the sculpture of diego siloe

The Sculpture of Die go Siloe

by Bernadine BröckerMaster of Letters

Faculty of ArtsUniversity of Glasgow

Christie's EducationLondon

September 2010© Bernadine Bröcker

An exhibition proposAl

Table of ContentsI. Abstract

II. List of Illustrations

III. Essays

1. Introduction

2. Italy

3. Burgos

4. Diego

5. Granada

6. Conclusion

IV. Catalogue

V. Appendix

1. Timeline

2. Maps

3. Glossary

VI. Bibliography

VII. Acknowledgements

3

4

7

8

12

24

40

55

63

65

84

85

87

89

94

99

I. Abstract, 3The Sculpture of Diego Siloe | B. Bröcker

Abstract

I

Diego Siloe, (c. 1495 –1563) known primarily for his architectural accomplishments

in Granada, trained initially as a sculptor of wood, alabaster, and stone. As a sculptor,

Diego developed a unique style, combining the knowledge from his travels and the more

old-fashioned skills from his hometown in Burgos, Spain. The son of famed tomb and

altarpiece sculptor Gil Siloe (d. 1505), Diego goes on to develop into his own identity as

a carver.

In 1519, after a phase of direct contact with the Italian Renaissance in Naples, Diego

Siloe came to Castile in central Spain with a new aesthetic and a humanist outlook, which

he combines with the existing Hispano-Flemish sculptural tradition in Burgos to create a

new hybrid Renaissance œuvre that is characteristically his, and will lead to his success

in Granada after 1528.

Limited literature on Diego Siloe exists, the bulk of which was primarily written in the

mid 20th century by Spanish art historian Manuel Gómez Moreno. Signif icant publica-

tions on this artist exist primarily in Spanish. The following essay and proposed exhibition

catalogue wish to f ill a niche previously unaddressed in the English language.

Word Count: 14,708

II. List of Illustrations, 4The Sculpture of Diego Siloe | B. Bröcker

List of Il lustrations

II

Figure 1 Diego Siloe/Bartolomé Ordóñez Saint Sebastian (1515-19) Marble, Chiesa San Giovanni Da Carbonara, Naples ©Gómez Moreno 1941

Figure 2 Diego Siloe/Bartolomé Ordóñez Carracioli Altarpiece (1515-19) Marble Chiesa San Giovanni Da Carbonara, Naples ©Gómez Moreno 1941

Figure 3 Diego Siloe/Bartolomé Ordóñez Saint John the Baptist (1515-19) Marble Chiesa San Giovanni Da Carbonara, Naples ©Gómez Moreno 1941

Figure 4 Diego Siloe/Bartolomé Ordóñez Dead Christ (1515-19) Marble Chiesa San Giovanni Da Carbonara, Naples ©Gómez Moreno 1941

Figure 5 Diego Siloe/Bartolomé Ordóñez Saint George and Dragon (1515-19) Marble Chiesa San Giovanni Da Carbonara, Naples ©Gómez Moreno 1941

Figure 6 Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi Saint George and the Dragon (1417) Marble, Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy. ©Orsanmichele website

Figure 7 Michelangelo Buonarotti Dying Slave (1513-1515) Carrara Marble, 131.2 in | 228 cm Musee du Louvre M.R. 1590 ©Louvre

Figure 8 Bartolomé Ordóñez Flagellation of Christ (1519) Marble, Choir Stalls, Barcelona Cathedral. ©B. Bröcker 2010

Figure 9 Michelangelo Buonarotti Sybil Libica (c. 1506) Fresco painting, Sistene Chapel, Vatican. ©Vatican

Figure 10 Bartolomé OrdóñezFortitude (c. 1519) carved wood, Choir Stalls, Barcelona Cathedral. © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 11 Bartolomé Ordóñez/Diego Siloe Ornamentation Detail (1519) Marble, Choir Stalls, Barcelona Cathedral © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 12 Gil de Siloe Portrait of Luis Acuña (c. 1486) alabaster and wood with paint and gilding, Tree of Jesse Altarpiece,Burgos Cathedral, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 13 Diego Siloe Effig y of Luis Acuña (1519) alabaster Tomb of Luis Acuña, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 14 Diego Siloe Justice (1519) Stone, Tomb of Luis Acuña, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 15 Workshop of Gil Siloe Saint James the Lesser (c. 1500) alabaster| 29 in.|73.6 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 16.32.153 ©Metropolitan Museum of Art

Figure 16 Gil Siloe Detail of tomb of Juan II and Isabel of Portugal (c. 1483-1485) carved alabaster and stone. Cartuja de Miraflores, Burgos ©unknown.

Figure 17 Gil de Siloe Tomb of Juan de Padilla (1500) stone, Burgos Diocesene Museum, Burgos ©B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 18 Gil Siloe Jesse (c. 1477) wood with painting and gilding Tree of Jesse Altarpiece, Burgos Cathedral ©B.Bröcker 2010


II

Figure 19 Gil Siloe Madonna Enthroned (last third of 15th c) wood with painting and gilding. Burgos Provincial Museum, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 20 Alejo de Vahía Saint Onuphrius (c.1490-1500) wood with painting and gilding. Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid © Luis Marte/B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 21 Alejo de Vahía Virgin of the Milk upon a Crescent Moon (c. 1500) walnut with paint and gilding 51.2 in | 130 cm. Musee National du Louvre, RFR 4. ©Louvre

Figure 22 Gil Siloe Ecce homo detail (c. 1477) wood with paint and gilding Tree of Jesse Altarpiece, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 23 Felipe Bigarny Misericordia detail (1505) wood with traces of paint and gilding, Choir Stalls, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 24 Diego Siloe Escalera Dorada detail (1519-22) stone with paint and gilding, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 25 Diego Siloe Frieze with shield (1528) carved stone, Saint Jerome Monastery, Granada. © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 26 Felipe Bigarny, Diego Siloe. High Altar (1519-23) wood with paint and gilding. Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 27 Felipe Bigarny Synagogue (c.1522-1526) 62 in.|160 cm. wood with paint and gilding. Constablo Chapel, Burgos Cathedral. © Estella Marcos, Amigos Catedral de Burgos, 1995

Figure 28 Felipe Bigarny Church (c.1522-1526) 62 in.| 160 cm. wood with paint and gilding. High Altar, Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral © Estella Marcos, Amigos Catedral de Burgos, 1995

Figure 29 Diego Siloe Escalera dorada (1519-22) Carved stone and wood, ironwork, with later gilding. Burgos Cathedral, Burgos. © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 30 Diego Siloe Fantastical scene (1519-1522) Carved stone. Escalera Dorada, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 31 Diego Siloe Winged dragon and scrolling finnial (1519-22) Carved stone. Escalera dorada, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 32 Diego Siloe Charity (1519) Carved stone. Luis Acuña tomb, Burgos Cathedral © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 33 Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi Madonna di Casa Pazzi (c.1420) Marble 29 x 27 in. | 74.5 x 69.5 cm Bödemuseum, Berlin inv. no. 41 © Antje Voigt, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Figure 34 Diego Siloe Virgin and Child (1519-21) Carved stone with traces of paint. Tomb of Diego Santander, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 35 Diego Siloe The Presentation in the Temple (towards 1523) Wood with paint and gilding. High Altarpiece, Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos. ©B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 36 Diego Siloe Mary Magdalene (1519-1521) Wood with paint and gilding. Saint Anne Altarpiece, Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos. © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 37 Felipe Bigarny Virgin and Child (1536-1542) Alabaster. National Museum of Sculpture Colegio San Gregorio, Valladolid. © Luis Marte/B.Bröcker 2010


II

Figure 38 Diego Siloe Tomb of Saint Casilda (1524) Wood with paint and gilding. Saint Nicholas Church, Buezo. ©Iglesia San Nicolás

Figure 39 Gil Siloe Crucified Christ (c. 1490) wood, painted. Grand Altarpiece, Cartuja de Miraflores, Burgos ©Turismo de Burgos.

Figure 40 Diego Siloe Christ held up by two angels (1520-23) wood with paint and gilding 52 x 42 x 20 cm. Saint Anne Altarpiece, Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral. ©B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 41 Diego Siloe Saint Jerome (1521-23) Carved and painted wood. Saint Peter Altarpiece, Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 42 Diego Siloe Saint John the Baptist (1525)Carved wood. Choir Stalls of Saint Benito, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. ©Luis Marte/B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 43 Alonso Berruguete Saint Michael (towards 1520) wood and alabaster with painting and gildingMuseo Nacional de Escultura, Colegio San Gregorio, Valladolid. © Luis Marte/B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 44 Diego Siloe Queen Isabel praying (1528) wood with paint and gilding. High Altar, Capilla Real, Granada. ©Gómez-Moreno, 1941

Figure 45 Gil Siloe Queen Isabel praying (1493) wood with paint and gilding. High Altar, Cartuja de Miraflores, Burgos. ©Turismo de Burgos

Figure 46 Felipe Bigarny Queen Isabel praying (1510) wood with paint and gilding. Museum of the Capilla Real, Granada. © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 47 Diego Siloe Siloesque columns (1528-1704) Architectural detail. Granada Cathedral. ©B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 48 Diego Siloe Frieze and Arch Ornament Detail (1537)Carved stone. Puerta del Perdón, Granada Cathedral, Granada © B.Bröcker 2010

Figure 49 Diego Siloe A Penitent Saint Jerome (after 1528) Stone. Puerta de San Jerónimo, Granada Cathedral, Granada ©B.Bröcker 2010

Understanding the Sculpture of Die go Siloe

III

III. Essay, 7The Sculpture of Diego Siloe | B. Bröcker

Introduction

1

In contrast to the Italian Renaissance, history books have failed to properly define the

Spanish Renaissance. However, there are key events that mark this period of transition from

the fifteenth- to the sixteenth-century in Spain. The unification of Spanish provinces, due

to the marriage of Queen Isabel of Castile (1451–1504) and King Ferdinand II of Aragon

(1452–1516), would prove to be a catalyst to a subsequent string of events: extremist Catholic

policies, the expulsion of the Moors in 1492, and wealth arriving from the Americas after the

Spanish throne invested in exploration. Meanwhile, consistent other powers existed in Europe:

the Hapsburg empire ruled the north of Europe and an avaricious and power-hungry Catholic

monopoly orchestrated the Italian city-states. The date 1500, considered by some at the time

as apocalyptic, actually bolstered prosperity for Spain. The term Renaissance, a retrospective

formulation focused on the light in Italy, in Spain still held on to the supposed darkness of the

Middle Ages. The insufficience of the “Renaissance” term in Spain causes argumentation

among scholars.1 For example, the dates considered Renaissance in Spain oscillate between

1480 and 1600. While a unique discussion takes place, regarding the Italian ideas of human-

ism, anthropocentrism, and the development of the art as an intellectual practice, Spain’s

trajectory held on to ‘medieval’ formulations beyond the Italianisms.

Art in Spain developed a style built upon the preexisting Spanish tendencies and the novel

ideas emerging in Italy. Estilo isabelino, the existing High Gothic style favoured by Spain’s

Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand, blossomed from the importation of foreign artisans (paint-

ers, sculptors), combined with existing Moorish and Jewish craft work (wooden ceilings, stone

tracery, immensely ornamented spaces). The estilo isabelino climaxed by 1500. The sixteenth-

1 Examples of these publications include: Checa, Fernando. Pintura y escultura del Renacimiento en España 1450-1600. (Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1983); G.J. Geers. De Renaissance in Spanje: kultuur, literatuur, leven. (Zutphen: W. J. Thieme & co, 1932); María José Redondo Cantera, ed. El modelo italiano en las artes plásticas de la península Ibérica durante el Renacimiento. (Valladolid: Secretaria de Publicaciones e Intercambio Editorial Universidad de Valladolid, 2004), and Hans Wantoch. Spanien, das Land ohne Renaissance. (Munich: George Muller, 1927.)


1 century transition towards a more Renaissance style arose from the advent of humanist ideas,

the increase of printing in vernacular Spanish, and the translations of ancient texts.

