Philip de Borgoña’s last work was the large retablo of the Capilla Real at Granada, with the statuettes of Ferdinand and Isabella kneeling. The reliefs, carved in wood in two sections, are of great historical interest (Plate 103). To the left is Boabdil surrendering the keys of the Alhambra, while that to the right represents the Baptism of the Moors by Spanish monks. Philip de Borgoña died in 1543.
The Italian Renaissance became more universal and more strongly marked in the works of the sculptors that followed. This was due to the influence of Michael Angelo, which in the sixteenth century, in Spain, attained a power elsewhere unknown outside of Italy. There was a special reason for this. The great Italian’s work appealed to the Spanish seriousness, to their strong dramatic instinct, and to the deeply emotional character which has always marked their art.
Alonso Berruguete, sculptor, painter, and architect, stands as the representative of this Michael-Angelesque influence, and his work is typical of the manner of his period, especially of the grotesque style which grew out of the Italian, and must be associated with his name. Berruguete was born at Paredes de Nava about the year 1480. He was the son of Pedro Berruguete, the king’s painter, from whom he received his first lessons in art. On his father’s death he went to Italy, where he at once became the pupil of Michael Angelo. Proof of his ability is given by the fact that the Italian master confided to him the copying of the celebrated Pisan cartoon which he had designed for the city. Later Berruguete accompanied Michael Angelo to Rome. He made such progress that Bramanti, following the advice of Raphael, chose him out of many competitors to make a copy of the Laocoön to be cast in bronze. He also completed a St. Jerome by Filippino Lippi.
This is all we know of Berruguete’s sojourn in Rome. In 1520 he returned to Spain, when Charles V. appointed him royal sculptor and painter. This position gave him great power. He worked for the emperor at Valladolid and Madrid, and all the great towns of Spain—Toledo, Zaragoza, Salamanca, Granada—competed for his services. In this way his influence was widespread, and all that he had learnt in Italy became known to the native artists. From Michael Angelo Berruguete acquired the power and vigour that distinguishes all his best work, but at the same time he retained his own personality and was faithful to national traditions. It was his Spanish temperament, with its tendency to over-emphasis, and not his imitation of Michael Angelo, which caused the violent attitudes and exaggerated gestures which characterise many of his works.
Among the numerous altar-screens which Berruguete carved, either entirely or in part, the most important was that of San Benito el Real at Valladolid, some fragments of which remain in the museum of the city. The choir-stalls of the monastery, also in the museum, which are often mistakenly attributed to Berruguete, were carved by Andres de Najera in 1520, a contemporary sculptor, too little known, if we may judge by the power and beauty of these choir-stalls (Plates 104-111). Carved in wood, they do not appear ever to have been painted. Najera has also left excellent carvings in the Cathedrals of Calahorra and of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
The contracts for the altar-screen of San Benito, signed in 1526, show that Berruguete undertook “to carve and finish with his own hands the heads and feet of the statues.” This gives special importance to these works, for the execution of many of Berruguete’s carvings was left to his pupils. The most beautiful of the figures is that of St. Sebastian (Plate 113). It is one of the finest possible examples of polychrome. The flesh-tints are subdued, the face somewhat warmer in colour than the body, with skilful touches of carmine on the lips, nostrils, ears, and eyelids. The eyebrows are light, the hair red-brown. Some drops of blood show upon the wounds. The general effect is powerful and true to life.
There are some fine bas-reliefs; among them we may mention the Sacrifice of Abraham and the Adoration of the Magi (Plate 113); the heads of the Virgin and the Child Christ in the second panel are splendid examples of Berruguete’s art. Two more panels show the Birth of Christ and the Flight into Egypt, and in these again Berruguete’s special personality makes strong appeal; and hardly less powerful are the panels, with gold backgrounds, of the two Evangelists, St. Mark and St. Matthew. All these bas-reliefs are coloured.
Berruguete has left many noteworthy tombs. The monument of Archbishop Tavera, in the Afuera Hospital at Toledo, is generally accounted his masterpiece (Plate 114). But this tomb, carved in his old age—it was Berruguete’s last work—is not really finer than many of his other monuments. The bas-reliefs on the sarcophagus are mannered, and suggest an over-excited imagination. It seems probable that the Toledo tomb owes its fame rather to its being better known than to the superiority of its execution. A finer example of Berruguete’s works in marble, according to M. Marcel Dieulafoy, are the tombs of Don Juan de Rojas and his wife the Marquesa de Poza, in the Church of San Pablo at Palencia. The kneeling figures of the Marquis and his wife, with the fine heads of strongly marked character, prove Berruguete an accomplished carver of portraits in marble. The bas-reliefs, and the numerous figures of saints, evangelists, and angels, are vigorously carved; especially fine is the form of God the Father, which dominates the whole. The monumental tomb of San Jeronimo at Granada, which has been attributed to the Italian Pedro Torrigiano, and also to Berruguete’s successor, Gaspar Becerra, is almost certainly the work of Berruguete (Plate 115). This is the opinion of M. Marcel Dieulafoy. It furnishes a different expression of Berruguete’s powers, and is one of the most characteristically Spanish of his works. Of a similar character to the Palencia tombs, and worthy of notice, are the excellent portrait-bust of the engineer Juanelo Turriano, in the Convent of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo, the statue-tomb of St. Secundus, Bishop of Avila, in the Church of San Secundo in that city (Plate 116), and the busts of the archbishops which adorn the retablo of the Colegio del Arzobispo at Salamanca. The student of Berruguete should visit his native town Paredes de Nava, where numerous carvings are preserved in the Church of Santa Eulalia, for in these early works we see how carefully he studied the antique. In the wooden panels in the sacristy of Mercia Cathedral we notice again the over-excited imagination which was the defect of Berruguete’s work. Much finer is the retablo of Santa Barbara in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Avila. It is carved in alabaster and coloured; the finest of the reliefs represents the Scourging of Christ, a subject specially suitable to Berruguete’s power.
The influence of Berruguete was decisive and widespread, and a number of native carvers and sculptors arose who were either his pupils or imitated his style.
Gaspar de Tordesillas, born at the end of the fifteenth century, is reputed to have been a pupil of Berruguete, and the vigour of his style, shown chiefly in the attitudes and movements of his figures, and in the folds of his draperies, supports this pupilship. He was first an entallador, or carver in wood, and afterwards escultor—sculptor—an artist of higher rank. He carved in wood a small retablo for the parish church of Simancas, a small town near to Valladolid, which Antonio Vasquez, another native artist, coloured in oils. As an escultor Tordesillas executed many important works, among them the fine statue of San Benito (Plate 117), now in the Museum of Valladolid, and also two altar-screens for the old monastery of San Benito.