lived and laboured Juni and Hernández. Nevertheless, although so popular
in every part of Spain, it had a short-lived prime, originating in the
two Castiles towards the reign of Philip the Second, declining steadily
(with Seville for its centre now) all through the seventeenth century,
and flickering out, despite the perseverance and the genius of the
Murcian Susillo, in the century succeeding.
In decorative _sillerías_ or sets of choir-stalls, Spain has produced
examples worthy to be set beside the masterpiece of Vitry in the abbey
of Sainte-Claude, the best productions of Dürer and his followers in
Germany, or those of Donatello, Brunelleschi, Valdambrino, Vechietta,
and Verrochio in Italy. Nevertheless, her most distinguished
_sillería_-makers were at almost every moment inspired and directed by
the foreigner. Germans or Flemings were her first preceptors in this
craft. These artists had been sent for, or proceeded of their own
accord, to Spain, and settling in this country rapidly spread the
technics of their art among the Spaniards. In the Peninsula the origin
of this school or movement may be traced to Burgos. Here, just as the
fifteenth century was drawing to its close, and just before the breath
of the Renaissance crossed the Spanish frontier at its eastern side, was
gathered a small though influential group of eminent workers in more
crafts than one; painters and sculptors, architects, embroiderers,
carvers of wood, _reja_-makers, and painters of cathedral glass.
Prominent among them all was a foreigner named Philip Vigarny,[50] who
is described by Diego de Sagrado as "singular above all others in the
art of making statuary and sculpture; a man of vast experience, general
in his mastery of the liberal and mechanic arts, and no less resolute in
all that is related with the sciences of architecture."
[50] In Spanish he is called Felipe de Borgoña, but Martí y Monsó says
that the proper spelling of the surname is Biguerny.
[Illustration: XXX
DETAIL OF CHOIR-STALLS
(_Convent of San Marcos, León_)]
Burgundy is said to have been the birthplace of Felipe de Borgoña, but
of his early history we have no tidings. In documents which bear his
signature he styles himself "_imaginario_, resident at Burgos." Three
such documents exist. On August 1st, 1505, he agrees, for 130,000
_maravedis_, to make "such images as may be necessary" for the altar of
the high chapel of Palencia cathedral, "he with his own hand to carve
the hands and faces, out of good smooth walnut, without painting." This
document is dated from Palencia. The other two are dated severally,
Burgos, December 6th, 1506, and Corcos, September 6th, without the
addition of the year.[51] We also know this craftsman to have made the
great _retablo_ of Burgos cathedral. Such, from the fragmentary
semblance we can trace of him, was Philip Vigarny, the pioneer of the
wood-carvers of older Spain, and who, aided by other craftsmen from
abroad, communicated all the secrets of his art to Spaniards such as Gil
de Siloe, Ruy Sanchez, Diego de la Cruz, Alonso de Lima, and Berruguete.
[51] Zarco del Valle, _Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de las
Bellas Artes en España_, pp. 161, 162.
The typical _sillería_ consists of two tiers; the _sellia_ or upper
seats, with high backs and a canopy, intended for the canons, and the
lower seats or _subsellia_, of simpler pattern and with lower backs,
intended for the _beneficiados_. At the head of all is placed the
presidential throne, larger than the other stalls, and covered, in many
cases, by a canopy surmounted by a tall spire. When the _sillería_
belongs to a monastery, the higher stalls are for the _profesos_, and
the lower for the novices and _legos_. Commonly the part that forms the
actual seat is hinged and rises to a vertical position, being so
contrived that when the occupant rises to his feet, there remains a
narrow ledge projecting from the under surface. This ledge is called the
"seat of pity" or "of patience," because the worshipper is able to
incline himself on it and give his limbs some measure of repose without
appearing to be seated. There also is commonly another piece, intended
for him to rest his hands upon in rising, which projects from the sides
of the stall and forms a part of the decorative carving, as well as,
somewhat higher still, the carved support to rest his arms while he is
on his feet.
[Illustration: XXXI
"SAMSON"
(_Carved Choir-stall of León Cathedral_)]
The earliest Spanish _sillerías_ date from the fourteenth century; but
it is not until the century succeeding that we find them at their very
best. Gothic or Plateresco _sillerías_ of marvellous design and
workmanship are those of the Seo of Zaragoza (begun in 1412), the
Cartuja de Miraflores of Burgos (1489), the monastery of Oña, Santa
María de Nájera (1495), the church of Santa María del Campo, in the
province of Burgos, Santo Tomás of Avila (finished in 1493), and the
cathedrals of Oviedo, Segovia (1461-1497), Ciudad Rodrigo, Tarragona
(1478), Tarazona, Toledo (begun in 1494), Zamora, Astorga, Barcelona
(1453-1483), and Seville (finished in 1478).
