the Madonna in the lunette, is
absolutely Florentine, and is perhaps the work of Andrea Sansovino. The
Marquis de Tarifa, while on a journey to Palestine in 1520, ordered at
Genoa the tomb-monuments of his parents, Enriquez and Catalina de
Ribera, the richest examples of Renaissance sculpture, which are in the
University Church of Seville. The altar of the Capilla de Exalas, in the
cathedral of the same city, which was erected by del Río in 1539, is
also of Genoese workmanship. The new style was adopted in decorative
sculptures applied to doorways, façades, windows, &c.; there are
numerous examples, and especially is this so in the Cathedral of Toledo,
which furnishes a museum of Renaissance work.
The Italian teaching was further assisted by the settlement in Spain of
a family of Italian artists, Leone Leoni, Pompeo his son, and Michael
the grandson, who for three generations were employed by Charles V. and
Philip II. They carved for the Escorial statues of the Emperor, of
Philip II., and members of the royal family, as well as the bas-reliefs
of the retablo of the high altar, which Herrera had designed, and two
groups in gilt-bronze placed under the tribunes to the right and left of
the altar. In addition these artists executed many statues in bronze and
in marble for the churches and royal palace. These works, by reason of
their purity of line and beauty, exercised a beneficial and widespread
influence on the native sculptors. Cean Bermudez, in Spain, unites with
Vasari, in Italy, in praising the Leoni family.
One of the first Spanish artists to frequent the schools of Italy, where
he is wrongly stated to have been a pupil of Donatello, was Damian
Forment, a native of Valencia, who lived and worked in the fifteenth and
first third of the sixteenth centuries. Donatello died in 1466, and as
Forment returned to Spain in 1509, when still young, he could not have
been the pupil of the great Italian. But whoever was his master, he was
a great artist, the most famous of the Aragonese sculptors, and his
works are the purest examples of the new Italian taste. That he esteemed
himself we know, for he calls himself “the rival of Phidias and
Praxiteles”; while the fact that he was allowed the unusual privilege of
inserting life-size medallions of himself and his wife at the base of
his great altar-screens at Zaragoza and Huesca shows how high a place he
held in the popular estimation.
There are four altar-screens which are known certainly to be the work of
Damian Forment, but of these only two are important. The first in date
is the retablo of the Virgen del Pilar at Zaragoza (Plate 74), which was
begun in 1509, the year in which Forment returned from Italy, and was
finished eleven years later, in 1520. It has three large bas-reliefs,
surrounded by a framing, and placed under a series of pinnacles and
divided by pilasters, while above is a predilla containing seven small
groups. In the centre of the three large groups is an exquisitely fine
Annunciation of the Virgin, and on either side are the Birth and the
Purification. Injudicious washings have ruined the polychrome, and no
traces of colour remain except on two figures placed on the right and
left of the altar. From these we can judge how fine the polychrome must
once have been. It is interesting to note that while the bas-reliefs and
statues, with their beautiful forms and great delicacy, so different
from the realistic emaciated types of the late Gothic artists, show very
clearly the influence Forment had experienced from his study of the
Italian masters; in the architectural decorations he remained faithful
to Gothic traditions. This mingling of styles is what we must expect in
Spain; it is at once the interest and the weakness of her art. Nor was
Forment alone in thus clinging to the old forms, while at the same time
using the new. We find the same crossing of influences in the work of
all the native artists, and in this way the Spanish Renaissance retained
in sculpture a certain native style of its own.
Damian Forment’s second important retablo, which was executed for the
celebrated Abbey of Mount Aragon, and is now in the parish church of
Huesca, is entirely Italian in sentiment and in execution. It has a
sensuous charm, such as is seen in scarcely any other work of Spanish
art.
Forment began the screen in 1520, worked at it for thirteen years, and
died, so tradition tells us, almost at once after its completion. Like
the Zaragoza altar-screen, it is of alabaster. It is in three registers,
and is adorned with bas-reliefs of the Bearing of the Cross, the
Crucifixion, and the Descent from the Cross. Between these bas-reliefs
and on the pilasters, crowned with elegant pinnacles, are figures of
women of incomparable beauty and grace. Some of the figures show traces
of colour, but here also the polychrome has been destroyed by washings.
The medallions of Forment and his wife are on the base of the altar.
The two remaining altar-screens of Forment are less important. San Pablo
at Zaragoza has a retablo carved in wood, which, though designed by
Forment, was probably carried out by his pupils. It was executed about
the years 1516-1520. The second altar-screen is in the parish church of
Velula de Ebro.
