Page 161 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

of the Catholic Monarchs. Like several other worked with embossed and engraved foliate dec-
members of his prominent family, he had opposed oration, with the enameled coats of arms of the
a matrimonial alliance between Castile and Catholic Monarchs and the Dominican order
Aragon and, subsequently, Isabella's claim to the applied. The cup is likewise sustained by large,
throne. As a result, Acuna spent the years 1476- embossed, leafy forms. The hexagonal stem is
1481 in exile from Burgos. Nonetheless, during decorated with Gothic fenestration, while the six-
his lengthy term as bishop, he intervened in favor paneled central nodule is articulated with a like
of several major building projects in Burgos number of tiny figures of standing saints. The
Cathedral. Successive masters (maestros de la maker of the chalice is unknown, as is its place
obra) Juan and Simon de Colonia completed the of origin. The goldsmith's marks are not clearly
north tower, the Gothic cimborium (which col- visible, though one of them appears to be that
lapsed in 1539), and Acufia's own funerary chapel. of the city of Avila (Arnaez 1983,1:75).
Gil de Siloe and Diego de la Cruz executed the C.P.I, and R.K.
main altarpiece of Acuna's chapel. In addition,
Acuna caused the silver image of Santa Maria la
Mayor, patroness of the cathedral, to be remade
on a larger scale between 1460 and 1464, provid-
ing the silver necessary for the undertaking. That 40
anonymous work can be usefully compared with CHALICE
the Santiago reliquary (Lopez Mata 1950, 96, 98).
R.K. c. 1500
Castilian
gilt silver, filigree, pearls, enamel
2
height 23 (9 /sj
inscribed: AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA DOMINUS TECUM
no
references: Madrid 1893, - 44 '> Villa-Amil y
Castro i#93, 13; Chicote 1903-1904, 1:140-141;
Martin Gonzalez 1971, 322; Brasas Egido 1980, 117,
6
39 fig- 7 Diocesano y Catedralicio, Valladolid
Museo
CHALICE OF THE CATHOLIC MONARCHS bus' undertaking, she sent him to Salamanca to
discuss the feasibility of the voyage with the Given that no goldsmith's marks can be distin-
late i$th century Dominican Diego de Deza, a learned cleric about
Castilian whom Columbus wrote: "Ever since I came to guished on the chalice, it is impossible to identify
gilt silver, enamel Castile he has held me in favor and desired my its maker or to be certain of its place of origin. It
3
3
25 x 19 (9 /4 x 7 /sj
references: Llorente 1961, 39; Palomo Iglesias 1970, honor" and if it were not for him "Their High-
89; Arndez 1983, 1:74-75, fig. 24 nesses would not possess the Indies and I would to
in Castile,
not have remained
since I was about
Convento de Santo Domingo el Real, Segovia leave." In memory of this event, one of the clois-
ters in the Dominican convent of San Esteban of
This chalice, bearing the coats of arms of Spain Salamanca is named after Columbus, and the
and of the Dominican order, attests to the special stone lintel above the window of Deza's room is
devotion of Isabella the Catholic for the order inscribed, "Diego de Deza and Columbus spoke
founded by Saint Dominic of Guzman. The queen together here."
called upon a Dominican, Tomas de Torquemada, Among the donations Isabella made to the con-
to undertake the reorganization of the Tribunal of vent of Santa Cruz was this chalice. It was kept
the Holy Office (the Inquisition) and appointed with the most valued objects until the disentail-
him inquisitor general. Torquemada was the prior ment of 1834, when the clerics were forced to
of the convent of Santa Cruz at Segovia, an insti- abandon their convent. At that time Prior Claudio
tution of great tradition and importance. It was Sancho Contreras took the chalice and kept it in
the first Dominican convent in Spain, founded by his possession until his death in 1886. It then
Saint Dominic himself in 1218 (Jordan of Saxony, passed to the convent of Dominican nuns in Sego-
Libellus de principiis ordinis praedicatorum, n. via, where it is still kept and used on the most
59). For this and other reasons Isabella took the solemn occasions. This chalice was one of the
convent of Santa Cruz under her royal patronage. objects exhibited at the History of the Americas
She had it completely rebuilt, sparing only the Exhibition on the occasion of the fourth Colum-
cave to which Saint Dominic had withdrawn at bus Centenary.
night for prayer and penitence. The queen Though the intervention of the queen's archi-
entrusted this work to the royal architect Juan tect at Santa Cruz dates from at least as early as
Guas. 1478, the chalice must have been commissioned
Columbus' "Enterprise of the Indies" is itself slightly later, as the royal coat of arms includes
connected with a prominent Dominican of the the pomegranate of the kingdom of Granada,
time. Before the queen agreed to finance Colum- added in 1492. The base of the chalice is richly

160 CIRCA 1492