Page 42 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

SPAIN IN THE AGE OF EXPLORATION: CROSSROADS

OF ARTISTIC CULTURES

Jonathan Brown

Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, whose members were manipulated by ambitious
the Catholic Monarchs, are best remembered noblemen eager to expand their wealth and
today as the sponsors of Christopher Columbus' influence at the expense of the king. A singular
l
daring enterprise of 1492. However, they loom expression of the rising power of these aristo-
even larger in world history as the founders of a crats is the group of sumptuous funerary
Spanish empire whose territories were to encir- chapels they constructed to proclaim their fame,
cle the globe. In keeping with this potent his- perpetuate their memory, and promote the
torical role, Isabella and Ferdinand are given redemption of their souls. Two important
credit for opening the way to the golden age of chapels exemplify the phenomenon and set a
art that was soon to dawn over their Spanish standard for what might be called conspicuous
realms. Indeed, a special term — arte or estilo salvation.
Isabel—has become a conventional way to One of these is the chapel of Alvaro de Luna
3
describe Spanish art of the late fifteenth and in the Toledo cathedral. Luna, like many of his
2
early sixteenth centuries. However, although powerful peers, was a recent arrival to the ranks
Isabella was a major patron (Ferdinand was a of the nobility. In 1420 he became the favorite
negligible figure in the arts), she was only one of the father of Isabella, Juan n, who ruled from
player in the drama of Spanish art during this 1419 to 1454, during much of which time Luna
crucial phase of its development. actually held the reins of power. However, he
The practice of naming artistic styles after finally reached too far and fell victim to a rival
reigning monarchs first seems to have been faction, which persuaded the king to order his
applied to French art of the seventeenth and execution in 1453.
eighteenth centuries, when much artistic pro- Luna may have died in disgrace, but he was
duction was centered in the royal workshops. buried in splendor. At the height of his career fig. i. Chapel of the Count of Luna. Toledo
This form of systematic patronage, a byproduct he had appropriated three chapels in the Cathedral
of the absolute monarchy established by Louis cathedral of Toledo, the primatial see of Spain,
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xiv, could not be achieved by the less powerful which he converted into a large-scale family Condestable. The architect was Simon de Colo-
monarchs of the late medieval and Renaissance funerary monument. The work began in 1430, nia (Simon of Cologne), whose father, Juan, had
period who bartered with their subjects for but was partly destroyed a decade later when come from Germany in the 1440$ and been
power. Thus in Spain, as elsewhere in fifteenth- the populace rose up against Luna and vented its appointed master of works of the cathedral. Juan
century Europe, uniformity was the exception wrath on this symbol of his glory (proof that its introduced a German late-Gothic style into the
in art as in politics. The artistic mixture in the intended meaning was widely understood). By region, which was perpetuated by his family
Isabelline period, moreover, was exceptionally 1448 the monument was rising again with the workshop well into the sixteenth century. The
rich, reflecting three influences: a late Gothic participation of an architect newly arrived from interior of the constable's chapel is an una-
style from Germany and the lowlands, a classi- the north, Hannequin of Brussels, who designed bashed exercise in aristocratic ostentation.
cizing style from Italy, and an Islamic style from one of the earliest examples of flamboyant trac- Flanking the altarpiece (which was executed,
the Muslim (mudejar) and morisco (Muslim ery in Spain in the spaces above the cornice. 4 after the constable's death, between 1522 and
converts to Catholicism) populations of the The present tombs, the originals of which were 1532) are the coats of arms of husband and wife,
Iberian Peninsula. Often coexisting in the same destroyed in the uprising of 1440, were not repeated twice on a mammoth scale to remove
monuments, these stylistic traditions were util- completed until 1489. By its sheer size and rich every doubt about the identity and importance
ized in the creation of complex, idiosyncratic ornamentation the Luna chapel established the of those interred within the marble tombs at the
works of art. criteria for new-rich opulence and, as such, was foot of the altarpiece. Outsize family escutch-
The late Gothic style characterizes the bound to inspire competition. eons are also displayed on the exterior of the
patronage of Isabella, although it was by no The undoubted winners in the race for chapel. The Velasco, like certain egocentric
means unique to her. In fact, Isabella's patron- earthly glory were Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, American billionaires of the 19805, spared no
age might be called "adoptive/ in the sense that who bore the title of constable of Castile, and expense in trumpeting their wealth and position
she appropriated a fully developed model and his wife, Mencia de Mendoza. Around 1482 the of power over lesser mortals.
applied it to her own ends. During the fifteenth constables took possession of a chapel in the Rich chapels required rich furnishings, and
century the crown of Castile had rested upon Burgos cathedral and commenced the construc- here again the constables were equal to the
the indecisive heads of the Trastamara dynasty, tion of a sizable edifice known as the Capilla del occasion. They acquired numerous devotional

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 41