Page 168 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

(Wethey 1936, 32). Early photographs show that
it was the only figure on the tomb to be so embel-
lished, and physical examination of the work
reveals that the paint and gilding is in some in-
stances applied over restorations. Parts of the
back of the figure have been roughly cut away,
apparently in an effort to accommodate its place-
ment in a more restricted site, most likely an altar
dedicated to Santiago. R.K.

49

San Pablo de la Moraleja Master
Netherlandish or German
LAMENTATION
c. 1500
polychromed wood
5
159 x 187 (62 /s x 73 /sj
5
references: Buser 1974, i; Valladolid 1988,
162-163
Museo Diocesano y Catedralicio, Valladolid

The anonymous author of this sculpture, who
probably came to Spain from Flanders or Ger-
many, has been called the "San Pablo de la
Moraleja Master" after the parish church in the
province of Valladolid from which the group came scene with many figures, including by implication
(Valladolid 1988,162-163). The work is charac- the viewer himself. 50
teristic of the late gothic in Castile; in fact, it has A comparison of the Lamentation with Alonso Diego de Siloe
much in common with polychromed sculptural Berruguete's Sacrifice of Isaac (cat. 51) is extra- Spanish, active 1517-1563
groups throughout Europe at this time. Sculpture ordinarily instructive. Although created less than
in marble and bronze was largely the specialty of thirty years apart, the two Spanish polychromed MAN OF SORROWS
the artists of central Italy, where classical exam- sculptural groups represent entirely different sty-
ples were most reverentially recalled. Elsewhere listic worlds. In the Lamentation, the drama of c. 1522
in Europe the power of these narrative groups, the scene is brought to stylized life. The San polychromed and gilt wood
height 54 (21 vy
composed of unidealized figures painted and Pablo de la Moraleja Master's awkward figures, references: Villacampa 1928, 25-44; Gomez-
gilded to emphasize their corporeality, reflected wearing concave masks of tragedy, swoon melo- Moreno 1941, 17, 3#-39
the immediacy of the medieval Passion play. This dramatically over the greenish flesh of Christ's
sculptural group in fact suggests a scene from a scarred and bloodied body. Alonso Berruguete's Excmo. Cabildo Catedral—Burgos
play of the Passion of Christ, performed by actors finely wrought figures, on the other hand, reflect
representing Joseph of Arimathia, Nicodemus, the idealization of the Italian Renaissance style in Diego de Siloe's Man of Sorrows forms part of
Saint John, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, and which the younger sculptor was trained. The two the altarpiece of Saint Anne in the funerary
the "other Marys/' As in the play, the actors are artists, however, are heirs to the same spiritual chapel of the Constables of Castile in Burgos
distinguished individually by their makeup and tradition. Both knowingly use tortured faces and Cathedral. The dead Christ, supported on the
costumes, but they respond to the death of Christ compressed space to express the religious fervor edge of his tomb by a pair of lamenting angels, is
almost in unison, as a tragic chorus. of their respective subject in beautifully painted an explicitly eucharistic subject. The figure is the
The subject of the Lamentation is an extraordi- and gilded wood. s.s. central image of the banco of the altarpiece, a
narily apt one for an altarpiece, where the body of position that recalls, and refers to, the tabernacle
Christ is the all-important focus. The emphasis of in which the consecrated host was stored.
the more contemplative image of the Virgin and The altarpiece was left unfinished by Gil de
her dead son, or Pieta, is on the compassion of the Siloe around 1500 and was completed more than
Virgin, and thus that image is more suitable for twenty years later by his son, Diego, who added
private devotion. In Spain it is often adapted for four figures: the Man of Sorrows and three stand-
use in tomb sculpture (Buser 1974, i). The Lam- ing female saints. The polychromy of these fig-
entation, on the other hand, is based on the narra- ures can be attributed to Leon Picardo, the painter
tive of the Passion of Christ, which is a public responsible for the polychromy of the main altar-

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 167