Besides these works, the retablo in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la
Calzada, a small town twelve miles west of Najara, has been attributed
to Forment. But this is a mistake. Not only the style of the carvings
but the records of the date of the work prove that it cannot be by
Damian Forment. The confusion has arisen from its author having the name
of Forment; he seems to have been an important imagerio, or
image-maker. We owe the clearing up of this error to M. Marcel
Dieulafoy, to whose admirable work we once more gratefully acknowledge
our debt.
The same learned authority thinks that the admirable tomb of the Marquis
Vasquez de Arco, which is in an annexe of the Sigüenza Cathedral, may,
in spite of certain difficulties about dates, be the work of Damian
Forment. For there seems no other artist working at this time who could
have executed it. Forment left a considerable fortune, which would point
to there having been many anonymous works of his; his four altar-screens
not being sufficient to account for the amassing of this wealth. The
Sigüenza tomb is one of the earliest monuments to show the decisive
influences of the Renaissance. The figure is represented reclining, the
attitude is new and free, the expression of the face is charming, and
all the details are carried out with great perfection. The only colour
that to-day remains is the crimson cross of Santiago. Behind the tomb an
inscription on a slab of marble inlaid into the wall gives the history
of the young hero, who was killed during one of the many sieges which
preceded the conquest of Granada.
There are some very curious and very interesting bas-reliefs in the
lower section of the retablo of the Royal Chapel of Granada (Plate 75)
belonging to this period, which show markedly the Italian Renaissance
forms. They depict the Surrender of the City and the Baptism of the
Moors. Unfortunately the author of these works is unknown.
In 1520, the same year in which Forment began the altar-screen of
Huesca, a Catalan artist, Bartolomé Ordóñez, went to Geneva to chisel
from Carrara marble the tomb of Cardinal Ximénez, which is now in the
Cathedral of Alcalá de Henares, but was formerly in the University
Chapel of the city. The tomb had been already designed by the Florentine
Domenico Alexandro, but on his death in 1520 Ordóñez was chosen to
complete it. With him worked two Genoese artists, Thomas Forne and Adam
Wibaldo, and Ordóñez assimilated so completely the Italian style that on
his return to Spain he became one of the chief channels for introducing
the new forms.
This explains how it is that the Spaniard’s chief works have been
ascribed to his Florentine master, Domenico Alexandro. These are the
funeral monuments of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic sovereigns,
in the Royal Chapel of Granada (Plate 76), and that of Don Juan, their
only son, which is in the Church of St. Thomas at Avila (Plate 77). This
last monument is of great purity and beauty of style. Domenico Alexandro
died in 1520, two years before the Granada tombs were executed. A recent
discovery noted by M. Marcel Dieulafoy of three names of those who
presided at the mounting of the monuments, all of whom belonged to the
studio of Ordóñez, gives further proof that we owe these splendid
funeral monuments to him. There is confusion about all the works of this
great sculptor. It is probable that he was the author of the tombs of
Philip the Handsome and Juana la Loca, which are also in Granada’s Royal
Chapel; while many anonymous sculptures of this date, as well as others
that have been assigned to the early Renaissance artists, may well be
his work. But the question of attributions, always difficult, is
especially so in the case of an artist who, like Bartolomé Ordóñez,
assumes a style typical of his period.
The most famous of the early Renaissance artists was Philip Vigarni,
better known by his surname Borgoña. He was of Burgundian origin, but a
native of Burgos, and he spent his life in the country of his birth. We
hear of him first in the year 1500, gaining a competition to execute the
great retablo of the Tras-Sagrario in the Cathedral of Burgos.
The Tras-Sagrario altar-screen is the largest retablo in Spain, probably
in the world (Plates 78-80). It is made entirely of larch wood, and is
in five storeys, each having four compartments, which are decorated with
elaborately carved bas-reliefs of the Passion and scenes from the life
of the Virgin. Above is a colossal crucifix. The numerous niches and
pinnacles contain a veritable crowd of prophets and saints. The style is
flamboyant Gothic, for, like Forment, Philip Borgoña did not use
Renaissance forms until later in his career. He had as his collaborators
Alfonso Sanchez, and his fellow-competitors Sebastian Almonacid, Peti
Juan, Diego Copin of Holland, and seventeen other sculptors of renown.
