Page 54 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Provincial in Burgos. The quality of the carving design created in 1494; the work was finished doorway of the "Salon de las Marquesese" in
is as fine as that of the Infante Don Alfonso; the in 1504 and is thought to be by the Florentine the castle is decorated with marble reliefs made
youth's face is idealized, and his garments are sculptor Andrea Sansovino. The tomb's formal in Genoa in 1509. The Mendoza family were
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sumptuously embroidered. inspiration is a Roman triumphal arch. Other also the patrons of the Hospital of Santa Cruz
Palencia, Valladolid, and Leon also developed tombs were carved in Italy and then shipped to in Toledo; the tympanum over its main door-
sculptural workshops, but none comparable to Spain, like those commissioned in 1520 by Don way contains a relief showing the Cardinal
those in Burgos and Toledo. When an impor- Pedro Enriquez and his wife Catalina de Rivera kneeling before Santa Elena.
tant work was required, patrons in Valladolid from Antonio Maria Aprile and Pace Gaggini, In Burgos Diego de Siloe, son of Gil, and
did not hesitate to invite artists from the more now in the University church in Seville. Other Bartolome Ordonez, both trained in Naples,
important centers. This was the case with Juan examples are the tomb of Don Francisco Ruiz, worked in the Renaissance style. Diego returned
Guas' work at the chapel of San Gregorio and bishop of Avila, in the church of San Juan de la to Burgos in 1519, where he was commissioned
with Simon de Colonial work on the facade of Penitencia in Toledo, commissioned in 1524 to execute the tomb of Bishop Don Juan de
the monastery of San Pablo. from Giovanni Antonio Aprile and Pier Angeli Acuna in Burgos Cathedral. It was modeled
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In 1505 the cathedral chapter of Palencia della Scala, and the tomb of Ramon de Cardona, after the tomb of Pope Sixtus IV in the Vatican
commissioned Alejo de Vahia to carve statues of viceroy of Naples, executed by Giovanni Merliano by Antonio Pollaiuolo. Diego also added several
Mary Magdalene and of Saint John the Baptist for da Nola in Naples in 1524 and then shipped to statues to the altar of Santa Ana in the Capilla
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the high altar. The document refers to him as the church of Bellpuig (Lerida), which like del Condestable, including the splendid Lamen-
"Alejo de Vahia, imaginero, vecino de Becerril." Cardinal Mendoza's tomb follows the form of a tation displayed in this exhibition (cat. 49).
The Gothic statue of Mary Magdalene is still in Roman triumphal arch. Various tombs executed A key figure in the development of Renais-
place on the altar, and Alejo's manner is dis- by Domenico Fancelli of Florence are discussed sance style in Castile was Alonso Berruguete,
cernable in many other figures in the cathedral, by Jonathan Brown in his essay in this catalogue. son of the painter Pedro Berruguete (see cat. 46).
suggesting that he had set up his own shop. His In Burgos the starting point of the Renais- Alonso was born in Paredes de Nava around
style is archaic, belonging to the final stage of sance style was marked by the arrival of the 1488 and trained in Italy. Vasari tells us that
Gothic art. Alonso de Portillo was a tomb sculp- French sculptor Felipe Bigamy, who came from around 1510 Bramante ordered Jacopo Sansovino
tor who worked in the Flemish style, signing Langres in Champagne. His Spanish name ap- to model in wax the classical sculptural group of
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his works "Portillo me fecit/' Valladolid also pears to be an adaptation of his French surname, Laocoon, which "Alanso Berugetta Spagnuolo"
had a local workshop, which produced the wooden Bigarne, 30 and he may well have been born in and other sculptors were also modeling. 34
doors of the Collegiate church that are displayed Marmagne. His training appears to have taken Berruguete brought back with him to Spain the
in the exhibition (cat. 41), richly ornamented place in Dijon, and his Renaissance style could influence of such classical masterpieces as the
with branches twined around scrolls and the well have been formed in France, which was Laocoon, as well as that of Renaissance masters
figures of wild men. The Master of San Pablo already deeply influenced by the Italian man- like Ghiberti, Donatello, and Michelangelo. In
de la Moraleja, author of the Lamentation ner; it certainly does not require us to hypothe- 1523 he was commissioned to execute the
(cat. 49) was also a sculptor of distinction of this size an actual trip to Italy. Bigamy was in altarpiece of the Monastery of La Mejorada,
period. Burgos by 17 July 1498, as is indicated by the now in the Museo Nacional de Escultura in
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Another important category of Gothic carv- document in which he agrees to execute reliefs Valladolid. On 8 November 1526 he received
ings consists of choir stalls. Exotic figures of the "trasaltar" in Burgos Cathedral: "Tomo the commission to carve the altar of the church
appear amid the vegetal ornamentation of the asiento Felipe Bigamy, Borguinon, diocesis of the monastery of San Benito of Valladolid. 36
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stalls in Santa Maria de Duerias. The choir Lingonen." He had been recommended by It is also preserved in the Museo Nacional de
stalls of the cathedrals of Zamora, Leon, and Simon de Colonia, who thereby, as the scholar Escultura and is his most famous work; the
Oviedo are the work of Flemish carvers. We Proske put it, "signed the death warrant for his impressive Sacrifice of Isaac in this exhibition
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know that Zamora Cathedral commissioned its own kind of art." Bigamy's work shows clear (cat. 51) forms a part of this masterpiece. In the
stalls from Juan "de Bruselas (Brussels)/' who Renaissance elements, like the city gate that altarpiece architecture, sculpture, and painting
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lived in Leon. Juan de Malinas, another Flemish appears in the relief of Christ bearing the Cross, form a unified ensemble, and all are the work of
sculptor, was the author of the stalls of Leon designed in quattrocento-style perspective. His Alonso Berruguete.
cathedral between 1476 and 1481 and afterward work quickly won acceptance not only in Burgos, The years around 1492, then, marked the
carved the stalls at Oviedo Cathedral. but also in Toledo, in Salamanca, where in 1503 conclusion of one important stylistic phase in
he was requested to execute an altarpiece for the history of Spanish sculpture and the suc-
the chapel at the University, and in Palencia, cessful launching of another. In both phases
X * * * * * *
where the cathedral chapter in 1505 asked him artists of the most diverse national origins —
The introduction of the early Renaissance into to execute the sculpture for the high altar. This the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France,
Spain was brought about by the actual import marked the end of Alejo de Vahia's style of in addition to Spain — made important contri-
of Italian sculpture, by works executed in Spain sculpture. 33 butions to a cultural heritage that was to be-
by Italian and French sculptors, and by those The Mendoza family were especially noted come uniquely Spain's own.
created by Spanish sculptors trained in Italy. patrons of the Renaissance style; the facades of
Tombs were an especially important category their family palaces were richly ornamented
of patronage; symbols of eternity and of earth- with Italianate forms and subjects, among them
ly fame, they were usually commissioned by the Palace of Santa Cruz in Valladolid and the
forward-looking patrons. Thus Cardinal Men- Castle of La Calahorra (Granada), whose sculp-
doza had his Renaissance-style tomb erected in ture was designed by Michele Carlone for Rodrigo
the presbytery of Toledo Cathedral, following a de Vivas y Mendoza, marquis of Zenete. The

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 53