This change in Spanish art resulted in an acute assimilation of neoclassical forms, yet main-

tained a simplicity the Italian sources lacked. Often, these were valued depending on whether

they were worthy of the praise of masters like Michelangelo (Buonarotti, 1475–1564).2 And

as such, the artwork was not analysed with a consideration of Spanish taste in the sixteenth

century. The country indeed had an influx of foreign artisans and ideas from Italy and the rest

of Europe: foreigners like Juan de Colonia (Hans from Cologne, 1410–1481), Felipe Bigarny

(Phillip from Burgundy, c. 1475–1542), or Italian Domenico Fancelli (1469–1519). However,

various home-grown painters and sculptors existed as well: Diego Siloe (c. 1495–1563) and

Bartolomé Ordóñez (1480–1520), for example, made the time fascinatingly unique in their

own right.

The work by this Diego Siloe (also known as Diego de Siloé, Sylue, Syloee, Siloee) has vary-

ing degrees of renown. Diego’s main successes lie in the Andalucian city of Granada where he

held important commissions as one of the most well-known architects a la romana — in the

Italian manner. His style pleased the likes of bishops, aristocrats, towns-people, and even the

Hapsburg king of Spain at the time, Charles I (1500 – 1558). Hence, even contemporaries of

Diego Siloe compared his architectural work to the Italians across the Bay of Biscay.

Diego Siloe’s life goes many places besides Italy, though.3 He was born in Burgos as a son of

a well-known High Gothic sculptor named Gil Siloe (d. 1505). He then worked a well-paid job

in Burgos, as an apprentice of the aforementioned Felipe Bigarny. This sculptor, a foreigner a

generation older than Diego, was commissioned to carve the choir stalls in the Burgos Cathe-

dral at the time. Master Felipe might have especially employed Diego after the decease of Gil

Siloe around 1505, the likely reason why Diego was being paid so well as an assistant.4 Diego

2 Manuel Gómez Moreno, Águilas del Renacimiento Español: Bartolomé Ordóñez, Diego de Siloe, Pedro Machuca, Alonso Berruguete. (Madrid: C.S.I.C., Instituto Diego Velázquez, 1941), 5.

3 See map, Appendix 24 José Ignacio Hernandez Redondo, “Diego Siloe, aprendiz destacado en el taller de Felipe Bigarny.” Locus Amoenus. (2000-

2001): 105.


1and master Felipe had a legal argument - or pleito - in 1509, which eventually led to Diego’s

leaving Burgos. From 1509 onwards nothing is heard of Diego, until in 1517 he was in Naples

in Italy. He worked at the Caracciolo Chapel in the San Giovanni a Carbonara Church with

fellow sculptor from Burgos, Bartolomé Ordóñez.

By early July 1519, Diego is back in Burgos. He signed the contract to carve the tomb of

Bishop Luis de Acuña y Osorio (d. 1495) in Chapel of the Visitation within the Burgos Ca-

thedral.5 Diego moved back into his father’s workshop on Calle de la Calera in Burgos.6 The

successful completion of the Acuña tomb provided Diego with commissions for many other

works in the Burgos Cathedral and surrounding areas, much like his father had done.7 Then,

by 1528, when Diego is well into his thirties, he received a great offer from a duke to move

to Granada. If one looks at only Diego’s accomplishments in Granada, his past as a simple

assistant sculptor turned master seems a trifle compared to his leadership of grand projects.

This study intends to define what of Diego from Burgos remained in master Siloe in Granada.

Diego Siloe and his contemporaries created a winning formula for Spain. They integrated

neoclassicist features from Italy into the existing ornamental High Gothic framework of the

estilo isabelino. For this, Siloe’s training before he arrives in Granada in 1528 is crucial. A

comparison of the works from Burgos, enveloped in the High Gothic, to Diego’s work in Italy

symbolises the balancing act of Spain in the early sixteenth-century. This artistic balance

defines an era when Hapsburg Spain was ruled by Charles I, also known as Emperor Charles

V, a Northerner who loved Spain. Granada shifted to be Holy Roman Emperor Charles V’s

choice for the papal seat outside of Rome. Hence, this publication intends to characterise the

time through Diego Siloe, an artist considered a key player by Spaniards but about whom

little is written outside of Spain.

In an ideal study, analysing Diego’s clearly attributed work within the Iberian peninsula

5 Manuel Gómez Moreno. Diego Siloe: Homenaje en el IV centenario de su muerte. (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 1963), 46.

6 Miguel Ángel Zalama. “Diego y Juan de Siloe: un dato para su biografía.” Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología. Tomo 58 (1992): 376

7 For map and details on commissions in Burgos Cathedral, Appendix 3


1would help us with the flighty attribution the Spanish Renaissance sculpture held outside

Spain. Museums and private collections around the world have sculptures from the early

Spanish sixteenth century, and with clear references, more is definitely left to be found and

attributed. For example, an altarpiece by Diego existed in Burgos, with a clear paper trail,

but presently with no knowledge of its whereabouts. After the destruction of the church of

San Román of Burgos the piece disappeared. Aurelio A Barrón García wrote an entire article

on this lost altarpiece in 2001.8 The commission of the piece is clearly documented, the old

altarpiece was stored away, and there are documents of where the silver, books, and a couple

of sculptures were moved, but nothing on the altarpiece. Here is at least one significant piece

of Diego Siloe’s before 1528 that remains to be discovered.

Furthermore, museums have or claimed to have works by Diego Siloe, and deserve a com-

prehensive chronology to identify Diego’s stylistic changes. This catalogue on Diego Siloe,

along with Isabel del Río’s catalogue on Felipe Bigarny, and María Gómez Moreno’s catalogue

on Bartolomé Ordóñez, both written in Spanish, manifest reference points for other pieces

to be understood.

These essays commence with an analysis of Diego’s time in Italy; and thus his direct encoun-

ter with the Italian Renaissance. Diego’s work in Naples in 1519 formed the foundation of his

long career a la romana. Chapters 3-4 ground the importance of Burgos in Diego’s œuvre, by

focusing on Diego’s roots in Castile. Chapter 3 analyses High Gothic works by Gil Siloe, Alejo

de Vahía, and master Felipe Bigarny that deeply resonate with Diego’s later work. Chapter

four focuses on the period from 1523 until 1528, Diego Siloe’s middle period when he receives

various individual commissions. Important stylistic developments in Diego’s artistry occur at

this time, and many of these piece have been recently restored.9 This middle period provides

a fascinating prelude to Diego’s architectural innovations after 1528, when in Granada, Diego

from Burgos turns into master Siloe.

8 Aurelio A. Barrón García. “Un retablo de Diego de Siloe para San Román de Burgos.” Actas del Congreso Internacional sobre Gil Siloe y la escultura de su época. (Burgos: Aldecoa, 2001.): 583-585

9 Restoration of Gil Siloe’s Jesse Altarpiece, the Cathedral of Granada? Works to restore the Constable Chapel were com-pleted in 1997, also raising funds for the publication of Estella Marcos’s publication La imaginería de los retablos de la Capilla del Condestable.


Italy

2

Although documentation that Diego Siloe and Bartolomé Ordóñez travelled to Rome and

Florence does not exist, there are many allusions, including quotes in their work, that imply

that they made a tour through Italy before receiving the commission for the altarpiece in the

Caracciolo di Vico Chapel in around 1515. (fig. 2) It is strongly believed that Ordóñez (and

thus, Diego) studied with Jacopo Sansovino (1486–1570) in Florence at the Academia Pontania.10

Sansovino travelled through Spain right after 1500, and returned to live in Rome in 1506.11

Beyond the style of Sansovino himself, the important influences on Diego and Bartolomé were

the great masters the youths undoubtedly appreciated: Michelangelo’s massive figures, the

interesting compositions of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), the masterful carving techniques

of Donatello(1386–1466), and the unique architectural solutions of Bramante (1444 –1514).

Spaniards are often considered less academic because of their expressionistic styles and

the perseverance of their medieval guild systems. But, it is interesting to note that in his will

in 1563, Diego Siloe mentions that he would leave his sculpture tools to an assistant in his

workshop, and his drawings of “architecture and figures” to Juan de Maeda, his partner on

various projects.12 The artist valued his drawings at a different level beyond his own workshop.

None of Diego’s drawings exist today, but based on recurring motifs in Diego’s work we can

conclude he kept looking back at the same drawings, a Renaissance italian practice.

Diego and Bartolomé met the right people in Italy at the time. Their proposed contact

with Sansovino in Florence would have been the source for their commission of humanist

altarpiece for Caracciolo family. A young man training as an artist, Portuguese Francisco

10 Migliaccio, “Precisiones sobre la actividad de Bartolomé Ordóñez en Italia y la recepción del Renacimiento italiano en la península Ibérica.” El Modelo Italiano en las Artes plásticas de la península Ibérica durante el Renacimiento. (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 2004), 377

11 María Elena Gómez Moreno. Bartolomé Ordóñez. (Madrid: Instituto Diego Velázquez, 1956), 12.12 Manuel Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 63.


2

de Holanda (c. 1517 – 1585) published his conversa-

tions with master Michelangelo in the 1530s with an

interesting outcome. When asked about art outside of

Italy, Michelangelo responded that “no nation or town

(except one or two Spaniards) can achieve or perfectly

imitate the Italian style, that is the manner of the an-

cient Greeks, that has not been known by any other

than Italians, despite how hard it’s been tried.”13 This

Italian egocentrism reiterates that if art does not reach

the standards of the ancients, it is no good. De Holanda

used these standards to record his own accounts of the

masters of art in 1548.14 This list included Ordóñez

and Siloe.15 The fact that a young man who absorbed

so many of Michelangelo’s thoughts mentions these two

Spaniards means that, in this author’s opinion, Diego

and Bartolomé were likely the “one or two Spaniards”

the master referred to.

The chapel in which the two Spaniards were work-

ing was designed with humanist principles - many of

the pieces allude to the ideas popularised at the time by

writers such as the poet Sannazzaro (1456 – 1530) who

also wrote the verses in the dedication of the chapel.16

The piece Diego and Bartolomé completed was called

13 Francisco de Holanda. Conversaciones con Miguel Ángel. (Buenos Aires: La Reja, 1956), 46.

14 Ronald W. Sousa “The View of the Artist in Francisco de Holanda’s ‘Dialogues’.” Luso-Brazilian Review 15 (1978): 44.

15 Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 64.16 Migliaccio, “Bartolomé Ordóñez en Italia”, 377.


fig. 1 Diego Siloe/Bartolomé Ordóñez

Saint Sebastian (1515-19) Carrara Marble

Caracciolo Altarpiece, Chiesa San Giovanni a Carbonara,

Naples


fig. 2 Diego Siloe/Bartolomé OrdóñezCarraciolo Altarpiece (1515-19)

Carrara MarbleChiesa San Giovanni a Carbonara, Naples

Wethey cAlled this piece the Altarpiece of the Epiphany. his grAyscAle photogrAph is ideAl to AppreciAte the subtle contrAsts of plAnes in the reliefs.

by art historian H. E. Wethey The Altar of the Epiphany.17 The central

panel of the Adoration of the Magi is flanked on either side by niches

with statues in-the-round of Saint John the Baptist (fig 3) and Saint

Sebast ian (fig 1); surmounted by a relief of the Ecce Homo and four

panels of the evangelists: two on the top and two in the predella. The

half-length panel of Christ sits in a classical frame, under a triangular

pediment and large acanthus scrolls, decorated further by a frieze of

triglyph and rosettes. It all follows strongly classic principles, implying

that the artists had acquainted themselves with these structures - but

they including a little hint of Spain in the eagles of the Aragon crest

included in the pedestals of the half-columns. The predella, beyond

the panels of the Evangelists, holds a panel of Saint George slaying

the Dragon, all over a tomb-like extension with a panel of the Dead

Christ (fig. 4).

Working with sculpture in Italy at the time was an interesting en-

deavour: artists all met each other despite the fact that Italy was still

separated into city-states, because everyone needed to travel to Car-

rara for white marble. A shipment of 93 carrate - carriages - of white

marble was shipped to Ordóñez in Naples on 17 august 1517, provid-

ing further proof that the Spaniards used only the best of the best for

this altarpiece, and had infiltrated the Italian standards.18 Ordóñez,

before his early death, is recorded to have returned to Italy and worked

in Carrara for many subsequent years creating pieces to be shipped

back to Spain.19

17 H.E. Wethey. “The early works of Bartolomé Ordóñez and Diego de Siloe.” Art Bulletin 25. (1943): 228.

18 Ibid, 229, note 19.19 Manuel Gómez Moreno, Águilas del Renacimiento Español, 27.

2


fig. 3 Diego Siloe/Bartolomé OrdóñezSaint John the Baptist

(1515-1519)Carrara Marble

Caracciolo altarpiece, Chiesa San Giovanni a

Carbonara, Naples

2

The Saint George and Dragon (fig. 5) from

the predella especially relates the Spaniards

to a panel by master Donatello (1386-1466)

for the Church of Orsanmichele in Florence

(fig. 6). Made to accompany a statue of Saint

George, Donatello’s panel was completed in

1417. Interestingly, the Spanish translation

in Naples is a reverse of the Florentine ver-

sion, with the princess on the left and the

dragon on the right, and the panel is longer than Donatello’s in proportion. The framing of

Saint George within the panel is the same, as is the Florentine technique of great contrast

between low relief carving - stiacciato - of the background and the almost three-dimensional

high relief of the Saint George. The Spaniards knew and practiced Florentine skills learned

first-hand or otherwise.