Enrique Egas, master architect of the cathedral, and Pietro Gumiel,
architect of the archbishopric, directed and looked after the
construction. The polychrome was entrusted to Juan de Borgoña, the
Toledan painter, and brother of Philip, and he was assisted by Francesco
di Amberos, Fernando del Rincon, and others. With the aid of these
numerous collaborators the altar-screen was completed in four years,
and was inaugurated in 1505. In spite of the merit of its carvings, its
great architectural merits, and the profusion and beauty of its colour
and gilding, the general effect of the retablo is disappointing. It is
too large. Standing near to it, the eye cannot embrace its multitude of
detail, while at a distance the parts become confused and lost. It is a
splendid and surprising monument, and it is very Spanish, but it is
unsatisfying as a work of art.
The real talent of Philip de Borgoña is seen best in the admirable
bas-reliefs in the Tras-Sagrario at the back of the Grand Altar. In the
first, Jesus goes out of Jerusalem to Calvary, accompanied by St.
Veronica, who dries his face, wet with drops of blood and sweat, and by
St. Simon, who helps to carry the Cross; the second depicts the
Crucifixion; the third is in two compartments, which show the Descent
from the Cross and the Resurrection (Plate 81). Two bas-reliefs on
either side are of a later date, belonging to the seventeenth century;
they are the work of Alonso de Rios.
It was after the execution of these works at Burgos that Philip de
Borgoña underwent his artistic evolution and embraced Italian forms.
Whence the influence came we do not know; perhaps it was from Alonso
Berruguete, for Philip de Borgoña would seem never to have left Spain.
The great work of his late years was carving the thirty-five stalls on
the Epistle side of the choir of Toledo Cathedral, the stalls on the
Gospel side being by Alonso Berruguete (Plates 82-98). The carvings of
Borgoña are more delicate and more finished, while those of Berruguete
show more creative talent and are more Spanish in their sentiment. Of
these truly marvellous choir-stalls Théophile Gautier says: “L’art
Gothique, sur les confins de la Renaissance, n’a rien produit de plus
parfait ni de mieux dessiné.” In his Toledo Pintoresca, Amardor thus
begins his description of the stalls: “Portent of Spanish art, in which
two great geniuses of our golden century competed, the victory to our
own times remains undecided, and astounded the judges who have
endeavoured to give their opinion on this matter.” The bas-reliefs
represent scenes from the Old and New Testament, and the single statues
are of prophets, apostles, and saints. They are carved of walnut wood,
separated by jasper and alabaster pillars.
M. Marcel Dieulafoy has pointed out the singular resemblance between the
figures in these choir-stalls and those in the altar-screen in the
Capilla del Condestable of Burgos Cathedral. It seems probable that we
owe this fine work to Philip de Borgoña, or at least that it was
produced in his studio. It is adorned with numerous reliefs and statues.
The scene of the central panel, with life-size figures, depicts the
Presentation in the Temple, and is charming by reason of its naïve
realism and the beauty of the heads. This altar-screen gains a further
importance from the richness of its polychromes.
Philip de Borgoña’s last work was the large retablo of the Capilla Real
at Granada, with the statuettes of Ferdinand and Isabella kneeling. The
reliefs, carved in wood in two sections, are of great historical
interest (Plate 103). To the left is Boabdil surrendering the keys of
the Alhambra, while that to the right represents the Baptism of the
Moors by Spanish monks. Philip de Borgoña died in 1543.
The Italian Renaissance became more universal and more strongly marked
in the works of the sculptors that followed. This was due to the
influence of Michael Angelo, which in the sixteenth century, in Spain,
attained a power elsewhere unknown outside of Italy. There was a special
reason for this. The great Italian’s work appealed to the Spanish
seriousness, to their strong dramatic instinct, and to the deeply
emotional character which has always marked their art.
Alonso Berruguete, sculptor, painter, and architect, stands as the
representative of this Michael-Angelesque influence, and his work is
typical of the manner of his period, especially of the grotesque style
which grew out of the Italian, and must be associated with his name.
Berruguete was born at Paredes de Nava about the year 1480. He was the
son of Pedro Berruguete, the king’s painter, from whom he received his
first lessons in art. On his father’s death he went to Italy, where he
at once became the pupil of Michael Angelo. Proof of his ability is
given by the fact that the Italian master confided to him the copying of
the celebrated Pisan cartoon which he had designed for the city. Later
Berruguete accompanied Michael Angelo to Rome. He made such progress
that Bramanti, following the advice of Raphael, chose him out of many
competitors to make a copy of the Laocoön to be cast in bronze. He also
completed a St. Jerome by Filippino Lippi.
