Page 169 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

cipally active in southern Spain. In Granada, he
was active as architect, designer, and sculptor at
the Cathedral, and at the churches of San Jero-
nimo, San Gabriel, and San Gil. Likewise, he
intervened in the construction of the Cathedrals
of Sevilla, Malaga, Guadix, and Plascencia. R.K.

5*
Alonso Berruguete
Spanish, c. 1490/1492-1561
THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC

from the altarpiece of the church of the monastery
of San Benito, Valladolid
begun 1526
polychromed wood
3
3
36.5 x 18 x i} (i4 /s x /Vs x 5 /sj
references: Camon Aznar 1980, 20
Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid

Alonso Berruguete, the son of the painter Pedro
Berruguete (cat. 46), was born in Paredes de Nava,
probably about 1490—1492 (Camon Aznar 1980,
20). Alonso Berruguete's early training took place
in Italy, which he reached at a very auspicious
moment. Michelangelo mentions him in a letter
piece for the same chapel executed by Diego de works of Gil, such as the Lamentation relief from of 1508, and Vasari speaks of "Alfonso Berruguete
Siloe and Felipe Bigamy. the tomb of Juan de Padilla, that are sometimes espagnuolo" in his biographies of Michelangelo
The chapel within which the Saint Anne altar- regarded as "Italianizing," these works cannot be and Baccio Bandinelli. Berruguete is recorded as
piece is located, dedicated to the Purification of convincingly attributed to the young Diego. Nor working in Florence and Rome. He probably
the Virgin, was founded by Pedro Fernandez de can the influence of the father's late Gothic returned to Spain before 1516.
Velasco and Mencia de Mendoza, Condes de Haro manner be discerned in the earliest works of the Berruguete's first important commission in
and Constables of Castile. Documents of the son. The contrast between the two generations Spain was the tomb of Grand Chancellor Juan Sel-
period, however, consistently refer to the "chapel is nowhere more evident than in the Constable's vaggio, a member of the court of Charles v, which
of the Condesa," attesting to the primary role chapel and, in particular, in the placement of was entrusted to him together with the French
played by Mencia de Mendoza in the foundation Diego's Man of Sorrows within the flattened tre- sculptor Felipe Bigamy. This opportunity gave
of the chapel and her direct involvement in its foil niche of Gil's canopied tabernacle-like altar- Berruguete an early entry into high circles; in
construction. A member of one of the most piece. The date of Diego's birth is unknown, but 1518 he was referred to as "pintor del rey" (paint-
powerful and influential families of Spain, Mencia given that Gil died in 1500, it is entirely possible er to the king). In 1521 both Berruguete and
was the daughter of Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, that Diego received, or at least completed, his Bigamy were commissioned to work at the Royal
Marques de Santillana, and the sister of Pedro training elsewhere. Chapel in Granada, which Charles v ordered deco-
Gonzalez de Mendoza. The construction and Whatever the nature of Diego's training, his rated in a manner befitting the burial place of his
decoration of the chapel, begun in 1482, seems to earliest works manifest a style that is thoroughly grandparents Ferdinand and Isabella. Berruguete's
have stalled upon the death of the founder in Italianate, and this was precisely what was contract for the work in Granada specified fifteen
1500. It was only in 1522 that Inigo Fernandez de required by his patrons. The contract for the tomb historias pintadas, and between 1520 and 1523 he
Velasco, Third Constable of Castile, secured the of Luis de Acuna is explicit: it should be executed was busy painting banners and standards for the
financial means and assumed the legal responsi- in the "Roman" manner. Diego is first docu- Armada. Not until 1523 did he turn to the design
bility to finish the chapel in accordance with the mented in 1517, in Naples, working alongside Bar- of altarpieces and the combined arts of archi-
testament of his mother, Mencia de Mendoza. The tolome Ordonez (who was from Burgos), in the tecture-sculpture-painting.
Saint Anne altarpiece, referred to in a document chapel of the Caracciolo family in San Giovanni a Between 1523 and 1526 Berruguete created the
of 1522, must have been one of the first works in Carbonara (Gomez-Moreno 1941). By 1519 he main altarpiece of the Hieronymite monastery of
the chapel to be completed (Villacampa 1928). had returned to his native Burgos, where he was La Mejorada (Olmedo). From then on Berruguete,
As the son of Gil de Siloe, Diego would have engaged in a series of important projects in the who is now called a sculptor, both designed the
customarily received his training as a sculptor Cathedral: the tomb of Luis de Acuna (1519), the architectural framework for the great altarpieces
in the shop of his father. Yet from the start Escalera Dorada (1519), and the altarpieces of and carved and painted the sculpture. In 1526 he
of Diego's career, his Italian-influenced style Saint Anne, Saint Paul, and the Purification for was commissioned to create the altarpiece for the
diverges sharply from his father's manner. While the Constable's chapel (1522-1526). In 1528 Diego church of the monastery of San Benito in Vallado-
there are certain stylistic anomalies in the later left Burgos for Granada and thereafter was prin- lid for which The Sacrifice of Isaac was created.
168 CIRCA 1492