When imitating Italian standards, however, interesting differences demonstrate Diego and

Bartolomé’s Spanish origins. First of all, Saint George is the patron of the Spanish branch of

the house of Aragon.20 But visually as well, for example the princess, shown by Donatello in

classic contrapposto stance and holding her hands in prayer, is carved by the Spaniards kneel-

ing with a lamb by her side. The Spanish princess watches the scene but also parallels the

movements of Saint George on the horse, his lance, and his gaze. While the face in profile and

the lightness of her drapery follows the classical style, her pose hints towards a different, less

austere visual language comprehensive of the feminine character. The contrast between the

lamb and the dragon in the Spanish version makes an even more direct reference to moralistic

themes. Saint George, furthermore, is shown by Diego right before slaying the dragon – as op-

posed to Donatello’s depiction in media res, piercing the dragon with his spear. Diego’s marble

panel improved on the master’s original composition as the Donatello had less room for the

20 Migliaccio, “Bartolomé Ordóñez en Italia”, 75.


fig. 4 Diego Siloe/Bartolomé OrdóñezDead Christ (1515-19)

Carrara marble Caracciolo Altarpiece,

Chiesa San Giovanni a Carbonara, Naples, Italy

2

figures. The whole provides a more balanced dispersion of parts. St. George’s sword points to

the wound in the dragon and sets up compositional parallels with the horse’s face, the spear

in the dragon and the fighter’s helmet. Diego quoted directly from a Renaissance master, but

changed elements to suit his own needs, a practice he would keep repeating.

The gestures of both Diego and Bartolomé are visible; yet there is a clear difference in how

each handled the material. The Saint Sebast ian and the Dead Christ have been definitely

attributed to Diego, and the central panel of the Adoration is Bartolomé’s.21 Particularly Bar-

tolomé works with more complex compositions: crowds in a pyramidal composition similar

to the manner of Leonardo da Vinci, still alive at that time.22 Meanwhile Diego struggles

with his compositions, for example his Dead Christ appears to float. Diego works to tackle

a more intellectual, humanist agenda, as Migliaccio points out. “The naked and dead body

of Christ and the associations with the pagan sacrifice” that Diego enforces “foreshadow the

redemption and convivial spirit emphasized by humanist Neapolitans.”23 Humanist poetry in

Naples at the time referred to themes of redemption through the Eucharistic sacrifice, and of

the deification of man through his martyrdom. This more existential thought process works

well with Diego’s expressionistic carving, in for example the contrast between the serenity of

Christ’s face and the uncomfortable positioning of his arms.

21 Alberto C. Ibáñez Pérez, Payo Hernanz, and René Jesús. Del Gótico al Renacimiento. Artistas burgaleses entre 1450 y 1600. (Burgos: Cajacírculo, 2008.) 130.

22 Wethey, “The Early Works”, 230.23 Migliaccio, “Bartolomé Ordóñez en Italia”, 74. translation: author’s own


fig. 5 (above) Diego Siloe Saint George and the Dragon (c.1517)

Marble Caracciollo Altarpiece

San Giovanni a Carbonara, Naples fig. 6 (below) Donato di Niccolò di

Betto Bardi a.k.a. DonatelloSaint George and the Dragon (1417)

Marble Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy

2

The Saint Sebastian statue in the left niche of the al-

tarpiece (fig. 1) makes a reference to Michelangelo’s stat-

ue of the Dying Slave for the tomb of Julius II, carved

almost contemporarily with the piece by Siloe and Or-

dóñez. The pair are likely to have seen Michelangelo’s

Slave partilly carved in Carrara. The submissive at-

titude and wrought positioning of the body shows an

eye for contortions uniquely Florentine from the early

sixteenth century. The body’s contrapposto embodies

the balance between active and passive: the standing

versus the bent leg, the raised versus the resting arm.

The Caracciolo Saint Sebastian is carved by Diego, as

he was much more apt in sculpture in-the-round than

Ordóñez.

More proof that the sculpture is by Diego is a similar

statue of Carrara marble currently exhibited in Spain,

in the church of Barbadillo de Herreros near Burgos.

(cat. 1) The piece in Burgos makes an even more literal

allusion to the Dying Slave, with a similar tilt of the

head, the added raised right arm alongside the face,

and a tree trunk that curves similarly to Michelangelo’s

wave. That the sculpture in Burgos is more directly

quoted from Michelangelo, and is made of Italian stone,

suggests that it was an earlier version of the Saint for the

Caracciolo altarpiece, brought back to Burgos by Diego

as evidence of his skill and maybe a souvenir of his ab-

sorption of the Italian technique working in Carrara.


fig. 7 Michelangelo BuonarottiDying Slave (1513-1515)

Carrara Marble131.2 in | 228 cm

Musée du Louvre M.R. 1590

2

A similar composition of the figure is used in the Flagellation of Christ in the Barcelona Ca-

thedral, attributed to Ordóñez but clearly influenced by Diego’s technique (fig. 8). Particularly

the hair style of the figure of Christ, with rings of curls framing the head and neck parallels

the Saint Sebastian in Barbadillo de Herreros, in the Caracciolo altarpiece, and other future

works by Diego (cat. 11 & 18, fig. 29).

It is unclear which Saint Sebastian came first, but the Barbadillo version is considerably

smaller than the Naples sculpture. Diego later made preliminary sculptures of his figures for

altarpieces, as can be seen in the Christ tied to the Column (cat. 12) or the Saint Jerome (cat. 9).

Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500 – 1571) recommended that every master must make

a small model with love and studiousness, to resolve all the artistic issues, and even Diego’s

father Gil Siloe made prior models to verify his compositions (cat. 2).

Beyond the Caracciolo altarpiece, the two Spaniards worked in Naples on the Madonna and

Child roundel of the San Giorgio Maggiore church, and in the tomb of Giovanni Tocco of the

Naples Cathedral.24 Ordóñez and Siloe executed, before 1519, the tomb of Andrea Bonifacio in

the Santos Severino and Sossio church of Naples, introducing “notable innovations, with the

24 Ibáñez et al, Del Gótico al Renacimiento, 130.


fig. 8 Bartolomé OrdóñezFlagellation of Christ (1519)

Marble Choir Stalls, Barcelona Cathedral

2

composition and with the delicacy of their sculptures.”25

The aforementioned Flagellat ion in the Barcelona

Cathedral, when the two sculptors returned to Spain

after 1517, resulted from Ordóñez’s commission to com-

plete decorative panels for the choir stalls of the Bar-

celona Cathedral. Stylistic evidence hints Diego and

Bartolomé collaborated in the drawing up of the panels

for the choir stalls in early 1519, to be ready for Charles

V’s meeting of the Golden Fleece in March.26 Especially

the design of the grotesques and some of the figures

correlates to later work by Diego.

An interesting connection can be made between

some of the f igures of the Virtues in the stalls and

Florentine sources. It has been speculated that Bar-

tolomé and Diego must have owned drawings of the

Sybil Libica by Michelangelo, possibly inspiring Or-

dóñez’s figure of Fortitude carved in wood in Barcelo-

na, and the Virtues carved by Diego on the Luis Acuña

tomb in the Burgos Cathedral.27

Furthermore, Margarita Fernández, who wrote her

thesis in Madrid on the grotesques - carved decorative

elements - of Diego Siloe, mentions certain key features

that prove Diego put in a hand with the ornamentation

25 Migliaccio, “Bartolomé Ordóñez en Italia”, 379. translation: author’s own

26 Gómez Moreno, Las águilas del Renacimiento español , 27.27 Wethey, “The Early Works”, 235.


fig. 9 above: Michelangelo BuonarottiSybil Libica (c. 1506)

Sistene Chapel, Vatican

fig. 10 below: Bartolomé OrdóñezFortitude (c. 1519)

Choir Stalls, Barcelona Cathedral

2

in Barcelona.28 Fernández based much of her study on the Escalera Dorada (fig. 29, analysed

in Chapter 4), with its interesting curves, vegetable forms, and the long, s-shaped necks of the

fantastical beasts. The ornamentation of the marble frames of the Barcelona choir stalls (fig.

11) include figures that correlate to grotesques that will

reappear in Diego Siloe’s work.

After 1519, Ordóñez and Siloe part ways, and Di-

ego returns to Burgos. These great travels bring a

very different Diego Siloe back to his hometown. Art

historians like Gómez Moreno focus on Diego’s first

documented commission on his return in Burgos, the

tomb of Luis Acuña. The bishop passed away in 1495

asking for a very simple tomb in the Chapel of the

Visitation of the Burgos Cathedral.29 In contrast to

the simplicity Acuña requested, the tomb was prede-

termined in the contract by the church to be quite

large and includes a frieze of the Seven Virtues and a

Sybil, as well as an effigy of the deceased, and is quite

high off the ground. The contract stipulates that Diego

must work a la romana - in the Roman style - which shows that he returns to a market that is

seeking the style he has just absorbed in Naples and elsewhere.

The tomb’s shape, the scrolling acanthus of its corners (fig. 14) and its concave panels of

the frieze follows the trend of the tomb of Sixtus IV by Antonio Pollaioulo (1433-1498) in the

Vatican.30 However, the Spanish tombs served as a type of memento mori; farther from the

28 Margarita Fernández. Los grutescos en la arquitectura española del Protorrenacimiento. (Valencia: Generalitat Valenciana, 1987), 198.

29 Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 43.30 Gómez-Moreno, Las Águilas del Renacimiento Español, 44.


fig. 11 Bartolomé Ordóñez/Diego SiloeBarcelona Cathedral Choir stall exterior (detail)

Barcelona Cathedral, Burgos

2

pagan roots of Italian tombs, imbuing the spectator

with empathy to pray for the deceased.31 This religiosity

implies that often the tombs included an effigy of the

deceased.32 The price accorded by Diego and patron in

this case was 200 ducats; much lower than usual for a

tomb of this size and with elaborate decoration.33 It has

been speculated that the quality of some of the carving

suggests work by a workshop of Diego rather than the

artist himself; a commission for which he earned much

more money would guarantee more personal effort put

in by the artist.34

As Bishop Acuña passed away in 1495, this author

would not so quickly believe that quality of stagnant

portrait effigy, Diego’s first commission in Burgos, is

an apprentice’s work. (fig. 13) Rather, Diego probably

based his carving upon a wooden portrait sculpture of

Acuña made by his father Gil in this same chapel. (fig.

12) Even the manner in which Acuña’s hands are held

in prayer and the way the cloak falls in a heart-shaped

fold around his neck is reminiscent of Gil Siloe’s portrait

of Acuña in the Tree of Jesse Altarpiece. This relation-

ship with the existing artwork in Burgos leaves many

interesting links to be discovered, as we have seen how

31 María José Redondo Cantera. El sepulcro en España en el siglo XVI: tipología e iconograf ía. (Madrid: Centro Nacional de Informacion y Documentación de Patrimonio Histórico, 1987), 16.

32 Fernando Araujo. Historia de la escultura en España de principios del siglo XVI hasta f ines del XVIII y causas de su decadencia. (Valencia : Librerías París-Valencia: 1992), 35.

33 Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 45.34 Zalama, “Diego y Juan”, 376.


fig. 12 Gil SiloePortrait of Luis Acuña (c. 1486)

Alabaster with paint and gildingTree of Jesse Altarpiece,

Burgos Cathedral, BurgosA detAil shoWing A portrAit of the donor, bishop luis AcuñA,

prAying before the AltArpiece With recognizAble members of his clergy

fig. 13 Diego SiloeEffig y of Luis Acuña (1519)

AlabasterTomb of Luis Acuña

Burgos Cathedral, Burgos

2

Diego absorbed Florentine, Neapolitan, and Roman ideas. The young Diego, with his Italian

ideals and stars in his eyes, signed contracts promising to bring the Roman style to Burgos.