The Gothic choir-stalls of the Seo of Zaragoza have lofty backs with
arabesque Mudejar ornamentation, small Gothic columns, and medallions
containing figures upon the arms of every stall. The material is Flemish
oak. The carving was begun in 1412 by the Moors Alí Arrondi, Muza, and
Chamar, who earned a daily wage of four _sueldos_. In 1446 Juan Navarro
and the brothers Antonio and Francisco Gomar were working at the same
stalls, and also, in 1449, Francoy.
The stalls of the Cartuja de Miraflores at Burgos were carved by Martin
Sánchez, who received in 1486, and for the _mano de obra_ alone, the sum
of 125,000 _maravedis_. The material, which was presented by Luis de
Velasco, Señor of Belorado, is dark walnut.
The _sillería_ of Santa María de Nájera, the work of Maestro Andrés and
Maestro Nicolás, is Gothic merging into the Renaissance. That of Santo
Tomás of Avila (late Gothic) consists of sixty oaken stalls, besides two
larger ones resembling thrones (Plate xxiv.), intended to be occupied by
Ferdinand and Isabella, founders of this monastery, and whose arms they
bear in lace-like carving. The rest of the decoration is composed of
thistles, vines, trefoils, and pomegranates. Owing to the fact that not
a single cross appears on any part of the _sillería_ (although this
circumstance is not unusual in sacred Gothic woodwork), there is a
superstition that these stalls were wrought anonymously by some Jew,
condemned to execute them by the Inquisition as a form of punishment.
This fable has no value. Although the author's name is not upon the
stalls, they are identical in nearly every detail with those of the
Cartuja de Miraflores at Burgos, known to have been carved by Martin
Sánchez in 1486. Hence it is extremely probable that this craftsman was
the author of both _sillerías_.
[Illustration: XXXII
"ESAU"
(_Carved Choir-stall of León Cathedral_)]
On many Spanish _sillerías_ we find most spirited reproductions of the
life and manners of their time; satirical allusions to contemporary
vices, allegories and caprices as fantastic, in the phrase of Vargas
Ponce, as "one of Bosch's nightmares," hunting-scenes or love-scenes,
banquets, tournaments, dances, battles, sieges, and even bull-fights.
Thus, on the stalls of the cathedrals of Zamora, Oviedo, Plasencia,
Astorga, and León are carved such subjects as the following. A fox
dressed as a friar, preaching to a group of hens but slyly abstracting
their chicks (Zamora), men fighting with their fists (Zamora), a hog
playing the bagpipes (León), the Devil in the garb of a confessor,
tempting a penitent (León), a woman suckling an ass (León), a man armed
with a lance, fighting a woman (Astorga), a bird of prey struggling with
a crocodile (Astorga), card-players (Astorga), a warrior on all-fours,
whipped by a woman (Plasencia), an _auto-de-fé_ (Plasencia), swine
praying and spinning (Ciudad Rodrigo), a fight between a tiger and a
bull (Ciudad Rodrigo), a monkey beating a drum (Ciudad Rodrigo), and a
monkey wearing a mitre (Ciudad Rodrigo).
The style of the lower stalls of Toledo cathedral is good Plateresque.
They were begun in 1494 by Maese Rodrigo, one of the very best of
Spain's _entalladores_, and portray, in each successive stall, the
phases of the last campaign against Granada (Plate xxv.); the sieges or
battles of Altora, Melis, Xornas, Erefran, Alminia, Baza, Málaga (two
stalls), Salobreña, Almuñecar, Comares, Beles, Montefrío, Moclín,
Illora, Loja, Cazarabonela, Coyn, Cartama, Marbella, Ronda, Setenil,
Alora, Alhama, Nixar, Padux, Vera, Huéscar, Guadix, Purchena, Almería,
Rión, Castil de Ferro, Cambril, Zagani, Castul, Gor, Canzoria, Moxacar,
Vélez el Blanco, Gurarca, Vélez el Rubio, Soreo, and Cabrera.
The upper tier of the same stalls belongs to a later period, and will,
in consequence, be noticed subsequently.
