(2016) The Virgen del Buen Fin in the context of the sculptural oeuvre of Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña. En LAGUNA y JENNINGS, Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña, Virgen del Buen Fin. Madrid, Coll&Cortes, 2016, pp. 46-79.

Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña Virgen del Buen Fin

Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña Virgen del Buen Fin

Nicola Jennings and Teresa Laguna Paúl

Foreword

The Virgen del Buen Fin from Villamartín near Cadiz is one of the most exciting sculptures to emerge from the Iberian peninsula in recent memory. It is one of a handful of terracotta Virgins produced by the Breton sculptor Lorenzo Mercadante in the second half of the fifteenth century. Most of these works are still in the religious institutions in and around Seville for which they were originally commissioned. The Virgen del Buen Fin seems instead to have found her way early on into a private palace, and it is there that she was recently rediscovered. She is a close relative of Saints Justa, Rufina and Florentina produced by Mercadante for Seville Cathedral, sharing with them the same enigmatic smile, elegant garments and graceful stance. We are fortunate to have as one of the contributors to this volume the cathedral’s former curator, Teresa Laguna Paúl. Teresa’s knowledge of Mercadante’s work in Seville is unequalled, and her chapter situates our Virgin and Child in the context of the fifteen years the Breton spent in the city. Nicola Jennings - who looks into Mercadante’s early career as a sculptor in stone and his surprising mastery of terracotta - sees him as a unique product of Northern iconography and Italian technical know-how. Nicola’s research has focused on Northern artists working in Iberia in the fifteenth century, and her chapter presents Mercadante as one of those who left the strongest mark. We hope the catalogue will help to give this extraordinary artist the worldwide attention he surely deserves.

Jorge Coll and Nicolás Cortés

Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña Documented Seville 1454 – 1467

Virgen del Buen Fin Terracotta with traces of polychromy 165.5 x 61 x 46.5 cm (65.2 x 24 x 18.3 in)

Provenance: Palacio de los Topete, Villamartín (Cadiz), property of the Mozo Gutierrez family. Placed in a niche in the main staircase of the palace since 1769 as stated in an inscription in an oval medallion surrounded by the painted rococo decoration of the niche.

Literature: J. López Alfonso, “Una obra inédita de Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña”, La hornacina, www.lahornacina.com/articuloscadiz.htm, downloaded 2008-10- 29.

10

Contents

13

Lorenzo Mercadante, primus inter pares of northern European sculptors in fifteenth-century Castile 

NICOLA JENNINGS

13

Brief historical context

30



32

Mercadante’s terracotta sculptures

39

Lorenzo Mercadente, founder of a new tradition of terracotta sculpture

47

The Virgen del Buen Fin in the context of the sculptural oeuvre of Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña 

Lorenzo Mercadante: the Master of Charles d’Artois?

TERESA LAGUNA PAÚL

57

The Virgen del Buen Fin, an outstanding model in the terracotta production of Lorenzo Mercadante

63



81

Analysis of production techniques in two sculptures in polychromed terracotta by Lorenzo Mercadante

93

Origins and provenance of the Virgen del Buen Fin from the Topete Collection

RAFAEL ROMERO & ADELINA ILLÁN (Icono I&R)

Indicative Bibliography

11

Lorenzo Mercadante, primus inter pares of northern European sculptors in fifteenth-century Castile Nicola Jennings

Documentary research in the last few decades has revealed the significant role played by masons and sculptors from France and the Burgundian Netherlands in various sites around the Iberian peninsula. Lorenzo Mercadante – the hispanised name of the Breton sculptor Laurent Marchand or Laorans Marc’hadour – was perhaps the most accomplished of these craftsman, arriving in Seville in 1454. He came originally to produce the alabaster tomb of the eminent cleric Juan de Cervantes (1375-1453). Cervantes had been Archibishop of Seville, Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome and Bishop of Ostia, representing Castile at the Council of Basel and other important ecclesiastical gatherings.1 Most works of art produced in the mid-fifteenth century are unsigned, but Mercadante’s name and origin are recorded in the inscription carved on the tomb’s base (fig. 1): LORENÇO MERCADANTE DE BRETAÑA ENTALLO ESTE BULTO2

This inscription, along with the quality of the carving and the fact that Mercadante was summoned from France by the cathedral chapter, underlines the reputation he must have enjoyed by that time. During the fifteen years Mercadante spent in Seville, he was in constant demand, producing a number of other sculptures for the city’s cathedral as well as for religious institutions in the city and further afield.3 In doing so he changed material, from alabaster to terracotta, the material he used to sculpt twelve life-sized saints and a vivid relief on the cathedral’s Doors of the Nativity and the Baptism (figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5), as well as works such as the Virgen del Buen Fin presented here. These terracotta sculptures – bringing together Northern iconography with an understanding of the medium’s possibilities perhaps acquired in Italy – are amongst the finest produced anywhere in fifteenth-century Europe.

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Fig. 1. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes (detail of shieldbearing angels and inscription), alabaster, Sev i l l e C athedr a l.

Seville was one of the richest cities in fifteenth-century Castile.4

This knight showed me the Duke’s palace as well as the city and

Mercadante is documented arriving in March 1454, four months before

everything in it, but nothing could surpass in majesty the

the death of King Juan II (1405 - 1454). It was a period of constant

persons of the Duke and Duchess and the state in which they

political strife in which the key player was Álvaro de Luna (ca. 1388 - 1453),

live, which is the most splendid I have ever seen...

Juan II’s favourite or privado. Luna’s masterful deployment of political

The multitude of people and their refinement and splendour

patronage resulted in a court in which the constant struggle for

can scarcely be described.9

5

status, prestige and power made expenditure on material display and heraldry – exemplified by his own magnificent funerary chapel

With the growth in commerce based on the export of Castilian

– a key instrument of social differentiation. At the same time Castilians

wool, luxury objects from northern Europe began to arrive in

were interested in the revival of chivalry at the French court and in the

increasing numbers, including fine cloth, tapestries, panel paintings

art of vivre noblement associated with the Dukes of Burgundy.7 Guests

and carved altarpieces.10 Castilians appreciated not only the expert

arriving for dinner at Luna’s castle at Escalona found it

craftsmanship but also the new devotional iconography being

6

forged by artists such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.

14

greatly adorned with paños franceses (tapestries) and other cloths of silk

One of the areas actively participating in this commerce was

and gold... the tables were laid with everything that was necessary,

Brittany and it was from here that some of the most important

and amongst them was one higher than the others with steps leading

artistic personalities active in fifteenth-century Iberia, including

up to it, with very rich gold brocades behind and above it, made in

Lorenzo Mercadante and the architect Juan Guas (doc.1443 - d. 1496),

the new style. At this table the king and queen would eat...

would come.11

8

The Castilian traveller and diarist Pedro Tafur, who returned from a tour

Mercadante and Guas were among the increasing numbers of

of Bruges, Antwerp, and other northern cities in 1439, was clearly impressed:

craftsmen from northern Europe who began to arrive in Castile from

1400 onwards. The first record of a painter from Flanders active in Iberia dates to 1284, but it was economic crisis resulting from the Hundred Years’ War that drew a wave of craftsmen that continued to increase in size over the course of the fifteenth century.12 Iberia held out the promise of plentiful well-paid work in numerous cathedral building projects and for individual patrons such as Álvaro de Luna. No doubt the pleasant climate presented an added attraction; as one author notes, these men (some of them with siblings and children) were “following the course of the sun.”13 Stone-masons – some of them specialised in sculpting effigies, monumental figures or foliage – as well as woodcarvers, polychromers, painters, glass-makers and goldsmiths began to arrive regularly in the kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre in the first decade of the fifteenth century; by the 1440s and 1450s they are documented in growing numbers in Castile.14 Their legacy was a body of architecture, sculpture and painting which is often called “Hispano-Flemish,” although not all of the artists involved in the development of this art came from Flanders and many of them Fig. 2. Lorenzo Mercadante, Saint Rufina, terracotta, Door of the Baptism, Seville Cathedral.

were in fact born in Iberia. One of the first to arrive as part of this northern wave was Carlí Gautier (doc. 1408-1449), a master mason from Normandy commissioned in 1408 to design a new façade for Barcelona Cathedral.15 We know from an extraordinary drawing, conserved in the archive in Barcelona Cathedral, that Carlí was an architect as much as a stone-mason. From Barcelona he went to Lleida, acting as maestro mayor (master of works) of the cathedral from 1410 to 1427, and then to Seville where he was maestro mayor from 1435 to 1447.16 A project to build a new cathedral in the latter city had just started, and Carlí was responsible for a large area including the Doors of the Baptism and Nativity which Mercadante’s sculptures would later adorn (fig. 6). Carlí’s brother, Rottlí Gautier (doc.1382 - d.1441), also came to Iberia in the early fifteenth century and followed Carlí as maestro mayor in Lleida. Rottlí was clearly a specialist sculptor and tombier (tomb sculptor) producing a series of apostles which were largely destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. Another early fifteenth-century arrival was a master known only as Isambart (doc. 1399 - 1434), who started in Lleida at the same time as Carlí, in 1410.17 Although there is no record of Isambart’s place of birth, he worked at the castle of Pierrefonds in Picardy (under the name of Jehan Ysambart) in 1399.18 A ‘Heine Ysanbaert,’

Fig. 3. Lorenzo Mercadante, Saint Luke, terracotta,

perhaps the same person, appears ca.1388 in the records of the

Door of the Nativity, Seville Cathedral.

Brusselsche Steenbickeleren to which the great sculptor Claus Sluter

15

had belonged a few years previously.19 In June 1417, the chapter of

was himself from the French House of Évreux.24 The peninsula

Saragossa Cathedral sent for ‘maestre Issanbart,’ who was then

had its own tombiers, most notably Ferrand González and his

working in nearby Daroca to give advice on the cupola which was

workshop in Toledo,25 but Northern craftsmen such as Lome and

showing signs of instability.20 This visit resulted in a commission to

Lorenzo Mercadante a few decades later brought with them a new

draw and build a no-longer-extant stone chapel dedicated to Saint

level of skill. Lome’s workshop was formed in 1413 when the king

Augustine. The mention of Daroca has led a number of scholars to

was building a new palace in Olite, and various craftsmen came

suggest that Isambart was in the town to design and build the

and went until the tomb was finished in 1424.26 With its exquisitely

flamboyant jubé-altar in the collegiate church chapel of the Sagrados

carved alabaster effigies and pleurants on a black base, the work has

Corporales.21 Isambart’s deputy in Saragossa and Daroca, the

been compared to some of those in the French royal mausoleum at

French mason Pedro Jalopa (doc. 1408 - 1437), would later be

Saint-Denis.27 According to Clara Fernández-Ladreda Aguadé,

responsible for building Álvaro de Luna’s funerary chapel in

however, the Pamplona tomb was modelled on the more innovative

Toledo. The Burgundian and Flemish design of the sculptures on

tomb of Philip the Bold from the charterhouse of Champol,

the Daroca altar indicates that a specialist sculptor or ymaginero

implying that Lome worked in Dijon rather than Paris.28

22

trained in northern Europe – perhaps the sculptor Juan de la Huerta (doc.1443 - 1462) who worked on the tomb of John the Fearless in

After Saragossa and Daroca, Isambart went on to Palencia

Dijon – also played a key role.

Cathedral where he seems to have produced some of the sculpture

23

himself.29 He has also been associated with an exquisite funerary Jalopa and some of the other masons from Saragossa had

chapel built between 1430 and 1435 in the Castilian town of

previously been employed in the workshop of Janin Lome,

Tordesillas.30 That chapel was commissioned by Fernán López de

contracted to produce the tomb of Charles the Noble of Navarre

Saldaña (ca.1400-1456), the son of a converted Jew or converso who

and his wife Eleanor of Castile. Lome is thought to have come from

rose to power meteorically under Álvaro de Luna’s patronage.

Tournai, perhaps brought over from Paris or Dijon by Charles who

Funerary chapels ensured that prayers would be said for their

Fig. 4. Lorenzo Mercadante, Nativity, terracotta, Door of the Nativity, Seville C athedr a l.

16

Fig. 5. Follower of Lorenzo Mercadante, Baptism of Christ, terracotta, Door of the Baptism, Seville C athedr a l.

founders’ salvation, but they were also the ideal means for

Cartagena (1384 - 1456). In September 1442 the first stone was laid

displaying lineage and magnificence. Built of costly limestone with

in the construction of two towers of which Juan was the architect,

tall lancet windows, the chapel stood out from the brick-built and

rising from the west face of Burgos Cathedral.33 The towers

windowless chapels in the local Mudejar style commissioned by

introduced to the Iberian peninsula octagonal spires formed from

many of Saldaña’s contemporaries. Several details of the design of

pierced tracery, like those on the cathedrals of the Upper Rhine

the Daroca altar are repeated, but there is no documentation about

which Cartagena had visited while at the Council of Basel. Colonia

the architect of the Saldaña Chapel. A no-longer visible epitaph

also built Cartagena’s funerary chapel in Burgos Cathedral, gracing

names the chapel’s aparejador or clerk of works, “maestre guillem de

it with an innovative vault and alabaster tomb, although opinions

roam, maestro of the church of leon”, noting that he died in 1431.

are divided on who produced Cartagena’s effigy.34 The remarkable

Guillem’s place of origin was clearly Rouen in Normandy, and it is

simulation of embroidery on the bishop’s cope is very similar to that

possible that ‘Leon’ referred to Saint-Pol de Léon in Brittany where

on the effigy of Bishop Cervantes produced by Lorenzo

the impressive Kreisker Chapel had just been built. The expertly-

Mercadante, and the relationship between these two works will be

carved shield-bearing angels and corbels in Tordesillas highlight the

discussed below.

31

32

knowledge Guillem and his team had of recent prestige building projects in Valois France such as the Sainte-Chapelle at Vincennes

Colonia’s skill as a builder was quickly acknowledged. By May 1454

(completed ca. 1397) and the remodelled Palais des Ducs

he had become the maestro mayor of Burgos Cathedral. In the same

d’Aquitaine in Poitiers (completed ca. 1416).

year he was paid 3,350 maravedís for plans to rebuild the charterhouse of Miraflores, founded by Juan II in 1442 and partly

Just as the Saldaña Chapel was being completed and while Álvaro

destroyed in a fire. Colonia’s son, Simon (ca. 1450 - 1511), would

de Luna’s chapel was still underway, the arrival in the peninsula of

follow him as maestro mayor of Burgos Cathedral, producing the

several more Northern masons would be of decisive importance for

opulent chapel of the Condestables and many other important

the development of Late-Gothic architecture. The first was Juan de

projects commissioned by the Castilian elite. Sadly, the

Colonia (John of Cologne, doc. 1442 - 1481) who may have been

extraordinary 20-foot alabaster tomb he produced for another

brought to Burgos by the converso bishop of Burgos, Alonso de

converso, Alonso de Burgos (? – 1499), no longer survives. It was

17

Fig. 6. Door of the Baptism, Sev i l l e C athedr a l.

described by a Flemish courtier visiting Spain in 1501 as having seven or eight portraits from life, including Alonso himself along with Ferdinand and Isabella, Prince Juan and Princess Juana.35 Judging by the façade of the church of San Pablo in Valladolid, produced for the same patron by Simon, he was a very talented sculptor. Another group of highly influential masons and sculptors to arrive ca. 1440 were Hanequín de Bruselas (doc. 1442 - d.1470/75) and his brothers Egas (doc. 1454 - d.1495) and Anton. Egas signed his full name as “Egas Cueman” and they are thought to have been members of the family of fifteenth-century stone-cutters from Brussels of that name, one of whom advised on building work commissioned by the Dukes of Burgundy.36 Hanequín is first mentioned as the maestro mayor of Toledo Cathedral in 1442,37 and by 1448 a traceried spire like the one in Burgos was completed, no doubt the work of Hanequín and his team.38 Hanequín’s master work in Toledo was the Puerta de Leones (the Door of the Lions) on which he worked with Egas and a sculptor known as Juan Alemán (John the German) (fig. 7). The exterior includes innovative flamboyant tracery, reliefs of the Visit of the three Marys to the tomb, and monumental sculptures of the Assumption of the Virgin, saints, prophets and apostles. The interior features a large Tree of Jesse in relief, clearly designed to complement the iconography outside. As Matt Ethan Kavaler has recently noted, there is little in

Fig. 7. Egas Cueman, Juan Alemán & Francisco de las Cuevas, Puerta de Leones (detail of apostles), limestone, Toledo Cathedral.

earlier Netherlandish architecture which prepares us for Hanequín’s invention.39 One of the mozos or assistants on the Puerta de los Leones in Toledo Hanequín was also responsible for the tomb of Don Pedro Girón,

was the young Breton Juan Guas. Guas was originally from Saint-

Master of the Orden de Calatrava, known now only from

Pol-de-Léon and had come to Spain with his father, the stonecarver

contemporary descriptions. Made ca. 1465 of alabaster with a

Pedro Guas.42 Juan’s talent was spotted before long: by 1458 he had

black marble base, and surrounded by knights and monks in niches,

been hired by the chapter of Avila Cathedral to build a new

it was said to have been modelled on Philip the Bold’s tomb at

portal,43 and from there he went on to Segovia where he was maestro

Champmol.40 Like the tomb produced by Lorenzo Mercadante

mayor from 1471 onwards.44 Between 1480 and 1483 Guas built the

some ten years earlier, it featured angels holding Girón’s coat-of-

famous Palacio del Infantado in Guadalajara, and at the same time

arms (although these were sculpted in the round rather than in

started designing the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes,

relief like the ones in Seville). Egas in 1458 started work on an

commissioned to celebrate the new queen Isabella’s victory in the

alabaster tomb for Fray Gonzalo de Ilescas, prior of the monastery

battle of Toro. There is no evidence that Guas himself produced

of Guadalupe, and a few years he later was commissioned to

figure sculpture, but his breathtaking designs combined grand and

produce another for the Sevillian nobleman Alfonso de Velasco,

complex structures with intricately carved surfaces incorporating

also at Guadalupe. Egas’s sons, Enrique and Egas, would go on to

elements of Mudejar decoration. Indeed it is Guas’s monumental

become maestros mayores of Toledo Cathedral and of San Juan de los

oeuvre which is associated above all with the exhuberant “estilo

Reyes. Enrique was also the architect of Isabella’s and Ferdinand’s

Isabel,” a style at its apogee in the heady period after the conquest

mausoleum, the Capilla Real in Granada.

of Granada in 1492.45

41

19

The other northern European sculptor inextricably associated

Alonso de Burgos.49 In 1486 Queen Isabella commissioned Siloe

with Isabella was the truly visionary Gil de Siloe (doc. 1483 - d. 1501).

to produce the spectacular star-shaped alabaster tomb for her

Referred to in one document as “Gil de Amberres,” the artist has

mother and father at the charterhouse of Miraflores (fig. 8).50 In

been said to have come originally from Antwerp, but he is

the words of Jonathan Brown, these tombs and his wood retable

elsewhere called “françes” from “urliones” (Orleans) as well as

produced for the high altar in front of the tombs are “among the

“giles de olen,” apparently referring to a town in Brabant. The

masterpieces of late Gothic sculpture.”51 Brown likens Siloe’s

earliest work that can be securely attributed to Siloe is the large

aesthetic to that of a medieval goldsmith, depending – like the

wood retable executed between 1484 and 1487 in the chapel of

work of Juan Guas – “on the accretion of finely wrought details

Bishop Luis de Acuña in Burgos Cathedral. Depicting a huge

to produce a sensation of overwhelming magnificence.” Not

Tree of Jesse, the retable symbolises to the chapel’s dedication to

documented to Siloe but generally assigned to him as well is the

Saint Anne and the Immaculate Conception, and it is quite

fascinating façade of the College of San Gregorio in Valladolid,

unlike anything produced previously in either northern Europe

commissioned again by Alonso de Burgos. This repeats

or Iberia. As Ronda Kasl points out, it is the first example of the

elements of the Tree of Jesse iconography from the Acuña

massive, carved and polychromed wooden retablo that would be

retable but here the tree is a pomegranate – the symbol of the

found all over Castile by the end of the century. Siloe and his

conquest of Granada – and hanging off its branches are putti,

colleague the polychromer Diego de la Cruz were immediately

with soldiers, shield-bearing angels and wild men standing

contracted to produce another retablo, modelled on Acuña’s, for

guard.

46

47

48

20

Fig. 8. Gil de Siloe, Tomb of Juan II of Castile and Isabella of Portugal, alabaster, charterhouse of Miraf lores, Burgos. Fig. 9. Tomb of Archbishop Alonso de Cartagena (detail of simulated embroidery), alabaster, Burgos Cathedral. Fig. 10. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes (detail of simulated embroidery), Seville Cathedral.

