Page 47 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Mendoza, first marquis of Santillana (1398- Croce and archbishop of Toledo (1428-1495). 25 and successfully completed his mission. Ten-
1458), is renowned as one of the important Although the youngest of the ten children of dilla returned for good to Spain once his work
Spanish poets. He initiated a family literary the marquis and marchioness of Santillana, Car- was done, but managed to keep informed about
tradition that reached its pinnacle in Garcilaso dinal Mendoza became the head of the family artistic developments in his beloved Italy.
de la Vega (1501-1536), the first important and with true dynastic instinct provided money Tendilla's sponsorship of Renaissance style is
Italianate poet in Castile. and position for the numerous members of his associated with a group of funerary monuments
As patrons of the visual arts the Mendoza clan as well as for his three illegitimate sons. for his own and the royal family, which were
were even more conspicuous. Much of their Mendoza owed his fortune not so much to executed in Italy and assembled in Spain. The
patronage was centered in Guadalajara, where inheritance as to political acumen. At just the first of these is the tomb of Cardinal Mendoza,
they sponsored building projects that dominated right moment he threw his support to Ferdi- which was erected in the major chapel of the
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the city and its surrounding territory. Of these nand and Isabella and was rewarded with a Toledo cathedral in 15O3. The history of this
the most important is the Palacio del Infantado, series of dignities, culminating with the arch- monument, much but not all of which was made
built for Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, the second bishopric of Toledo, the richest see in Spain. in Italy, is beset with problems that becloud
duke of Infantado (d. 1500). Part of the wealth derived by Cardinal Men- the identity of both the sculptor and patron,
In its original state the Palacio del Infantado doza from ecclesiastical rents was spent on art. although the latter in all probability was either
was a building of unstinting magnificence. 23 He appears to have been a voracious collector, Tendilla or the cardinal's son Rodrigo, marquis
(The structure was extensively remodeled in the although only the inventory of his precious del Cenete (c. 1466-1523).
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later sixteenth century, and then gradually fell objects has come to light. The line between art A second Mendoza tomb clarifies the pattern
into disrepair. It was seriously damaged in the and investment was almost entirely eradicated of Tendilla's patronage. Diego Hurtado de Men-
Spanish Civil War and has since been recon- in this part of the cardinal's collection. The doza, the cardinal of Seville who died in 1502,
structed.) With a prodigality accessible only to inventory lists some 3,844 coins and medals, had nominated Tendilla, his brother, to provide
the very rich, the duke decided to demolish the sixty-one cameos, and precious stones almost a suitable funerary monument in the cathedral.
existing palace and build anew. A lapidary beyond measure. At his death he owned more For this purpose the count contracted with the
inscription in the courtyard explains his pur- than nine thousand pearls, not to mention Tuscan sculptor Domenico di Alessandro Fan-
pose. "The illustrious Senor don Inigo Lopez de impressive quantities of gems and gold- and celli (1469-1519) to carve the tomb of Carrara
Mendoza [his several titles follow] in 1483, silversmith's work. marble in Italy and then send it to Spain where
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having [inherited] a sumptuous house, built at His sponsorship of architecture is more diffi- he assembled it. This was soon to become
great expense by his ancestors, destroyed it cult to assess, although much has been claimed established procedure. It explains how a first-
entirely, and to increase the glory of his fore- for it. Cardinal Mendoza had a superficial class work of Italian sculpture came to be situ-
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bears and of himself, ordered a new one built to knowledge of central Italian architecture, prob- ated in the cavernous Gothic setting of the
honor the greatness of his line/' The palace was ably obtained from his nephew, the second Seville cathedral.
completed thirteen years later. count of Tendilla. As his architect the cardinal Presumably with Tendilla's backing Fancelli
Infantado was unencumbered by modesty, employed Lorenzo Vazquez, who was versed in obtained a new and even more prestigious com-
and in his palace he left no stone undecorated. the ornamental vocabulary of the new classicism mission, the tomb of Prince Juan, the only son
The architect was Juan Guas, who designed the but almost completely ignorant of its syntax. of Ferdinand and Isabella, who had died sud-
facade in the manner of a conventional late The only important remains of their collabora- denly in 1497 just months after his marriage to
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Gothic townhouse, but turned the courtyard tion, the central panel of the facade of the Co- Margaret of Austria. In July 1511 the sculptor
into a decorative fantasy emblazoned with the legio de Santa Cruz, Valladolid (1486-1492), was in Granada for consultations with Tendilla,
escutcheons of the duke and his wife, Maria de was altered in the eighteenth century and in after which he returned to Italy to carve the
Luna. Richer still were the principal rooms, any case was superimposed on an existing tomb. The work was finished by December 1512
adorned with carvings and crowned by intricate Gothic structure. The entrance portal affords a and was shipped to Avila for installation by the
gilt ceilings in the Moorish style (artesonado). good idea of how Vazquez spoke the language of sculptor in Santo Tomas the following year.
As the construction documents show, numer- the Renaissance with a thick Gothic accent. Car- Prince Juan's tomb is a horizontal monument
ous artisans of Muslim origin participated in dinal Mendoza, then, is at best a transitional executed in Carrara marble and modeled on the
the decoration, executing ceramic tilework, figure in the introduction of the Italian Renais- bronze tomb of Pope Sixtus iv, which had been
fountains, and decorative carvings. The exotic sance to Spain. executed by Antonio Pollaiuolo for the basilica
blend of Hispano-Flemish Gothic and Islamic The true protagonist of this momentous story of Saint Peter's in Rome.
elements was in fact a commonplace in Castilian is the aforementioned second count of Tendilla The procedure was repeated a third and final
architecture. Christian patrons were under- (1442-1515) who, as if to confound historians, time for the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella,
standably impressed by the inventive designs was one of at least a dozen members of the fam- which were commissioned in 1513. Fancelli
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and superb craftsmanship of Islamic archi- ily to be called Inigo Lopez de Mendoza. Even returned to Carrara and worked on the tombs
tecture, which were perfectly suited to enhance to his contemporaries Tendilla was the perfect until the spring of 1517. He then packed up his
the intricate surface effects considered indis- gentleman—wise, witty, brave, and cultured. In sculptures and sent them along to the Royal
pensable to the expression of magnificence. 1458 he accompanied his father to Rome on an Chapel, Granada, supervising their placement
This architecture of ostentation reached new embassy to Pope Pius n, and the experience left in the summer of 1518. The indefatigable
heights in the Infantado Palace. him a devoted admirer of Italian art and culture. sculptor was given yet another set of tombs
Infantado, in this display of visual magnifi- He returned to Italy in 1486 as an emissary of to execute —those of Philip the Fair and Joanna
cence in the service of the glory of the Men- Ferdinand to Pope Innocent vm, stopping first the Mad—but the hardships of his career as a
doza, seems to have been rivaled by his brother, in Florence where he initiated a friendship with commuter-sculptor finally took their toll. He
Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, cardinal of Santa Lorenzo de' Medici. Then he traveled to Rome died in Zaragoza in 1519, en route to his native

46 CIRCA 1492