The _sillería_ of Barcelona cathedral was begun in the middle of the
fifteenth century by Matias Bonafé, at the same time that the German
Michael Locher and his pupil John Frederic worked at the canopies. It
was finished thirty years later. Upon the back (which otherwise is
plain) of every stall is a coat of arms distinct from all its
neighbours, marking the seat of one of the princes or nobles summoned by
Charles the Fifth to the Chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece,
March 5th, 1519.[52]
[Illustration: XXXIII
_RETABLO_
(_Seville Cathedral_)]
The splendid _sillería_ of Seville cathedral is a mingling of the Gothic
with the Mudejar and Plateresque. The material is oak and fir, and the
number of the seats one hundred and seventeen. The _sellia_ are
surmounted by a graceful running _guardapolvo_. Each seat is carved
distinctly from the rest, and further decorated in the Mudejar style
with inlaid woods of various kinds and colours, imitating stone mosaic.
Among this labyrinth of design are groups of people, angels, animals,
and scenes from Scripture, as well as, on the lower stalls, the Giralda
tower, which forms the arms of the cathedral. The _sillería_ is further
embellished with two hundred and sixteen statuettes, seventy-two of
which are ranged along the canopy or _dosel_, the remainder being
distributed between the seats.
[52] "The stalls of the choir are neatly carved, and hung with
escutcheons of princes and noblemen, among which I remarked the
arms of our Henry the Eighth."--Swinburne.
The authors of this splendid work of art (judiciously restored some
years ago by Boutelou, Fernandez, and Mattoni) were Nufio Sanchez,
Dancart, and several other craftsmen, concerning whom we know but very
little. Sánchez' name is carved upon the second stall of the upper row,
and on the side of the Evangelist, as follows:--
[Illustration]
The above inscription states that "this choir was made by Nufio Sanchez,
_entallador_ (God guard him[53]), and finished in the year one thousand
four hundred and seventy-eight."
[53] This kind of parenthetical remark or prayer is one of the many
Muslim phrases that have passed into the regular service of the
Spanish Christian.
With the dawn of the sixteenth century, the Gothic style runs rapidly
into that of the Renaissance. At about this time, and as Baron Davillier
pointed out, we sometimes find a triple influence, namely, the
Burgundian, the Italian, and the native Spanish. Vigarny may be called
the champion of the first of these, Berruguete (who studied in Italy)
of the second, and Guillermo Doncel of the third. After this the purer
Renaissance gives place to the decadent, as in the stalls of Santiago,
Málaga, Cordova, and Salamanca.
[Illustration: XXXIV
_RETABLO_ OF SEVILLE CATHEDRAL
(_Detail of Carving_)]
Sixteenth-century _sillerías_ of note are those of Burgos cathedral
(Plate xxvi.), carved by Vigarny, Avila cathedral, the Pilar of
Zaragoza, the Minor Friars of the Cartuja of Burgos, Pamplona cathedral,
San Marcos of León, Huesca, the _alta sillería_ of Toledo, and the
walnut stalls--carved in 1526 by Bartolomé Fernandez de Segovia, and now
in the Madrid Museum--of the Parral of Segovia.
The _sillería_ of Avila cathedral is believed to have been begun in 1527
by Juan Rodrigo, although the greater part of it was probably executed
between 1536 and 1547 by Cornelis de Holanda, who took for his model the
stalls of San Benito of Valladolid. The cost of the walnut wood and of
its workmanship amounted to 33,669 _reales_.
The upper stalls of Toledo cathedral were carved by Vigarny and Alonso
Berruguete in collaboration, so that we find in them the northern and
Italian styles effectively and interestingly united. The
Plateresque-Renaissance _sillería_, described as "genuinely Spanish," of
the old convent of San Marcos of León, containing statuettes of biblical
personages and of fathers of the Church--Saint Isidore among them,--was
finished in 1542 by Guillermo Doncel, who added the inscription
"_Magister Guillermus Doncel me fecit MDXLII_" (Plate xxvii.). We know,
however, nothing more about this excellent Spanish artist, except that
(on the unsupported testimony of Cean) he worked at the façade of this
convent between the years 1537 and 1544.
The intricate _sillería_ of the Pilar of Zaragoza, containing almost
every kind of subject--beasts, birds and fishes, allegories, incidents
of the chase, or scenes of popular life--was designed by Esteban de
Obray, a Navarrese, and executed by him and his assistants, Juan Moreto
Florentino and Nicolas de Lobato, between 1542 and 1548. That of the
Minor Friars of the Cartuja of Burgos was carved at a cost of eight
hundred and ten ducats by Simón de Bueras, in 1558. That of Pamplona
cathedral dates from about the middle of the century, and is the work of
one Ancheta, who had visited Italy and gathered inspiration from the
masterpieces of Siena. The material is English oak. The stalls of
Huesca, carved from oak proceeding from an older _sillería_ which had
been removed, were begun in 1587 and finished in 1594. The craftsmen
were Nicolás de Verástegui and Juan Verrueta de Sangüesa.