This is all we know of Berruguete’s sojourn in Rome. In 1520 he returned
to Spain, when Charles V. appointed him royal sculptor and painter. This
position gave him great power. He worked for the emperor at Valladolid
and Madrid, and all the great towns of Spain—Toledo, Zaragoza,
Salamanca, Granada—competed for his services. In this way his influence
was widespread, and all that he had learnt in Italy became known to the
native artists. From Michael Angelo Berruguete acquired the power and
vigour that distinguishes all his best work, but at the same time he
retained his own personality and was faithful to national traditions. It
was his Spanish temperament, with its tendency to over-emphasis, and not
his imitation of Michael Angelo, which caused the violent attitudes and
exaggerated gestures which characterise many of his works.
Among the numerous altar-screens which Berruguete carved, either
entirely or in part, the most important was that of San Benito el Real
at Valladolid, some fragments of which remain in the museum of the city.
The choir-stalls of the monastery, also in the museum, which are often
mistakenly attributed to Berruguete, were carved by Andres de Najera in
1520, a contemporary sculptor, too little known, if we may judge by the
power and beauty of these choir-stalls (Plates 104-111). Carved in wood,
they do not appear ever to have been painted. Najera has also left
excellent carvings in the Cathedrals of Calahorra and of Santo Domingo
de la Calzada.
The contracts for the altar-screen of San Benito, signed in 1526, show
that Berruguete undertook “to carve and finish with his own hands the
heads and feet of the statues.” This gives special importance to these
works, for the execution of many of Berruguete’s carvings was left to
his pupils. The most beautiful of the figures is that of St. Sebastian
(Plate 113). It is one of the finest possible examples of polychrome.
The flesh-tints are subdued, the face somewhat warmer in colour than the
body, with skilful touches of carmine on the lips, nostrils, ears, and
eyelids. The eyebrows are light, the hair red-brown. Some drops of blood
show upon the wounds. The general effect is powerful and true to life.
There are some fine bas-reliefs; among them we may mention the Sacrifice
of Abraham and the Adoration of the Magi (Plate 113); the heads of the
Virgin and the Child Christ in the second panel are splendid examples of
Berruguete’s art. Two more panels show the Birth of Christ and the
Flight into Egypt, and in these again Berruguete’s special personality
makes strong appeal; and hardly less powerful are the panels, with gold
backgrounds, of the two Evangelists, St. Mark and St. Matthew. All
these bas-reliefs are coloured.
Berruguete has left many noteworthy tombs. The monument of Archbishop
Tavera, in the Afuera Hospital at Toledo, is generally accounted his
masterpiece (Plate 114). But this tomb, carved in his old age—it was
Berruguete’s last work—is not really finer than many of his other
monuments. The bas-reliefs on the sarcophagus are mannered, and suggest
an over-excited imagination. It seems probable that the Toledo tomb owes
its fame rather to its being better known than to the superiority of its
execution. A finer example of Berruguete’s works in marble, according to
M. Marcel Dieulafoy, are the tombs of Don Juan de Rojas and his wife the
Marquesa de Poza, in the Church of San Pablo at Palencia. The kneeling
figures of the Marquis and his wife, with the fine heads of strongly
marked character, prove Berruguete an accomplished carver of portraits
in marble. The bas-reliefs, and the numerous figures of saints,
evangelists, and angels, are vigorously carved; especially fine is the
form of God the Father, which dominates the whole. The monumental tomb
of San Jeronimo at Granada, which has been attributed to the Italian
Pedro Torrigiano, and also to Berruguete’s successor, Gaspar Becerra,
is almost certainly the work of Berruguete (Plate 115). This is the
opinion of M. Marcel Dieulafoy. It furnishes a different expression of
Berruguete’s powers, and is one of the most characteristically Spanish
of his works. Of a similar character to the Palencia tombs, and worthy
of notice, are the excellent portrait-bust of the engineer Juanelo
Turriano, in the Convent of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo, the
statue-tomb of St. Secundus, Bishop of Avila, in the Church of San
Secundo in that city (Plate 116), and the busts of the archbishops which
adorn the retablo of the Colegio del Arzobispo at Salamanca. The student
of Berruguete should visit his native town Paredes de Nava, where
numerous carvings are preserved in the Church of Santa Eulalia, for in
these early works we see how carefully he studied the antique. In the
wooden panels in the sacristy of Mercia Cathedral we notice again the
over-excited imagination which was the defect of Berruguete’s work. Much
finer is the retablo of Santa Barbara in the sacristy of the Cathedral
of Avila. It is carved in alabaster and coloured; the finest of the
reliefs represents the Scourging of Christ, a subject specially suitable
to Berruguete’s power.