But, the inspiration he also sought within the Castilian city is of greater importance than

previously acknowledged.


fig. 14 Diego SiloeJustice (1519)

StoneTomb of Luis Acuña


3

In the fifteenth century, Burgos thrived due to trade and

the royal court. Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand often

spent time there, and much commerce followed. Foreign

artisans, finding fewer commissions in the northern Euro-

pean lands, travelled south to the Iberian peninsula and

the dry lands of central Spain: Burgos. Spaniards imported

foreign art and artists.35 Fewer commissions in the North-

ern lands,36most likely due to Flanders and Brabant being

the most densely populated in Europe.37 The main import

was the art and customs of the Flemish, Burgundian court.

Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand married their children

with the grandchildren and heirs of Charles the Bold (1433-

1477, the last duke of Burgundy but also a son of Castile), of

Margaret of Austria (1480 - 1530) and of Philip the Good

(1396-1467). Burgundian piety and political power attracted

the characters of the Spanish court. For example, one of

the first documented Northern artists in Burgos is Juan de

Colonia, who may have met bishop Alfonso de Cartagena

(1384—1456) when he visited the Council of Basle - in the

north - in 1434.38 A half a century later, the Colonia family

35 For more information on imported Flemish artworks and their influence on Spanish art, see exhibition catalogue: Francesc Ruiz Quesada. La pintura gótica hispanof lamenca: Bartolomé Bermejo y su época. (Barcelona, Bilbao: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2003).

36 Isabel del Río, El escultor Felipe Bigarny 1491-1542. (Valladolid: Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 2001), 23

37 Alain Arnould and Jean Michel Massing. Splendours of Flanders. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, The Fitzwilliam Museum, 1993), 6.

38 Beatrice Gilman Proske, Castilian Sculpture: Gothic to Renaissance. (New York:

Burgos


Fig. 15 Workshop of Gil SiloeSaint James the Lesser (c. 1500)

alabaster 29 in | 73.6 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York 16.32.153

3

was working on every structure in Burgos - and their style was seen as Spanish.

The High Gothic style comprised of tall, elongated forms and arches, and influences from

nature taken to new levels in playful tracery. The “estilo isabel is no misnomer for this exultant

style, for it was at her order that [...] In the fine arts as in other fields, the Queen struck out

on a new path of personal leadership, the Queen felt that nothing was too fine for the religion

that she spent her life militantly advancing,” scholar Beatrice Proske mentions in her analysis

of Castilian art and sculpture.39 During this period, the military tactic was often intimidation

by means of lavish spending on fairs and festivities, giving the impression that the kingdom

had vaster funds to spend on military pursuits.40 The Catholic Kings were looking for strength

in exuberance, and the riches arriving from the New World at the time helped them in their

vision of furthering God’s plan.

Piety in Catholic Spain was vinculed with a sense of purpose. The Castilian nobility had

not yet acquired the taste for collecting for aesthetic pleasure so common in the studiolos of

Italy or the wunderkammers of Northern Europe at the time. Spanish nobility and court figures

inherited Arabic traditions, decorating their homes with abstracted carved and gilded surfaces

or beautiful tiles rather than a fountain or a portrait bust, reserving some walls for the hang-

ing of Flemish tapestries or a devotional picture. Decorating a space was also seen as a the

work of many individuals rather than a specific master: ensambladores, trazadores, estofadores,

doradores, talladores, aparejadores. Sculptors, known in Castile as imaginarios, served the noble

and parochial authorities by carving tombs, altarpieces or decorative friezes on buildings.41

Their work, usually of wood or alabaster and then painted in realistic colours, stood in spaces

created by masterful stonemasons and under beautiful geometric ceilings of wood in the Arab

tradition. This combination created an environment that was completely Spanish, unlike the

High Gothic in any other area despite wishes to imitate the North.

Hispanic Society of America, 1951), 9.39 Ibid, 2.40 Del Rio, Felipe Bigarny, 23.41 Proske, Castilian Sculpture, 5.


A great example of this collaboration, made up of various layers, and a feast for the pious eye, is

the Cathedral of Burgos, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The thirteenth-century Gothic structure

of the cathedral holds interiors built up over time. These combine works from different master

imaginarios, stonemasons, glass workers, and ironworkers. The end result gleams in a type of tex-

tural indulgence one could call plateresque. The contrast between the miles of Castilian farmland

and arid hills to a cathedral with such abundance still makes an extraordinary impact at present

day. Within this Castilian tradition lie the roots of Diego Siloe’s early life.

Diego’s father, Gil Siloe was a very well-known carver, employed by the Catholic Kings for

the tombs of their family members and top esquires. One of Gil’s famous tombs, in the monastic

convent Cartuja de Miraflores, right outside of Burgos, was commissioned for Juan II of Castile

(1405-1454) and Isabel of Portugal (1428-1496) in 1486 by Queen Isabel herself.42 From the success

42 Joaquín Yarza Luaces. Gil Siloe: El Retablo de la Concepción en la capilla del obispo Acuña. (Burgos: Catedral de Burgos, 2000), 28.


fig. 16 Gil Siloe Tomb of Juan II of Castile and Isabel of Portugal detail (1486). Carved alabaster and stone. Cartuja de Miraflores, Burgos.

with this tomb, Gil received commissions to complete the main altarpiece of Miraflores, the

Infante Alonso tomb, and also the tomb of Juan de Padilla. The latter is now housed in the

Burgos Provincial Museum, (fig. 17) with certain pieces kept in the Metropolitan Museum

of Art in New York (fig. 15) and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. The piece was originally

made for the Jerónimos de Fresdeval Monastery.43 The Padilla tomb is playful yet mystical,

like most of Gil’s work.

Gil’s style evidences clear influences from the French and Burgundian Gothic through his

use of openwork tracery in the background, with a large central figure surrounded by smaller

complementary narratives. His altarpiece design is religious but courtly. Entertainment and

stories were as important to one’s reputation as piety. The tomb for Juan and Isabel’s lavish

textures and laborious details fit appropriately for royalty. (fig. 16) This lavishness is comple-

mented by playful iconography, such as a lion playing with a dog, a joyful little angel at the

feet of Isabel’s effigy, or the embracing lions that seem to smile at the viewer from the feet of

Juan. All the while of course, the completeness of the piece gives one the feeling the eye can-

not rest in one particular place.

Gil’s use of dynamic poses varies from scene to scene but often seem to sway, as the Saint

James the Lesser from the Metropolitan Museum. Anatomically they are not completely cor-

rect, particularly in their lack of forearms, possibly done for viewing comfort rather than true

ignorance. Furthermore, Gil’s figures tend to have round heads, long and fine fingers, heavy

eyelids, big noses, with high foreheads and loose braids for the females and stouter faces and

blocky, strong curls for the males. He works both in wood and alabaster. Especially the folds

of the drapery change depending on the medium (flowier in alabaster, rectilinear in wood.)

In a book from 1921, Gil is described as a converted Jew from Nüremberg, brought to Bur-

gos by the “wise” Bishop Cartagena who also brought back Juan de Colonia, and as a master

43 Juan José Martinez Burgos, El escultor en el siglo de oro. (Madrid : Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 1985), 108.

3



fig. 17 Gil de SiloeTomb of Juan de Padilla (1500)

Stone Museo Provincial, Burgos

3

whose school arrives to Granada by means of his son Diego.44 The documentation that led to

these specific conclusions is not completely clear, but Gil Siloe’s work does ring true with this

description despite faulty citations. Bishop Cartagena was a converted Jew, and his influence on

the art in the Burgos Cathedral, as well as the art-

ists imported to work there, has been documented.

45 Gil Siloe is also known to have settled in Spain

and married locally, to a woman from Burgos with

whom he had four children: two daughters, Ana

and María, and two sons, Juan and our Diego.46

Gil’s origins are unclear. He is mentioned by Simón

de Colonia in 1501 as “Gil de Enberres” (Gil from

Antwerp) when working on San Pablo in Valladol-

id.47 Then, in a document on 1 April 1494 for the altarpiece of the Church of San Esteban,

he is mentioned next to Diego de la Cruz as ‘Gil de Urliones,” (from Orleans) pointing to a

more French origin.48 Regardless of the ambiguity of his roots and the lack of clear documen-

tation of his origins, Gil’s creativity formulated new motifs, leaving the mystery of his origins

to whisper as undertones to his new, strong personal, High Gothic style.

Gil’s first known commissioned work, the Tree of Jesse Altarpiece, was completed for the

Chapel of the Visitation. This chapel was originally founded by Alonso de Cartagena and

transformed into Bishop Luis Acuña’s funerary chapel (where Gil’s son Diego would work

years later.) The Tree of Jesse altarpiece beautifully portrays the doctrine of the Immaculate

44 Catálogo general de la exposición de arte restrospectivo, VII centenario de la cátedral de Burgos. (Burgos: El Monte Carmelo, 1921), 5. Entry #263 ‘Figurita precedente de un retablo gótico de Gil de Siloe, talla en madera policromada, fines del siglo XV.’

45 Luis Fernández Gallardo. Alonso de Cartagena: Iglesia Política y cultura en la Castilla del Siglo XV. (Madrid: Department of Medieval History of Universidad Complutense, 1998), 26.

46 Wethey, The Early Works, 227.47 F. Arribas, “Simon de Colonia en Valladolid.” Boletín Seminario Arte y Arqueología Universidad Valladolid. Valladolid:

1934.)157. Quoted in Yarza Luaces, Gil Siloe: El Retablo, 31, note 41. 48 Ibid, 35. The only problem with this document is finding an altarpiece in San Esteban that stylistically correlates to the

work of Diego de la Cruz and Gil Siloe.


Fig. 18 Gil SiloeJesse (c. 1477)

wood with painting and gildingTree of Jesse Altarpiece, Burgos Cathedral

3

Conception, a topic highly debated at the time.49 In Gil’s visualisation of this topic, the pan-

els centre around the Jesse (fig. 18) , an unimportant figure in the Bible but important when

considering the lineage of the Virgin Mary and mentioned by Winifredus of Aquileia at the

end of the eighth century.50 Above Jesse is the embrace of Joachim and Anne before the Golden

Door, the parents of Mary, and grandparents of Christ who were visited by angels according

to apocryphal texts. Many other scenes flank this one; the singularity of the piece lies in the

fact that the scenes work together beyond narrative to explain an entire concept, of the dei-

fication of the Virgin Mary and the usage of both sacred and apocryphal texts to prove his

point - using documentation as the humanists did in Italy.

Gil uses of the figure of Synagogue to symbolise the old texts and Church to symbolise the new

beliefs (something that his son Diego and Felipe Bigarny would copy in later years.)51 Figures

are either clothed and saintly or ‘wild men’ living in the wilderness and boasting long locks,

as one can see by comparing the figure of the Madonna and Child by Gil Siloe (fig 19) and the

figure of Saint Oniphrus by Alejo de Vahía (d. 1515), a contemporary sculptor and follower of

Gil’s techniques (fig 20).

On the technical side, Gil’s panels innovate with unique assemblage of parts made in a

workshop — the usual practice at the time for artists completing altarpieces — as well as pieces

that are practically attached to the wall, carved in situ.52 The piece and Gil’s iconography, in a

central chapel flanking the nave of the Burgos Cathedral, influenced many subsequent imagi-

narios, including Gil’s son, Diego, as we shall see when analysing Diego’s work in later years.

Gil Siloe’s carving style, best appreciated in the Tree of Jesse altarpiece, his tombs and enor-

mous altarpiece in the Cartuja de Miraflores, and the doorway to the Colegio San Gregorio in

49 Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, British edition, 2000. sub verbo. “Conception of the Virgin Mary.” The doctrine was confirmed by the church at the Council of Basil in September 1439 and retracted shortly afterwards and various different parishes either celebrated the doctrine or not depending on their religious or political affiliations.

50 Mirella Levi D’Ancona, The iconography of the Immaculate Conception in the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, (New York 1957), 7. Quoted in Yarza Luaces, Gil Siloe: El Retablo, 77.

