It may be well at this point, and before turning to new influences which were again to alter the tendencies of the native work, to consider briefly the technique of polychrome statuary.
The altar-screens, as we have seen, were the special activity of the period. M. Marcel Dieulafoy gives an excellent and concise account of the manner in which these important works were carried out by different sets of workmen, for it was rarely that all the processes necessary to the completion of a polychrome were undertaken by one artist. First and most important there was the tracer, afterwards called the assembler, the chief artist, who furnished the design both for the whole work and its ornaments of statuary and bas-reliefs, and also superintended its execution. To him the sculptors, ornamenters, master-masons, and master-carpenters were subordinate, but the painters, damaskers, and gilders were free from his control. Thus writes M. Marcel Dieulafoy: “The intervention of four successive brotherhoods of artists was required—1. Tracers, who later became known as Architectural Assemblers; 2. Imagers, who were the sculptors and carvers; 3. the Eucaruadores, the body-painters who coloured the flesh of the figures; 4. the Estofadores and Doradores, who were respectively the stuff-painters and the gilders.” Just as the tracer had ascendency over and directed the work of the imagers—the sculptors and carvers—so the Eucaruadore, or flesh-artist, was the head of the polychrome workers, and directed the colourers of the stuff-painters and the gilders. His position was one of supreme importance, which is proved by the fact that it was not unusual for him to receive for his work as much as half of the entire sum paid. This is an interesting proof of the high esteem in which the art of polychrome was held. The Estofadores had not the same importance; their work was to paint the stuffs of the garments, generally on a background of gold, and also foliage and arabesques. The Doradores or gilders were their collaborators, and their special work, besides the gilding of the background, was to paint in “full-gilt” armour, &c., and to enrich with jewels; to their share also fell the art of damasking.
Almost all the great painters of Spain were polychromists, and we find them collaborating with the sculptors. This custom continued far beyond the period we have been considering. Zurbaran, Murillo, Valdés Leal, and Pacheco coloured the statues of Gaspar Delgado and Montañés. Pacheco, the great historian, who was also a painter, especially extols the art of polychrome in several illuminating passages in his Arte de la Pintura. In one place he writes:—
“May it please God in His mercy to exile from the world the vulgar enamellers, and in the supreme cause of truth, harmony, and enlightenment to establish for flesh-painting the use of the ‘mat’ colouring” (this ‘mat’ or dull colouring superseded the burnished or polished colouring), “which approaches nearer to Nature, lends itself to numerous retouches, and so permits the production of that delicacy which to-day we so much admire. It is true that the moderns—by whom I mean those between the ancient painters and ourselves—began to employ this style, as we may gather from their treatises on sculpture and from what we see on the old altar-screens, but the merit of having revived the art in Spain, and of giving, thanks to it, a better light and more of life to good sculpture, I dare to say belongs in truth to me. At the least I am the only one in Seville who since the year 1600 preached and practised it. It is well to know that on the 17th of January in that year I painted in ‘mat’ the Christ, executed by the goldsmith Juan Bautista Franconio, after the model of the ‘four nails’ Crucifixion of Michael Angelo, which he brought from Rome. Since then all artists have imitated me. It would take too long to enumerate the remarkable works of Gaspar Nuñez Delgado and Martinez Montañés which this city possesses, and in which I have collaborated; but it would be unpardonable if I did not specify some of them, as they are among the best of the number which have proved the superiority of this invention.”
He then gives a list of polychromes which he has coloured, works which we shall notice in a later chapter. Afterwards he continues:—
“Whence have they acquired the audacity, those who claim that painting on flat surfaces dominates the arts, and that if they had to paint the flesh of a statue they could do it better with their feet than the specialists with their hands? They are very much mistaken in that, for if they tried they would bring no grace, nor lightness, nor freshness to the work. In the same way that when one imitates Nature in a well-designed head, one renders the colour, the delicacy of the eyes, of the mouth, the brilliancy and effect of the hair, so even on good sculpture can admiration be exacted, as has been proved by the enthusiasm of those who have seen the works which I have painted in ‘mat.’ The fact is so public that I need not insist on it.”
Pacheco, in another passage of equal illumination, also speaks of the beauty of the art of damasking, giving a careful and full account of the process:—
“Marvellous was the invention made by the old painters for the ornamentation of figures in relief and the architecture of altar-screens by gilding in burnished gold and damasking them. The colours must be the same, and chosen with the same care as those designed for illumination. They must be ground and prepared in water with the same limpidity, but in lieu of gum paste one should use the yolks of fresh eggs diluted in equal volume of water, fresh and clear, beaten to a froth. This paste must be mixed with the colours for damasking the burnished gold, taking care to size with white lead all the parts to be painted, be it either of grotesque figures or of vestments, of which the gold should serve as a background for divers colours. It is always well to know that blue does not require so strong a paste as carmine, vermilion, ochre, and other colours of little body, and that if the paste be more than a day old it is necessary to add with the egg a few drops of vinegar to prevent spoiling.”
These significant passages may well end this chapter. It must be accepted that polychrome was an art highly esteemed, that colouring of statuary, and especially of the great altar-screens, was carried out with extreme care, and was regarded as work not beneath the dignity of the greatest artists. In Spain the sculptor and the painter were as one.