In Germany, too, while there was much activity in sculpture, and public fountains and luxurious palaces and rich ornaments employed many artists, yet there was no originality or freshness in these works, and they fell below those of the past. Bronzes are still made at Nuremberg, but they only serve to make one regret that they are so inferior to those of earlier days; and nowhere in all Germany does any one artist stand out and present a man to be studied in his works or remembered as one of the gifted of the earth. And yet a list of the names of German sculptors of this time would be very long, for all over the land churches were being decorated, monuments built, and statues and fountains erected.
Fig. 110.—Relief by Berruguete.
Valladolid.
In England the best sculpture of the sixteenth century was seen in the portrait statues on monuments, and we find no great artists there of whom to give an account.
In Spain Alonso Berruguete (1480-1561), who was the most eminent artist of his time, had introduced the Italian manner. He went to Italy about 1503, and studied in Rome and Florence during seventeen years. This was at the time when Italian sculpture was at the height of its excellence; and Berruguete returned to Spain filled with the purest and best conceptions of what art should be, and the ends it should serve. He has been called the Michael Angelo of Spain, because he was an architect, painter, and sculptor.
Upon his return to Spain he was appointed painter and sculptor to Charles V. Among his most celebrated works in sculpture are the reliefs in the choir of the Cathedral at Toledo; the altar in the Church of San Benito el Real at Valladolid (Fig. 110), for which he was paid forty-four hundred ducats, and his sculptures in the Collegio Mayor at Salamanca. His final work was a monument to the Cardinal and Grand Inquisitor, Don Juan de Tavera, which is in the Church of the Hospital of St. John at Toledo. The sarcophagus is ornamented by reliefs from the story of John the Baptist, which are executed in an excellent manner, simple and expressive.
Other Spanish sculptors were Esteban Jordan, an eminent wood-carver, Gregorio Hernandez (1566-1636), who has been called "the sculptor of religion." His works are so full of a spirit of devotion that they seem to have been executed under an inspiration. Hernandez was very devout in his life, and did many works of charity; he often provided decent burial for the very poor who died without friends who could bury them.
Many of his works have been removed from the chapels for which they were designed, and are now in the Museum of Valladolid, where they are not as effective as when placed in their original positions. He is superior to other Spanish sculptors in his representation of nude figures and in the grandeur of his expression.
Juan de Juni (died 1614) studied in Italy, and acquired much mannerism; his works are seen in Valladolid.
Juan Martinez Montañes (died 1650) was a famous sculptor, and excelled in figures of children and cherubs. His conceptions had much beauty and depth of feeling, and his draperies were most graceful; and to this power of thinking out clearly and well the subject he wished to represent he added the ability to do his work in an artistic manner, and to give it an elegance of finish without taking away its strength. A Conception by him, in the Cathedral of Seville, is a noble work, and in the university church of the same city there is an altar which is one of his important works. Other sculptures by Montañes are in the Museum of Seville.