Sculpture in Spain

by Albert Frederick Calvert

Besides the altar font the old monastery of Silos possessed a rich collection of religious furniture. Among those which have been saved are a chalice, used under the Mozarabic ritual for celebrating the communion, a very beautiful specimen of the mudéjar goldsmith’s work; an altar-screen of engraved copper with figures of the Apostles; and several small cofferets or caskets. One of these, composed of an elephant’s tusk, belonged to Rahman III., Khalif of Cordova, at the beginning of the tenth century; another, made at Cuenca in 1026, is of ivory, and represents a Mussulman: it was mounted in enamel at a later date (about 1150).

The ancient Convent of San Marcos at Leon is another church which has retained its ancient treasures; among them are several polychromes. These do not seem to have been repainted. Unfortunately half of the precious collection has been stolen: those that remain are now in the Museum at Leon. The figures are carved in wood, and the head, hands, and nude parts are coloured. The vestments, made of cloth, hardened by means of a glaze, are also coloured, the tints used being very harmonious. There is also a carved triptych in wood of the same date, but the carving of the figures is not so good and the colours used are cruder. The statue of San Francisco (Plate 31) belongs to a later date. It is a most interesting polychrome, with splendid character in the rendering of the head. In the Cathedral of Leon are various statues which belong to the same period, while in the cloisters is an interesting bas-relief, Our Lady del Foro and the Offering of the Kings (Plate 33).

Some fine carvings, in the French style, come from the Portenda de San Miguel, Estella. This style of carving spread over the whole of Spain, and additional examples may be seen in the Cathedral of Sangüesa, in two interesting and little-known churches at Olete, in the Cathedral of Basque Vittoria, and in the old churches of Leon and Valencia.

Statues on tombs are very numerous, and we find them in almost every church. At first the figures are rudely carved, the skill of the artist being expended on the frames, and the cast of the features being largely a convention. Indeed these early monumental figures cannot be regarded as portraits. Among the first examples are the figures on the royal monument at Najera, erected by Sancho III. 1157. Here the figures are mere puppets. Another early tomb is that in the Convent of Las Huelgas, Burgos (Plate 34). Even the sarcophagus of St. Eulalia, at Barcelona, of as late a date as 1327, with its Pisan reminiscences, shows how easily art was sometimes satisfied at this period.

But there are some really fine tombs belonging to the Romanesque period. The Church of the Magdalena—formerly of the Templars—at Zamora contains two knights’ tombs, one of which M. Marcel Dieulafoy considers the finest Romanesque tomb in Spain. The figure, just expired and resting on the death-bed, is placed beneath a portico of twin balustrades which crown the structure. Fantastic animals are carved on the spandrils, and the columns and capitals are richly decorated. The couch stands against a wall, on which are sculptured seraphs, while two angels bear away to Paradise the materialised soul of the dead man wrapped in a winding-sheet. This device is common in Spain, where there are many tombs of the same character, but, writes M. Marcel Dieulafoy, “I do not know of one where the decorative sculpture is rendered more boldly or with greater talent.”

The statues, once funeral monuments, but now set into the wall of the old Cathedral of Salamanca, are important as being among the most complete examples of the twelfth-century polychrome (Plate 35). The sarcophagus, the reclining figures, and the niches containing them are all painted—red, blue-black, and white being the predominating tints. There are some traces of yellow, probably due, as M. Marcel Dieulafoy suggests, to the sizing used in fixing the gilding; there are also some green tints in the foliage which decorates the arch in one of the tombs. Fortunately these statues have suffered very little from the hand of the restorer. The statue of Diego de Anaya on the tomb in the Capilla de San Bartolomé, to the south of the cloisters, is another work of importance in the same cathedral. It is quite ideal in its treatment.

The Cathedral of Tarragona represents the same diversity in its statuary as we have noted in its architectural styles. Thus the statuary of the west façade may be divided into three distinct groups. The first, date about 1278, consists of the beautiful sculptured figures of nine Apostles, placed on the main portal, which were carved by the Catalan artist Maestro Bartolomé (Plate 36). The Apostles and Prophets on the buttresses were executed a century later by Jaime Castayls, another native Catalan carver. They are clumsy and of ordinary character compared with the delicate work of Maestro Bartolomé. The group of the Virgin and Child which is placed above the pillars of the great door is not native work, but comes certainly from France. The author is unknown.