51 Yarza Luaces, Gil Siloe: El Retablo, 28.52 Ibid, 30.


3

Valladolid. The strong characters, usually quite frontal,

are defined by the details the chisel decides to accen-

tuate, from the flowing locks and righteous corset of

Gil’s Madonna and Child and the evident wear of Saint

Oniphrus’s knees and bare feet. Alejo de Vahía was an

artist with a very distinctive style, a practice upheld

by conventions. His work is also unique in that many

pieces are singular, being separated from their original

altarpieces whereas Gil’s work, besides the Saints in the

New York and Boston museums, tends to remain in its

original place. The Saint Oniphrus from the Valladolid

Museum, employs the conventions for depicting a her-

mit saint in the desert, used by Gil Siloe in the door of

the School of Saint Gregory in Valladolid, and Saint

Mary of Eg ypt (cat no. 3) from the Saint Anne altar-

piece he never completed in the Constable Chapel of

the Burgos Cathedral. This Saint Mary of Eg ypt, a saint

who spent time repenting in the desert, has the same

curly hair used for hermits and wild men - covering the

nudity but expressing the desperate living conditions in

a mannered, respectable way.

The human figures of the Castilian High Gothic fol-

low repetitive motifs. The parting of the hair, the curls

around the face, the drooping of the eyelids and the

static lines of the lips are just a few. The drapery is cut

in very straight strokes, following the tradition of the


Fig. 20 Alejo de VahíaSaint Onuphrius (c.1500)

Carved wood with paint Museo Nacional de Escultura,

Colegio San Gregorio Valladolid (bought from the Art mArket in 1998)

Fig. 19 Gil SiloeMadonna Enthroned (last third of

15th century)Burgos Provincial Museum, Burgos originAlly in the Arch of st. mAry

in burgos

3

Lower Rhine.53 In the work of Alejo de Vahía a certain

fluidity starts to be seen that suggests the movement

towards different stylistic conventions in the sixteenth

century.

Examining Vahía’s Virgin of the Milk upon a Cres-

cent Moon from the Louvre, (fig. 21) many this flow-

ing drapery is apparent. The figure stands resting on

one leg, with the drapery falling in regular folds from

the waist. In Vahía’s work drapery often falls in trap-

ezoidal patterns, while in Gil’s the folds can be more

angular. The arms tend to be anatomically incorrect,

particularly as they don’t have forearms. The hair falls

eerily symmetrically, adding to the divinity of the holy

faces. The figure has a sweet face, the folds around her

lap fall in angular forms like the folds of the Madonna

Enthroned from the arch of Saint Mary or the Saint

Mary of Egypt.

The Altarpiece of the Female Saints, or Saint Anne

Altarpiece that Gil Siloe never completed would be

picked up by Diego Siloe in 1521, twenty years after his

father’s death around 1505, working with these sweet

faces, High Gothic conventions, and angular drapery

in his own style, discussed later in this chapter.

53 Ibid, 18


fig. 21 Alejo de VahíaVirgin of the Milk upon a Crescent Moon

(c. 1500)Wood with paint and gilding

51.2 in | 130 cm.Musee National du Louvre, RFR 4

3

***

Recent studies and discoveries have helped us formulate the relationship between Diego

Siloe and Felipe Bigarny, a generation younger than Gil Siloe. Diego and Felipe collaborated

at various points in their lives. According to José Ignacio Hernandez Redondo, Diego Siloe

was already working as an apprentice to Felipe Bigarny when preparing the choir stalls for the

Burgos Cathedral, that is to say in 1505, near or exactly after the believed date of the death

of Gil Siloe. Hernandez states:

“This means that [Diego] Siloe officially enters the Bigarny workshop in the beginning

of 1505, the year that works on the choir stalls begin, or perhaps at the end of the previous

year. Due to this approximation of his entry into the workshop, in my opinion his birth

date must be nearer to 1487 and not after 1490. The work he did for Bigarny required

previous experience, it doesn’t seem right to think he was younger than fifteen when the

collaboration began, an age that is also more likely for a person to register as an apprentice.

In this way, his letter in 1547 to the Duke of Sesa in which he states he is an old man is

more comprehensible, as he had worked for him since he arrived in Granada, as he would

have been near to sixty years old.” 54

Written in 2001 this article illustrates a very different perspective on all of the research on

Diego Siloe up until this point, by great historians like Manuel Gómez Moreno.55 Writings

had speculated about Diego training in Gil Siloe’s workshop before appearing in Naples, but

this implies a much deeper understanding of the art, and maturity of age, before going to Italy

and working with Ordóñez in the Caracciolo funerary chapel. (Chapter 2)

54 José Ignacio Hernandez Redondo. “Diego Siloe, aprendiz destacado en el taller de Felipe Bigarny.” Locus Amoenus. (Valladolid: Museo Nacional de Escultura, 2001), 104. Translation: author’s own.

55 Manuel Gómez Moreno, Diego de Siloe, 15.

In Diego Siloe, Gómez Moreno speculated that though Diego was evidently working for Felipe Bigarny, the connection was most likely more though Andrés Najera. Documented as Andrés de San Juan in 1504, ‘a wise imaginario, and Bigarny’s as-sociate in the choir stalls.’ He and Diego de la Cruz were probably those who were more busy with Diego Siloe’s well-being as they were Gil’s friends and collaborators, and hence Bigarny’s disdain for the work of Diego in the pleito of 1509 is not surprising.


3

Bigarny was an interesting master for Diego Siloe to have followed in a workshop. As a

northerner in Spain, his roots were similar to Vahía or Gil Siloe, but his work is quite dif-

ferent. He became an intellectual not through High Gothic narratives, but via a more intel-

lectual approach to proportion. Biographer Isabel del Río believes that Bigarny knew Latin,

as he sometimes signed his work in the ancient language.56 The progressive italianisation of

Hapsburg Spain included the publication in 1526 in Toledo of “Measurements from Rome”

by Diego de Sagredo (1490-1528), attesting a Hispanic cult to Michelangelo.57 In this book,

Sagredo mentions that although Vitruvius and Gaurico had certain ideas about proportions

of the human body, the man who really dominated proportional values was Felipe de Borgoña

(Felipe Bigarny) with the theory that the figure measures 9 1/3 heads.58

The figure of Saint Catherine from Alexandria (cat no. 4) from the altarpiece at the Univer-

sity of Salamanca in 1505 exemplifies Bigarny’s developing style. He picked up on different

principles than Gil Siloe. Despite the continuing interest in the iconography of the saint and

her idyllic, slightly static facial features, the sculpture is more massive, thought of in a three-

dimensional manner. The head no longer feels like a massive bobble upon a body, and inte-

grates with the totality of the anatomy. Furthermore, the drapery falls around the figure in a

way that resembles more closely the Grecian and Roman tradition. As Diego was proven to

have studied under Felipe, this provides a clear reference for his different corporeal aesthetic

to his father, evident in many details of Diego’s work.

On the choir stalls of the Burgos Cathedral that Diego Siloe assisted Bigarny on, rotund,

winged angels with an italianate feel carved to flank the ‘misericordia’ - the little stand used

to relieve the pious when standing through long hours of mass. (Fig. 16) These figures have a

completely different feel than for example the angels from twenty years prior below the Man

of Sorrows by Gil Siloe in the Tree of Jesse Altarpiece. (Fig. 23) High Gothic Gil carves an-

56 del Rio, Felipe Bigarny, 12.57 Luis Marques, “Una Paradoja Sobre las Relaciones Entre Italia y España en el Renacimiento” El modelo italiano en la artes

plásticas de la peninsula Ibérica durante el Renacimiento. (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 2004), 92.58 More on the Vitruvian versus. Felipe proportions in: del Rio, Felipe Birgarny, 186. And in: Gómez Moreno Diego Siloe, 64.


gels with elongated bodies, no apparent focus on the

anatomy of the figures beyond their uneven kneeling

pose and the placement of the arms holding the ladder

and tools of the Passion. The angels function as a frame

to the central figure, one looking up at the wound and

the other at the feet of Christ.

On the other hand, the angels on the Bigarny choir

stalls are situated around the misericordia (with its

Gothic petal-shaped moulding) in very specific propor-

tions for the space. That is to say, the composition relies

strongly on the space into which the figures have been

placed. Furthermore, the angels are no longer clothed,

carrying cloth rather than wearing it. A less deep relief

into the dark wood of the stalls leaves a bit of mystery

around the movement of the angels. The gaze of the

angels faces out, towards the viewer, leaving behind the

extremely pious concentration of Gil’s angels.

These two artistic formulae precede Diego in Burgos

and evidently affect the younger artist’s designs. The

Escalera Dorada, from 1519-1521, for the secondary en-

trance to the nave of the Cathedral, includes similar

cherubs to those he might have helped Bigarny carve

on the choir stalls. Over the arches he places two angels

in the same stance as those in Gil and Felipe’s work,

with one bent leg and the other extended, as if creating

a triangular composition. Unlike Felipe he does not

use the shape to fill an empty area, but rather creates

3


fig. 22 Gil Siloe detail from Ecce homo(c. 1477)Wood with paint and gilding

Tree of Jesse Altarpiece,Burgos Cathedral, Burgos

fig. 23 Felipe Bigarnydetail from Misericordia (1505)

Wood with traces of paint and gilding Choir Stalls,


fig. 24 Diego Siloe detail from Escalera Dorada(1519-22)

stone with paint and gilding Burgos Cathedral, Burgos

fig. 25 Diego Siloe Frieze with shield (1528)

carved stoneSaint Jerome Monastery, Granada

3

new empty spaces with the placement of the figures, serving as a type of classical pediment,

an intelligently playful design.

Diego carved his angels in high relief, but the other carvings surrounding the angels are

stiacciatto - once again utilizing the Florentine bravura. The angels are unclothed, as Bigarny’s,

but in this case they are even more exposed, as the bent leg does not even cover the sexes of

the angels. This italianate comfort with nudity stems from classical sources rather than those

of the Gothic or Middle Ages.

Within an even later design of Diego’s in Granada in 1528, two figures holding an emblem

in the Monastery of Saint Jerome stand in a very similar position once again. This frieze, often

praised for its masterful monumentality, now seems to have sources from a simple wooden

panel. The figures are clothed, and anatomically more proportional than the putti or the an-

gels, but they serve the same purpose, as a type of pediment, now broken, surmounting the

classic denture frieze of the building.

As mentioned earlier, Diego continues the Saint Anne Altarpiece that Gil did not complete

after his death. This piece, in the Constable Chapel of the Burgos Cathedral, starts a very

interesting series that Diego would carve with Felipe Birgarny. The successful completion of

the Saint Anne Altarpiece in 1522 leads to the commission of the Saint Peter Altarpiece on

the opposite side of the chapel, and finally the High Altarpiece, completed and painted by

1526 (fig. 26).

The Saint Anne altarpiece started by Gil Siloe includes a depiction of all female saints,

one of which is the Saint Mary of Egypt mentioned earlier. (cat. 3) A central panel added by

Diego Siloe, of Christ held by two Angels is a bit of a segway from his father’s original plan, but

otherwise Diego continues with the idea of the Retablo de las Santas. The piece is probably cur-

rently called the Saint Anne Altarpiece rather than the Altarpiece of the Female Saints because



fig. 26 Felipe Bigarny, Diego Siloe View of High Altar (1519-23)

Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos

3

of a stunning image by Gil of Saint Anne holding the Virgin and Child.59 Diego’s Italianism

is apparent in the Christ Held by Two Angels, reminiscent of Donatello’s three-quarter length

bronze relief for the Saint Padua Basilica in 1446, according to Margarita Estella Marcos, the

scholar who analysed each wooden sculpture from the Constable Chapel. 60

A document of commissions from 1523-1535 in the Constable Chapel in the Burgos Cathe-

dral permits us to draw conclusions about the collaborations, for example between Diego Siloe

and Felipe Bigarny on the Saint Peter Altarpiece and the High Altar.61 A sculpture by each

artist has a specific character, in comparison to Bigarny in the altarpieces of the Constable

Chapel, Manuel Gómez Moreno describes Diego’s pieces as having a “more serene majesty,

and beauty of the faces, softness of the moulding, and composure of attitudes, and, as a defect,

squat proportions.”62 Both artists have shown their italianate styles in previous commissions,

but still produce very different works.