Not surprisingly several scholars have seen the simulated

Isabella of Castile died in 1504 but her enthusiasm for bold and

embroidery on the cope worn by the effigy of Alonso de Cartagena

monumental artistic projects lived on. The early decades of the

as an early work by Gil de Siloe (fig. 9). The carving is certainly of

sixteenth century saw the completion of several huge carved retablos

a similar standard to the bravura work on the robes of the king and

such as those in the cathedrals of Seville and Toledo. Northern

queen in Miraflores, although there the “embroidery” includes no

sculptors including Pierre Dancart and Juan de Borgoña (John of

figures. The question of who produced the Cartagena effigy is

Burgundy) played a major role in these projects. Others immigrants

fascinating, particularly given the similarities in the carving of both

included Michel Perrin, whose terracotta reliefs followed the

the fine head and the embroidery to those of Cardinal Cervantes by

tradition established by Mercadante, and Juan de Juni, whose

Lorenzo Mercadante (fig. 10). Cartagena’s tomb is documented as

Entombments and Piedads are amongst the most expressive sculptures

having been produced by the time he died in 1456, but the effigy

of the sixteenth century. These uniquely Spanish objects were the

and base are each made of different types of stone and - judging by

result of a century of cultural exchange, the creative fusion of

the style and skill of carving - almost certainly by different

iconography and techniques originating in northern Europe with

craftsmen. This has led scholars such as Pilar Silva Maroto to

the demands of patrons in Castile for whom religious art could at

surmise that the effigy was made after Cartagena’s death. This does

once express piety, position and power. This fusion would in turn

seem likely and it is therefore possible that whoever carved it

travel back up to northern Europe, influencing the conception of

modelled the decoration of the bishop’s cope on the earlier work by

Late-Gothic style exemplified in the Royal Monastery of Brou and

Mercadante in Seville.

the Town Hall of Ghent.53

52

21

Fig. 11. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Archbishop Juan de Cervantes, alabaster, Seville Cathedral.

22

From Laorans Marc’hadour to Lorenzo Mercadante:

Cervantes, who was born near in Lora del Río near Seville, was

reconstructing the sculptor’s artistic trajectory

sent by the king to the Council of Basel and no doubt knew Alonso de Cartagena (whose effigy is illustrated in fig. 9).

Apart from the brief period in which Lorenzo Mercadante is

Returning from Basel in 1440, Cervantes celebrated the wedding

documented in Seville – from 1454 to 1467 – very little is known

mass of Enrique IV and Blanca of Navarre, and he was created a

about the sculptor’s life and oeuvre. It is thought that, like Juan Guas

legate a latere in 1451 to help negotiate peace between France and

and Guillem de Rouen, he was born in the town of Saint-Pol-de-

England.62 It is likely to have been Cervantes’ eminence that

Léon. The only reference to him prior to his arrival in Seville is in

caused a tombier to be called from France. There were high-quality

a document signed in Saragossa in 1446 enabling the Breton to

tombiers working in Castile, such as the so-called Master of Don

work in the city despite restrictive guild regulations. Even during

Álvaro de Luna who had in the 1440s produced several effigies for

his stay in Seville, knowledge about him is based mainly on extant

Luna’s chapel in Toledo.63 As Francisco Reina Giráldez has

work, with only a few mentions in the cathedral’s Libros de Fábrica

suggested, it is possible that the maestro mayor, Juan Normán knew

(fabric books). No information has surfaced about Mercadante’s

Mercadante in person or by reputation.64 The sculptor may also

personal life (other than that he had a wife in 1467)56 or about his

have been recommended to the chapter by senior church or royal

origins, and we do not know when he was born or where and when

contacts. Castile had close commercial and political ties to

he died. Nevertheless, careful scrutiny of the existing material

Brittany, and in 1452 Duke Pierre II received a Castilian

presents a number of important clues helping us to the reconstruct

statesman in the town of Vannes to renew their alliances.65 The

Mercadante’s artistic trajectory.

Breton mason Juan Guas is first documented in Toledo in 1453.66

54

55

57

The first mention of Mercadante is in Seville Cathedral’s 1454

The fact that Cervantes was Sevillian-born must have made it all

Libro de Fábrica:

the more important for the chapter to commission a magnificent tomb. The space provided for it was the chapel of Saint

“on the twenty-third of March I gave maestre lorenço mercador

Hermenegildo, one of the patron saints of Seville and a convert

ymagenero six hundred maravedíes which were given to cover his

from Arianism in the Visigothic era. Cervantes had founded this

costs because he was asked in a letter to come from France (frança)

chapel and reserved it for his burial by the time he wrote his will in

to work in the church.”

November 1453, specifying that a retable and tomb should be

58

produced and paid for from his estate.67 The tomb, in polished The so-called Mercador had been brought to Seville to produce

alabaster as was befitting for a fifteenth-century Castilian grandee,

the tomb of the recently-deceased Cardinal Juan de Cervantes, an

sits in the centre of the chapel, in front of the altar.68 The altarpiece

eminent and widely-travelled figure who had been appointed

was carved in unspecified stone and featured the cardinal’s carved

cardinal by Pope Martin V (fig. 11). Over the following years

image kneeling in prayer in front of Saint Hermenegildo; this work

59

Mercadante was paid a total of 33,400 maravedíes, a considerable

was at some point destroyed and replaced with the eighteenth-

sum in comparison to other masters employed by the cathedral:

century altarpiece which can be seen there today.69

60

In one year, for example, while he was paid 15,000 maravedíes for two sculptures, the French maestro mayor, Juan Normán, was only

The cardinal’s effigy is dressed in a chasuble carved to simulate

paid 4,000 plus a quantity of wheat. The fact that Mercadante

embroidery featuring images of saints including Catherine, to

was summoned from France, the very high quality of the tomb he

whom Cervantes was particularly devoted,70 Peter and James the

produced, the unusual inscription of his name in large gothic

Greater. Liturgical vestments embroidered with naturalistic “needle

script on the base, and the considerable sum paid upon its

painting” were highly prized, costly objects, produced in the

completion indicates that Mercadante had considerable standing

southern Netherlands as well as within the Iberian peninsula.71

as a tombier. It also suggests that he was by then based not in the

The alabaster chasuble and similarly decorated mitre may have

Duchy of Brittany – which surely would have been referred to as

been based on the vestments left to the chapel by the cardinal,

Bretaña rather than as “França” – but in the Île-de-France or one

described in contemporary documents as being of “brocado rico”.72

of the central Valois territories.

The sculptor carved the chasuble and alb worn underneath it as if

61

23

the figure were standing, the garments hanging in straight folds.

The Sevillian effigy’s face is skillfully carved and appears to be a

The effigy rests on an inscribed cloth the edges of which are

portrait. It has been suggested that it was based on a death mask, but

exquisitely-rendered to simulate folds (fig. 12).

there is no evidence that these were being used throughout Castile at

73

the time.77 In any case Mercadante only appeared in Seville several At the figure’s feet is a stag which refers to the Cervantes coat of

months after the cardinal’s death so it would have had to be produced

arms, two stags palewise on a plain field (fig. 13). These arms are

by another craftsman. It is perhaps more likely that Mercadante

represented on six shields around the sides of the base. Each shield,

created a fictitious but suitably-austere physiognomy - with the

surmounted by a cross fleury, is borne by a pair of angels standing

prominent bones and hollowed-out cheekbones associated with a

in front of the cardinal’s galero and tassels. In between the pairs of

“good death” and long and humble life - similar to those on the earlier

angels at and each corner of the tomb base is an apostle in a niche

tombs of Archibishops Sancho de Rojas and Juan de Cerezuela in

covered by a traceried baldaquin. There is gap of about 30 cm (12 in)

Toledo (fig. 16). Although Rojas died several years before his effigy

between the top of the cardinal’s mitre and the top edge of the base,

was produced, the “invention” of appropriate, portrait-like faces

with a similar gap between the stag and the other edge; these make

appears to have been common throughout Europe.78

the effigy appear rather small. The foot of the base is supported by six lions in the manner typical of medieval tombs throughout Castile.74 The inscription on the side of the tomb directly beneath the effigy’s head gives the artist’s name and Breton origin. The facture of the tomb is somewhat varied, indicating that Mercadante may have had at least one collaborator or assistant. Large tombier workshops such as Jean de Marville’s in Dijon employed several assistants, probably mainly to reduce blocks before the master started his own work.75 The effigy itself, the cloth on which it lies, and the apostles on the base are all of extremely high quality and carved in a naturalistic style. The shield-bearing angels on the tomb sides are slightly less refined and more idealised. The effigy’s head sits on three embroidered pillows which have lost their tassels. The eyes are not fully closed, suggesting a state of deep contemplation (fig. 14). The effigy of Cervantes is comparable, for example, to that of Philippe de Morviller (president of the first French Parliament), produced in the Île-de-France in the second quarter of the fifteenthcentury (fig. 15). Morviller’s portrait-like head and open eyes are carved in a similar manner to that of Cervantes, and the voluminous folds of their garments and hind quarters of their mascots also belong to the same types. Although Morviller wears the sobre, unembroidered robes of a statesman, the rigid portrayal of both bodies – with garments hanging in straight folds – are typical of French tomb sculpture until the second half of the fifteenth century.76 Morviller’s tomb was destroyed during the French Revolution, but it

Fig. 12. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Archbishop Juan de Cervantes

is known from an early drawing that the effigy was originally

(detail of cloth with inscription), Seville Cathedra l .

sheltered by a traceried canopy which no longer survives. This may

24

have been part of Mercadante’s plan too and would explain why

Fig. 13. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Archbishop Juan de Cervantes

Cervantes appears short in comparison to the length of the bed.

(detail of stag under effigy’s feet), Seville Cathedra l .

Interest in portraiture in this period developed hand-in-hand with increasing use of funerary monuments as elements in the enhancement of prestige and legitimacy.79 But there was also tension between actual traits and courtly ideals of nobility, beauty, and piety, and – particularly in the case of senior clergymen – between the imperfection of the body and the perfection of the soul.80 It is possible that Mercadante travelled to Toledo to see the Rojas and Cerezuela tombs before starting work in Seville. He may well have known other Bretons already there such as Juan Guas and his father Pedro, and it is clear from surviving contracts that patrons regularly required artists to model their works on existing ones.81 The simulated embroidery on the cardinal’s vestments and

Fig. 14. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Archbishop

mitre are similar to – if considerably more elaborate than – the

Juan de Cervantes (detail of effigy), Seville Cathed r a l .

25

carving on the mitres of Archibishops Rojas and Cerezuela,work

Netherlandish sources already influential in northern France – and

which was itself exceptional. The origin of this type of carving,

indeed throughout Europe – by the time Mercadante was beginning

which is also found on a small number of clerical tombs from the

his career.83 André Beauneveu (ca.1335 - ca.1401/3), for example,

early fifteenth century in Avignon, is discussed below.

came from Valenciennes, a relatively short distance from Rouen, and spent much of his career in Paris and Bourges. Sculptural works

The apostles in niches around the base of the Cervantes tomb are

such as tomb slabs from Bruges, baptismal fonts from Tournai and

carved virtually in the round and stand in canopied niches. This

terracotta retables from Utrecht were imported into northern France

arrangement is similar to that designed by Jean de Marville for the

in significant quantities, and Netherlandish sculptors such as

tomb of Philip the Bold in charterhouse of Champmol in Dijon.

Isambart and Paul Mosselman, appear to have used the area as a

However, similar figures and niches were produced in the same

staging post on the way south.84 Mercadante would have himself

period by tombiers from the workshops of northern France, for

compiled a collection of model drawings, including examples from

example, by Jean de Liège as part of the tomb of Philippa of

the Southern Netherlands, similar to the one now in the Wiesbaden

Hainault in Westminster Abbey.82 Coming from the same milieu,

Hauptstaatsarchiv.85 And although Mercadante may have travelled

Mercadante must have been familiar with this type of work.

through Burgundy himself, the “Burgundian” influence in his work also reflects his collaboration with Fontaner de Usesques whose

Mercadante’s apostles correspond to the expressive manner

Virgin Blanca in Saragossa (fig. 19) is very like the Virgin Annunciate

pioneered in Flanders and Burgundy by André Beauneveu, Claus

from Saint-Seine-l’Abbaye near Dijon.

Sluter and Claus de Werve, exemplified by the mid-fifteenth

26

century in a Saint James now in the Louvre (figs. 17 and 18). These

The relief angels on the sides of Mercadante’s Cervantes Tomb can

apostles and the rugged terracotta saints Mercadante produced for

again be associated with the art of northern France where the

the Doors of the Baptism and the Nativity have led to his frequent

iconography of supporting angels was developed by the Valois

labelling as a ‘Burgundian’ artist. However, much of what we think

monarchy in the late fourteenth century.86 Shield-bearing angels

of as Burgundian art was itself derived from Flemish and

featured, as mentioned above, in various royal buildings such as the

Fig. 15. Tomb of Philippe de Morviller, marble and limestone, Musée du Louvre, Pa r is. Fig. 16. Effigy of Archbishop Sancho de Rojas, alabaster, Toled o C ath ed r a l . Fig. 17. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Archbishop Juan de Cervantes (detail of apostle), Seville Cathedr a l. Fig. 18. Saint James as a pilgrim (from Semur en Auxois), polychromed limestone, Musée du Louvre, Pa r is. Fig. 19. Fontaner de Usesques, Virgen Blanca, alabaster, La Seo, Sa r a g os s a .

27

Fig. 20. Angel from the tomb of Jeanne de Montejean, unidentified stone, Sociéte Arch éologi que d e Tour ai n e, Tour s. Fig. 21. Saint John the Evangelist, polychromed limestone, Sa inte-Chapelle, Châ teaudun. Fig. 22. Lorenzo Mercadante, Saint John the Evangelist, terracotta, Door of the Nativity, Sev il le Cathedr al.

Fig. 23. Tomb of Bishop Bertrand de Rosmadec, kersantite, Q u imper Cath edr al.

Sainte-Chapelle at Vincennes and the Duke of Berry’s palace in Poitiers. They did not, however, appear often on fifteenth-century tombs, as we know from the drawings commissioned by the antiquarian Roger de Gaignières.87 Most tombs, whether freestanding or in niches, were faced with weepers88 or shields displayed on plain backgrounds. One tomb which did include a shield-bearing angel was that of Jeanne de Montejean which survives to this day in the collegiate church in Bueil-en-Touraine near Tours. Jeanne, who died before 1456, was the first wife of Jean of Bueil, count of Sancerre, admiral

Fig. 24. Effigy of Cardinal La Grange from the church of

of France, lord of several fiefdoms, and a notable figure in the fight

Saint-Martial (detail of chasuble with simulated embroidery),

against the English. Her effigy’s head and hands are marble with

marble, Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon.

89

28

the remainder of the body carved from limestone, and it features a

and hair of the Châteaudun John the Evangelist, for example, are

fashionable headdress and a houppelande heavily embroidered with

very close to its terracotta counterpart in Spain, and the material of

the Bueil arms. Standing near Jeanne’s tomb was a kneeling angel

his garments falls in similar straight, tubular folds (figs. 21 & 22).

(now in the collection of the Sociéte Archéologique de Touraine in

There are, furthermore, parallels between the grisled head of the

Tours,) one of two angels which carry Jeanne’s arms impaled with

Châteaudun John the Baptist and the figures of Saints Mark and

those of her husband (fig. 20). These angels are very close to those

Luke in Seville. Like the saints created by Mercadante, the

on the tomb of Cardenal Cervantes, with similar heavily-lidded

Châteaudun sculptures are more elongated than Burgundian ones

eyes, half-smiles, thick strands of wavy hair, and voluminous albs

of this period, and, in the words of Paul Vitry, the drapery has none

which end in flattened folds around the feet.

of the Burgundian “volume, thickness and complication.” 93

90

91

The tomb at Bueil is one of those associated with the “school of the

Another work featuring angels similar to those on the Cervantes

Loire Valley” centred around Tours but extending from Nantes in

tomb in Seville is the granite tomb of Bishop Bertrand de

the West to Bourges in the East and Rouen in the North. The

Rosmadec (1416 - 1444) in the cathedral of Quimper in Lower

principal sculptor associated with this “school” was Michel

Brittany (fig. 23). The design of the front of this tomb – with a pair

Colombe. One of few sculptors to produce finishes of equivalent

of standing shield-bearing angels in the centre and the crook of a

delicacy to those of Mercadante, Colombe is principally known for

crosier with a cross fleury coming out of the shields to either side

the tomb of Francis II and Marguerite de Foix in Nantes completed

of it – is reminiscent of the design in Seville even if the facture is

in 1507. By then he was nearly 80 years old, and, with almost no

less refined. Flying angels played a particularly large part in the

work documented before this, there has been much speculation

imagery associated with the atelier ducal du Folgoët (the ducal workshop

about the sculptor’s early career. According to a no-longer extant

of Le Folgoët).94 Created in response to the patronage of duke John

inscription on the Nantes tomb, Colombe came from Saint-Pol-de-

VI of Brittany, of whom Bishop Rosmadec was a close associate,

Léon in Brittany, raising the intriguing question of whether he and

this workshop produced the West and South portals of Quimper

Mercadante developed their skills in the same workshops.

Cathedral and may well have been responsible for the Rosmadec

Also associated with the Loire Valley school are the sculptures in the

Martyre, produced by the same workshop, are more rustic

Sainte-Chapelle at Châteaudun (between Tours and Rouen), ca. 1460.

versions of those on the tombs in Bueil and Seville. Mercadante

Some of these figures are are very similar to Mercadante’s on the

must have known the church at La Martyre and the Rosmadec

Door of the Nativity in Seville. The composition, facial features,

tomb from his early years in Brittany.

92

tomb as well. The angels on the portal of the church of La

Fig. 25. Tomb of Charles d’Artois, marble and polychromed limestone, c o l l eg i ate church of N otreDa me et Sa intL a urent, E u.

29

Lorenzo Mercadante: the Master of Charles d’Artois?

fifteenth-century French sculpture, believes it was exceptional.98 One of the few partly-extant tomb ensembles from this period

As noted above, the bravura carving on Cardinal Cervantes’

which does have highly decorated surfaces is that of Charles

vestments is the most difficult aspect of Mercadante’s skills to place.

d’Artois (1393 - 1471) and his first wife, Jeanne de Saveuse, in the

Although the mitres of the effigies of Sancho de Rojas and

collegiate church of Eu on the coast north of Rouen (fig. 25).99

Cardinal Juan de Cerezuela in Toledo, both produced ca. 1440, are

Charles was related to the royal family (his mother being the

embroidered in a similar manner, the embroidery of the vestments

daughter of Duke Jean de Berry), and played a key role in the

in Seville is far more extensive. One of few French effigies to feature

recovery of Normandy from the British in 1450.100 The very fine

this type of simulated embroidery is that of Cardinal La Grange in

effigies are thought to have been made around this time, Jeanne

Avignon, produced ca. 1400 and attributed to Pierre Morel and his

having died in 1448. The tomb bases were destroyed during the

workshop (fig. 24). It is thought that Morel’s original training as a

French Revolution but are known from a drawing commissioned by

sculptor was in the circle of Jean de Liège so Mercadante may have

the antiquarian Roger de Gagnières. The heads and hands are

seen the La Grange tomb himself, but it is also possible that there

carved in marble whilst the remainder of the bodies is limestone,

were other effigies like it in northern France. The La Grange effigy

and both the garments and the crowns are worked with extensive

is carved from marble, but the stone preux effigies commissioned by

decorative carving (fig. 26). As the subjects wear relatively plain

Louis d’Orléans for his castle at Pierrefonds indicate that

secular clothing, and the material is limestone, it is impossible to

embroidered surfaces could be produced in stone too, and for

compare it directly to the carving in Seville. Nevertheless, it does

important secular figures as well as ecclesiastics.

show the sculptor’s interest and skill in the enrichment of surface

97

areas. Traces of polychromy on Charles’s mantelet or short cape

30

As the Gaignières tomb drawings provide little information about

show that it originally royal blue covered with raised fleur-de-lys.

the treatment of surface, the question of the incidence of simulated

Baudoin attributes the works to the “Master of Charles d’Artois,

embroidery of the type on the La Grange tomb remains to be

(ca. 1450)” and notes the delicacy of the long fingers and modelling

answered. Jacques Baudoin, one of the foremost scholars of

of the faces.101

With very similar heavy-lidded almond eyes, wide noses, and halfsmiles, the facial features of the Artois couple are idealised rather than portrait-like (fig.27). They represent contemporary notions of nobility, serenity and beauty, reminiscent of the earlier sculpture of the Virgin of Marcoussis attributed to Jean de Cambrai. They stand out in comparison to the portrait-like effigies of contemporaries such as of Philippe de Morviller. This ideal portrayal was clearly requested by the donors, perhaps Jeanne’s or Charles’ families given that Jeanne had died some time beforehand and Charles is likely to have been away fighting. The Artois physiognomies are also very close to the idealised faces

Fig. 26. Tomb of Jeanne de Saveuse (detail of effigy), marble and polychromed limestone, collegiate ch u rch of Notre-Dame et Saint-Laurent, Eu.