[Illustration: XXXV
DETAIL OF _RETABLO_
(_Late 15th century. Museum of Valladolid_)]
Seventeenth-century _sillerías_ are those of Santiago, carved by Juan de
Vila in 1603; Salamanca, in 1651, by Alfonso Balbás; Orihuela, in 1692,
by Juan Bautista Borja; and Segorbe, carved in the same year by Nicolás
Camarón; while dating from the eighteenth century--a period of manifest
decadence in this beautiful but short-lived craft--are the stalls of
Lerida, by Luis Bonifar y Masó (born in 1730), and Cordova, executed
between 1748 and 1757, at a cost of 913,889 _reales_, by Pedro Ciriaco
Duque y Cornejo, a son of Seville and a pupil of the Sevillano Roldan.
The least imperfect of these later and decadent _sillerías_ is that of
Málaga, whose author, Pedro de Mena, was, like his master, Alonso Cano,
a native of Granada.
Mena's contract with two canons of the cathedral, nominated by the
bishop to prepare and sign the stipulations, will be found in No. 134 of
the _Boletín de la Sociedad de Excursiones_.
The stalls of Málaga number a hundred and one, carved in walnut, larch,
cedar, and the heavy Indian wood called _granadillo_. As happens with
many of the _sillerías_ of this country, the costumes of the figures are
of great historical value. Among the saints is San Roque, in pilgrim's
garb, attended by the dog who brought him day by day a loaf of bread
while men refused to succour him.
No less magnificent than these sets of choir-stalls are the carved
_retablos_ or altar-screens,[54] a gradual excrescence from the
primitive and unpretentious altar of the early days of Christianity.
Several kinds of craftsmen worked upon these altar-screens, such as
_tallistas_, _entalladores_, _imagineros_, and even architects.
[54] Wood is the usual material for these altar-screens, though
sometimes marble was employed, or stone, or silver. Of Genoese
marble is the _retablo_ (end of the fourteenth or beginning of the
fifteenth century) of the Cartuja del Paular in the Lozoya valley;
of stone, those of the parish church of San Nicolás at Burgos (end
of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century), and of the
"chapel of the tailors" in Tarragona Cathedral; while a silver
_retablo_, in the Renaissance style, was that of the church, now
demolished, of Santa María at Madrid.
The Golden Age of the _retablo_ embraces the end of the fifteenth
century and the whole of the sixteenth. Notable examples belonging to
this period are the screens of the monastery of Santo Tomás at Avila,
San Martin of Segovia, the Cartuja de Miraflores, the Colegiata of
Covarrubias in the province of Burgos, the cathedrals of Avila, Toledo,
Tudela, and Tarazona; several in the churches of Toledo, two in the
church of San Lesmes (Burgos), two in Burgos Cathedral (Plate xxxvi.),
and three, including those of _Reyes_ and of _Buena Mariana_, in the
church of San Gil in the same city. Not one of these, however, has the
grandeur or variety of the altar-screen of Seville (Plates xxxiii. and
xxxiv.), which is carefully described in Cean's monograph. "The style is
Gothic; the material, undecaying larch; and the screen, which reaches
nearly to the vaulting, is the largest in the country, although at first
it spanned the presbytery only, not including either side. It was
designed in 1482 by Dancat or Danchart, who began work upon it as soon
as his sketches were approved, and worked at it till 1492, in which year
he seems to have died.
[Illustration: XXXVI
DETAIL OF _RETABLO_
(_Chapel of Santa Ana, Burgos Cathedral_)]
"Dancat was succeeded by Master Marco and Bernardo de Ortega, whose
carving reached, by 1505, the canopy or _viga_, and who were followed in
their turn by Francisco, Bernardo's son, father and teacher of
Bernardino and Nufrio de Ortega, his assistants. Some of the statues
were carved by Micer Domingo. The rest of the _imaginería_ was finished
in 1526; and the gilding and painting were done by Alejo Fernández, his
brother, and Andrés de Covarrubias.