The High Altar, also known as The Presentation Altarpiece has greater proportions than the

Saint Anne and Saint Peter pieces. The Saint Anne Altarpiece rests on the structural founda-

tions set by Gil Siloe, but Diego creates original sculptures like a beautiful rendition of Mary

Magdalene (fig. 36) and Christ Held by two Angels (fig. 40). The Saint Peter Altarpiece follows

the same structure as the Saint Anne altarpiece, but here Diego works with Master Felipe.

The High Altar enjoys greater proportions taking influence from the currents in Granada at

the time, as Bigarny had recently been working on the High Altar for the Capilla Real.63 The

Capilla Real included works by Italians like Domenico Fancelli and Jacopo Fiorentino (1476-

59 Margarita Estella Marcos. La imaginería de los retablos de la Capilla del Condestable. (Burgos: Cabildo Metropolitano, Asociación de Amigos de la Catedral, 1995), 56.

60 Estella Marcos, Retablos de la Capilla del Condestable, 78. Quoting image from Poeschke, Joachim. Die Skulptur der Renaissance in Italien. Band I Donatello und seine Zeit . Aufnahmen Alber Hirmet un Irmgard Erns-Hirmer. (Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990-1992). figure 123

61 Checa, Pintura y Escultura 168. Note 115:

Fra. Carlos Villacampa, “La capilla del Condestable, de la Catedral de Burgos. Documentos para su historia” A.E.A.A. Burgos, 1928. . 25-44; also see D. Martínez Abelenda, “La escultura en la capilla del Condestable, en la Catedral de Burgos” Boletín de la Institución Fernán González, Burgos, 1956. . 59 and subsequent.

62 Gómez Moreno, Diego de Siloe, 49.63 Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 49.


3

1526), and Diego’s socius Ordóñez, whose different style must

have impacted Bigarny’s way of working. It is worth specu-

lating whether this confrontation with italianate values in

Granada helped Bigarny and Diego Siloe collaborate once

again in the Constable Chapel after their pleito in 1509.

Diego goes beyond what standards his master Bigarny had

set out for him. As with the Florentine influences, irreverence

to his elder led to Diego’s later success. While the older art-

ist dictated the proportions with standards set in Granada,

Diego influenced the details in a manner previously unseen

in Bigarny’s work. This fact is evident in the simplest detail,

the bases of the sculptures. While in the Saint Peter altar-

piece master Bigarny and Diego treated the bases differently

- Diego with his rocky slab-like bases and Bigarny with his

more neoclassical, simple bases - in the High Altar the vast

majority of the bases are rocky, in a siloesque manner, despite

the fact that many pieces such as those of Synagogue and

Church were carved by Bigarny.64

64 For further research on the attributions: Estella Marcos. La imaginería de los ret-ablos de la Capilla del Condestable. (Burgos: Cabildo Metropolitano, Asociación de Amigos de la Catedral, 1995.)


Felipe BigarnyFig. 27 above: Synagogue(c.1522-26)

108 in. | 160 cm Fig. 28 below: Church (c.1522-26)

108 in. | 160 cmwood with paint and gilding

High Altar, Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral

Diego

4

After 1523, and Diego’s collaboration with Felipe Birgarny in the Constable Chapel, he

started to receive a great number of sculptural commissions, and towards 1528 he began to

work with architecture. Based from the High Gothic framework of Burgos, Diego’s plateresque

Renaissance motifs for decoration and his first-hand knowledge of the traditions of Italy work

into his own style. The Acuña tomb clearly quoted from Italy, though Diego worked side by

side with his own father’s portrait of Acuña in this same funerary chapel.(fig. 12 & 13) In 1523,

Diego was embarking on a realm of interpretations which he would still need to mould into

his own language.

The first aspect of his work that evidences a singular style are his ornamental grotesques. His

unique perspective on ornamentation emerges first in the design of the Barcelona Choir Stalls

(fig. 11). On the Acuña tomb however, Diego still held a rigid and tight grasp on the classical

shapes of Italy. He used scrolling foliage as on the Pollaioulo tomb of Sixtus IV, strapwork

common on silverware and ironwork at the time, and beading similar to classical friezes. He

compartmentalizes the figures of the Seven Virtues and Sybil with a strong vertical scroll, and

focuses on a single figure at a time. Erwin Panofsky says that the inclusion of the Virtues on

tombs was a shift in ideology – rather than focusing on the onset of eternal life, tombs then

also focused on the glorification of an individual’s past.65 This shift in purpose might add to

the unsure rigidity of this work. Compared to Diego’s Golden Staircase, the fantastical figures,

move in any which way and playing with the empty spaces.(Fig. 29) Underneath a figure of

a man with a wild beast, Diego places a C-scroll in the corner, breaking the space between

the low relief and the classical frieze (Fig. 30) The Escalera piece from 1521 foreshadows the

playfulness with which Siloe would approach ornamentation from this time forward.

65 Erwin Panofsky as quoted in Redondo Cantera, El Sepulcro en España, 200.


The Escalera Dorada was completed for bishop Alfonso de Fonseca

(1476-1574), the same patron whose tomb Ordóñez was completing in

Carrara at the time.66 Though it is contemporary or even slightly earlier

to the work Diego completes in the Constable Chapel with Bigarny,

his design of the Escalera Dorada belongs to a different personality. As

mentioned before, the piece is full of movement and classical allusions,

and it stands recognised today as one of the most unique structures of

the Spanish Renaissance. The structure works with the extremely un-

even land on which the Burgos Cathedral is built, and makes a double

staircase that seems to resemble some designs Bramante made for the

Vatican in Rome.67 This more Italian source is complemented by Diego’s

very personal ornamental sculpture.

The rails of the stairs are decorated with Lombard scrollwork and

66 Wethey, “The Early Works”, 227.67 Fernández, Los grutescos del Protorrenacimiento, 24.


fig. 29 Diego SiloeEscalera dorada (1519-22)

Carved stone, wood, ironwork with later

gilding Burgos Cathedral,

Burgos

fig. 30 (next page)Diego Siloe

Fantastical scene (1519-1522)

Escalera dorada detailCarved stone


cherubs, and grotesques cover all of the stone

surfaces: putti with fantastical creatures, bird-

like inventions, majestic scrolls, nudes in clas-

sical poses stand alongside monstrous crea-

tures that “are probably taken out of medieval

ancestries,”68 and winged dragons sit atop the

ends of the stone handrails. (Fig. 31)

The main importance of defining these forms,

as Fernández does in her doctoral dissertation,

Diego’s usage on later altarpieces and later ar-

chitecture – birds, fantastical beasts, hooded figures, cherubs, trosses of fruit. Along with the

characteristic poses and shapes of the figures he carves, analysed in the rest of this chapter, the

forms of his grotesques immensely help scholars attribute work to Diego. Based on Fernández’s

analysis, Siloe must have also aided in the drawing up of the cimborrio ornamentation of the

Burgos Cathedral, implying that the master collaborated with master stonemason Juan de

Vallejo (c. 1500 - c. 1569) and Vallejo did not complete it on his own as was believed before.69

According to Fernández, the highly original grotesque forms of Diego’s are influenced

by prints by Nicoletto Rosex da Modena.70 This printmaker combined real and fantastical

creatures in his drawings of grotesques, different than for example Felipe Birgarny’s simple

garlands and vases. In Diego’s later work in Granada, analysed in Chapter 5, the grotesques

become a key aspect to help historians identify his work. This low-relief ornaments work to-

68 Ibid, 290. translation: author’s own.69 Ibid, 289.70 Ibid, 299.

Nicoletto de Modena’s engravings are a very interesting new source for Diego Siloe’s work. M. M. Licht’s publication “A Book of Drawings by Nicoletto de Modena,” [Master Drawings, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter, 1970), . 379-387+432-444] includes various images that resemble aspects of Diego’s work. Licht cites Hind’s Early Italian Engravings. London, 1948. Licht’s sources are mainly housed in the libraries in London and Italy, however, and whether and how these sources arrived in Burgos, or into Diego’s hands would require further research. Nicoletto was in Rome in 1507, but further biographical information on the printmaker is vague.

4


fig. 31 Diego SiloeWinged dragon and scrolling finnial (1519-22)

Carved stone Escalera dorada (detail)


4

gether with Diego’s figurative sculpture to create his own language.

***

With the Cathedral of Burgos dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and her strong cult within

Catholic Spain, it is not surprising that many versions of the Virgin attributed to Diego Siloe

exist. Even a subject that does not always imply a

woman and child, like the figure of Charity on the

Luis Acuña tomb (fig. 32), is shown by Diego as a

mother’s embrace. In such low relief that the eye

must squint to see it, Diego enjoys the bravura of sti-

acciato. The angle of the faces and the loving look in

the child’s eye portray a tenderness reminiscent of

the softness of Donatello. In fact, the piece mirrors

many aspects of the Madonna di Casa Pazzi now in

the Böde-museum in Berlin.71 (fig. 33)

The tomb of Diego Santander, that Diego Siloe

completed two years later, includes a similar low re-

lief of a woman and her child, the Virgin rather than

Charity (fig. 34). This time the figure sits differently,

more similar to the Sybil by Michelangelo (fig. 9).

The heads of the Virgin and the Child similarly face

each other as in the Madonna Pazzi. The Virgin

holds an open book, however, and the Child is a bit

71 Wethey, “On the Early Works”, 325


fig. 32 Diego Siloe Charity (1519)Carved Stone

Luis Acuña tomb, Burgos Cathedral

fig. 33 Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi Madonna di Casa Pazzi (c.1420)

Marble 29 x 27 in. | 74.5 x 69.5 cm Böde-museum, Berlin inv. no. 41

4

more distanced from the mother with a mantle enveloping her. The drapery behind the Christ

child mirrors this form of the mantle, creating a circular composition despite that the actual

slab is rectangular surmounted by a shell.

Based on the Santander tomb, certain other reliefs have been attributed to Diego as well, in

the Victoria and Albert Museum, in the Cathedral Museum of Valladolid, in the Metropolitan

in New York, and in The Burgos Cathedral.72 The roundel in the Victoria and Albert Museum

at first seems quite different from the massiveness of the two previously mentioned works by

Diego. (cat. 5) It may relate more closely to Diego’s versions of Mary and Mary Magdalene in

the altarpieces of the Constable Chapel (fig. 35 &36) The V&A roundel, of alabaster, relates

to woodworking more than the stone tombs. The medium affects the delicacy of the carved

line. Alabaster was the preferred medium of Diego’s father Gil, undoubtedly affecting Diego’s

style. The V&A catalogue attributes the delicacy and softness of the line to a more Flemish

influence.73 As does E. H. Wethey in an article in 1940, stating that “the head of the London

Madonna, is, to be sure, a trifle rounder and plumper than usual with Diego, a fact explained

by his momentary admiration of Flemish painter Jan Gossart...”74 The roundel in the Burgos

Cathedral Museum, catalogued as Diego Siloe, has a similar delicacy.(cat. 6) It is clearly

based on the same model, if one looks at positioning of her hand and the manner in which

the figures fit into the oval space, except for more mischievous look of the cherub under the

feet of the Christ child. The Burgos Madonna has a bit more movement around the figures,

foreshadowing the Baroque movements of the later sixteenth century. With less incisions and

undercuts in the draperies the piece seems a later version of the same theme. Was it by the same

artist, Diego, or by his workshop? We will probably never know; these pieces were evidently

made for private devotion, as they are smaller and the Christ child is clothed. These types of

commissions are rarely documented.

72 Marjorie Trusted. Spanish Sculpture: Catalogue of the post-medieval Spanish Sculpture in Wood, Terracotta, Alabaster, Marble, Stone, Lead and Jet in the Victoria and Albert Museum. (London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996), 32. cat. 7.

73 Ibid, 32.74 E. H. Wethey, ““A Madonna and Child by Diego de Siloe.” Art Bulletin. Xxii, (1940), 192.



fig. 34 left: Diego SiloeVirgin and Child (1519-21)Carved stone with traces

of paint Tomb of Diego Santander, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos

fig. 35 bottom left:Diego Siloe

The Presentation in the Temple (towards 1523)

Wood with paint and gilding

High Altarpiece,Constable Chapel


fig. 36 bottom right:Diego Siloe

Mary Magdalene (1519-1521)Wood with paint and

gildingSaint Anne Altarpiece,

Constable Chapel,Burgos Cathedral, Burgos

4

Furthermore, attribution of such pieces is tricky. A roundel in the Valladolid National Mu-

seum of Sculpture was previously attributed to Diego Siloe but is now very clearly attributed to

Gabriel Joly (1495-1538) in 1535.75 If one looks at a roundel by Bigarny in the same museum in

Valladolid (fig. 37) the mixture of Italianate and Flemish influences popular at the time proves

insufficiently specific to prove Diego’s authorship. Especially compared to the V&A roundel,

where the child also caresses his mother’s cheek in the Northern fashion, the gesture is used

by Bigarny, from Burgundy, who similarly admired the Flemish and Italian styles.76 One can

still decipher that the previously mentioned roundels are based on Diego’s work, rather than

Bigarny, due to the different treatment of the female faces and the curls that frame them, and

the apparent age of the Christ child - but the influence of the older Bigarny is clear.