Mercadante gave the Virgen del Buen Fin presented here and his

Fig. 27. Tomb of Jeanne de Saveuse (detail of effigy),

sculptures on the façade of Seville Cathedral discussed below

marble and polychromed limestone, collegiate ch u rch

(fig. 28). The Artois hands, with long tapered fingers, are also

of Notre-Dame et Saint-Laurent, Eu.

similar to Mercadante’s, and the sculptor’s interest and skill in surface decoration is comparable. On the basis of these parallels

Fig. 28. Lorenzo Mercadante, Virgen del Buen Fin (detail)

and the fact that sculptor was working for the French royal family in

from the Palacio Topete, terracotta, Coll & Cortés, Madrid.

northern France just as Mercadante was being called to Seville from frança, it is possible that the Master of Charles d’Artois was the same person as Lorenzo Mercadante.

31

Mercadante’s terracotta sculptures The last recorded payment to Mercadante for the Cervantes Tomb was in early 1458.102 By this time he had also produced an alabaster Virgin and Child, thought to be the Virgen del Madroño (the Virgin of the Strawberry Tree) in one of the cathedral’s eastern chapels. The 1458 payment was for the tomb’s “estorias” – probably the apostles – indicating that the work was by then nearly complete. There is then a gap in the Libros de Fábrica until 1462, and no further mention of the tomb after that. The next payments to Mercadante were in 1464, 1467 and 1468, referring to images of clay (barro) for the cathedral but apparently with no further details.103 Over the course of the following centuries, Mercadante’s authorship of the sculptures was forgotten; they were instead attributed to the better-known figure, Pedro Millán.104 It was only in 1911 that the eminent art historian Manuel Gómez-Moreno related the documented payments in the Libros de Fábrica to the extraordinary terracotta sculptures on the Baptism and Nativity Doors, calling Mercadante “the greatest sculptor of this period.”105 Having come to Seville to make an alabaster tomb, Mercadante was asked by the chapter around 1458 to produce sculptures for the new portals.106 Finding that the local stone from the Cerro de San Cristobal was not suitable for fine carving, the Breton must have had to come up quickly with an alternative. Within a few years he had produced twelve saints for the jambs (fig.29) as well as the very innovative relief of the Nativity in one of the tympana (see figs. 4 & 5). How did he decide on terracotta? The production of glazed ceramics had been an important economic activity in Andalusia from the time of the Islamic conquest, and, as Bruce Boucher points out, pottery and terracotta sculpture can be said to have progressed together during the fifteenth century: potters experimented with glazes and gave sculptors advice on preparing and firing models.107 On the other hand, there was no local tradition of terracotta sculpture,108 and Mercadante is unlikely to have known how to produce high-quality terracotta pieces on the scale required and for exterior display. It is documented that Northern sculptors such as Michel Colombe used terracotta for small maquettes, but even if these were full scale (as was Claus Sluter’s plaster model for the Well of Moses in Dijon), quality and durability would not have been an issue.109

32

There were several terracotta altarpieces from Utrecht in northern France which Mercadante appears to have seen although these did not provide him with the necessary technical know-how. (fig. 30).110 The clay in Utrecht is difficult to handle, and these works were produced using moulds rather than modelled like the ones in Seville. The figures lack the scale and refinement of Mercadante’s but there are parallels in the manner of creating depth and in some of the imagery which are discussed below. As someone who had worked for sophisticated patrons in France and Seville, Mercadante must also have known about the monumental sculpture and reliefs in terracotta – some of them exterior - being made then in Italy and Germany. It is possible that he had an assistant in Seville who came from one of these areas and had direct knowledge of monumental terracotta production. However - given the break of at least two years (and perhaps more) in the production period and the sophistication of his technique, it is also possible that Mercadante travelled to Italy or Germany to learn about making large-scale terracotta sculpture himself. It is clearly established that sculptors travelled considerable distances for employment and were sometimes sent by patrons to see other desirable works.111 As Teresa Laguna describes in detail, the facture of Mercadante’s terracotta sculptures is extremely complex. Even if clay was widely available, great skill was required in preparing it for use and recipes were closely guarded secrets within sculptors’ workshops.

112

For the jamb figures, the clay was worked upwards

Fig. 29. Lorenzo Mercadante, Saint Mark, terracotta, Door of the Nativity, Seville Cathedral.

from the base in lumps, which were pressed down, and sheets, which were joined together with additional strips of clay.113 These areas were left to dry a bit in order to take the weight of new layers, but taking care that the core retained sufficient plasticity for these additions to adhere. Each of Mercadante’s terracotta

Fig. 30 Retable of Catelon (detail of Nativity) from the church of Catelon-Flancourt in the Eure, wood and polychromed terracotta, 95 x 184 x 18 cm. (37.4 x 72.4 x 7.1 in.), Musée des Antiquités de Seine-Maritime, Rouen.

figures for the cathedral measures 170 – 180 cm (67 – 71 in), approximately the same height as the Virgen del Buen Fin presented in this catalogue. Folds in the drapery and other raised areas could be added directly onto the core or modelled separately as is the case with arms and hands. These appendages ended in cones designed to fit into cavities in the torso, the edges serrated to facilitate adhesion before the application of ceramic slip. Areas requiring deep folds were also made by addition of separate sheets of clay, the joins hidden under belts and seams. Details such as hair, textured cloth and wrinkles were modelled with punches, serrated spatula and other instruments.

33

Once the modelling was complete, the figure was divided by means

in the fifteenth century,) and during a survey of the sculptures from

of a wire cutter into pieces which could be fired. This division also

the cathedral portals in the late 1980s, several reparations were

enabled thinning of the undersides to reduce the weight of the

found, some of which may be original. These breakages and gaps due

finished sculpture and danger of explosion in the kiln. The

to shrinkage were filled with ceramic inserts and covered during

sculptures on the cathedral doors are cut below the shoulders and at

polychromy of the finished sculpture. It is testament to

waist and knee levels. The reverses have apertures cut into them

Mercadante’s technical sophistication that much of the degradation

which permit steam to escape during firing. The production of the

of the sculptures found during restoration is related to later

reliefs must have been particularly complex. The Nativity combines

interventions, even if damage from exposure to the elements,

three scenes – the Holy Family with the midwife Zelomi and angels,

pollution and environmental vibration has also been significant.116

the Annunciation to the Shepherds, and the townspeople of Bethlehem – with traceried canopies, in varying levels of relief. The

The final stage in Mercandante’s technique was to enhance the surface

different scenes were created and fired in a series of plates which

of the clay. Skin areas were burnished with spatulas and details such

were then fitted together. The Infant and angels above him in the

as lip lines could be incised into the fired clay (see fig. 28).117 The

Nativity were, for example, modelled as one plate.114 Some parts such

remainder might have been polychromed, as was standard practice

as the town of Bethlehem and Annunciation to the Shepherds were

in both Germany and Italy,118 but it is not clear how closely

modelled directly by hand with little use of instruments. The

Mercadante conformed to this, and whether his exterior and

complex division of the Nativity into constituent pieces is evident from

interior works were treated differently.119 Parts of the portal

close examination (fig. 31). The firing process creates shrinkage of up

sculptures are primed with a layer of gesso tinted with ochre.

to 15% which can result in gaps between the pieces which must be

Traces of blue – which must have been painted on with a brush

filled with additional clay.

115

Firing also carries a high risk of

breakage (particularly in the hard-to-control wood-burning kilns used

34

– have been found on the Nativity as well as gold on the Infant’s head and stars around it.120 The jamb sculptures, on the other

Fig. 31. Lorenzo Mercadante, Nativity

hand, retain no polychromy although there are areas of gesso

(detail), terracotta, Door of the Nativity,

primer. As detailed in Teresa Laguna’s article and the conservation

Sevi lle Cathedral.

report in this publication, there are traces of polychromy and gilding on the Virgen del Buen Fin presented here. Works such as the

Fig. 32. Michele da Firenze, Adoration of

alabaster Virgen del Madroño in Seville Cathedral are today fully

the Magi, terracotta, B asilica o f Santa

polychromed but it is not known how much of this is original.

Anas tas i a, Vero na.

Although it is clear that for Mercadante working in clay was inspirational, aspects of his production methods remind us that terracotta was not his original specialization. He chose not to glaze his sculptures (like those of Andrea della Robia) even though the technique was already known by this time and would have produced a more durable surface;121 although this choice may have been purely aesthetic, it may also have been because he wanted to avoid the added risk of firing the sculptures for a second time. Furthermore, the burnishing of areas of skin without apparent addition of polychromy – or perhaps only minimal colour – suggests that Mercadante’s approach may have been conditioned by his practice as a sculptor in alabaster: in this medium, the translucence of the stone was prized and skin was polished rather than polychromed.122

35

The questions of whether Mercadante left Iberia to learn about

associated with the production of models for major sculptural

large-scale terracotta production and, if so, where, are intriguing.

projects. These early three-dimensional models were generally

In addition to Utrecht, there was an important centre of terracotta

small-scale and would represent finished designs rather than

production in central Germany, producing mainly small- and

exploratory sketches. By 1420, however, terracotta sculptures of the

medium-sized sculptures such as the Eberbach Virgin and a series

Virgin and Child were being produced as finished objects of devotion

of apostles from Nuremberg ca. 1400 (now in the Germanisches

and are recorded in domestic settings. Many of these sculptures are

Nationalmuseum).

123

By the 1450s and 60s this part of Europe was

a hub of creativity, populated by figures such as Master E.S. and

associated with the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti which included Donatello, Michelozzo and Michele da Firenze.

Nikolaus Gerhaert von Leyden. However, although the vivid terracotta relief Adoration in the Liebighaus is reminiscent of

Clay was affordable and durable, and its ease of manipulation

Mercadante, it is only 30 cm (12 in) high; there is no evidence of

unleashed new creative possibilities combining the pictorial and the

production of large-scale terracotta reliefs in northern Europe like

plastic. One the most spectacular early fifteenth-century examples

the ones in Seville. If Mercadante had travelled, it would surely

is Michele da Firenze’s series of twenty-four large terracotta reliefs

have been in response to the challenge of producing reliefs for the

for the Pellegrini Chapel in Santa Anastasia in Verona (fig. 32).

sizeable tympana as well as figures for the jambs.

Produced between 1433 and 1436, they follow on from – and were originally painted and gilded to look like – the bronze Baptistery

It was in the Italian peninsula that large terracotta reliefs were

Doors produced in Ghiberti’s studio where Michele had worked.125

being produced. The Marches, Lombardy and Piedmont were all

The polyscenic model developed for the reliefs on these doors

areas with poor supplies of high-quality marble but abundant

enabled viewers to involve themselves emotionally in the narrative

supplies of clay.

124

Although terracotta had been used since ancient

times, its development in the early fifteenth century was initially

of biblical stories.126 As in Mercadante’s relief of the Nativity, architectural structures and landscape features such as hills and

Fig. 34. Master E.S., Nativity, engraving, ca. 1460, KupferstichKabinett, Dresden.

Fig. 33. Bedford Master, Annunciation to the Shepherds, the Bedford Hours, London, British Library, Add. Ms. 18850, f. 70v.

36

Fig. 35. Master E.S., St Peter, engraving, ca.1450-60, N ati o n a l G a ller y of A r t, Wa s hing ton D.C .

37

trees serve as skeletons, with successive episodes distributed inside

same mould) is similar to the Virgin in Mercadante’s Nativity,

and around them. Overlapping of distant objects behind others

wearing a fitted gown with a pleated skirt and mantle draped out

along with diminution of scale is used to imply recession, although

behind her. Joseph in Seville is comparable in pose and scale to the

there is no real grasp of linear perspective as there was by this time

foremost angel in the Utrecht compositions, as is the Seville Infant

in Donatello’s Saint George tabernacle at Orsanmichele in Florence.

to the one in Fours-en-Vexin (the only Infant out of all three of the

Nevertheless, the Verona reliefs were a major undertaking. As Bruce

Utrecht-made retables to remain reasonably intact). The work in

Boucher underlines, they would have been unthinkable without

Fours-en-Vexin also features a similar projecting pitched roof and

Michele’s extensive experience in Ghiberti’s studio.

wicker fences to those made by Mercadante. All follow a tradition

127

apparently established by earlier artists such as Robert Campin and Both the Verona reliefs and Mercadante’s Nativity are closer to the

the Master of Bedford in which apocryphal and anecdotal detail

pre-linear perspective approach to spatial organization. The

was central (fig. 33). The midwife in Mercadante’s Nativity is typical

principal scenes are played out in the lower foreground while the

of this detail and unprecedented in the Sevillian context. 129

upper half of the space is used for preceding episodes in the narrative. The latter are peopled by miniature figures: in the Verona

Teresa Laguna has recently suggested that Mercadante’s Nativity

Adoration of the Magi, for example, we see the procession of the Magi

was influenced by motifs from engravings by Master E.S., citing, for

caravan; in Seville, we see the Annunciation to the Shepherds, and

example, the stable behind Mary with its wicker fence, the Virgin’s

the people of Bethlehem who appear to have seen the star

crossed arms, the midwife with her lantern (which has become a

announcing the birth of Jesus. These miniature scenes are modelled

ciborium in the Seville relief,) and the Annunciation to the

freely by hand in both Verona and Seville. Given these similarities,

Shepherds (fig. 34).130 Although some of the engravings to which

it is tempting to speculate Lorenzo Mercadante travelled as far as

she refers were only produced ca. 1460 – making Mercadante one

Verona to prepare for his works in Seville. The trip would have

of the first artists to use engravings in Iberia131 – they do seem to

been relatively straightforward, probably by means of boat to

have circulated rapidly and were often purchased by professional

Genoa with the remainder covered overland.

craftsmen.132 As Laguna points out, engravers such as Master E.S. were themselves influenced by earlier Netherlandish painting and

However, there are also important differences between the Verona

illumination, and became an important vehicle for the rapid

and Seville reliefs. In Verona, the sculptor has worked in relatively

transmission of early and mid-fifteenth-century Netherlandish and

low relief throughout. In Seville, on the other hand, the principal

German compositions and motifs throughout Europe.133 But if

scene in the foreground is modelled in high relief, creating a more

some of Mercadante’s compositions resemble those in these

three-dimensional effect. This is comparable to the Nativities from

engravings, it is only in the most general way.

several Utrecht-made terracotta retables in northern France which project out of their shallow caisses on account of secondary reliefs placed behind them (see fig. 30).

128

This sense of depth is

A slightly closer comparison can be made between Mercadante’s Saint Michael (now in Sanlúcar la Mayor; see fig. 59 in Teresa

accentuated in both the works from Utrecht and Mercadante’s by

Laguna’s article in this publication) and the figure of a knight in the

projecting architectural canopies which were also typical of

Knight and a Lady, produced by Master E.S. ca. 1460 - 1465. Even

southern Netherlandish carved retables. Mercadante also followed

here, however, Mercadante’s subject is more elongated, with a

the Utrecht retables’ placement of the figures at oblique angles to

flowing cloak, like the stone Saint Michael from the Île-de-France or

the viewer, thereby avoiding extreme foreshortening and avoiding

Picardy ca. 1475 now in the Louvre. On the other hand,

the loss of depth which comes from arranging everything parallel

engravings – or perhaps earlier woodcuts – could explain the type

with the picture plane.

of drapery modelled by Mercadante with its voluminous,

128

geometrical folds and, in some of the sculptures, decorative,

38

There are, furthermore, compositional and stylistic similarities

complicated hemlines. This drapery features prominently in the

between the Utrecht retables and Mercadante’s reliefs. The

engravings of Master E.S. (fig. 35) and represented a significant

kneeling Virgin in the Utrecht-made Nativities of Saint Lambert,

shift away from the softer, flatter folds, for example, of the French

Catelon-Flancourt and Fours-en-Vexin (all produced using the

sculptures at Châteaudun.

Lorenzo Mercadente, founder of a new tradition of terracotta sculpture The arrival of Lorenzo Mercadante in Seville in 1454 marked the beginning a new era in the production of superlative Spanish terracotta. Mercadante had his own followers in Seville, some of whom may have participated in his workshop assisting in the production of the Virgins described by Teresa Laguna in her article in this publication. One of these followers was Pedro Millán, whose signed prophets sit in the archivolts above Mercadante’s reliefs (fig. 36) and whose Virgen del Pilar is one of the most beautiful in the cathedral. A few decades later came the French sculptor Michel Perrin who produced the stunning terracotta reliefs for the Doors of the Perdón, Palos and Entrada en Jerusalén. And in the late seventeenth century the Sevillian-born Luisa Roldán – the only woman to be named Sculptor to the King – would become famous for her small terracotta groups. Lorenzo Mercadante’s tomb of Cardinal Cervantes in Seville Cathedral ranks among the most beautifully-carved works in alabaster of the fifteenth century. But it was his sculptures in terracotta – bringing together the vivid imagery of the ars nova developed in Flanders in the early fifteenth century with the technique of terracotta developed in Italy in the same period – that marked Mercadante out as a world-class sculptor. It is extraordinary that he has not yet received the attention given to other great artists of the era such as Claus Sluter and Nikolaus Gerhaert. Mercadante’s Saints Rufina, Hermenegildo and Mark, like his Virgin, Joseph and Zelomi, are memorable figures, unlike any others in northern or Mediterranean Europe. The Virgen del Buen Fin presented in this catalogue, produced in the same period, is the work of an artist at the height of his creative power. If Lorenzo Mercadante was an excellent sculptor in alabaster, he was a genius in terracotta.

Fig. 36. Pedro Millán, Prophet, terracotta, Door of the Nativity, Seville Cathedral.

39

not e s

1

S. Miranda, “Cervantes, Juan de (ca. 1380-1453),” in The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Florida International University Libraries, 1998-2015.

2

“LORENÇO MERCADANTE OF BRITTANY CARVED THIS TOMB.”

3

See Teresa Laguna’s article in this catalogue.

4

See e.g., F. Fernández-Armesto, Amerigo: The man who gave his name to America, (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006), pp. 45-47.

5

The most comprehensive account of the political history of this period is L. Suárez Fernández, A. Canellas López & J. Vicens Vives, Los Trastámaras de Castilla y Aragón en el siglo XV: Juan II y Enrique IV de Castilla (1407-1474). El Compromiso de Caspe, Fernando I, Alfonso V y Juan II de Aragón (1410-1479), 4th ed., vol. 15. (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1986). Also see T. Ruiz, Spain’s Centuries of Crisis: 1300-1474 (Malden; Oxford: Blackwell, 2007); A. MacKay, Spain in the Middle Ages: From Frontier to Empire, 1000-1500 (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1977). On the rise of the “new” nobility, see e.g., S. de Moxó, “De la nobleza vieja a la nobleza nueva. La transformación nobiliaria castellana en la baja Edad Media,” Cuadernos de historia: Anexos de la revista Hispania 3 (1969); F. Foronda, “La privanza, entre monarquía y nobleza,” in La monarquía como conflicto en la Corona castellano-leonesa (c. 1230-1504), ed. J.M. Nieto Soria (Madrid: Sílex, 2006), p. 74.

6

N. Elias, The Court Society, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983). Luna’s use of political patronage to build a power base is described by various authors, e.g., L. Suárez Fernández, Nobleza y monarquía: Puntos de vista sobre la historia castellana del siglo XV (Valladolid: Gráficas Andrés Martín, 1959); Ruiz, Spain’s Centuries of Crisis, p. 91.

7

A. Rucquoi, “Français et castillans: Une ‘internationale”chevalresque’” in Actes du 111e congrès national des Sociétés savantes, Poitiers 1986 (Paris: Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 1986), p. 409. Also see T. Ruiz, A King Travels: Festive Traditions in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain (Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2012), pp. 53-82; M. de Riquer, Caballeros andantes españoles (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1967); J. Yarza Luaces, La nobleza ante el rey (Madrid: Ediciones el Viso, 2003), pp. 14-18.

8

“…muy guarnida de panos franceses, e de otros panos de seda e de oro... Las mesas estaban ordenadas, e puesto todo lo que convenio a serbicio dellas; e entre las otras mesas sobian unas gradas fasta una messa alta, el cielo e las espealdas della era cobierto de muy ricos panos de brocado de oro, fechas a muy nueva manera. En esta mesa avia de comer el Rey y la Reyna...” A. de Luna, A. Castellanos, R. Chacel, J. de Mata Carriazo & Alvar García de Santa María, Crónica de don Álvaro de Luna, condestable de Castilla, maestro de Santiago (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1940), p. 2219.