The cloisters and portals of the Cathedral of Burgos offer another example of an admirable museum of sculpture. The earlier carvings—such, for instance, as the figures on the Apostles’ door (Plate 37), belonging to the opening years of the thirteenth century—are somewhat stiff and constrained in style and contrast with the graceful ease of the later works of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Plate 38). The special interest of the cloisters is that its carvings are coloured, and fortunately up to the present they have not suffered from restoration (Plates 39-41). The colours are faded, but we can see that the vivid reds and blues, so much loved by the Moorish artists employed by the Christians of this period, were used, as well as a preponderance of gilding. Here, as at Salamanca, the general tone of the colourisation is in the mudèjar style.

The cloisters of Pampeluna are in the same style and little inferior to those of Burgos. The statues and bas-reliefs are in stone; the most beautiful, and one of the finest examples left to us from the fourteenth century, is that which represents the Death of the Virgin. Unfortunately the colouring of this piece and of all the statues at Pampeluna has been ruined by restoration.

The Cathedral of Burgos is rich in Gothic tombs. The statues of St. Ferdinand and Beatrice of Swabia, on the north wall of the cloisters, are among the finest specimens of portrait sculpture. In the same place is the late Gothic tomb of Don Gonzalo de Burgos. The monument of Archbishop Maurice (died 1238), which is in the centre of the choir, is also a work of special importance, showing, as it does, the skill of the Spanish artists in enamelled copper (Plate 43). Of the same style is the tomb of Jaime of Aragon (Plate 46), who died in 1334, in Tarragona Cathedral, and two monuments in the Cathedral of Leon, that of Martin, the first bishop of the city (Plate 47), the other of Don Ordoño II., who died 923 (Plate 48). All three monuments are of excellent workmanship, and important as fine specimens of portrait sculpture. We may mention also the sarcophagus of St. Vincent and his sisters, SS. Sabina and Criseta, in the Church of San Vicente at Avila (Plate 49), with notable reliefs of the thirteenth century, and surmounted by a Gothic canopy of a later date—about 1465—resting upon coupled columns. But indeed it is difficult to make a selection among the numerous monuments that claim attention. One work stands out as a masterpiece. The magnificent tomb of Archbishop Lopez de Luna, in the Seo of Zaragoza, is the most splendid example of the French-Gothic style in Spain (Plate 50). Even so calm a critic as Professor Carl Justi pronounces this work “a masterpiece.” Mitre on his head, a cross in his hand, and dressed in rich pontifical robes, the figure reclines on the sarcophagus. The face, set in the calm of death, is modelled by a master hand. Behind, placed in a niche which is cut in the thickness of the wall, stand a company of monks and nuns, who weep for their benefactor. Other figures are grouped along the inner face of the tomb; each is marked with character, and is carved with fine skill. But it is not possible to convey in words the effect of this splendid and simple work. In its style it may be compared with the mausoleum of Philippe the Bold, the masterpiece of Burgundian art. It is of the same date, and M. Marcel Dieulafoy believes that the Spanish monument must have been executed in Spain by Aragonese artists who had learnt the art of carving in France. This opinion of French influence directing the native artists is supported by the fact that the Tarragona monument is not a solitary example. This French style of carving spread over the Peninsula; the cathedrals of Burgos, Leon, and Toledo—to name a few out of many churches—are rich in similar monuments. It is necessary to remember this close connection between the arts of France and Spain. The great ecclesiastical orders of France, and especially that of Cluny, gave inspiration to the Romanesque and Gothic periods. It was not until the last third of the fifteenth century, when a new art method came from the Netherlands, that the French influence weakened. Spanish art was almost invariably stimulated from without. But it was these imported art-styles, naturally awakening imitation, which called into existence the native schools of carving, and showed anew those distinct traits which can be called Spanish.