"So the screen remained till 1550, when the Chapter decided to extend
it, without altering the style of decoration, to the sides of the
presbytery. By this time Spanish sculpture had improved, and many of our
best-known sculptors lent their aid, of whom the earliest were Roque
Balduc, Pedro Becerril, el Castellano, Juan de Villalva, Diego Vazquez,
and Pedro Bernal. In 1553 the Chapter appointed, to inspect the work of
these artists, Juan Reclid and Luis de Aguilar, both of whom lived at
Jaen. Henceforth the master-craftsmen working at the screen were Pedro
de Heredia, Gomez de Orozco, Diego Vazquez the younger, Juan Lopez,
Andrés Lopez del Castillo, and his sons, Juan de Palencia, and Juan
Bautista Vazquez. By 1564 the screen was quite concluded.
"The Gothic work is of incomparable richness. Ten groups of tall and
narrow columns, resting upon two pedestals or socles, divide the
_retablo_ into nine spaces, crossed by horizontal bands of complicated
carving, forming a series of thirty-six niches, in four rows. Statues a
little less than life-size represent, in the first row, the creation and
fall of our first parents, and the mysteries of the infancy of Christ;
in the second, His preaching and miracles; in the third, His passion and
death; and in the fourth, His resurrection, appearance to the disciples,
and ascension; also the coming of the Holy Ghost. Upon the altar-table,
and resting in its niche, is the statue, covered with silver plates, of
Nuestra Señora de la Sede, presented to this temple by Saint Ferdinand.
Above the _viga_, which has an _artesonado_ ceiling, rises a
frontispiece containing thirteen canopied niches with statues of the
apostles, and in the centre niche that of the Virgin Mary. Crowning the
whole _retablo_ are statues larger than life-size, and a Calvary
standing in free space."[55]
[55] _Descripción de la Catedral de Sevilla_, pp. 27, 28.
Throughout these Spanish altar-screens the influence which predominates
is that of Germany. They are essentially distinguished by a Northern art
(Plates xxxv., xxxvi.), not sentimental but material, not tender but
robust, not (like the art of the Italians) retrospective or prospective,
but prosaic, realistic, actual. Curiously enough, their presence seems
incongruous in Spain, and yet they made themselves at home here; for
Spanish art was ever realistic, so probably on this account two widely
different nations found, at least in this particular craft, a common
bond of sympathy. Certainly the Renaissance, while it seemed to cherish
and encourage, really undermined and killed this branch of Spanish
wood-carving. A similar phenomenon attends the art of the Alhambra. In
either case the plenitude of power and of beauty is even more ephemeral
than the term of human life; and thus, deluded by so brilliant and
majestic a decay, we fail to apprehend, or seek to grow oblivious of,
the imminence of their ruin.
[Illustration]
IVORIES
The story of Spanish ivory-work is shortly told, for probably
no craft, excepting glass, has been so little practised in this country.
The older Spanish writers rarely mention it, although from time to time
this substance may have been employed for carving diptyches and boxes,
and Roderick is stated to have entered the battle of the Guadalete in an
ivory car, by which is meant, perhaps, a chariot of Byzantine make or
pattern, covered with ivory plates. However, properly speaking, the
history of this art as exercised in Spain begins in the eleventh
century, attains its prime towards the fourteenth century, and ceases
altogether at the time of the Renaissance.
Among the ivory objects now preserved in Spain, and which were wrought
by artists other than Mohammedan, none is more interesting or important
than the consular diptych of Oviedo cathedral. Although this valuable
diptych was not made in Spain, but manifests Byzantine art in all its
purity, it well deserves to be described. It consists of two ivory
tablets measuring sixteen inches and a half in height by twelve inches
and a half across both leaves. Each leaf has a simple border of a triple
form, and just inside each corner is a circular floral ornament in
relief, with a lion's head in the centre. Another ornament, also
circular, is in the centre of each leaf, and contains, carved within a
graceful S-shaped border, a half-length portrait of the Consul, who is
represented in the act of throwing down into the amphitheatre his
_mappa_ or handkerchief[56] with his right hand, while in his left he
holds the sceptre (_scipio imaginifer_), crowned with a small bust. His
hair is curled in the Byzantine fashion, and his costume is a richly
decorated toga.
[56] _I.e._ as a signal to begin the sport. The same usage (except that
the handkerchief is waved, and not thrown down) is followed at
this moment in the Spanish bull-ring.
An inscription runs along the top of either tablet, between the border
and the circular devices carved with flowers. It says:--
_Flavius Strategius Apion--Strategius Apion. Vir inlustris Comes
Devotissimorum Domesticorum et Consul ordinarius._
[Illustration: XXXVII
IVORY BOX
(_9th Century. Madrid Museum_)]
We gather, therefore, that this magnate was a chamberlain at court, as
well as ordinary consul.