9

P. Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 1435-1439. Trans. and ed. M.H. Ikin Letts (London: G. Routledge, 1926), chap. 23.

10 J. Finot, Étude historique sur les relations commerciales entre la Flandre et l’Espagne au Moyen Âge (Paris: A. Picard et fils, 1899), pp. 77-165. 11 J. Mathorez, “Notes sur les rapports de Nantes avec l’Espagne,” Bulletin Hispanique, vols. 14 & 15, 1912 & 1913; J. Kerhervé & J. Tanguy, eds., 1491. La Bretagne, terre d’Europe, colloque international, Brest, 2-4 octobre 1991 (Brest: CRBC / Société archéologique du Finistère, 1991). These contacts included a tour of Brittany by Saint Vincent Ferrer who was invited to come in 1418 by Duke Jean V (1399-1442) and died in Vannes the following year. 12 See e.g., A. M. Yuste Galán, “La introducción del arte flamígero en Castilla: Pedro Jalopa, Maestro de los Luna,” Archivo español de arte 77, no. 307, 2004, p. 291; J. Yarza Luaces, Los Reyes Catolicos: Paisaje artistico de una monarquía (Madrid: Nerea, 1993), p. 374. 13 J. Ibáñez Fernández, “Con el correr del sol: Isambart, Pedro Jalopa y La renovación del gótico final en la península ibérica durante la primera mitad del siglo XV,” Biblioteca: Estudio e investigación 26, 2011, pp. 220-226. There are no women mentioned in the records to the author’s knowledge. In fact, several of the craftsmen mentioned below married locally. 14 There had been masons in Iberia from a much earlier date, but these seem to have been generally “imported” by bishops for specific projects. The account books of La Seo Cathedral in Lleida from 1397 to 1410, for example, reveal significant number of foreigners, many working as piquers (masons). About 70% of them worked there for under one year, less than 20% for two years and only about 10% stayed from 3-5 years. See C. Argilés i Aluja, “L’activitat laboral a la Seu entre 1395 i 1410 a través dels llibres d’obra,” in Congrés de la Seu Vella de Lleida: Actes Lleida, 6-9 març 1991, eds. F. Vilà &

41

I. Lorés (Lleida: Pagès, 1991), pp. 235-236. Various authors confirm the low numbers

de Navarra en París, de rehén a promotor de las artes,” In El intercambio artístico entre los

of northern masons working in Castile before the 1440s, e.g., see B. Gilman Proske,

reinos hispanos y las cortes europeas en la baja Edad Media, eds., M.C. Cosmen Alonso, M.V.

Castilian Sculpture, Gothic to Renaissance (New York: The Hispanic Society of America,

Herráez Ortega & M. Pellón Gómez-Calcerrada (Leon: Universidad de León, 2009).

1951), p. 7.

394-395; C. Fernández-Ladreda Aguadé, “La escultura en Navarra en la primera mit-

15 Arxiu de la Catedral de Barcelona, Llibre d’Obra, anys 1407-1409, fol.42: “Depeses

ad del siglo XV, Johan Lome y su círculo,” Anales de historia del arte 22 (2012), pp. 7-37;

fetes per fer la mostra del portal maior la qual feu mestre Carli francés…” cited in F.

Ibáñez Fernández, “Con el correr del sol,” pp. 201-226. Fernández-Ladreda provides

Carreras Candi, “Les obres de la catedral de Barcelona, 1298-1445,” Boletin de la Real

a survey of the various theories about Lome’s origins and whether he worked at the

academia de buenas letras de Barcelona 7 (1913-14), p. 443. More recently, see C. Argilés

French court and/or for Philip the Bold before coming to Navarre in “La escultura en

i Aluja, “Maestre Carlín en Cataluña,” in Magna Hispalensis: Los primeros años, ed. A.

Navarra en tiempos del Compromiso de Caspe,” Artigrama 26 (2011), pp. 185-242.

Jiménez Martín (Seville: Taller Dereçeo, 2008), pp. 61-87. Although Carlí’s designs

25 M.T. Pérez Higuera, “Ferrand González y los sepulcros del taller toledano (1385-

were not implemented, the magnificent original drawing (on twelve sheets of parchment) survives in the cathedral archive. 16 C. Argilés i Aluja, Preus i salaris a la Seu de Lleida dels segles XIV i XV segons els llibres d’obra

27 Ibid., p.58.

de la Seu (Alicante: Biblioteca virtual Miguel de Cervantes, 1999, 1993), p. 56; T. La-

28 Fernández Ladreda ,”La escultura en Navarra en la primera mitad del siglo XV,” pp. 7-37.

guna Paúl, “Las portadas del Bautismo y del Nacimiento en la Catedral de Sevilla,”

29 Agapito y Revilla in La cathedral de Palencia (Palencia: Abundio Z. Menéndez, 1896); J.

Bienes Culturales 1, 2002, pp. 83-101. 17 Argilés i Aluja, Preus i salaris a la Seu de Lleida, p. 56; Torres Balbás claimed that Isambart was the same person as ‘Isumben,’ Juan II’s cantero mayor in 1432, but provided no documentary evidence. See L. Torres Balbás, Arquitectura gótica (Madrid: Editorial Plus Ultra, 1952), p. 265. 18 Ibáñez Fernández, “Con el correr del sol,” p. 205.

Martínez de Aguirre, “El siglo XV en las catedrales de Pamplona y Palencia,” in La Piedra postrera, pp. 115-148; Ruiz Souza, García Flores, “Notas acerca de Ysambart, maestro mayor de la catedral de Palencia,” pp. 123-128. 30 Ruiz Souza, García Flores, “Ysambart y la renovación del gótico final en Castilla: Palencia, La capilla del contador Saldaña en Tordesillas y Sevilla. Hipótesis,” pp. 4376; B. Alonso Ruiz & J. Martínez de Aguirre, “Arquitectura en la Corona de Castilla

19 J. Duverger, De brusselsche Steenbickeleren, Beeldhouwers, Bouwmeesters, Metselaars, enz. der

en torno a 1412,” Artigrama 26 (2011), pp. 125-147; Ibáñez Fernández, “Con el cor-

XIVe en XVe eeuw : Met een Aanhangsel over Klaas Sluter en zijn brusselsche Medewerkers te Dijon

rer del sol,” pp. 220-226; F. Villaseñor Sebastián, “Nuevas aportaciones a la historia

(Gent: A. Vyncke, 1933), p. 40. The name ‘Wouter Ysanbaert’ also appears on in 1397

constructiva de la capilla del contador Saldaña (Real Monasterio de Santa Clara de

on fol. 23.

Tordesillas) (c. 1430-1435) y su importancia en la renovación del gótico castellano,”

20 J. Ibáñez Fernández & J. Criado Mainar, “El maestro Isambart en Aragón: La capilla

in Actas del octavo congreso nacional de historia de la construcción, Madrid, 9-12 October, 2013,

de los Corporales de Daroca y sus intervenciones en la catedral de la Seo de Zaragoza,”

eds. S. Huerta & F. López Ulloa (Madrid: Instituto Juan de Herrera, 2013), vol. 2, p.

in La Piedra postrera. Simposium internacional sobre la catedral de Sevilla en el contexto del gótico

1037; B. Alonso Ruiz, “Una montea gótica en la capilla Saldaña de Santa Clara de

final, ed. A. Jiménez Martín (Seville: Cabildo Metropolitano de Sevilla, 2007), vol. 2,

Tordesillas,” in Actas del octavo congreso nacional de historia de la construcción, vol.1, p. 35;

pp. 75-113. The contracts for the Saragossa chapel are published on pp.103-105. In

N. Jennings. ‘The Chapel of Contador Saldaña at Santa Clara de Tordesillas: New

these documents, the name is spelt as Isanbart, Ysanbart, Isambart and Ysambar.

Proposals about its Original Appearance and Role in the Fashioning of Identity by

21 M. Martínez García, J. L. Corral Lafuente & J. J. Borque Ramón, Guía de Daroca

an Early Fifteenth-Century Converso,’ (London: PhD thesis, Courtauld Institute of

(Saragossa: C.E.D., 1994), p. 52; Ibáñez Fernández & Criado Mainar, “El maestro

Art, 2015).

Isambart en Aragón,” pp. 75-108; A. García Flores & J.C. Ruiz Souza, “Notas acerca

31 M. Gómez-Moreno, “Jooskén de Utrecht, arquitecto y escultor?” Boletín de la Sociedad

de Ysambart, maestro mayor de la catedral de Palencia,” in Las catedrales de España. Jor-

Castellana de Excursiones, 1911, p. 64. For the full text of the epitaph, see Antonio Ponz,

nadas técnicas de los conservadores de catedrales (Alcalá de Henares: Universidad de Alcalá,

Viage de España: En que se da noticia de las cosas mas apreciables, y dignas de saberse, que hay en

1997), pp. 123-128; J.C. Ruiz Souza & A. García Flores, “Ysambart y la renovación

ella, 2nd ed. (Madrid: Por don Joachin Ibarra, 1776-1788), p. 138. It is not known

del gótico final en Castilla: Palencia, La capilla del contador Saldaña en Tordesillas y

when or how the epitaph to Guillem disappeared, but it was clearly still there when

Sevilla. Hipótesis para debate,” Anales de historia del arte 19, 2009, pp. 47-49. No documentation survives concerning the chapel in Daroca.

Gómez-Moreno visited the chapel ca. 1911. 32 Rather than, as Gómez-Moreno had concluded, the city of Leon in Spain. Subse-

22 Yuste Galán, “La introducción del arte flamígero en Castilla,” 296, note 29. See Tere-

quent research has found no records of Guillem in the cathedral archives. See W.

sa Laguna’s article in this publication for the names of other northern masons associ-

Merino Rubio, Arquitectura hispanoflamenca en León (Leon: Instituto Leonés de Cultura,

ated with Isambart and Jalopa in Saragossa.

1974), p. 30.

23 P. Quarré, “Le retable de la capilla de los Corporales de la collegiale de Daroca et le

33 Juan’s name is mentioned in a table of masses to be said in the chapel as “master of the

sculpteur Jean de la Huerta,” in Actas del XXIII congreso internacional de historia del arte:

towers and cimborio.” See R. Kasl, The Making of Hispano-Flemish Style: Art, Commerce,

España entre el Mediterraneo y el Atlantico. Universidad de Granada, Departamento de Historia del

and Politics in Fifteenth-Century Castile (Turnhout: Brill, 2013) p. 58. His epitaph in the

Arte, septiembre de 1976 (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 1976), p. 459.

cathedral’s chapel of the Visitación refers to him as “Joan de Colonia, maestre mayor

24 Bertaux transcribed Lome’s signature, ‘Johan le Home de Tournai, tailleur d’images.’

de las torres e cimborio desta yglesia Cathedral.” See T. López Mata, “La Capilla de

See E. Bertaux, “La mausolée de Charles le Noble à Pampelune et l’art franco-fla-

la Visitación y el Obispo D. Alonso de Cartagena,” Boletín del Instituto Fernán González

mand en Navarre,” Gazette des beaux-arts 11, no. 12 (1908): 103-109; G. Troescher, Die

26, 1947, pp. 101, 633-639.

burgundische Plastik des ausgehenden Mittelaters und ihre Wirkungen auf die europäische Kunst,

34 See below, note 52.

vol. 1. (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1940); D. Roggen, “Prae-sluteriaanse, sluteriaanse,

35 A. de Lalaing, “Voyage de Philippe le Beau en Espagne en 1501,” in Collection des

post-sluteriaanse nederlanse Sculptuur,” Gentsche Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis XVI

voyages des souverains des Pays-Bas., vol. 1., ed. L.-P. Gachard (1876), p. 166.

(1956), pp. 111-191; R. S. Janke, Jehan Lome y la escultura gótica posterior en Navarra, vol.

36 L. Campbell, “Rogier van der Weyden and the kingdoms of Iberia,” in Rogier van der

3 (Pamplona: Diputación Foral de Navarra, Institución Príncipe de Viana, Consejo

Weyden and the kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, ed. L. Campbell (Madrid: Museo Nacion-

Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1977), pp. 31-53; J. W. Steyaert & M. Tahon-Vanroose, Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands (Ghent; New York: Ludion Press, 1994), pp. 51-53; J. Martínez de Aguirre, “La rueda de la fortuna: Carlos III

42

1410),” Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte 44 (1978), pp. 129-141 26 Janke, Jehan Lome y la escultura gótica, pp. 51-53.

al del Prado, 2015) p.40. 37 Archivo del Catedral de Toledo, Registro de Escrituras, O. F. 1274, fol. 39v, 51v y 72v. Apéndice, doc. n.° 7 (cited in Yuste Galán, “La introducción del arte flamígero en Castilla,” p. 296).

38 J. M. Azcárate, “El maestro Hanequín de Bruselas,” Archivo español de arte 21, no. 83 (1948), p. 173; J.M. Azcárate, Arte gótico en España (Madrid: Cátedra, 1990), p. 117. 39 E. M. Kavaler, Renaissance Gothic: Architecture and the Arts in Northern Europe, 1470-1540 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), pp. 122-3. 40 R. Domínguez Casas, Arte y etiqueta de los Reyes Católicos: artistas, residencias, jardines y bosques (Madrid: Alpuerto, 1993), p.39. 41 G. Rubio & I. Acemel, “El Maestro Egas en Guadelupe,” Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones 20, 3, (1912), pp. 192-229.

60 T. Laguna Paúl, “De la línea al volúmen: génesis figurativa y modelos grabados en la obra de Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña,” in Copia e Invención. Modelos, réplicas, series y citas en la escultura europea. II encuentro internacional de museos y colecciones de escultura (Valladolid: Museo Nacional de Escultura, 2013), p. 139. 61 Reina Giraldez, “Llegada a Sevilla,” p.144. 62 D. Hackett Kawasaki, “The Castilian Fathers at the Council of Basel” (Madison: PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin, 2008), pp.164-165. 63 Higuera, “Ferrand González,” p. 581.

42 Domínguez Casas, Arte y etiqueta de los Reyes Católicos, pp. 29-36.

64 This has been suggested e.g., by F. Reina Giraldez, “Llegada a Sevilla,” p. 144.

43 M.A. Benito Pradillo, “La Catedral de Ávila. Evolución constructiva y analisis estruc-

65 J. Mathorez, “Notes sur les rapports de Nantes avec l’Espagne,” p.123.

tural” (Madrid: PhD thesis, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 2011), p.346. 44 M. López Díez, “Juan Guas en la Catedral de Segovia,” Archivo Español de Arte 79, 315 (2006), pp. 301-305. 45 On the patronage associated with this period see e.g., Yarza, Los Reyes Católicos: Paisaje

66 Domínguez Casas, Arte y etiqueta de los Reyes Católicos, p.29. 67 A.C.S. Fondo Histórico General, Leg. 107. Transcribed in J. Romero Maldonado, “Testamento del Cardenal Cervantes,” Boletín de la Real Academia de Buenas Letras, June (1924). 68 The tomb measures 2.74 x 1.26 x 1.16 m (107.9 x 49.6 x 45.7 in).

artístico; F. Checa Cremades, Reyes e mecenas. Los Reyes Católicos, Maximiliano I y los inicios

69 Reina Giraldez, “Llegada a Sevilla,” p.145.

de la casa de Austria en España (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura / Electa España, 1992).

70 J.J. Antequera Luengo, Memorias sepulcrales de la Catedral de Sevilla. Los manuscritos de Loay-

46 López Mata, “La Capilla de la Visitación, p. 103; Archivo de la Catedral de Burgos, Reg. fol. 92v, cited in Kasl, The Making of Hispano-Flemish Style, p.174. 47 Kasl, The Making of Hispano-Flemish Style, p. 66. This attribution is on the basis of its similarity to later documented works such as Siloe’s retable for the charterhouse of Miraflores (see below). 48 Idem. 49 Historia del Colegio de San Gregorio de Valladolid ... Editada, corregida y aumentada por el P. Manuel M. Hoyos. [With plates.] vol.3 (Valladolid: 1928), p.349. Sadly this second retablo no longer survives. 50 Domínguez Casas, Arte y etiqueta de los Reyes Católicos, p.107. 51 J. Brown, Spain in the Age of Exploration: crossroads of artistic cultures (New Haven / London: Yale University Press,19910), p.42.

sa y González de León, (Seville: Facediciones, 2008), pp.40-42 Juan de Loaysa (16331709), who worked in the cathedral’s library for seven years, refers to a book containing two letters written by Saint Catherine to Cardinal Cervantes. This seems unlikely given that the saint died in 1380 when Cervantes was only five years old! 71 See e.g., T. Husband, “Ecclesiastical Vestments of the Middle Ages: An Exhibition”, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 29, 7 (1971). 72 A.C.S. Fondo Histórico General, Leg. 107 (see note 67). 73 The inscription is an epitaph to the cardinal in Latin. It is quoted in full in Teresa Laguna’s article in this publication, and translated into Castillian in Reina Giraldez, “Llegada a Sevilla,” p.146, n. 14. 74 M.J. Gómez Bárcena, Escultura gótica funeraria en Burgos (Burgos: Excma. Diputacíon Provincial de Burgos, 1988), p. 23. These were a vestigial representation of the ancient

52 August Mayer, for example, believed the effigy was the work of a young Gil de

tradition of using crouching lions to raise sarcophagi off the ground. See D. Jalabert,

Siloe. See A.L. Mayer, “El escultor Gil de Siloe,” Boletín de la Sociedad Española de

“Le tombeau gothique: Recherche sur les origines de ses divers éléments,” Revue de l’art

Excursiones 31 (1928): 146; Joaquín Yarza, on the other hand, believed it was made

(1933), p. 154; E. Panofsky & H. Woldemar Janson, Tomb Sculpture: its Changing Aspects

either while he was alive or soon after his death. See J. Yarza Luaces, Gil Siloe: El

from Ancient Egypt to Bernini (London: Thames & Hudson, 1964), p. 54.

retablo de la Concepción en la capilla del Obispo Acuña (Burgos: Asociación Amigos de la

75 S. Nash,”’Adrien Biaunevopt, faseur des thombes’: André Beauneveu and sculptural

Catedral de Burgos, 2000), 36; P. Silva Maroto, “Arte y Sociedad en Burgos en el

practice in late fourteenth-century France and Flanders,” in “No Equal in Any Land”:

Siglo XV. Las promociones artísticas de Alonso de Cartagena (1440-1456)” in Enea

André Beauneveu: artist to the courts of France and Flanders, ed. S. Nash (London / Bruges:

Silvio Piccolomini. Pius Secundus Poeta Laureatus Pontifex Maximus.  Atti del  Convegno Inter-

Paul Holberton / Musea Brugge, 2007) pp.57- 60. Michel Colombe, who produced

nazionale 29 settembre - 1 ottobre 2005, Roma, eds. M. Sodi & A. Antoniutti, (Vatican

the tomb of Francis II in Nantes (finished in 1507), was one of several craftsmen

City: Libreria ed. vaticana, 2007), pp. 33-51. The debate has been discussed most

collaborating on that project, including three of Colombe’s nephews. See ibid., pp.

recently in D. Olivares Martínez, Alonso de Burgos y la arquitectura castellana en el siglo XV: Los obispos y la promoción artística en la Baja Edad Media (Madrid: La Ergástula, 2013) pp. 44-45. 53 Kavaler, Renaissance Gothic, p. 80. 54 J.C. Cassard, “Un Valencien en Bretagne au XVe siècle: Vincent Férier (1418-1419),”

60-61. 76 See e.g., P. Vitry, Michel Colombe et la sculpture française de son temps (Paris: Librarie centrale des beaux arts, 1904), p.101. A comparable French effigy of a senior cleric is that of Guillaume de Hotot (Bishop of Senlis, just outside the Île- de-France) who died in 1444. (His tomb is illustrated in one of the Gaignières drawings.)

HAL France, p. 167.

77 Reina Giraldez speculates that another northern craftsman already in Seville at the

55 Ibáñez ref needed.

time of Cervantes’ death could have been asked to produce such as mask. See Reina

56 F. Reina Giráldez, “Llegada a Sevilla y primeras obras del escultor Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña,” Archivo Hispalense 215 (1987), p.151. 57 I am extremely grateful to a number of people for sharing with me their extensive knowledge of fifteenth-century sculpture and artistic trajectories, although I take full responsibility for any conclusions drawn in this article. Susie Nash, Jim Harris, Holly

Giraldez, “Llegada a Sevilla,” p.147. 78 See the very interesting discussion of this in S. Perkinson,”Rethinking the Origins of Portraiture,” Gesta 46, no. 2 (2007), pp. 135-157; N. Turel, “Living Pictures: Rereading “Au Vif,” 1350-1550,” Gesta 50, no. 2 (2011): 163-182. 79 C. de Mérindol, “Art, spiritualité et politique. Philippe le Hardi et la chartreuse de

Trusted were particularly generous with their time and advice. Thanks also to Peta

Champmol, nouvel aperçu,” in Les Chartreux et l’art XIVe-XVIIIe siècle: Colloque interna-

Moitture, Peter Barnet and Matthew Reeves for their suggestions.

tional d’histoire et de spiritualité cartusiennes (10th: 1988: Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, France), eds.

