Roldan had, besides his daughter, one pupil who deserves mention, Pedro Duque Cornejo. He was the last sculptor of the Sevillian school. Among his contemporaries he gained great success, and for twenty-five years he was sculptor to the Queen’s Chamber—a success which his works certainly do not merit. All his carvings suffer from exaggeration and an overloading of ornament and gilding—the faults of the decadent period in which he lived. He executed many commissions for the Cartuja del Paula at Seville. He carved in mahogany the stalls of Cordova Cathedral, and also the fine Silleria, which was brought from the Cartuja of Seville to the Coro of Cadiz Cathedral. Cornejo died in 1757, and was buried with princely state in Cordova Cathedral.
CHAPTER X
THE SCHOOL OF GRANADA AND ALONSO CANO—THE DECLINE OF SCULPTURE—FRANCISCO ZARCELLO
The school of Granada was an offshoot from the school of Seville, and it owes its glory chiefly to one man, who must be considered as the pupil of Montañés.
Alonso Cano was born at Granada, on the 17th of March 1601, and was baptized in the parish church of San Ildefonso, where the register of his baptism may still be seen. His father, Miguel Cano, was a carver of retablos, and it was with him that the young Cano learnt the rudiments of his art. Before long his talent gained the notice of the painter Juan del Castillo, who recommended the removal of the Cano family to Seville for the sake of better instruction. Cano entered for eight months the studio of Francisco Pacho, where he learnt painting, having for his fellow-student Velazquez. Afterwards he became the assistant of Juan del Castillo. In sculpture he was the pupil of Montañés, and for several years he worked under his guidance. There seems to have been a great friendship between the master and pupil. Cano’s debt to Montañés was very great, and his early works in Seville, executed under the direction of the master, are proof of how completely he assimilated his style.
Cano’s earliest sculptured works were three retablos, designed, carved, and painted, one for the College of San Alberto, and two for the Conventual Church of Santa Paula. Zurbaran and Pacheco were employed with Cano in executing the altar-screen of San Alberto, and Cean Bermudez tells us that his work surpassed theirs in merit. In the execution of the two altar-screens for Santa Paula he was helped by Gaspar de Ribas, who worked with him under the direction of Montañés. These screens remain in the Church of Santa Paula—one over the altar of St. John the Baptist, the other over that of St. John the Evangelist. They are pieces of harmonious work, altogether praiseworthy, which show Cano’s combined power as architect, sculptor, painter, and damask worker. The finer is the altar of St. John the Baptist. The statue of the prophet and a bas-relief representing the Baptism of Christ are at either side, and between a beautiful representation of figures carrying the head of St. John on a charger; then to right and left, between the columns, are placed statues of the Saints, and these surmount figures of the Virtues and Cherubim. The hand of a master is seen everywhere.
Besides the altar-screens of Santa Paula, there are a few good carvings that belong to this period of Cano’s youth. There is a Conception in the nunnery of Santa Paula, placed over the doorway, and a second, and perhaps finer, Conception is in the parish church of San Andrés, and there is also in the same church a very beautiful Child Jesus, unfortunately dressed in a satin robe which quite hides the body. These statues are all good, and indeed might be ascribed to Montañés except for a weakness in the modelling of the nude portions, a fault which Cano afterwards overcame. The few other carvings in Seville that are ascribed to Cano are less certainly by him, and are works of little interest.
An important undertaking belongs to the year 1628. Miguel Cano had been employed to erect a new high altar for the church at Lebrija, a small town situated forty-five miles from Seville on the way to Jeréz. The altar was already designed, but the actual carving was not started, when Miguel Cano died. It fell to his son to complete the work. Four pieces of sculpture were executed; a Crucifixion to be placed above the altar, colossal statues of St. Paul and St. Peter for its second storey, and a small and exquisite image of the Virgin enshrined within a curtained niche above the slab of the altar. This last is perhaps the most pleasing sculpture of this early period; it is one of those really beautiful pieces which cause us to forgive much of Cano’s commonplace work.
It was soon after this that Cano left Seville. He could not bear any superior in his art except his master to be near him, and he challenged a fellow-painter, Sebastian de Llano y Valdés, whose success had enraged him. He stabbed and wounded him, and, to escape the action of the ecclesiastical authorities, he fled to Madrid. Here he renewed his friendship with Velazquez, and through his influence gained an appointment to work in the royal palaces, besides having the honour of being professor to Prince Baltasar Carlos.
During this period, and in the years that followed, Cano did more painting than modelling, and we have many pictures from his hand, some of which may be seen in the Prado Museum. In 1643 we find Cano at Toledo soliciting work in the cathedral. He did not obtain it, and returned to Madrid, where, soon afterwards, he was accused of murdering his wife. This was the beginning of a period of turmoil and wandering. Cano fled to the city of Valencia and afterwards took refuge in the Cartuja of Portacali. But later on, returning to Madrid, he fell under the tribunal of the Inquisition. After suffering the torture, he was adjudged innocent of the crime with which he was charged, and appointed Majordomo of the Brotherhood of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. This was a source of fresh trouble, and Cano was fined a sum of a hundred ducats for refusing to assist in the procession in Holy Week beside the alguazils of the court—a characteristic incident, for Cano was a man who never crossed his own wishes. Cano again left Madrid, and we find him in Toledo, employed by the chapter to inspect the works in the octagon chapel. Afterwards he must have gone to Valencia and Malaga, then he appears again at Madrid. But he seems to have sought an opportunity to leave the royal city, and a canonry being vacant in the Cathedral of Granada, he petitioned the post from Philip IV., which was granted by a royal decree, dated September 11, 1651, under conditions that he should take orders within a year. But the year passed and Cano was not ordained, and his prebendaryship was declared vacant. Whereupon Cano, who was still governed by self-will, took his grievance to the courts. A chaplaincy was conferred on him by the Bishop of Salamanca, and the artist was ordained a sub-deacon. Then the king ordered, by a decree dated April 14, 1658, that the Granada prebendaryship should be restored to him, with the condition that he adopted ecclesiastical dress, which hitherto he had refused to wear. At last, in 1659, Cano returned to Granada, and took possession of his prebendaryship, which he occupied in peace for the remaining eight years of his life.
This was the period of Cano’s greatest activity. The only sculptured works achieved during these turbulent years were the design for the Holy Week monument of the Church of St. Gines, Madrid, and also the design and the superintending of the building of the triumphal arch erected at the Guadalajara gate for the entry of Queen Mariana on her marriage with Philip IV. But now the restless artist had found a fixed home in the city of his birth, with unhindered opportunity for the exercise of his facile gifts.