Attribution to Diego proves even more likely based on the statue of Saint Casilda, made by

the artist in around 1524 in the Saint Nicholas Church in Buezo, near Burgos (fig. 38). She has

similar traits. Particularly, the treatment of the hand gripping the cloth and the book parallels

the hand around the child and on the book of the Virgin in the V&A Roundel, and so do the

circular folds of the clothing, also reminiscent of the Santander tomb. The hairstyle identified

by Wethey in the V&A Roundel, with locks of hair against the cheek and a curl above the ear,

is similar to how Saint Casilda’s curls fall around her face.77 Saint Casilda has been re-painted

75 Javier Ibáñez Fernández. “Nuevas aportaciones documentales sobre el retablo mayor de la Catedral de Teruel (1532 - 1536)” Artigrama, 16 (2001): 297-32776 Tesoros en la Catedral de Burgos: El arte al servicio del culto. (Burgos: Bana Bilbao Vizcaya, 1995), 136

77 Wethey, “A Madonna and Child by Diego de Siloe”, 193


fig. 37 Felipe BigarnyVirgin and Child (1536-1542)

AlabasterNational Museum of Sculpture,

Colegio San Gregorio, Valladolid

4

in subsequent centuries but the

piece keeps a clear memory of

Diego’s carving as a great point

of departure for attributions.

The Virgin reliefs have proof of

previous polychromy, so were

likely to have been just as col-

ourful as the Saint Casilda.

When looking at this series

of female figures by Diego Siloe,

it seems surprising to attribute a

stone Virgin and Child to him, currently in the Louvre (cat. 7). The French museum does

not have concrete evidence of its provenance - it was given to the state after being discovered

illegally transported.78 In lieu of this, the piece’s label has now been changed to state more

generally “Castilian school.” The previous attribution to Diego’s specific circle rings true

however. The detailed carving of the clothing, still visible despite the water damages on the

face and hair is reminiscent of the details on the effigy of the Acuña tomb (fig. 13). A similar

stone sculpture in Palencia, that of the bishop Don Antonio de Rojas (d. 1526) includes infor-

mation that traces it back directly to a contract between Rojas and Diego, so this piece is yet

another good starting point to judge Diego’s carving hand in a different medium. (cat. 8) The

opportunity to see the Louvre Virgin and the Rojas tomb side by side in this exhibition helps

reconsider the Louvre’s doubtful ascription.

Unlike Diego’s pieces in wood, all fineness of a High Gothic technique, including the

delicate hands and fine long nose, disappears when Diego’s chisel starts to work with stone.

78 RF 3587, Department de Sculptures, Musée National du Louvre, Paris. Noted in Acquisitions section: “L’arrête du 15 jan 1985 (RF 3687, 3688, 3689, 3690.)”


fig. 38 Diego SiloeTomb of Saint Casilda (1524)

Wood, painted and giltSaint Nicholas Church, Buezo

The Acuña tomb also focused much more on the decoration of the clothing and the surrounding

textures, rather than the virtuosity of posture or of composition in general. As the quality and

innovation of Diego’s work was directly related to the amount he was paid, this piece was most

likely completed greatly by apprentices in the workshop used to carving decorative schemes rather

than figurative elements.

Hence, it seems like different people carved some of the pieces attributed and contracted from

Diego Siloe, a subject that must continue to be analysed. Diego’s style changes depending on tech-

nique and the payment, and the specifications of the patron whether they want more High Gothic

style like the roundels or a more Italianate Saint Sebastian. The best method of understanding

Diego Siloe would take these factors into account, and compare the pieces with key works known

to have been carved by Diego.

Specific recurring peculiarities of Diego happen in the face and the positioning of the head,

and also in the contrapposto and the knees. It is helpful to look at the different works that have

been clearly attributed to Diego Siloe around Castile and later in Granada to see how his tech-

nique compares. For instance, a comparison of three versions of the Ecce Homo: one he made in

Burgos for the High Altarpiece of the Constable Chapel, one he made for the Church of Saint

Augustine right outside of Burgos a bit later, and one he made many years later in Granada, for the

Church of San José (cat. 12, 13, & 14.) All three of the works stand in a similar posture; the faces

strangely similar to Gil Siloe’s Crucif ied Christ in the Cartuja de Miraflores (fig. 40) and another

Christ held by two Angels by Diego in the Saint Anne Altarpiece (fig. 41), all with a long nose, a

sideward glance, the slightly parted lips, the stringy strands of hair, and half-closed eyelids. In

the positioning of the legs, Diego seems to be looking back at his time in Italy. The contrapposto

creates posed naturalism. Diego’s skill at rendering the knees and kneecaps, the muscles of the calf

and hamstring is admirable. The legs have great anatomical accuracy when Diego places them

in this particular way upon the base, compared to for example the slightly symbolized eyes, the

static torso or the unhandy positioning of the arms. In the Granada Christ, Diego experiments

with positioning the leg a bit differently, at a right angle, and the positioning seems more amateur,

4


4

while the face suddenly achieves much more realism as

Diego Siloe experiments with expressionism.

When compared to the stance of Saint John the

Evangelist in the choir stalls from Valladolid (fig. 42),

or the various versions of the Saint Sebastian there is a

similar essence. Attribution to Diego goes beyond the

slab-like rocks upon which his figures stand and the

knotty trees in the background of many of his compo-

sitions, to the sensitivity of the kneecaps of his figures.

Checa compares the Ecce Homo from the Burgos Ca-

thedral (cat. 12) to the Saint Sebastian from Barbadillo

de Herreros to describe the eclectic technique required

of artists at the time.79 Diego works the first piece creat-

ing an air of desperate martyrdom and empathy, while

the Saint Sebastian embraces the beauty of resignation

to divine will. Both aspects of the sculptural tradition

impact later Spanish works, if one considers the ecstatic

looks of a martyr by el Greco (1541-1614) versus the hy-

per-realist sculptures of Gregorio Fernández(1576-1636)

and Pedro de Mena (1628-1688).

Another interesting case study is comparing the dif-

ferent versions of Saint Jerome completed by Diego

Siloe. The Saint is shown in all the versions as a peni-

tent in the desert. The most definitely attributed Saint

Jerome is from the Saint Peter altarpiece. (fig. 41) In

79 Checa, Pintura y escultura, 146.


fig. 39 Gil SiloeCrucified Christ (c.1490)

wood, paintedGrand Altarpiece,

Cartuja de Miraflores, Burgos

fig. 40 Diego SiloeChrist held up by two angels (1520-23)

wood, painted and gilt 20.3 in | 52 cm

Saint Anne Altarpiece, Constable Chapel, Burgos

4

this version Saint Jerome stares at a crucifix

while holding out a rock in an outstretched

arm; the saint was known to have beaten

himself with a rock on the chest. Another at-

tribute of Saint Jerome’s, the lion he tamed,

sits under the ledge of rocks Jerome sits at.

This same ledge almost takes the shape of a

desk, and the books upon it make a reference

to the other situation Saint Jerome is usually

seen in, as a scholar. The rocky base of the

sculpture and the manner in which the hand

rests between the books, as well as the posi-

tioning of the legs resembles what we have

seen in Diego’s figures so far.

The two other versions, one in the Bur-

gos Cathedral Museum (cat. 9) and another

in the Böde-museum in Berlin (cat. 10) have

strong similarities but also stark contrasts

with the version from the Saint Peter altar-

piece. Made in alabaster, the pieces resemble

the original in the shape of the shoulder, the

outward gaze of the saint, the rocky ledge

and the composition with the lion and the

rocks. However, the lion in the Burgos Ca-

thedral version looks quite different from the

other two, implying that was a sketch for the

Saint Peter Altarpiece. This would also ex-

plain the change from skull to crucif ix as


fig. 41 Diego SiloeSaint Jerome (1521-23)

Carved and painted wood 24.6 in | 63 cm Saint Peter Altarpiece, Constable Chapel,

Burgos Cathedral

memento mori. The lion in the Böde-museum version resembles the first

lion, but Saint Jerome has changed completely, his visage much more

worn and his flesh more worn. The head is larger than the other two

and the hands are much more forcefully placed, insinuating a different

hand perhaps completed the piece.

The Choir Stalls of Saint Benito, orchestrated by Andrés de Najera

(c. 1504-1533) for the San Benito Monastery, was worked on by many

masters, including Diego and Bigarny. Diego’s panel of Saint John the

Evangelist accords with his earlier work, as the saint is standing in a

rocky landscape with a knotted tree behind him in the classic contrap-

posto stance. From only the knees downwards, the figure looks very

much like the Ecce Homo in the Burgos Cathedral and Saint Sebastian

in Barbadillo de Herreros. Diego Siloe’s panel, in the centre, contrasts

greatly with the panels carved by others. (Fig. 42) While the figures all

stand within a dome-like structure and are approximately the same size,


fig. 42 Diego SiloeSt. John the Baptist (1525)

Carved wood Choir Stalls of St. Benito

National Museum of Sculpture, Colegio San

Gregorio, Valladlid

4

Diego Siloe employs a different posture and his drapery fol-

lows the anatomy, the curls on his head fly in the wind, and

he crosses his arm over his torso to point. Maybe different

due to the Saint shown as a penitent, but also because of

Diego’s intrinsic stylistic choices.

These are Diego’s last years in Burgos. During this time,

Diego completed a Saint Michael as archangel for a church

in Sasamón. (cat. 15) This piece is most characteristic

because of the manner in which Diego has carved faces

into the knees of the Saint’s armour, supposedly portray-

ing the judgement of God.80 In subsequent years, Alonso

Berruguete (1489-1561) does a similar thing for his Saint

Michael, now in the Valladolid Museum of Sculpture (fig.

43). Berruguete’s style, much more influenced by the later

styles of Michelangelo, is more muscular and coarser than

the Saint Michael by Diego. Diego employs finer features,

brighter colours and more idealistic proportions than Berru-

guete, another important Spanish Renaissance master based

out of Salamanca and Toledo favoured greatly by Charles V.

These are Diego’s last years based in Burgos. He travelled through Castile, and in 1527 he

travels all the way south to Granada. This city had welcomed the works of Bigarny ten years

prior, and seemed ready for a new master imaginario. Diego had not planned to leave Burgos

yet, as he won a competition to design the tower at Santa María del Campo in Burgos. He

was arguing the contract for this project at the end of the year 1527.81 One of Diego’s first true

80 Mentioned by tour guides in Sasamón, this information is colloquial.81 Miguel Ángel Zalama Rodriguez. “Diego de Siloe y la torre de Santa Maria del Campo.” Boletín del Seminario de Estudios

de Arte y Arqueología, Tomo 56 (1990): 405.


fig. 43 Alonso BerrugueteSaint Michael (towards 1520)

wood and alabaster with painting and gilding

National Museum of Sculpture, Colegio San Gregorio, Valladolid

4

architectural commissions, designing this tower marks the beginning of a very long, very

different career. During one of Diego’s visits to Granada, Bigarny filed a pleito trying to take

over the commission and Diego fights for the right to build Santa María del Campo church

tower. After the pleito with Bigarny settled, (Diego wins) Diego received notice that he was

needed in Granada. His assistant Juan de Salas finished the designs of the church tower in

Burgos, as Diego went on to work on bigger and better things.