The influence of Berruguete was decisive and widespread, and a number
of native carvers and sculptors arose who were either his pupils or
imitated his style.
Gaspar de Tordesillas, born at the end of the fifteenth century, is
reputed to have been a pupil of Berruguete, and the vigour of his style,
shown chiefly in the attitudes and movements of his figures, and in the
folds of his draperies, supports this pupilship. He was first an
entallador, or carver in wood, and afterwards escultor—sculptor—an
artist of higher rank. He carved in wood a small retablo for the parish
church of Simancas, a small town near to Valladolid, which Antonio
Vasquez, another native artist, coloured in oils. As an escultor
Tordesillas executed many important works, among them the fine statue of
San Benito (Plate 117), now in the Museum of Valladolid, and also two
altar-screens for the old monastery of San Benito.
Many of the works of Tordesillas have been attributed to his
better-known contemporary Juan de Juni, the extravagant follower of
Berruguete’s style. The altar-screens in the Church of Santiago and the
Church of San Francisco at Valladolid—the first representing the
Adoration of the Magi and the other the Entombment of Christ—are all
the work of Tordesillas. M. Marcel Dieulafoy’s verdict of this little
known carver is that he was “a great artist.”
Francisco Giralte, a sculptor of Palencia, who, like so many of the
Spanish artists of this period, studied in Italy, was the principal
collaborator with Berruguete in carving the celebrated choir-stalls of
Toledo Cathedral. The last of the works which he executed alone is the
altar-screen, formerly in the chapel of the Obispo, Palencia Cathedral,
but now at Madrid. This screen is described and highly praised by Ponz
in his Viage de España. The polychrome was carried out by Juan de
Villodo, under the direction of Francisco de Vilalpando, an able
architect of Palencia. Giralte carved many other retablos, and was
assisted by Juan Manzano and other carvers. The most important of his
works are the altar-screen of Cardinal Ximénez, that of the Monastery of
Valbuena, the great altar at Espinar, another for the parish church of
Pozeido, and finally the retablo of the Corral’s chapel in the Church of
the Magdalena, Valladolid, remarkable for its bas-reliefs, but
unsatisfying in its whole effect on account of the poverty of
composition. Giralte died in 1576.
Esteban Jordan was the contemporary of Giralte. He was born at the
beginning of the sixteenth century and died in 1598 or 1599. We read
that Berruguete was the godfather of his son, which seems to suggest an
intimate relationship, if not pupilship, between the two artists. But
Jordan has very little of the vigorous style of Berruguete. Like
Giralte, he was a carver of second-rate merit, who attained fame in his
lifetime, but was afterwards forgotten. His best works are the retablo
of Santa Maria Magdalena at Valladolid and the tomb of Archbishop Don
Pedro Gasco in the same church.
Another Spaniard who learnt his art in Italy was Tudelilla, a native of
Tarragona. He was born at the end of the fifteenth century, and after
studying in Italy, in 1527 returned to Spain, in which year we find him
charged with the construction and decoration of the choir enclosure of
Zaragoza Cathedral (Plate 118). The style in which it is carried out is
known in Spain as Plateresque, a name derived from plateros, or
silver-work, and applied to this form of carving from its elegance and
delicacy of execution. The choir is composed of twelve highly ornamented
columns, which have a frieze and pediments of delicate workmanship. In
the centre is placed a Crucifixion, while between the columns and on
either side are statues of saints and four bas-reliefs representing
scenes in the lives of St. Vincent and St. Valere, the patrons of the
church. In Spain it is held in great estimation, but it must be admitted
that the decoration is mannered and of a professional stamp. Tudelilla
was largely employed by the nobility of Zaragoza in the decoration of
their palaces. We read in contemporary writers of the splendour of these
buildings, but almost without exception they have been destroyed. It was
the common custom at this period of artistic wealth to lavish large sums
on the decoration with statues and sculpture of both the outside and the
interior of private dwellings. Wherever these palaces remain they should
be studied, as they contain many fine examples of Spanish carving.