58 “en veynte e tres de março di a maestre lorenço mercador ymagenero seysçientos

Daniel Le Blévec and Alain Girard (Paris: Cerf, 1989), “p94; J. Martínez de Aguirre,

maravedíes los quales fueron que le dio para la costs porque vino por su llamado desde

“Perceptions of Individuality in Spanish Sculpture Around 1400,” paper given at the

françia por vna carta suya para que labrase en la iglesia.” (My translation) Archivo Catedral de Sevilla (A.C.S.) Fábrica, Cargo y Data, 1454, n/f. Cited by Reina Giraldez, “Llegada a Sevilla,” p.144. 59 Miranda, “Cervantes”.

d’Harnoncourt Symposium, Philadelphia, November 2012. 80 Perkinson, “Rethinking the Origins of Portraiture,” p. 138; Turel, “Living Pictures,” pp. 165-166. Also see E. Taburet-Delahaye, ed. Paris, 1400: Les arts sous Charles VI (Paris: Fayard; Réunion des musées nationaux, 2004,) p. 253.

43

81 This has been discussed by many scholars. See e.g., J. Dijkstra, Origineel en kopie : een

110 H. Nieuwdorp, “Les retables d’Utrecht en terre de pipe: industrie d’art ou réproduc-

onderzoek naar de navolging van de Meester van Flémalle en Rogier van der Weyden, (Amsterdam:

tion occasionelle?” in Retables en terre-cuite des Pays-Bas (XVe – XVIe siècles), eds. C. Perier

Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1990), p.265 and passim.

d’Ieteren & A. Born (Brussels: Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1992), p. 9. Although

82 See e.g., Janke, Jehan Lome y la escultura gótica, pp. 56-67.

these are currently dated to the 1470s, this dating is based on guesswork and it is

83 See e.g., Didier “Expansion Artistique et Relations Économiques des Pays-Bas Méridion-

entirely possible that there were terracotta works from Utrecht in northern France by

aux au Moyen Âge”, Bulletin de l’Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique (1961), pp.57-75.

110 See e.g., S. Nash, Northern Renaissance Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 106-108.

85 See e.g., R. Recht, “Motive, Typen, Zeichnung. Das Vorbild in der Plastik des Spät-

112 B. Fabri, “Processi di lavorazione e rivestimenti ceramici,” in La scultura in terracotta.

mittelalters,” in Skulptur des Mittelalters. Function und Gestalt, eds. F. Möbius & E. Schubert (Weimar, 1987), pp.354-384. 86 In the 1390s Charles VI adopted an image of a heraldic angel as his counter-seal. See Taburet-Delahaye, Paris, 1400, p. 31. 87 F.-R. de Gaignières & J.Guibert, Les dessins d’archéologie de Roger de Gaignières (Paris: Berthaud Freres, 1911). The collection is an important source of information as many tombs were destroyed in the French Revolution. 88 On the vogue for weepers, See M. Aubert, La sculpture française au Moyen Age (Paris: Flammarion, 1946) pp. 374-5. 89 A. de Sainte-Marie, Histoire genéalogique et chronologique de la Maison Royale de France (Paris: 1733), p.176.

Tecniche e conservazione, ed. M.G. Vaccari (Florence: Centro Di, 1996) p. 36. 113 C. Cirujano, “Proceso de intervención en las portadas del Nacimiento y del Bautismo de la Catedral de Sevilla,” Bienes Culturales 1 (2002), pp. 101-120. 114 Laguna, “De la línea al volumen,” p.143. 115 Arquillo Torres, “El estado de conservación de las esculturas de Mercadante,” pp.151-5; H. Wilm, Gotische Tonplastik in Deutschland (Augsburg: Dr Benno Filser Verlag, 1929), p.31. 116 Arquillo Torres, “El estado de conservación de las esculturas de Mercadante,” p.153. 117 Cirujano, “Proceso de intervención en las portadas del Nacimiento y del Bautismo,” p. 104. 118 Wilm, Gotische Tonplastik, pp. 31-2. 119 For example, Donatello’s Joshua (now lost, but intended for outdoor location) was cov-

90 Inventaire général du patrimoine culture, Sculpture de Jeanne de Montejean (ensem-

ered in several layers of lead-white mixed with linseed oil, then gesso and verdigris in

ble des gisants de la famille de Bueil), http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/

order to weatherproof it. This also had an aesthetic function, making them look like

palsri_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=REF&VALUE_1=IM37001537

marble. See P. Bensi, ‘“Alla vita della terracotta era necessario il colore.’ Appunti sulla

(Accessed May 2016). 91 The Montjean family arms are d’or fretté de gueules. (L’Armorial Le Blancq, Paris, Bibliothèque National, ms. Fr. 5232, 572 ff.).

policromia della statuaria fitile,” in La scultura in terracotta, ed. Vaccari, p. 34. 120 There are also traces of black in the Baptism. See Cirujano, “Proceso de intervención en las portadas del Nacimiento y del Bautismo,” p. 108.

92 Vitry, Michel Colombe, pp. 96-100.

121 Arquillo Torres, “El estado de conservación de las esculturas de Mercadante,” p.151.

93 Ibid., p.78.

122 See e.g., K. Woods, “The Master of Rimini and the tradition of alabaster carving in

94 E. Le Seac’h, Sculpteurs sur pierre en Basse-Bretagne: les ateliers du XVe au XVIIe siècle (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2014), pp.60-65. 95 P. Inquello, La cathédrale Saint-Corentin de Quimper. Voies de recherche (Paris: D.E.A., 1996), p.28. 96 Le Seac’h, Sculpteurs sur pierre en Basse-Bretagne, pp. 64-65. 97 This tomb is attributed to Pierre Morel and his workshop. See A. McGhee Mor-

the early fifteenth-century Netherlands,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 62 (2012), p.62; S. Roller, The Polychromy of Mediaeval Sculpture: A brief overview (Munich: Hiermer, 2010), p.350. 123 Wilm, Gotische Tonplastik; R. Kahsnitz, “Sculpture in Stone, Terracotta, and Wood,” in Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg 1300-1550, exhibition catalogue (New York / Munich: Metropolitan Museum of Art / Prestel Verlag, 1986), pp.67-68.

ganstern, “Pierre Morel, Master of Works in Avignon,” The Art Bulletin 58, 3 (1976)

124 B. Boucher, “Italian Renaissance Terracotta,” p.2.

pp. 323-349.

125 Ibid., p.8.

98 J. Baudoin, Les grands imagiers de l’occident, vol. 1 (Paris: Créer, 1991), p. 75. 99 The tomb bases were destroyed during the French Revolution. See La crypte XIIe siècle (Eu: La Collégiale Notre-Dâme et Saint-Laurent d’Eu, n.d.), p.3.

126 A. Bloch, “The Evolution of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Approach to the Narrative Relief,” in Depth of Field. Relief Sculpture in Renaissance Italy, eds. D. Cooper & M. Leino (Bern: Peter Lang, 2007), pp. 125-148.

100 Ibid., pp. 8-9.

127 B. Boucher, “Italian Renaissance Terracotta,” p.10.

101 J. Baudoin, La sculpture flamboyante en Normandie et Ile-de-France (Paris: Créer, 1992), p. 183.

128 L.R. Rogers, Relief Sculpture (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), p.43.

102 The first payment mentioning the tomb was in late 1454 and the final one in early

129 Laguna, “De la línea al volumen,” p.143.

1458. See Reina Giraldez, “Llegada a Sevilla,” p.148. 103 J. Gestoso y Pérez, Sevilla monumental y artística, vol. 2 (Seville: Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Sevilla,1984 ed.), p.521.

130 Ibid., p. 141-145. 131 The other is in a Book of Hours belonging to Alfonso Borja, produced after 1450. See F. Manzari, “Un Libro de Horas iluminado para Alfonso de Borja. Influencias de los

104 Ibid., pp. 78-81. The original edition of Gestoso’s book was published in 1890.

grabados alemanes en la miniatura de la Corona de Aragón a mediados del siglo XV,”

105 Ibid., p.63.

in La miniatura y el grabado, ed. M.C. Lacarra Ducay (Saragossa: Institución Fernando

106 These appear to have replaced earlier ones that were judged to be of insufficient quality. See Laguna, “De la línea al volumen,” p.138.

el Católico, 2012), pp. 203-224. 132 See e.g. Nash, Northern Renaissance, pp.129-140.

107 B. Boucher, “Italian Renaissance Terracotta: Artistic Revival or Technological Inno-

133 Also see A. Shestack, Fifteenth Century Engravings of Northern Europe from the National Gal-

vation,” in Earth and Fire, Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, ed. B. Bouch-

lery of Art, Washington D.C., exhibition catalogue (Washington D.C.: National Gallery

er (New Haven / London: Yale University Press, 2001), p.4.

of Art, 1967); E.M. Breisig, “La transmission du nouveau style. Sur la function de la

108 F. Arquillo Torres, “El estado de conservación de las esculturas de Mercadante que

gravure et du dessin à l’époque de Nicolas de Leyde,” in Nicolas de Leyde, sculpteur du XVe

decoran las portadas del Bautismo y el Nacimiento en la catedral de Sevilla.,” Atrio 2

siècle. Un regard moderne, eds. R. Recht & C. Dupeux, exhibition catalogue (Strasbourg:

(1990), p.149.

Musées de la ville de Strasbourg, 2012) pp.101-113.

109 Nash,”’Adrien Biaunevopt’,” p.61; A. Erlande-Brandenburg, “Observations sur la technique de la sculpture,” in Artistes, artisans et production artistique au Moyen Age: Colloque international au Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Université de Rennes II, 2-6 mai 1983, vol. 3. (Paris: Picard, 1990), p.266.

44

the time Mercadante left for Seville.

84 Ibid., p.62.

45

46

The Virgen del Buen Fin in the context of the sculptural oeuvre of Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña Teresa Laguna Paúl

The technical and formal characteristics of the life-sized terracotta Virgen del Buen Fin from the Topete collection in Villamartín (near Cadiz) are such that it can be attributed without any doubt to Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña (figs. 37 & 38). The presence of this sculptor in Seville Cathedral coincided with a period of intense artistic activity, the construction of the new building taking place just as models of gothic humanism began to arrive in the region. Since then Mercadante’s name has been associated with the work that he carried out for the cathedral chapter and the inscription carved into the base of the tomb of Don Juan de Cervantes (Lora del Río 1382 – Seville 1453), Bishop of Ostia and Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincoli, which records his origin: “lorenço mercadante de bretaña entallo este bulto

(fig. 39 & 40).” The signature

contained in this epigraph must correspond to the hispanisation of “Lorens Marchand” or “Marc’hadour,”1 even though his name appears in all other known documents as Lorenço Mercader. The importance of this work, his professional reputation and the later works he produced for this very cathedral had a profound impact on the late-medieval sculptural panorama in the Kingdom of Seville. Mercadante has traditionally been regarded as the introducer of Franco-Flemish, Eyckian forms into Andalusia, and the master under whom other Sevillian sculptors trained in the last third of the fifteenth century. It is not known where he himself Fig. 37. Lorenzo Mercadante Virgen del

trained, and although he has been associated with the Burgundian school, it should be borne in mind that artistic activity in Brittany

Buen Fin (detail of Virgin

under John VI the Wise (1398 - 1442) gave rise to an important

and Child), Palacio

school of monumental sculpture and tomb specialists. The most

Topete, terracotta,

representative works from this school disappeared during the

Coll & Cortés, Madrid

French Revolution.

47

Fig. 38. Lorenzo Mercadante Virgen del Buen Fin (detail of Virgin and Child), Palacio Topete, terracotta, Coll & Cortés, Madrid

48

We do not know who Mercadante’s assistant or assistants were while he was working on Seville Cathedral where he is documented over a period of fourteen years, from 23 March 1454 to 23 January 1468. On this last date the chapter’s accountants paid Mercadante an amount owed to him for work done the previous years on the western façade. The loss of the fabric and account books for the two following decades prevents us from knowing for certain how long Mercadante maintained a working relationship with the cathedral or whether he stayed in the city to fulfill commissions from other churches and monasteries. It should also not be ruled out that he continued to act as an itinerant artist and left for other regions; Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez stated that he died ca. 1480 but provided no evidence.2 The naturalistic quality of the tomb of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes confirms that Mercadante was by the spring of 1454 an experienced and recognized sculptor who – like several of his contemporaries – left his homeland to satisfy the appetite in the kingdoms of Spain for the artistic innovation which began further north around 1400. The existence of a highly educated clergy, which had travelled widely as part of their training but also on account of the Great Schism, encouraged artistic interchange between European courts. Civil and religious elites were greatly receptive to the assimilation of new artistic currents, promoting and encouraging the arrival in the peninsula of many French, Flemish, German and Italian artists. These architects, sculptors, painters, glassmakers and goldsmiths worked in the Crown of Aragon as well as in the Kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, professionally tied to the artistic enterprises of the monarchs, noble families, prelates, flourishing mercantile class and, among others, cathedral chapters. The sculptors opened workshops in some of the main towns, even if documentation indicates that many pursued an itinerant career on the basis of commissions received, and few achieved citizenship in any one place.

Fig. 39. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes

Fluid inter-territorial relations favoured the mobility of

in the Capilla San Hermenegildo, Seville Cathed r a l .

these master sculptors, and also of their journeymen and apprentices who – after becoming masters themselves –

Fig. 40 Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes

could remain attached to the same workshop, be contracted

(detail of inscription), alabaster, Seville Cathedr a l .

as journeymen by another sculptor, return to their native lands to establish themselves, or continue to pursue an itinerant career.

49

Fig. 41. Anton van den Wyngaerde, View of Zaragoza, 1563, Öster reichische Nation albi bli oth ek, Vienna.

The first notice of Lorenzo Mercadante in the Iberian peninsula is

from sandstone from the quarry of Flix (Tarragona).3 The refined

in Saragossa on 28 April 1446 when he signed an apprenticeship

sculpture of the Virgen Blanca and the shields are characteristic

contract of one year with Fontaner de Usesques, maestre de obra de

of Burgundian art which had penetrated Aragon early on with

pedra e pintor from Morlans in the Béarn. This document, discovered

the building of the chapel of the Sagrados Corporales in the

by Javier Ibáñez and Diego Domínguez, makes it clear that with

collegiate church of Daroca. Here the limestone retable-jubé was

this apprenticeship “Lorenz Mercader natural de Bretaña et habitant en

being produced in 1417 and, with its first phase finished before

Caragoça” was obtaining a formal contract allowing him to work

1424, brought together several foreign professionals from different

in the city. This was no doubt a way of getting around Saragossa’s

areas. This team was formed by Isambart, Pedro Jalopa, Arnalcón

guild rules which were very strict with regard to professionals

or Arnaltón, Enequi, Broyart, Joan de Borgonya, Oroz and Colin

trained elsewhere: foreign masters could be required not only

de Rayz who worked, according to need, in Daroca as well as in

to take an exam and make a significant payment but to spend a

sculpting alabaster for the chapel of Saint Augustine in Saragossa

probationary period in a local workshop before being allowed

Cathedral between 1417 and 1422, a work which is sadly no-longer

to operate on their own. The conditions and remuneration as a

extant.4 The disbanding of this crew, formed essentially by

moco e aprendiz al dito officio confirm that Mercadante was already

Flemings and Bretons, did not prevent the continuation of personal

a master sculptor, presumably looking to work in one of the cities

and working relationships, indeed it facilitated inter-regional

of the Crown of Aragon where he seems to have stayed for at

interchange and the diffusion of flamboyant architecture and

least two years. During this time and until the termination of his

sculpture originating in Burgundy to other parts of the Crown of

contract on 29 May 1448, his salary was 25 florins per annum.

Aragon and Kingdoms of Navarre and Castile.5

This amount was higher than would be expected for an apprentice,

50

indicating that he may have collaborated on one of the sculptures

The early presence of Flemish, Burgundian and Breton architects

contracted by Master Usesques at that time: an alabaster retable of

in Aragon – during the reigns of John I (1387 - 1396) and Martin I

the Nativity commissioned by Vice-Chancellor Juan de Funes for

(1396 - 1410) – and the relations with the pontifical court in

the conventual church of Saint Francis in Saragossa (1446 - 1448);

Avignon encouraged many French sculptors to find work there.

the alabaster Virgin from the retable of the Virgen Blanca in the

The king, the nobility and particularly the bishops and high clergy

cathedral of San Salvador in Saragossa (1448); and the shields

commissioned retables, tombs and altarpieces carved in sandstone

of the Casa de la Diputación del Reino (1447 - 1449) sculpted

and alabaster, turning the city of Saragossa and the surrounding

Fig. 42. Attributed to Pedro Tortolero, Seville Cathedral, 1738, engraving, Archivo Oronoz.

areas into one of the most important sculptural centres of the

Rouen, and the Valencian Antoni Dalmau whose work would take

first half of the fifteenth century (fig. 41). In the same way the

Late-Gothic architecture to the banks of the Guadalquivir.

innovations brought by the new art from northern Europe were quickly accepted by other masters such as those working on the

The start of construction of the gothic cathedral in Seville led

retable of the Sagrados Corporales in Daroca and on projects

to the arrival of experienced international architects who had

commissioned by Archbishop Dalmau de Mur. These innovations

previously worked on other projects in the Kingdoms of Aragon

would result in a number of works in the second third of the

and Castile such as Isambart and Carlí (fig. 42). The former

century by local and foreign sculptors including Pere Johan (doc.

had worked for Louis d’Orléans on the castle of Pierrefonds in

1416 - 1458) from Barcelona, the Catalan brothers Antonio and

1399, as a mason and sculptor in the old cathedral of Lleida in

Franci Gomar (doc. 1443 - 1477), and Fontaner de Usesques (doc.

1410, in the chapel of the Sagrados Corporales in Daroca from

1446 - 1449) from the Béarn. They would be followed by several

1417 - 1424, as the architect of the chapel of Saint Augustine in

more in the second half of the century such as Gil de Morlanes,

Saragossa Cathedral in 1417, and was named cantero mayor (chief

Gil de Brabante and Hans de Suabia.

mason) by King John II of Castile in 1432, the year before he

6

came to Seville Cathedral where he was given a contract in 1434; Mercadante’s documented stay in Saragossa in the workshop of

on the basis of this last contract the design of the gothic building

Fontaner de Usesques suggests that by 1446 he was approximately

is attributed to him (fig. 42).8 One year later he was replaced in

twenty years old. The contract with Usesques permitted him to

Seville by maestre Carlí who had in 1408 designed the façade of

start a career in the Crown of Aragon but it is not known where he

Barcelona Cathedral and had gone on to direct building work at

might have worked or what commissions he carried out from then

Lleida Cathedral between 1410 and 1427, coinciding for a while

until the spring of 1454 when the accountants of Seville Cathedral

with Isambart. Carlí is documented as the maestro mayor of the

paid “maestre Lorenzo Mercader ymaginero, seiscientos maravedís por la costa

Sevillian cathedral from spring 1435 to the end of 1448,9 a key

porque vino por su llamado desde frança por una carta suya para que labrase en

period in which the involvement of sculptors and stone-carvers –

la yglesia.” This mention suggests an itinerant trajectory although

from a number of different places, as we know from their names

he certainly would have maintained contact – as we know from

– was essential to carry out the decoration of the new building.10

the documentation of other artists – with the masters he met in

Before Carlí’s departure, the cathedral chapter asked a master

Saragossa, particularly with Isambart, Charles Gauter (Carlí) of

from Valencia to come to the city to inspect the state of the works.

