Page 43 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

fig. 2. Capilla del Condestable. Burgos Cathedral fig. 3. Gil de Siloe, Tomb of Juan n and Isabella of Portugal. Cartuja de
Miraflores, Burgos

paintings, which were displayed in the sacristy, what was to become the characteristic Isabelline Colonia's severe design, a prerequisite of
and also donated dozens of liturgical vessels foundation, the funerary chapel, examples of churches built for the Carthusian order, makes
made of gold and silver and decorated with pre- which were built in the prevailing Gothic idiom an effective foil for the extravagant sculptural
cious stones. Most of these have vanished over by the same artists already employed on impor- ensemble in the major chapel, where Juan n and
the centuries, their high intrinsic value having tant projects for patrons in the nobility. Isabella of Portugal are buried in a freestanding
tempted impecunious institutions and unprin- The earliest of the queen's commissions was tomb that is complemented by the wall tomb
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cipled individuals. But while intact the chapel the church of the Carthusian monastery of of the queen's brother, Alfonso. These tombs,
constituted a brilliant display of the family's Miraflores, on the outskirts of Burgos. 6 Mira- completed in 1493 and carved in alabaster, are
power. flores was founded in 1442 by her father, who the work of Gil de Siloe, who also designed the
These late Gothic chapels were the principal had intended to be interred at the site, but he altarpiece, executed in polychromed wood and
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models available to Queen Isabella when she died before much work had been done. After finished in 1499. Like Simon de Colonia he was
began her career as a patron of the arts, and assuming the crown of Castile in 1474, Isabella employed by the Burgos cathedral and thus was
would determine her involvement with the arts at once turned her attention to Miraflores, on hand when Isabella required the services of a
of architecture and sculpture. The goals of royal undoubtedly with the idea of shoring up her sculptor for the monastery.
patronage were manifold. Isabella and Ferdi- claim to legitimacy as a monarch as well as hon- The tombs and the altarpiece are among the
nand needed to assert their hegemony over the oring the memory of her parents. Establishing masterpieces of late Gothic sculpture and con-
nobles, and of course they were equally con- what would become her usual pattern, she stitute a worthy reply to the Capilla del Conde-
cerned with displaying their zeal as defenders of sought out the leading local masters to complete stable. Gil de Siloe's aesthetic is akin to a
the Christian faith. They were also preoccupied the building and to provide the tombs and the medieval goldsmith's and depends on the accre-
with an issue that was especially charged during adjacent altarpiece. Thus Simon de Colonia tion of finely wrought details to produce the
this period —dynastic legitimacy and continu- became the architect in succession to his father sensation of overwhelming magnificence. Splen-
ity. A final desire was to signal the dominant and brought the building to completion in 1488, dor, achieved by intricate surface effects, is the
presence of the monarchy throughout the king- even while still engaged in finishing the Capilla byword of the Isabelline period, and here it is
dom. All these elements were conjoined in del Condestable in the cathedral. proclaimed loud and clear.

42 CIRCA 1492