Among other carvers who were the contemporaries of Berruguete we may
mention Diego Morlanes, who completed the portal of the convent church
of Santa Engracia at Zaragoza, which was begun by his father Juan in
1505, while a further example of his sumptuous style is the chapel of
St. Bernard in the cathedral, with the monument of Archbishop Fernando
of Aragon and his mother. Juan de Talavere and Etienne Veray executed
the sumptuous portal of the Church of the Virgin at Calatayud; Diego de
Riaño and Martin Gainoza worked at Seville, and their carvings in the
Sacristia Mayor and in the Capilla Real of the cathedral illustrate the
elaborate and fantastic forms in which the native workers now took
increasing delight. Of greater importance are Juan Rodriguez and
Gerónimo Pellicier, who executed the retablo of the Monastery del Parral
at Segovia (Plate 119).
All these sculptors and carvers were in greater or less degree imitators
of Berruguete. We have in addition numerous anonymous works, some of
splendid merit. The enumeration of these carvings would fill a separate
volume. Burgos, Seville, and many churches are veritable museums of
polychrome sculpture; while many churches, such, for instance, as the
Convent of Poblet, now robbed and left bare, were formerly
treasure-houses of sculptures. The limit of space makes it impossible to
do justice to this multitude of work. The epoch was marked by a wealth
of production which shows the enthusiasm that then prevailed for the
plastic arts.
The history of Spanish sculpture would be incomplete did we omit to
mention the Custodias which almost no large church in Spain is without.
These idealistic tower-like structures, always wrought in silver and
finely carved, are the great architectural achievements of the
metal-workers. The first examples belong to the Gothic period. The
Custodia of the Cathedral of Gerona, richly adorned with enamels and
precious stones, is one of the most beautiful, while another of almost
equal merit is that of Barcelona. The sixteenth century was the great
period for the production of these silver works, and this was due mainly
to the talented Arfes, a Spanish family of German origin, who produced
Custodias for most of the important cathedrals. To Enrique de Arfe
(1470-1550), the first of the family, we owe the Custodias of Cordova
and Toledo; these works are in the late Gothic style. But the most
celebrated member of the family was Juan Arfes, the grandson of Enrique,
who was born about the middle and died at the close of the sixteenth
century. He was the creator of the celebrated Custodia of Avila (Plate
120). He also executed two Custodias for the city of Valladolid—one for
the Convent of Carmel and the other for the cathedral. This work bears
an inscription, “Juan de Arfe y Villafañe, f. MDXC.,” and the price paid
for it was 1,518,092 maravedis. At about the same time he made another
Custodia for the Cathedral of Burgos, and yet another for that of
Seville. Besides excelling as a silversmith, Juan was an excellent
carver of statues, though he always used the title escultor de plata y
oro (sculptor of gold and silver). His skill as a sculptor is proved by
the group of Adam and Eve, which was executed to occupy the centre of
the first stage of the Valladolid Custodia, but is now on the pedestal.
His greatest sculptured piece was the kneeling statue of Cristobal de
Royas y Sandoval, Archbishop of Seville, in the Church of San Pedro de
Lerma at Burgos (Plates 121 and 122). Juan died before the completion of
the work, which was finished by Fernandez del Moral, under the direction
of Pompeo Leoni; and for this reason this splendid monument for long has
been wrongly attributed to Leoni.
With the silversmiths we may class the orfrays, or embroiderers, who
at this time attained a position of great importance. Cean Bermudez
praises especially Marcos Covarrubias, the master embroiderer of Toledo
Cathedral, who in 1514 carried out the beautiful decorations of Cardinal
Cisneros’ monument. Other celebrated “embroiderers” were Gabriel
Carvajal of Seville Cathedral, and a French Hieronimite monk named
Monserrate, who settled in Spain in the sixteenth century and worked for
the monastery of the Escorial. He was a master of the delicate art of
“needlework in stone.” Nor must we forget the Spanish metal-workers, who
wrought the exquisite railings in the cathedrals of Burgos, Seville,
Salamanca, Toledo, Pampeluna, and elsewhere, which are masterpieces of
art. These works, besides flowers, foliage, and decorations, contain
medallions of men’s and women’s heads, sometimes oxidised, but often
gilded and polychromed. For this reason, if for nothing else, these
church railings must be studied by those who wish to know the Spanish
polychromes. These small medallions are carried out with exquisite
delicacy and beauty.
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