7

51

This master has been identified as the architect and sculptor from Valencia Cathedral, Antoni Dalmau (doc. 1435 - 1454).11 Dalmau would decline the offer of the position of maestro mayor made two years later, but from the end of January to May 1447 he and his assistants produced a series of designs and appear to have resolved a number of issues related to the main façade and its moulded stonework.12 The first references to the Valencian master relate to his training with the Catalan Pere Johan and his involvement in the predela of the main altarpiece of Saragossa Cathedral between 1435 and 1440. After this he returned to Valencia where he continued his career and directed a series of important civil and religious projects.13 According to cathedral documents, four months after the death of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes the sculptor Lorenço Mercader arrived in Seville, and, on 23 March 1454, was paid 600 maravedíes to cover the costs of his journey from France. It is not known why the chapter contacted him or found out about his professional worth and the artistic projects in which he had participated. The sculptor’s origins and trip have led Francisco Reina to wonder whether Juan Normant (doc. 1439 - 1478), maestro mayor of Seville Cathedral at the time, might have made the introduction. As mentioned above, the construction of the cathedral was marked by the constant search for masters from all over the Iberian peninsula, especially those who had been working in the Crown of Aragon.14 Nevertheless, the designs which Dalmau had made during his stay in Seville led Cardinal Cervantes – who had by 1446 established himself in the city and on 7 March 1449 been named as head of the diocese – to send canon Pedro Rodríguez in September 1449 to offer him the

Fig. 43. Lorenzo Mercadante, Virgen del Madroño, Seville C athedral.

post of maestro mayor. This notice and the signed contract between Mercadante and Fontaner de Usesques from 1446 amplify the panorama of artistic exchange involving itinerant sculptors dispersed throughout the peninsula, a phenomenon which would contribute

52

to the propagation of the sculptural innovations of 1400 and

may even have seen one of his works and discussed it with

the Franco-Burgundian school. It should not be ruled out that it

the group of clerics in his court in Seville and, in particular,

was Cardinal Cervantes himself (or members of his inner circle)

with his executors. Cervantes would also, no doubt, be aware

who initiated the search for a sculptor for his own chapel at the

of alabaster altarpieces and workshops commissioned by the

time it was founded (work on it was still ongoing when he died in

bishops, archbishops, high clergy and nobility within his own

November 1453). Efforts to resolve the Great Schism caused the

diocese. The participation of Antoni Dalmau in the works on

high clergy to travel widely, and the role played by the Aragonese

the predela in Saragossa and his stay in Seville in 1447 point to

Crown and its prelates was significant. The cardinal may have

other areas to be explored in relation to Mercadante’s trajectory

heard about Mercadante on one of his diplomatic missions or

before March 1454.

According to the documentation, at the same time as producing the Cervantes Tomb (from 1454 to 1458) Mercadante also sculpted an image in alabaster, traditionally identified as the Virgen del Madroño for another of the cathedral’s chapels (fig. 43), as well as a few sculptures finished two years later for Cervantes’ own chapel of San Hermenegildo. Cervantes had endowed this chapel and ensured its completion by means of legacies in his will signed on 6 November 1453.15 The carving of the body of Cardinal Cervantes – the most complex part of the mausoleum – is testament to Mercadante’s skill and talent, not only in the naturalism of the features but also on the ornaments, episcopal insignia and jewels inspired directly by those which the bishop left to the cathedral as well as others which the cathedral chapter gave to the chapel for the glory of the bishop (fig. 44). Over the four year period, Mercadante carved the blocks of alabaster with six reliefs showing the arms of the cardinal supported by two angels elevating their shields symbolically to the sky (fig. 45), other niches and sculptures around the base, and the top of the tomb on which is reproduced a brocade cloth bearing the inscription recorded below. Underneath the cover there is an extraordinary moulding carved with tracery, oak leaves and tendrils, and featuring a frog, symbol of the Resurrection (fig. 46). “POSTQ · EXIMIO · NITORE · VTVTVM · REVERENDISSIMUS · DNS · DE · CERN/ATES · CV · TIT · SCI · PET · AD · VINCULA · GALERV · OPTIME · MERVIT · DIGSSIMOSO · EXTTITIT · IUDICATV · OSTIENSE · SE/ DEM · OBTINVIT · TANDE · GVESCETE · IA · ETATE · ISPALEN · METPOLIM · SAPIENTER · ADMIN/ STRANS · ECCVT · PLATO · DECET · RELIQT · HEREDE · QVV · INT · PBATISSIAS · OPATIONE · HOSPITALE · FAMOSU · DOTATATIMUQINCIVITATE · ISPALENSI · PVS · EDIFICASSET · OBIIT · XX · V · NOVEBS · ANDOM · Fig. 44. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Cardinal Juan

CCCCLIII”.

de Cervantes (detail of vestments and jewels), alabaster, Sev i lle Cath edr al.

The architecture of the tomb and vegetal carving underneath the cover repeat the same design as on the tabernacles and archivolts on the cathedral’s Door of the Baptism. Similar models appear – with small variations – in various works related to Isambart, Carlí and Antoni Dalmau. The preparation of all the elements of the tomb reveals it to be the personal work of Mercadante whose refined technique is on a par with the great sculptors of the fifteenth century and with the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy, Philip the Bold and John the Fearless.

53

Fig. 45. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes, alabaster, Seville Cathedral.

54

The cardinal’s head rests on three cushions, his feet on a stag, and his ornaments and insignia reproduce with extraordinary veracity the prelate’s own pontifical vestments. The art historian Diego Angulo underlined the richness of the mitre and noted a few differences with the one belonging to the cardinal, which was also embroidered with the Annunciation and decorated with pearls and precious stones.16 The cloth which appears to cover the tomb – presumably reproducing one used for his exequies –, the texture of the alb, and the braid of the chasuble also imitate the different techniques used in Flemish embroidery and in the reliefs of Saints Peter and Paul. Fig. 46. Lorenzo Mercadante, Tomb of Cardinal Juan de

The tabernacles of the base shelter four of the six figures originally

Cervantes (detail of frog), alabaster, Seville Cath ed r a l .

produced to represent the evangelists, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Their tunics and mantles have the voluminous drapery, folds and drops characteristic of those carved by artists of the second quarter of the fifteenth century trained or active in the area of the southern Netherlands. The evangelists hold books and scrolls, and the no-longer extant Saint Peter would have had the attributes carved into his image on the cardinal’s chasuble: the keys and a book. One of the most characteristic traits of these figures and of the angels on the base is the line with which Mercadante drew the eyelids as well as the expressive language of the hands: the ring fingers are extended and the rest of the finger bones elongated and flexed, like those in paintings by Jan van Eyck and other artists from Bruges, Tournai and Liège. The construction of the gothic west façade of Seville Cathedral altered the entrance arrangements to the old Mudejar cathedral, creating a new tripartite architectural scheme. The sculptural decoration of this scheme referred to the liturgical uses of these portals as the places where, in facie ecclesiae, the sacramental rites of baptism, marriage and public penitence commenced. The design of this gothic west wall allowed for the need to increase the space in these areas with diagonal jambs which, along with the tympana and archivolts above, were suitable places for programmes of monumental sculpture. The iconography on each portal clearly expresses its evangelical and sacramental character, enabling the faithful to understand the meaning of the gospel: on the North portal, the Baptism of Christ is flanked by Spanish saints and martyrs from Seville (fig. 47); on the central portal the original intention was for a Last Judgment or Coronation of the Virgin with more saints, martyrs, doctors of the church and founders of the celestial court; and on the South portal, the Birth of Christ as Son of God

Fig. 47. Lorenzo Mercadante, Door of the Baptism (details of

and his evangelical legacy.

saints), 1464 - 1467, Seville Cathedral.

17

55

Fig. 49. Lorenzo Mercadante, Virgen de las Cuevas, ca. 1460, terracotta, Fig. 48. Lorenzo Mercadante, Door of the Nativity, 1467, Seville Cathedral.

The circumstances behind the commission of the two side doors

cost of sourcing it from far-away quarries resulted in the decision

– of the Baptism and the Nativity (fig. 48) – remain unknown as

to produce the sculptures and reliefs on the western façade in terracotta. According to the documentation, payments were made

do those behind the delay in the production of sculptures for the central Door of the Perdón until the end of the nineteenth century.

18

to maestre Lorenço for some “ymágenes en barro para la yglesiam” (images

There were also several stages in the production of the sculptural

in clay for the church), for “obras que face de ymaginería para la yglesia”

programmes of both doors. Work started in 1449 when the

(work he has done in sculpture for the church), and, simply, for

archivolts of the Door of the Baptism were carved with high reliefs

“ymagenes para la yglesia” (images for the church) for the iconographic

of prophets and angels in a stone which was not of sufficiently good

programme on the western façade, between August 1464 and

quality for appropriate sculpture. The production of these archivolts

January 1468. We assume that he must have been approximately

is likely to be related to Antoni Dalmau’s stay in 1447 and, perhaps,

forty years old at the time. The gaps in the documentation in the

with the offer made to Dalmau in 1449. Faced with the necessity of

cathedral archive prevents us from knowing exactly in which year the

carrying out a figurative programme, the cathedral chapter looked

commissions started and how many years he worked on them. At the

for talented sculptors able to rise to the technical challenge. In the

end of the fifteenth century they were finished by Pedro Millán and

end the difficulty in finding an adequate material along with the

another sculptor whose personality remains totally anonymous.20

19

56

Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla .

The Virgen del Buen Fin, an outstanding model in the terracotta production of Lorenzo Mercadante The definite link established by Manuel Gómez-Moreno between the reliefs and sculptures in these doorways with the tomb of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes led in the early twentienth century to the attribution to Lorenzo Mercadante of other figures in terracotta like the Virgen de la Cinta (Our Lady of the Ribbon) in Seville Cathedral, the Virgin and Child in the convent of Poor Clares in Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajoz), and the Virgin from the convent of the Madre de Dios in Seville.21 By extension, Mercadante came to be considered the introducer of this technique into the Guadalquivir River valley. Based on our understanding and knowledge of the working methods, ability and oeuvre of the artist, and on research into other images attributed to his workshop, it may be concluded that the Virgen del Buen Fin must have been modelled in about 1460, at the same time as the production of the sculptures in the jambs of the Door of the Baptism and of the tympanum of the Door of the Nativity. It must also have been around this time that the Virgen de las Cuevas from the charterhouse of the same name (fig. 49), the Virgin and Child from Fregenal de la Sierra (fig. 50), and the Virgen de la Cinta in the cathedral (fig. 51) were produced. The majority of the Marian images attributed to Mercadante have the same formal, stylistic and technical characteristics as the sculptures from Seville Cathedral. The elongated aesthetic, volume and depiction of folds, costumes, physical types and, without any doubt, the modelling of hands with extraordinary expressivity deriving from long flexed fingers, all speak of an apprenticeship in the schools of Bruges and Tournai. Equally striking is how reminiscent these images are of the models of Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin and Jean de Cambrai, developed in the workshops of Dijon and at the Valois courts. His Marian images show that he repeated various models that could be adapted to different types, thus allowing for a variety of patterns in headdresses and mantles. These mantles can be more or less open, according to the position of the arms, falling in an inverted “V” of deep folds caught up by the right arm, whilst the Fig. 50. Virgin and Child, ca. 1460, terracotta,

other side completely covers the forearm and falls in a natural

church of San ta Catalina, Fregenal

way until folding into deep breaks at the base. For modelling the

de la Si er r a (Badajoz).

head of the child, Mercadante established an archetype which

57

he individualised through the treatment of the hair. All these heads share Mercadante’s characteristic form of representing the antihelical fold of the ear (fig. 51a). In order to make the terracotta sculpture, Mercadante started from an initial design used to produce a wood or metal model which was later destroyed. When beginning the modelling process, he took into account volume, movement, the costume appropriate to each sculpture as well as the physiognomic traits which would differentiate each Virgin and Child from the others he produced. In the one from Villamartín, he started with a base of a few lumps and sheets of clay, modelled the body of the image with his hands and palette knives, scrapers, and smooth and serrated spatulas, the traces of which he could use after firing to guide the application of polychromy. He worked the details of the folds to give them different volumes and drops, adding these to the soft clay as he did the hands, the head and the veil with its folded edges as worn by the married women of Flanders. Before dividing the sculpture for firing, he would also incorporate the various pieces from the leather Fig. 51. Lorenzo Mercadante, Virgen de la Cinta,

belt: encrusted buttons, the buckle and the tip, all of which imitate

Sev il le Cath edr al.

real metal (fig. 52). He made the folded veil by adding a piece of clay modelled directly with his hands onto the top of the Virgin’s

Fig. 51a. Lorenzo Mercadante, Virgen de la Cinta (detail of the Child’s ear), Seville Cathedral.

head. The faces, necks and hands of the Virgin and Child have been burnished with great care and skill so as to receive at a later stage an imprimatura and a bit of colour on the lips. They contrast with the deep furrows of the hair and with the linen shirt sleeves.

58

Fig. 52. Lorenzo Mercadante, Virgen del Buen Fin (detail of buttons, belt and metallic elements), Palacio Topete, terracotta, Coll & Cortés, Madrid.

59

The Virgen del Buen Fin is modelled and fired in a similar manner to those in the jambs of the Door of the Baptism and tympanum of the Door of the Nativity of Seville Cathedral (fig. 53).22 The sculpture has a very clear upper horizontal cut, just beneath the shoulders, joined to the torso after firing with a strip of gesso approximately 3 cm. wide. Another very clean cut, made with a metallic thread, is approximately on the knee-line; this is brilliantly hidden so as not to cause any distortion in the fall of the drapery. In addition to these cuts, there is also one around the waist, almost hidden by virtue of the precision of the cut and positioning of the belt. Certain elements of the statue’s clothes were joined while still soft, thus allowing for a better firing of the thick garment folds, which gave rise to deep furrows in the centre while leaving the sides smooth, as he had done when modelling Fig. 53. Lorenzo

60

the saints on the Baptism Door (figs. 54, 55, 56). Other perfectly-

Mercadante,

executed unions are those which attach the neck and head of the

Nativity, Door

Virgin which – being perfectly assembled and joined with clay

of the Nativity,

underneath the border of the neckline – are almost imperceptible

1467, Seville

behind the mantle and fall of her veil. Close study of the precision

Cathedral.

of these features and beauty of the joins recalls the manner of

Fig. 54. Lorenzo Mercadante,

Fig. 55. Lorenzo Mercadante,

Fig. 56. Lorenzo Mercadante,

Saint Florentina, terracotta, Door of

Saint Justa, terracotta, Door of

Saint Rufina, terracotta, Door of

the Baptism, Sevi lle Cathedral.

the Baptism, Seville C athedral.

the Baptism, Seville C athedr a l.

joining the different plaques in the tympanum of the Nativity, and

The statue, once modelled, shows two different textures,

confirms the extremely high quality of the Virgen del Buen Fin. The

corresponding to its polychromy and to its original protective layer

addition of sheets of clay to obtain the fan of furrows on the tunic

(fig. 57). The firing is uniform, with no fissures or cracks on the

directly evokes the manner of dressing or working the mannequin

exterior. On the inside there are small splits or “wounds” in the clay

characteristic of Mercadante’s Marian images. The hands and

due to the combustion process, originally covered with a layer of

cuffs of the Virgin’s fine linen chemise make up a single element

gesso. For the stability of the internal walls of the torso, the sculptor

stuffed into the arm at the edge of the tunic; the same thing occurs

inserted a transversal piece and strengthened the line of the belt

in the Virgen de las Cuevas.

with ceramic shards; this reinforcement of some areas is also present

23

Fig. 57. Lorenzo Mercadante, Virgen del Buen Fin (detail of torso and polychromy), Palacio Topete,

in the Virgen del Camino from the Seville convent of the Madre de

terracotta, Coll & Cortés, Madrid.

Dios which – although it was reworked in the seventeenth century – should still be considered a work by Mercadante or at least by someone from his close circle.24 The Virgen del Buen Fin from Topete had a terracotta cover which concealed the hole at the back, no doubt be comparable to the one which is still found on the Virgen de las Cuevas and on the Saint Michael from the monastery of San Miguel de los Ángeles in Sanlúcar la Mayor near Seville. This cover was lost or destroyed and substituted by a thick gesso cover during an

61

intervention in the eighteenth century when some of the interior walls were reinforced with rolls of the same material and the sculpture was repolychromed according to Baroque taste, hiding the original polychromy.25 The evidence of red and blue pigment together with traces of gold – discovered underneath the Baroque polychromy during restoration work in 2016 – indicate that the original sculpture had a hyacinth-blue tunic and blue mantle which would contrast with the full sleeves of the Virgin’s linen shirt and veil as well as with the gilded borders of her garments and of the metal elements of her belt. These traces of original polychromy are analogous to the chromatic finish of the Virgen de las Cuevas26 and may be the same as those underneath the thick repainting on the Virgen de la Cinta in the cathedral and of the Virgen de los Remedios at Fregenal de la Sierra. The remains of the gilding found on the back of the Child’s blue tunic reveal decorative motifs which must have contributed to the sculpture’s richness along with the eightpointed gilded stars which occur on many Marian objects from the fifteenth century on account of her iconographic association with the Morning Star and as the mother of the son of God, source of salvation. One such mantle is worn by another Virgin attributed to

Fig. 58. Virgin and Child, Matthiesen Gallery, London. Fig. 59. Lorenzo Mercadante, Saint Michael, Monastery of San Miguel de los Ángeles, Ayuntamiento de Sanlúcar la Mayor.

62

Mercadante, now in the Matthiesen Gallery in London; this work came from a private collection in Seville (fig. 58).27 The maximum height of the Virgen del Buen Fin, which reaches 165.5 cm (nearly 65.2 in), makes it the same height as the sculptures of Saint Florentina, Saint Justa and Saint Rufina on the Baptism Door. It shares with the sculptures a characteristic angling of the head in relation to the body of approximately 20º, a feature which is found in other works by the same artist such as the alabaster group of the Virgen del Madroño in Seville Cathedral and the Virgen de la Piedad from Iznajar (near Cordoba). This angle balances the latent movement of the torso and follows compositional practice established in the first half of the fifteenth century with a direct relationship to architectural settings such as the niches and tabernacles which accommodated these images. These features refer to the paintings of Jan van Eyck – for example the Annunciation Diptych in the ThyssenBornemisza Collection. Nevertheless, on other occasions – such as in the modelling of the sculptures of the Virgen de las Cuevas and Virgen de la Cinta, and in the Saint Michael from the monastery of San Miguel de los Ángeles (fig. 59), deposited since 2008 with the local council of Sanlúcar la Mayor – the artist opted for a markedly vertical composition and bent the head significantly, pushing it forward to make it closer and more noticeable from the altar and congregation. The refinement of the modelling, the volumetric composition and aesthetic, and the formal characteristics of the Virgen del Buen Fin presented here are the hallmarks of a mature work of high quality produced by Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña ca. 1460.

Origins and provenance of the Virgen del Buen Fin from the Topete Collection The first references to the Virgen del Buen Fin from the Topete Palace in Villamartín, near Cadiz date to 1997 when it was attributed to Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña and its photograph was published to signal it as part of the artistic patrimony of this region. The same publication related its deteriorated polychromy with the damages produced by a fire during the French invasion and occupation of this village from 1811 to 181228. Since then its entry into the Topete Collection has been related to the year 1769 as that date is painted on a cartouche in the niche above the main stairway of the palace in which the sculpture had hung at least since the middle of the twentieth century.29

63

64

The sculpture must have originally been commissioned or

a shipwreck.30 With no references to the original church or

acquired for the main altar of a church or large private chapel.

oratory where the Virgin from Villamartín was worshipped

Its size (165.5 x 61 x 46.5 cm/65.2 x 24 x 18.3 in) is larger

in the fifteenth century, it cannot be ruled out that it had a

than those produced by the same sculptor for the convent of

previous name linked, for example, to the no-longer extant

Santa Clara in Fregenal de la Sierra (130.6 cm/51 in), and for

flower, object, symbol or attribute held in the Child’s left hand.

the charterhouse of Las Cuevas in Seville - now housed in the

In this case, it would only have acquired its present name

Museo de Bellas Artes in Seville – (134 cm/52.8 in) – , and also

later, when it was removed from its original liturgical context

than the Virgen de la Cinta in Seville Cathedral (128 cm/50.4

and placed in the niche of the stairway at the Topete Palace

in), the Virgin and Child owned by Matthiesen (145 cm/57 in),

in Villamartín and decorated with Baroque painting and a

and the Saint Michael (148 cm/58.3 in) from the Hieronymite

cartouche dated 1769.

monastery of San Miguel de los Ángeles. The modelling and volume of the figures includes the defining characteristics of

It is likely that the Villamartín Virgen del Buen Fin comes from a

the sculptor’s production, repeated in other works by him in

church or monastic complex from the old Kingdom of Seville,

terracotta which must have been produced for hermitages,

probably situated in a town directly under the protection of the

oratories, and secondary altars such as the Virgen de la Piedad in

archbishop or administrative council in the second half of the

Iznajar in Cordoba province (87 cm/34.3 in), the Virgin from

fifteenth century. It is in these areas that most works attributed

the San Isidoro del Campo monastery near Seville (73 cm/28.7

to Mercadante have so far been found. From his base in Seville,

in), and the Virgen de la Fuensanta from the Cordoban church of

the sculptor fulfilled commissions for other images in terracotta

the same name (62 cm/24.4 in). Its size is comparable to those

destined for Hiernoymite monasteries in the same province

of the figures produced by Mercadante for the Baptism Door in

(Santiponce and Sanlúcar la Mayor), for charterhouses such

Seville Cathedral – between 175 cm/68.9 in and 182 cm/71.7 in –

as that of Santa María de las Cuevas, and for convents such as

although its technique, finish and state of conservation indicate

the Dominican Madre de Dios in Seville and that of the Poor

that it was not conceived for exterior display or even for the

Clares of Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajoz). He also received

weather conditions in a cloister.

commissions from further afield such as those leading to the Virgen de la Fuensanta in Cordoba and Nuestra Señora de la Piedad in

The Virgen del Buen Fin presented here must have stood on an

Iznajar (Cordoba). Mercadante’s work, furthermore, influenced

altar in a large chapel inside a niche within a larger work or in a

other artists, most obviously his collaborators and disciples,

wood tabernacle the interior of which measured approximately

and a number of figures in terracotta reprising and imitating

230 cm/90.6 in in height, similar to the one which originally

the models discussed above can without doubt be attributed to

housed the Virgen de la Antigua on the high altar of the church

the Mercadante workshop in the second half of the fifteenth

of Santa María de Baena, near Cordoba. This Italo-gothic

century.

image of the Virgin, measuring 170 cm/ 66.9 in, dated to the second half of the fourteenth century, is carved in stone and

The terracotta Virgin presented here, originally polychromed

polychromed.

with a hyacinth tunic and blue mantel with gilded details, was the subject of an eighteenth century intervention which

It must have been related to the devotion of a particular

reinforced some parts of its interior with gesso, created a

individual who asked for her intercession in moments of

new terracotta cover for the aperture at the back, and gave it

misfortune, incertitude, fear or any other emergency such

a new, Baroque polychromy.30 The original polychromy was

as the imminent death of a loved one. It could also have

charred, with damage and blisters covering a large part of

been commissioned as an act of gratitude; its title alludes

the surface as a result of a fire. According to local tradition,

to the Virgin as intercessor before her Son, leading the way

this fire had occurred during the French occupation and also

to salvation, a good end or a good death. Another image

damaged the Rococo paintings in the niche where the Virgin

known by the same name was venerated in the parish church

and Child was housed at least for a large part of the twentieth

of Puerto Moral (Huelva), associated with the survivors of

century. Various historical references allude to damages caused by

65

fire to this same niche, which suggests that there might have been

potential of the area, however, the process of repopulation suffered

another, different image here. That image would have been the

constant setbacks. Some of these, concerning the foundation of

one alluded to by the legend “[NT]RA. S DE EL [B]VEN FIN

Observant and Conceptionist Franciscan convents, involved the

[AN]NO D. 1769” which appears on the outer part of the niche.

municipality of Utrera and went on until the end of the sixteenth

A

century.37 In 1769 Don Manuel Ximénez del Canto y Murillo, Alguacil Mayor of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, carried out work to

The gaps in documentation and the delayed foundation of all the

the palace. Ximénez was married to Ana María Venegas Martínez

churches of Villamartín and nearby hermitages until well into the

from Palencia, a direct descendant of Lope Venegas Martínez de

sixteenth century make it practically impossible that the Virgen del

Palencia whose elders took possession of this estate soon after the

Buen Fin comes from one of these or was commissioned by one of

founding of Villamartín between 1503 and 1506. The works,

the first settlers. It must instead have been moved there from its

started in 1765, resulted in the current layout and are evidence

original place of worship in another locality.

32

of the economic renewal experienced by this area following its repopulation after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.

The constant changes in borders between the archbishopric of Seville and the bishopric of Asidonia must have made it easy for

Before the sixteenth century there are hardly any mentions of

Mercadante to obtain a commission from the diocese of Jerez and

life in Villamartín and the highlands above Cadiz. The conquest

other territories situated beyond the Guadalete River but still in

by Fernando III in the Guadalquivir River valley made possible

the general area in which the sculpture was found.38 Furthermore,

the advance of the Castilians and victories against the Almohads

relations between the master masons of Seville Cathedral with

almost as far as the Strait of Gibraltar. The zone of the Guadalete

building programmes in Jerez de la Frontera, el Puerto de Santa

River was annexed in 1249 and Alfonso X, conscious of the

María and Arcos de la Frontera and the few records of paintings

difficulties presented by repopulating this huge area, ceded

and sculpture from this period in the area are evidence of the

territories and fortresses to the Order of Calatrava to consolidate

influence of masters and works linked to Seville.39

Castilian presence in the frontier zone. Later on Alfonso XI would give these areas to the council of the city of Seville. Over

There is no documentation confirming the acquisition of this

the course of the fifteenth century there were two attempts at

sculpture by Manuel Ximénez del Canto y Murillo, the person

seigneurial repopulation by members of the Sevillian oligarchy.

33

A first occupation of the town is mentioned in 1423, related to the

the eighteenth-century polychromy could have taken place when

donation by the city of Seville of a lifetime estate comprising the

the work was acquired and integrated into his private collection,

fortress of Matrera and land of Villamartín to Juan de Ortega.

or – as is the case in other gothic imagery in Andalusia – into the

Ortega built on it a tower, a farmhouse and a few houses, thanks

temple where it would be worshipped within a recently-made

to money lent to him by Don Guillen de las Casas, son of Fernán

retable. It can neither be ruled out that the first constructors of the

Peraza. The family of the latter reclaimed these, and the fortress

palace in the sixteenth century, Ana de Venegas and her husband,

passed into his dominion although a long court case ensued. At

Manuel Ximénez del Canto y Murillo, were from Seville, or that

no point in these proceeding was the existence of an oratory which

one of their descendants brought the sculpture - produced during

could have housed the Virgen del Buen Fin mentioned.

Mercadante’s maturity - to Villamartín.

The foundation letter of the town of Villamartín dates from

The recent restoration of the Virgen del Buen Fin has recovered one

the year 1503. Once outstanding frontier conflicts were resolved

of the most important but least known works by the Breton sculptor

following the conquest of Granada, the city council of Seville

whose artistic trajectory stands out amongst those of French masters

called upon the citizens of Morón, Bornos, Los Molares, El

working in the Iberian peninsula. The quality of this terracotta

Coronil and other towns to populate the area. It was then, before

sculpture confirms not only the authorship of Lorenzo Mercader

1505, that the first church was built, only to be transformed in

or Mercadante de Bretaña but also the complex technique and

the second half of the same century. Despite the clear economic

significance of this master in the history of Spanish sculpture.

34

35

36

66

behind the reconstruction of the palace in 1765. Nevertheless,

67

68

not e s

1

M. Gómez-Moreno, “¿Jooskén de Utrecht, arquitecto y escultor?” Boletín de la Sociedad Castellana de Excursiones V (1911), pp. 63-66.

2

J. A. Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las bellas artes en España, vol. III (Madrid: Viuda de Ybarra, 1800), pp. 133-134.

3

J. Ibáñez Fernández & D. Domínguez Montero, “Antes de Sevilla: Lorenzo Mercader (Mercadante) de Bretaña en Zaragoza (1446-1448). Transferencias e intercambios entre las Coronas de Aragón y Castilla a mediados del siglo XV,” Artigrama 30 (2015), pp. 261-303.

4

J. Ibáñez Fernández & J. Criado Mainar, “El maestro Isambart en Aragón: la capilla de los Corporales de Daroca y sus intervenciones en la catedral de la Seo de Zaragoza,” in La piedra postrera (2). Comunicaciones, Simposium internacional sobre la catedral de Sevilla en el contexto del gótico final. vol. 2 (Seville: Cabildo Metropolitano, 2007), pp. 90-100.

5

J. Ibáñez Fernández, “Con el correr del sol: Isambart: Pedro Jalopa y la renovación del Gótico final en la Península Ibérica durante la primera mitad del siglo XV,” Biblioteca: estudio e investigación 26 (2011), pp. 201-226; J. Ibáñez Fernández, La capilla del palacio arzobispal de Zaragoza en el contexto de la renovación del Gótico final en la Península Ibérica, Papeles del Mudiz 2, (Saragossa: 2012), pp. 15-72; B. Alonso Ruiz & J. Martínez de Aguirre, “Arquitectura en la Corona de Castilla en torno a 1412,” Artigrama 26 (2011), pp. 124-152.

6 Steven Janke’s works are essential in this context. For a general view of sculpture in Saragossa see G. Pik Wajs, Galia, “La escultura zaragozana del siglo XV: estado de la cuestión,” Turiaso 16 (2002), pp. 145-177; R. Terés, “La escultura del Gótico Internacional en la Corona de Aragón: los primeros años (ca. 1406-1416), Artigrama 26 (2011), pp. 160-161. 7

It was first mentioned by F. Reina Giraldez, “Llegada a Sevilla y primeras obras de

8

A. Jiménez Martín, “Las fechas de las formas. Selección crítica de fuentes

Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña,” Archivo Hispalense 215 (1987), pp. 143-144. documentales para la cronología del edificio medieval”, in Jiménez Martín et al., La catedral gótica de Sevilla: fundación y fábrica de la obra nueva (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 2006), pp. 50-52; Ibáñez Fernández, “Con el correr del sol,” pp. 205-206; Alonso Ruiz, Martínez de Aguirre, “Arquitectura en la Corona de Castilla,” pp. 127-136; V. D. López Lorente, “La guerra y el maestro Ysambart (doc. 1399-1434). Reflexiones en torno a la formación y transmisión de conocimientos técnicos en los artesanos de la construcción del tardogótico hispano,” Roda la Fortuna. Revista electrónica sobre Antiguidade e Medioevo 3/1-1 (2014), pp. 410-450. 9

R. Terés i Tomás, “Obres del segle XV a la catedral de Barcelona. La construcción de l’antica sala capitular,” Lambard. Estudis d’art medieval VI (1991-1992), pp. 391-396; C. Argilés i Aluja, “Preus i salaris a la Lleida dels segles XIV i XV segons els llibres d’obra de la seu,” (Lleida: PhD thesis, Universitat de Lleida, 1998), pp. 58-116; Jiménez Martín, “Las fechas de las formas”, pp. 51-65; J.C. Rodríguez Estévez, “Los canteros de la obra gótica de la catedral de Sevilla (1433-1528),” Laboratorio de Arte 9 (1996), pp. 49-71.

10 Rodríguez Estévez, “Los canteros de la obra gótica de la Catedral de Sevilla,” pp. 4971; Jiménez Martín, “Las fechas de las formas,”, pp. 51-65. 11 M. Gómez-Ferrer Lozano, “La cantería valenciana en la primera mitad del XV: El maestro Antoni Dalmau y sus vinculaciones con el área mediterránea,” Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte 9-10, (1997-1998), pp.18-20, 25-26; M. Gómez-Ferrer Lozano, “La cantería valenciana en la primera mitad del siglo XV”, pp. 91-105 (updated in El maestro de la catedral de Valencia Antoni Dalmau (1435-1453), http://www.academia.edu/11010998/EL_MAESTRO_DE_LA_CATEDRAL_ DE_VALENCIA_ANTONI_DALMAU_ACT.1435-1453, accessed May 2016, pp. 3-6); Jiménez Martín, “Las fechas de las formas,” pp. 63-64; A. Jiménez Martín, “La catedral de Sevilla y el gótico mediterráneo,” in B. Alonso & F. Villaseñor, Arquitectura tardogótica en la Corona de Castilla: trayectorias e intercambios,” (Santander: Universidad de Sevuilla & Universidad de Cantabria, 2014), pp. 187-188 & 195-196. 12 A. Jiménez Martín & I. Pérez Peñaranda, Cartografía de la Montaña Hueca (Seville: Ediciones del Cabildo Metropolitano de la Catedral de Sevilla & Ediciones Guadalquivir, 1997), pp. 47.

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13 Gómez-Ferrer Lozano, “La cantería valenciana en la primera mitad del XV,” pp. 18-20. 14 Reina Giraldez, “Llegada a Sevilla y primeras obras,” pp. 143-144.

Romero at the “Icon” Madrid workshop in 2016. I thank them for this information.

15 Ibid., p. 148.

32 J. M. Álvarez Benítez, “La casa palacio de los Topete,” pp. 132-133.

16 D. Angulo Iñiguez, “Bordados de estilo eyckiano del sepulcro del cardenal Cervantes

33 Sanz Trelles, de León Morgado, Villamartín, pp. 33 & ff.; J. L. Villalonga, “Haçer un buen

de la Catedral de Sevilla”, in Mélanges Hulin de Loo, (Brussels: Librairie Nationale d’Art

pueblo”. Del campo de Matrera a Villamartín, análisis de un proceso repoblador en la banda morisca

et d’Histoire, 1931), pp. 1-4; Reina Giraldez, “Llegada y primeras obras,” pp. 147.

del reino de Sevilla 1256-1503 (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla; Diputación de Cádiz,

This mitre was spoliated in 1585.

2006), pp. 62-85.

17 T. Laguna Paúl, “De la línea al volumen: génesis figurativa y modelos grabados en

34 A. Collantes de Terán, “Nuevas poblaciones del siglo XV en el reino de Sevilla,”

la obra de Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña,” in Copia e invención. Modelos, réplicas,

in M.A. Ladero Quesada, Andalucía en la Edad Moderna, Anexos de la revista Hispania 7,

series y citas en la escultura europea, II Encuentro internacional de museos y colecciones de escultura

(1977), pp. 291-292.

(Valladolid: Museo Nacional de Escultura, 2013), pp. 137-141; T. Laguna Paúl,

35 Villalonga, “Haçer un buen pueblo”, pp. 10-15, 62 & ff., 83-91.

“Marco arquitectónico y retórica visual en barro en la catedral de Sevilla.” in B.

36 Villalonga, “Haçer un buen pueblo”, pp. 146-152.

Alonso Ruiz & J.C. Rodríguez Estévez, eds., Sevilla 1514. Arquitectos tardogóticos en la

37 Sanz Trelles, de León Morgado, Villamartín, pp. 139-148.

encrucijada (Seville: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, 2016), pp. 39-42.

38 P. Antón Solé, “La Diócesis de Cádiz en la época medieval,” in J. Sánchez Herrero,

18 These delays are likely to have been initially related to the delayed conclusion of the high altar and crossing.

ed., Historia de las diócesis españolas, 10. Iglesias de Sevilla, Huelva, Jerez y Cádiz (Madrid; Cordoba: BAC-Cajasur, 2002), pp. 623-644; A. López Fernández, “La diócesis de

19 Laguna Paúl, “Marco arquitectónico y retórica visual,” pp. 39-42.

Jerez,” in Sánchez Herrero, ed., Historia de las diócesis españolas, 10. Iglesias de Sevilla, pp.

20 Laguna Paúl, “Las portadas del Bautismo y del Nacimiento de la catedral de Sevilla,”

575-604; A. Morgado García, La diócesis de Cádiz: de Trento a la Desamortización (Cadiz:

Bienes Culturales 1, (2002), pp. 91; Laguna Paúl, “De la línea al volumen,” pp. 139-140. 21 Gómez-Moreno, “¿Jooskén de Utrecht,” pp. 63-66; D. Angulo Iñiguez, La escultura en Andalucía, vol.I, fas. V (Seville: Laboratorio de Arte, 1927); J. Hernández Díaz, “Retablos y esculturas,” in La catedral de Sevilla, (Seville: Ediciones Guadalquivir, 1984), pp. 231-237; Reina Giraldez, “Llegada y primeras obras,”, pp. 145; Laguna Paúl, “Las portadas,” pp. 90-92. 22 On Mercadante’s technique see F. Arquillo Torres, “El estado de conservación de las esculturas de Mercadante que decoran las portadas del Bautismo y del Nacimiento de la catedral de Sevilla,” Atrio: revista de arte 2 (1990), pp. 145-158; C. Cirujano Gutiérrez, “Proceso de intervención en las portadas del Nacimiento y del Bautismo de la catedral de Sevilla,”, Bienes Culturales 1 (2002), pp. 101-120; C. Alvarez Delgado, “La restauración,” in A. Teva Sarrion, ed., Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña. La escultura del arcangel san Miguel de Sanlúcar la Mayor (Seville: Consejería de Cultura-Junta Andalucia, 2007), pp. 67-109; Laguna Paúl, “De la línea al volumen,” pp. 143-145. 23 Laguna Paúl, “De la línea al volumen,” pp. 143-146. 24 Thanks are due to the restorers Rocío Viguera and Sierra Muñoz, who carried out important conservation work on the image in 2005. 25 I wish to thank Adelina Illán and Rafael Romero, restorers at the “Icon” Workshop in Madrid, for this piece of information. 26 A. Kriznar, M. A. Respaldiza, M.V. Muñoz, F. de la Paz & M. Vega, “Polychromed sculptures of Mercadante and Millán analysed by XRF non-destructive technique,” in Castillejo et al., eds., Laser in the Conservation of Artworks (London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008), pp. 81-82. 27 Matthiesen Gallery, http://matthiesengallery.com/works-of-art/?category=gothicrenaissance (27-2-2016). 28 A. Sanz Trelles & M.J. de León Morgado, Villamartín (Cadiz: Diputación Provincial de Cádiz, 1997), pp. 146, fig. 12. 29 It was at this point that the expert opinion of Professor José Hernández Díaz was sought. See J.M. Álvarez Benítez, “La casa palacio de los Topete y su verdadero origen,” Almajar (Ayuntamiento de Villamartín, 2003), p. 136; J. López Alfonso, “Una obra inédita de Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña,” La hornacina, www.lahornacina. com/articuloscadiz.htm, on the visit of Prof. José Hernández Díaz, accessed May 2016; M. A. Martín Sánchez, El imaginero Lorenzo Mercadante. Estudio de la obra y claves de su huella en la Virgen de las Nieves de la Isla Canaria de la Palma, (La Laguna-Tenerife: La Esperanza, 2009), pp. 314-315. 30 The Virgen del Buen Fin from the parish church of Saints Peter and Paul in Puerto Moral was placed in its present site in 1797. See J.M. González Gómez & M. Carrasco Terriza, Escultura mariana onubense: historia, arte, iconografía (Huelva: Diputación Provincial de Huelva, 1992), pp. 91-92.

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31 Traces of the original polychromy were found by restorers Adelina Millán and Rafael

Universidad de Cádiz, 2008), pp. 11-12. 39 T. Laguna Paúl, “Andalucía gótica,” in J. Fernández López (coord.), Andalucía. La España gótic, vol. 11 (Madrid: Ediciones Encuentro, 1992), pp. 34-98.

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Analysis of production techniques in two sculptures in polychromed terracotta by Lorenzo Mercadante Rafael Romero & Adelina Illán, Icono I&R, Madrid

From the middle of the fifteenth century to the end of the sixteenth century the production of monumental sculpture in polychromed terracotta flourished in Seville, both in the decoration of façades and in images for altars, chapels and retables. Everything seems to indicate that the technique of polychromed terracotta was introduced to Seville by the Breton sculptor Lorenzo Mercadante (? – 1480), an artist who worked in the mid-1460s on the Doors of the Nativity and Baptism of Seville Cathedral. This tradition was then continued by his more or less direct successor Pedro Millán and by later artists such as Sebastián de Almonacid and Miguel Perrín amongst others. It has been argued that the use of clay in this type of monumental sculpture from Seville was due to the scarcity of stone quarries in the area, but this hypothesis needs to be nuanced. In fact, the availability of stone for important religious buildings was always guaranteed thanks to Seville’s great commercial power at the time; this meant that the supply of primary materials was never a problem. Curiously alabaster was also non-existent in the immediate vicinity but it was out of this that Mercadante produced the tomb of Cardinal Juan de Cervantes (1453 - 1458) before starting work on the cathedral doors. Alabaster had been used by Sevillian sculptors since the fourteenth century.1 It is certainly the case that the local stone, from the quarries of the cerro de San Cristóbal in the Puerto de Santa María (near Cadiz), was inappropriate for sculpture even if it could be used for the building and its decorative elements. It may have been around 1435, when the Norman Charles Gautier or Maestre Carlí started work on building at the cathedral, that the issue was raised of finding an alternative to stone for the sculptural decoration of the façades.2 It is likely that the new technique – based on a tradition known in northern Europe and Italy – was introduced into the valley of the Guadalquivir River by Mercadante himself, and from then on quickly became very popular and widespread.

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The production of these large terracotta sculptures was complex and required great care in terms of methodology and logistics as well as a thorough training and detailed technical knowledge. The work space had to be of a considerable size with large areas for storage of primary materials and kilns of which we know the structure and dimensions thanks to archeological findings from the Triana district of Seville. Pieces had to be moved from the sculptors’ workshops to the kilns and then back to the workshop for assembly. The final stage was the polychromy carried out by specialist craftsmen.3 This elaborate process can be clearly read from the structure of the works and remaining traces of polychromy. They must have been spectacular in their original aspect, with modelling that was at once exuberant and fine as well as rich polychromy. This must have given then an imposing appearance, even in the context of Late Gothic architectural decoration.

Examination and technique Between 2014 and 2016 Icono I&R restoration studios in Madrid had the extraordinary opportunity of analyzing and working on two large sculptures by Lorenzo Mercadante. Both are representations of the Virgin and Child produced in the round in terracotta and which retain some traces of what must have been their original polychromy. The works are very similar, varying only in some decorative and morphological details. The first work, which will be referred to as “Virgin and Child A,” comes from an unknown location and currently belongs to the Matthiesen Gallery in London. The second, traditionally known as the Virgen del Buen Fín and which we call “Virgin and Child B,” comes from the Topete Palace in Villamartín (near Cadiz) and now belongs to Coll & Cortés in Madrid (figs. 60 & 61).4 Both figures are clay and must have been modelled by means of adding pieces or strips of clay to a central core – probably made of wood and straw – which gave shape and support to the structure. These pieces of clay were applied progressively to work up the volume, with excess material removed where necessary. The sculptor worked the clay with his hands and various types of spatula: for the drapery and cloth he used serrated tools, the marks of which gave appropriate texture to these areas even after

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Fig. 60. “Virgin and Child A,” terracotta with traces of polychromy, 145 x 54 cm (57 x 21.3 in), Matthiesen Gallery, London. Fig. 61. “Virgin and Child B,” terracotta with traces of polychromy, 165.5 x 61 cm (65.2 x 24 in), Coll & Cortés, Madrid.

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polychromy. In the areas of skin, on the other hand, the artist chose smooth tools, leaving surfaces which were almost burnished. No doubt some elements were modelled separately for assembly at a later stage: this is the case for the hands and head of the Virgin and body of the Child. In both sculptures fine transversal joins can be seen at various heights in the chest and lower areas. This indicates that the figure – once fully modelled and partly dry – was cut with a wire or fine cord into two or three main pieces which could be fired separately.5 This sectioning into pieces would make it easier to put things into the kiln and manipulate the figure (figs. 62, 63 & 64). This procedure was regularly followed by Mercadante, and can be seen in many of his figures on the doors of Seville Cathedral. The resulting sections of modelled clay, which were already somewhat rigid from having been dried for a brief period, could be fired independently without risk of damage. In the case of sculptures fired in one piece - as was also common in Mercadante’s work – the aforementioned core was retained but incinerated during the firing process. In many cases an aperture was made on the top of the head to facilitate the drying of the clay during the firing; this could be case with “Virgin and Child B” in which there is an area of ochre-coloured filling material which may be gesso mixed with sand. It is nevertheless improbable, as stated elsewhere, that additional metallic elements were inserted into this core to add solidity or hold together the different sections of the sculpture. This would have resulted during the firing process – with the loss of water from the clay and consequent shrinkage (see e.g., fig. 65) – in the piece bursting or cracking. Any metallic elements must have always been

Fig. 62. The red lines mark the joins of the assembly of the sections into which the figure is divided (“Virgin and Child B”).

inserted after firing was finished. X-rays of the two works discussed here do not reveal the presence of any type of metallic elements inside the figures (fig. 66).

because it was normal for small cracks of contraction to develop relating to the different thicknesses of the walls, as seen for example

Once our two sculptures were fired in their different sections, these

in “Virgin and Child B.” The interior could alternatively be

would have been assembled. To put the hands on, for example,

reinforced with bits of ceramic or brick. It was also common to place

internal wooden rods could be used to fix the joins. The hollows

transversal beams which supported the hollow at the back of the

would have been filled with slip (fluid clay used to fill joins and

sculpture – as is the case here – which could contain a brick (fig. 67).

fissures and in the execution of small and fine decorative details). Once the different pieces were assembled and joined, and all the

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At the back, where a vertical hollow has been created, the internal

joins were covered over with soft clay, the figure was finished and

clay walls were reinforced with soft clay (slip) or gesso. This was

ready for polychromy.

Fig. 64. Joins between two sections of “Virgin and Child B.”

Fig. 63. The red lines mark the joins of the assembly of the sections

Fig. 65. Detail of X-ray showing contraction

into which the figure is divided (“Virgin and Child A”).

fissures produced during the firing process.

In the two figures studied here traces of original polychromy have

sculptures here may have been done by different artists. This is

been found. Various micro-samples were taken from these for

confirmed by the technical differences between the two works.7

analysis with optical and electron microscopy (SEM-EDX).6 The

It is likely that these polychromers moved from workshop to

interpretation of the findings is problematic given numerous coats of

workshop to carry out what was the final procedure.

additional polychromy applied over the centuries. These have left their mark on the surface, superimposed on top of the original remains.

In both sculptures the process of polychromy began with the application in all the areas to be painted of a preparatory coat

Study of the samples reveals that, in all probability, the task of

of gesso bound in animal glue.8 These areas corresponded to

polychromy was carried out by specialist craftsmen responsible

the fronts and sides of the figures, leaving the reverses - which

for gilding and polychroming retables, and that work on the two

would not be seen as the sculptures would be placed against walls

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in niches – unpainted. We have not found in either sculpture

The manner of producing the blue mantles is very varied. In the

blanquebol, a reddish imprimatura which was applied to sculptures

case of “Virgin and Child A” the remains of a number of gilded

such as the relief of the Expulsion of the merchants from the Temple on

eight-pointed stars in relief were found, whilst no decorative

Seville Cathedral’s Door of the Perdón. This underlines, once

remains at all were found (fig. 69) on “Virgin and Child B”. The

again, that there were several polychromy workshops undertaking

gilding was done using mordant gold on a thick layer of orange

this type of sculptural polychromy.

colour which was used to create the relief-work.11 Once the stars had been formed they were given a coating of gesso bound in

Curiously, in the skin tones the preparatory coat is made of calcite

animal glue. Then the blue of the mantle was painted with azurite

with traces of albayalde or lead white (fig. 68). It is probable –

and lead-white bound in oil (fig. 70). In the mantle of “Virgin

given that no layers of polychromy were laid on top of this in any

and Child B,” a fine light gray imprimatura was put on top of

of the samples – that in these zones the sculptor wanted to play

the preparatory layer and, on top of this, a thick stratum of high

with the effect of transparency and that the pinkish tone of the

quality azurite.12 This combination of azurite and lead-white was

terracotta was visible through the imprimatura. In other works

also found in the sculpture on the Door of the Perdón.13

9

which have recently been analysed, for example in the Entombment, Man of Sorrows and Christ tied to the column attributed to Pedro Millán

It is interesting to note at this point the different methods used

now in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, the skin tones have

to make the blue cloths in the works by Mercadante and Millán

been produced with traditional polychromy, indicating either

in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. In Mercadante’s Virgen

that different techniques were used for hands and faces, or, more

de las Cuevas a blue which may be organic or lapis lazuli has been

simply, that the skin tones in our works are not intact.

identified. Although the method of analysis used was not able

There are

nevertheless areas of rich colour in this areas, such as on the lips

to specify which of the two it was, it is likely to be lapis lazuli

of “Virgin and Child B”- which are a intense red colour – and in

(natural ultramarine) on the basis of its colour. In contrast on

what is left of the black of her irises.

Millán’s Entombment azurite has been used as well as cheaper

Fig. 66. Detail of X-ray, “Virgin and Child B.”

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10

Fig. 68. SEM image of the imprimatura employed for the skin tones in “Virgin and Child B.” Note the microfossils (foraminifera) which form the calcite.

Fig. 67. Reverse of the sculpture showing the reinforcements that gave

Fig. 70. Stratigraphy (200X) of the blue of the mantle of “Virgin and

consistency to the work (possibly a brick) as well as the covering of all

Child A.” A thick layer of high-quality, thickly-ground azurite is visible.

of the interior with gesso.

organic blues – probably indigo – on the reverses. Millán also opted for azurite on the Man of Sorrows, but this time on a base of red earth – probably to enrich the colour with a purple tone.14 José María Cabrera in 1990 identified lapis lazuli on the mantle of Saint Paul on the Door of the Perdón, there on an imprimatura of lead-white.15 A similar paint structure was found in 2003 on Seville Cathedral’s Palos Door.16 The lining of the Virgin’s mantle also presents two different types of decoration. In “Virgin and Child A” these areas have an imprimatura of lead-white over which a mordant of dull ochre colour covered with gold-leaf has been applied.17 “Virgin and Child B,” however, has Fig. 69. Detail of the star decoration on the blue mantle,

a pale green base – composed of verdigris and lead-white – and it

“Virgin and Child A.”

has been “bathed” with a glaze of copper resinate (figs. 71, 72 & 73).18

This green colour has also been found in the lining of the mantle under the right arm of Mercadante’s Virgen de las Cuevas in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. This green lining could have been decorated with a motif of an intense red colour since in some of the samples traces of dark red decorations – composed of red lake, minium and vermillion – have been found on an orange base composed of minium and vermillion, all of this bound in oil. On the basis of the succession of layers, type of particle size, and composition, these could be original decorations. The colour scheme of the robe of the Infant Jesus in Mercadante’s Fig. 71. Stratigraphy (200X) of the green of the lining of the

Virgen de las Cuevas from the Museo de Bellas Artes in Seville is of

mantle of “Virgin and Child B” with reddish-orange decorations.

considerable interest. This is of a duller and slightly greenish blue. The authors that carried out the technical investigation propose – on the basis of the findings – that this is lead-white mixed with vivianite, a blue pigment used in the medieval period.19 Traces of a dull blue which may correspond to the greenish blue of the sculpture in the museum in Seville have been found on the tunic of the Infant in “Virgin and Child A.” On the other hand, there are abundant remains of gilding, also mordant, on the Infant in “Virgin and Child B” and in the lining of the mantle in which a fine mordant of dull ochre has been used. Under this gilding there is a base of earthy orange colour which may have been intended to cover up the impressions left in the terracotta by the modelling tools, leaving a smoother surface for this garment.20

Fig. 72. SEM image of previous sample.

Other elements of both figures – such as the belts and perhaps highlights on the strands of hair of both the Virgins and the Infants – must also have been gilded in this way. These types of highlights have been found in “Virgin and Child B.” The tunics worn by both Virgins must have been of carmine red, very probably decorated for example to simulate brocade. We have seen this in “Virgin and Child A” in which a micro-sample revealed mordant gilding over a clay support and, on top of the gold, white decorations and a glaze of organic red lake. It is important to point out that in neither of the works studied here have traces of silver or tin been found (tin being particularly

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Fig. 73. EDX microanalysis corresponding

associated with the technique of applied brocade in the technical

to the orangey layer in Fig. 71.

literature).21 It should not be ruled out, however, that these figures

may have originally had silvery decorations: indeed, there were

was to eliminate all the posterior repaints, seeking to recuperate

traces of silver on several of the works analysed in the Museo de

any traces of original paint and to consolidate and analyse these

Bellas Artes in Seville. The authors suggest that these traces may

scientifically. The process of removal of these layers was principally

be due to silver decorations which have changed colour and are

mechanical, using local application of controlled humidity.

not visible to the naked eye, such as on the clasps which fasten the mantles of Millán’s Man of Sorrows and angels, or they could also

During this cleaning process a consolidant – a very dilute acrylic

be a component of the azurite used in their polychromy.

resin – was used which correctly saturated the surface of the work

22

and ensured the conservation of the remains of original polychromy. The analysis of these remains of polychromy enable us to reconstruct visually the sumptuous aspect of the original sculptures whose chromatic

In both cases it was decided not to reconstruct elements and details

range must have made them especially imposing. Even if many of these

that had suffered damage. This was done with a view to respecting

works have remained in situ, in their original monumental context, they

in an integral manner the singularity of these works and the

have lost almost all their polychromy. It is thanks to those – mainly

exceptional state of their conservation (figs. 74 &75).

in museums – that have preserved it to a greater or lesser extent that we can form a mental image of their original appearance.

Scientific investigation of these paint layers allows us to get closer to the sculptures’ original appearance; it also gives us key information to understand the working of guild regulations in workshops dedicated to the polychromy of sculpture and retables. This study and the important contributions made by other recent studies help us to establish a fairly precise knowledge of the techniques and procedures used in Sevillian terracotta sculpture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Considerations pertaining to the restoration of both works Each of the two works discussed here presented different issues in relation to their conservation, and this resulted in different methods of intervention being adopted. The sculpture from the Matthiesen

Fig. 74. Detail of the head of the Infant

Gallery in London presented abundant superficial dirt and the

during cleaning

presence of discoloured organic material which darkened and

(“Virgin and Child B”).

practically obscured the original colour of the terracotta and any traces of colour that remained. The process of cleaning was done with

Fig. 75. Detail of the

mixtures of solvents which safely eliminated these extraneous layers.

head of the Virgin during cleaning

In the case of the figure belonging to Coll & Cortés, the sculpture

(“Virgin and Child B”).

had been repolychromed with a thick layer of stucco from the eighteenth century. This polychromy was quite clumsy and severely damaged by a fire which must have occurred in its previous location. Seeing the work for the first time, one had for the impression of a sculpture in the round covered by a layer of soot. The decision taken

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90

not e s

1

2

J.C. Rodríguez Estévez, Los canteros de la catedral de Sevilla, del Gótico al Renacimiento

minium, earths, albayalde and calcite. A mordant of a dull red colour has been applied

esculturas en la catedral de Sevilla,” in La catedral de Sevilla (Seville: Ediciones Gua-

on this stratum. This mordant is composed of clays containing aluminium-silicates, iron

dalquivir, 1991), pp. 221-283.

oxides and minium; small quantities of copper can also be observed, added probably

T. Laguna Paúl, “Las portadas del Bautismo y del Nacimiento de la Catedral de

for their siccative effect in oil-rich media. Both strata demonstrated a lipidinous nature

Sevilla,” Bienes Culturales, Revista del Patrimonio Histórico Español 1 (2002), pp. 83-100.

in tests with Rhodamine B and black Sudan dyes. On top of this was placed the sheet

Regarding the state of conservation of the cathedral doors, see F. Arquillo Torres

of gold leaf, which presents traces of lead and calcium and a thickness of 2-5 µm. The

& J. Arquillo Torres, “Salvemos los Mercadantes de la portadas del Bautismo y del Nacimiento en la catedral de Sevilla,” in IX Congreso de Conservación y Restauración de Bienes Culturales: Sevilla, 17, 18, 19 y 20 de septiembre de 1992, ed. F. Arquillo Torres (Seville: Ministerio de Cultura, Secretaría del Congreso de Conservación y Restauración de Bienes Culturales, 1992), pp. 403-421. 3

4

5

y Restauración de Bienes Culturales: Sevilla, 17, 18, 19 y 20 de septiembre de 1992,

renacentistas en barro cocido de Miguel Perrín,” Laboratorio del Arte 22 (2010), pp. 33-50.

ed. F. Arquillo Torres (Seville: Ministerio de Cultura, Secretaría del Congreso de

Virgin and Child, 145 x 54 cm. (max.): Matthiesen Gallery, London; Virgen del Buen Fin,

Conservación y Restauración de Bienes Culturales, 1992), pp. 510-519.

dimensiones (max.): 165.5 x 61 cm. Coll & Cortés, Madrid. Provenance: Casa-pala-

14 Kriznar et al., “Polychromed sculptures of Mercadante and Millán.”

cio de los Topete, Villamartín (Cadiz).

15 J.M. Cabrera, Memoria de intervención. Terracottas policromadas de la puerta del Perdón

The X-ray of “Virgin and Child B” shows a strip of 2-3 cm. at shoulder height of

We wish to give special thanks to David Juanes from the Instituto Valenciano de electron microscopy with micro-analysis (SEM-EDX), as well as optical microscopy and UV florescence (MO).

(Seville: Junta de Andalucía, Sevilla 1990). 16 Archivo del IPCE, Memoria de la intervención de la Puerta de Palos Catedral de Sevilla (Dirección General de BBAA y BBCC. Ministerio de Cultura, 2003-2004). 17 This gilding on the lining of the mantle has been done on an imprimatura of pure lead-white, with a mordant of an earthy orange colour composed of aluminium silicates and a small amount of lead-white. All of this is also of an oil-rich nature. 18 In the case of “Virgin and Child B,” the green lining of the mantle has no lead-

R. Bruquetas, Técnicas y materiales de la pintura española de los Siglos de Oro (Madrid:

white imprimatura. The polychromy consists of a green base composed of copper

Fundación de apoyo al arte hispánico, 2002), pp. 415-456.

green, very probably verdigris due to the presence of chlorine in the EDX micro-

The gesso layer on both figures is generally fine although it varies according to the

analysis, and lead-white. Over this there is a glaze of dark green, partly discoloured,

topography of the clay substrate between 10 and 50 µm. The gesso furthermore

composed of copper resinate and small quantities of lead-white. The dye tests with

presents small proportions of silica and traces of calcite. Determination of the protein-rich binder was carried out by means of amido black and 2,7 9

cuprite and earths. The medium is again oil-rich. 13 J.L Pérez-Rodríguez, A. Justo & C. Maqueda, “Estudio de las esculturas que adornan la Puerta del Perdón de la Catedral de Sevilla,” in IX Congreso de Conservación

Conservación y Restauración (IVC+R) for the analyses carried out using scanning

8

(60-70 µm) has been applied on top of the gesso. The azurite presents traces of

terracotta, see C. Cirujano & T. Laguna, “Aproximación técnica a las esculturas

firing which caused the subsequent joining of the two pieces to be necessary.

7

blue of the mantle was produced with azurite and traces of lead-white bound in oil. 12 On “Virgin and Child B” a thick layer of high-quality coarsely-ground azurite

For a detailed study of the process of production of sculptures in polychromed

filler material. This could suggest some form of defect due to contraction during 6

11 The orangey imprimatura for the gilding, on top of the gesso, is composed mostly of

(Seville: Diputación Provincial de Sevilla, 1998); J. Hernández Díaz, “Retablos y

antimony pentachloride confirmed the presence of natural resin. 19 Kriznar et al., “Polychromed sculptures of Mercadante and Millán.” The EDXRF

diclorofluorescein.

spectra clearly suggest the presence of iron and lead which would indicate the presence

Cirujano, Laguna, “Aproximación técnica a las esculturas renacentistas,” p.42.

of vivianite and lead-white. The peaks of calcium at 4.01 KeV could correspond to a

10 A. Kriznar, M. A. Respaldiza, M.V. Muñoz, F. de la Paz & M. Vega, “Polychromed sculptures of Mercadante and Millán analysed by XRF non-destructive technique,” in Castillejo et al., eds., Laser in the Conservation of Artworks (London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008), pp. 79-86. The polychromy analysed in this article includes – in a

preparatory later and those of zinc to some later intervention or restoration. 20 This base was isolated by means of an application of animal glue. This was followed by an oil-rich mordant of dull orange colour composed of earths, lead-white and calcite. 21 M.C. Jiménez de Haro, J.L. Pérez Rodríguez, & A. Justo, “La técnica del brocado

matrix of albayalde or lead-white – certain quantities of cinnabar and red earth, and

para decorar las cerámicas de las puertas de la catedral de Sevilla,” in III Congreso

it is possible that organic red lake may have been added as well. In the skin tones of

Nacional de Arqueometría (Seville: 2001), pp. 325-333; Pérez-Rodriguez et al., “Estudio

the Man of Sorrows smaller quantities of copper were found, indicating the addition of copper blue (azul de cobre).

de las esculturas que adornan la Puerta del Perdón.” 22 Kriznar et al., “Polychromed sculptures of Mercadante and Millán.”

91

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Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña Virgen del Buen Fin

Publisher  COLL & CORTÉS

Photographic credits

Project Director  Ricardo Fernández-Deu

B u rg o s © Charterhouse of Miraflores: Fig. 8.

Authors  Nicola Jennings and María Teresa Laguna Paúl Restoration  ICONO I&R Editing  Nicola Jennings Design and Layout  Diego Fortunato and Laura Eguiluz Project Coordinators  Casilda Ybarra, Elisa Salazar and Héctor San José Printing & Binding  Jiménez Godoy

ISBN 978-0-9935643-1-4 Published by Coll & Cortés Copyright © Coll & Cortés, 2016

dresden

© bpk: Fig. 34. London © The British Library Board: Fig. 33. © Nicola Jennings: Figs. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 31, 36, 48. © Matthiesen Gallery: Figs. 58, 60. Madrid © Carlos Herráiz: Figs. 28, 37, 38, 52, 57, 61, 67. © ICONO I&R: Figs. 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75. © Oronoz: Figs. 41, 42, 50. Paris © Réunion des musées nationaux: Figs. 15, 18, 20, 30. Seville © Juan Francisco Angulo: Figs. 2, 6, 22, 29, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 51, 51a, 53, 54, 55, 56. © Fine Arts Museum: Fig. 49. S a n lu c a r l a m ayo r © Municipality of Sanlucar la Mayor: Fig. 59. V e ro n a © Roman Catholic Diocese of Verona: Fig. 32. Z a r ag o z a © La Seo: Fig. 19.

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