Granada

5

One of the first readily documented works by Diego

Siloe in Granada was to create new sculpture portraits

of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand in the Royal

Chapel, or Capilla Real. Originally master Felipe Bir-

garny completed the kneeling sculptures, in the funerary

chapel the king and queen. Apparently, the authorities

were unhappy with Bigarny’s portrayal of the two fig-

ures.82 (fig. 46) They asked Siloe, funnily enough the

son of Gil Siloe, one of Isabel’s favourite sculptors, to

create new versions. (fig. 44) The rest of the High Altar

is carved by Bigarny, and kept that way. The piece looks

a lot like the High Altar of the Constable Chapel in its

proportions. (fig. 26)

The two portraits pleased the royal patrons even

though Diego had not achieved great likenesses in prior

commissions like the Acuña or the Rojas tombs. Perhaps

Diego was better acquainted with the manner in which

Isabel and Ferdinand liked to portray themselves, as his

father Gil also carved portraits of them in the Cartuja

de Miraflores. (fig 45) Diego discards the flowing, bombé

sleeves that Bigarny employed and humbly covers Queen

Isabel’s hair. King Ferdinand is shown in armour rather

82 Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 34. A royal decree from 27 November 1526 declaring that the Capilla Real must have new kneeling sculptures.


f ig 46 Felipe Bigarny Queen Isabel praying (1510)

wood with paint and gildingCapilla Real Museum, Granada

fig 45 Gil Siloe Queen Isabel praying (1493)Wood with paint and gilding

detail from High Altar, Cartuja de Miraf lores, Burgos

f ig 44 Diego Siloe Queen Isabel praying (1528)

detail from the High Altar,Capilla Real, Granada

photo in blAck And White due to photogrAphy restrictions Within the cApillA reAl

5

that the voluminous cape Bigarny originally carved. The Diego sculptures’ mask-like faces

makes the figures feel alien from the crowd, while Bigarny’s faces were perhaps more approach-

able. The switch has been upheld until present day; the Diego Siloe pieces hold the honour of

being within the chapel and the Bigarny portraits are left in the Capilla Real museum next

door.

Alongside the Capilla Real existed the foundations to the Granada Cathedral. Works were

held up because the previous overseer and designer of the project, Enrique Egas (1455 - 1534),

was no longer able to complete the commission.83 Egas had determined the cathedral would

be Gothic and enormous - a clear sign of the victory over the Moors in Granada after 1492.

But as the Spanish aesthetic changed, King Charles had personally wished for a more modern

building.84 The challenge for the following designer would be to work upon a Gothic base-

ment and build up a Renaissance building. Diego Siloe took up this challenge and his ideas

were stellar. The columns that were meant to be striated in the Gothic fashion now turned

into Corinthian columns upon giant plinths with an

interesting optical illusion in their capitols (fig. 47).

The building was not completely constructed until

1704, and hence the original designs by Siloe trans-

lated into the languages of subsequent centuries. For

example, the original design included two pinnacles/

towers, of which only one was built, mainly because

of the lack of material, sponsorship, and the difficul-

ties of the heavy build upon Gothic basements.85

The original ideas can be discovered, however.

The Puerta del Perdón - Door of Forgiveness - into

83 Ibáñez et al., Del Gótico al Renacimiento, 13984 Ibid, 13985 Emilio Orozco Díaz. La Capilla Real de Granada. (Granada: Albaicín/ Sadea: 1968.) 12


fig. 47 Diego SiloeSiloesque columns (1528-1704)

Architectural detail Granada Cathedral, Granada


fig. 48 Diego SiloeFrieze and Arch Ornament detail (1537) Carved stone

Puerta del Perdón, Granada Cathedral, Granada

5

the nave of the Granada Cathedral is completely Siloe’s design, even signed with his last name

in the corner.86 The quirky grotesques and the Renaissance motifs point towards Diego Siloe’s

aesthetic. (Fig. 31) New developments are Siloe’s employment of Latin phrases, clearly designat-

ing the Virtues he carved. Also, it is apparent that Diego now has an extensive workshop to

help him with the ornamentation; the execution of the grotesques and ornamental garlands is

impeccable. This correlates to the designs Diego employed for the Monastery of Saint Jerome

(fig. 25), a frieze inscribed with phrases such as Fortitudo (Strength) and Industria (Industry)

to exalt the renewed Spanish kingdom. Beside the new political dimension of some of his

sculptural work in Granada, the grand scale of his designs and the conversion to Latin texts

portray the monumentality of his new aspirations.

The original Diego remained in Granada via his sculpture, completed in his lifetime, unlike

the Granada Cathedral. The entryway to the sacristy of this cathedral includes such sculp-

ture. Now known as the Puerta del Ecce Homo, the

entryway includes an over-door roundel of the Ecce

Homo from which it derives its name. This piece was

carved by Diego Siloe himself,87 even though it is now

weathered by time, it demonstrates Siloe continued to

carve sculptures of themes he had completed in Bur-

gos.(cat. 12 & 13) The Puerta de San Jerónimo includes

an over-door figurative relief (fig. 49) that is clearly

reminiscent of the Saint Jerome figures he carved in

Burgos. (fig. 41, cat. 8 & 9)

The Saint Jerome Monastery, of the same name-

sake, stands a couple hundred metres from the Gra-

nada Cathedral. It is believed that some of these carv-

86 Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 53.87 Ibid, 54.


fig. 49 Diego SiloeA Penitent Saint Jerome (after 1528)

StonePuerta San Jerónimo,

Granada Cathedral, Granada

5

ings are the first that Siloe completed in Granada, along with the sculptures of Ferdinand and

Isabel. Diego carved many elements in the building, as it was privately sponsored and provided

the architect with more substantial salaries than the publicly funded, and long-winded process

at the Cathedral.88 The monastery was already completed when Diego Siloe added elements for

the frieze of the second story of the building (fig. 25) also adding a great cupola to the chapel

inside, as the Catholic Kings and the Bishops had decided that the original design lacked

height.89 The chapel’s interior was an impressive collaboration of works from key figures of the

age, including many elements that remind one of the particularities of Siloe’s style.

Thematically, the chapel falls interestingly in synch Diego Siloe’s roots in Burgos, as for

example art historian Fernando Checa compares this chapel to the Cartuja de Miraflores,

ornamented by his father Gil, as both structures built in different cities and at different times,

are funerary churches.90 Checa continues to analyse the humanist symbolism used by Diego

Siloe in the Saint Jerome Monastery in Granada, standing as a eulogy to military hero Sir

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1453 – 1515), also known as the Great Captain. The Cartuja

de Miraflores had been a funerary chapel of Juan II of Castile and his wife, Isabel of Portugal.

The Monastery chapel functions as “a compiled rhetorical allegory that raises the virtues,

Fame and Glory and all the other virtues of the Great Captain [...] Saints, warriors, shields,

and portraits of character are the base of the design.”91 The Monastery’s designs reflected

back upon the deeds of the Captain and his wife, much like Gil’s tombs of Juan II of Castile

and Isabel of Portugal propagated their piety and virtues in the High Gothic style (fig. 16)

Though one can find links with Diego’s time in Burgos, master Diego Siloe actually shifts

into strong Italian tendencies after 1528. Factors that might have affected this shift include

the influx of Italian works entering Spain after the Sack of Rome in 1527, and a belief that

88 Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 35.89 Ibid, 35.90 Checa, Pintura y escultura, 91.91 Ibid, 91. translation: author’s own.


5

perhaps Granada would become the new Rome.92 An example of this more strict, simplistic

neoclassicism is seen in the Arch of Saint Gil, currently in the Museum of Fine Arts, Granada.

The piece comes from the now-destroyed Church of San Gil in Granada, and some of the

pieces can be found in the Archeological Museum of Granada as well.93 The arch and the

roundels all imply a very strictly mathematical drawing of the proportions, and the regimented

decorative elements fall far from the plateresque style previously popular throughout Spain.

Furthermore, the piece is from 1544, a time when Diego Siloe’s workshop expands to include

master masons like Juan de Maeda so Diego’s personal Burgos touch decreases.94 These are

the beginnings of the Granada circle that would continue to develop master Diego’s style well

into the seventeenth century.

Two other pieces, currently in the Granada Fine Art Museum, are from the Saint Jerome

Monastery. It is apparent that Siloe truly dedicated effort and time to create strong works for

that establishment. A panel of the Virgin and Child in carved wood comes from the choir stalls

in that monastery’s chapel. (cat. 17) The composition resembles the choir stalls of Saint Benito,

currently in the Museum at Valladolid. (fig. 42) If one compares the composition to previous

versions of the Madonna carved by Siloe in Burgos, for example, the piece has undertones of

Diego’s time in Burgos. (fig. 32 & 34). The rectangular panel and more stylised folds of the

clothing alludes more directly to Donatello’s Madonna Pazzi.(fig. 33) The grotesques lining

the top relate to the new style of ornament used by Diego in the Puerta del Perdón. (fig. 48)

The Puerta del Perdón also employs many roundels, a form almost used obsessively by Diego

Siloe in Granada. The Granada Cathedral has circular windows and structures, the Arch of

Saint Gil includes roundels of Saints Peter and Paul, and the Saint Jerome Monastery also has

circular motifs. The second piece from the Granada Fine Art Museum saved from this Saint

Jerome Monastery, is such a roundel. (cat. 18) Historians have not agreed yet on where it is

92 Marques, “Una Paradoja Sobre las Relaciones Entre Italia y España en el Renacimiento”, 93.93 Emilio Orozco Díaz. Guía del museo provincial de bellas artes de Granada. (Madrid: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia,

1966), 37.94 Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 64.


5

from and whether it was accompanied by other pieces.95 The roundel is a masterful portrait

of a young Saint John, with a halo inscribed “Siloe ft” - fecit, or made it. The piece could

have been for private devotion within the monastery, or a section of a larger compilation of

a group of the Evangelists or the Apostles. Stylistically, the piece correlates to Siloe’s earlier

techniques, as the piece is carved of wood and then painted. The later repainting makes it

difficult to decipher how it would have originally looked, but the forms of the collar and the

hair also relate to Siloe’s work back in Burgos.

Particularly, back in Burgos, Saint John the Evangelist from the Saint Peter Altarpiece in

the Constable Chapel relates to this roundel (cat. 11). This piece’s facial features and position-

ing are almost identical, with a different hair colour. Particularly the gaze is important, as

the Saint looks up in a thoughtful way as he holds his pen and ink. Knowing this past piece

of Siloe’s gives the roundel more substance than as just a portrait roundel. Estella Marcos

compares this piece to the sensitivity of the Saint Sebastian of the tomb of the Caracciolo and

in Barbadillo de Herreros, but even beyond this sensitivity this Saint John from Burgos looks

like the Granada roundel.96 The manner in which the curls frame the face and the eyes look

upwards, the strangely similar to an angle of the face of the young Saint John confirms the

attribution to Diego, as well as the chance that the Saint John roundel might not have had

hair as dark as the nineteenth-century repainting.

Diego Siloe described through his sculptural sensitivities rather than his architectural in-

novations is exactly whom this exhibition is after. There is a difference in feeling between

Diego Siloe as a sculptor and as an architect; the difference between a work that is of the

circle of Diego and truly siloesque. When Diego carves the piece himself one can truly read

the roots of his aesthetic.

In 1547, Siloe writes the Duke of Sesa a letter, mentioning his current state as an elderly

95 Orozco Díaz, Guía, 31-32.96 Estella Marcos, Retablos de la Capilla del Condestable, 128


5

man. The tone is supplicant, describing Diego’s move to Granada as a flight to the promised

land, and that apparently this move had not created as much income as he had hoped.97 Gómez

Moreno believes this is an attempt by Diego Siloe to regain status or money, as he had mar-

ried a very rich wife, Ana de Bazán, earlier that year, his expenditures had increased, and

he even had a pleito with the family of his new wife over 1,000 ducats.98 This documentation

shines a very different light on Diego Siloe than the successful travelling sculptor his pieces

imply. Despite the desperate tone of Siloe’s pleas in this letter, his will in 1563 includes a vast

number of beneficiaries. Diego even charitably leaves behind a dowry for five orphan girls, as

he did not have children of his own.99

The paradox of his pleas and his successes make it difficult to define Diego Siloe’s true

standing in Granada. However, the persistence of his influence and the reverberations of

his style on the architecture of this same city as well as others in Spain speak for themselves.

The School of Granada – a Renaissance architectural stronghold – has been analysed in the

subsequent centuries. Architecture notwithstanding, Diego’s sculptural work has fallen out of

the limelight. This is possibly due to the grandiosity of those innovations. In order blow off

the dust from all that has been written on Diego’s sculpture, a voyage back in time to Castile,

such as we have done here, becomes necessary.

97 Ibáñez et al, Del Gótico al Renacimiento, 13898 Gómez Moreno, Diego Siloe, 61.99 Ibid, 63.


Conclusion

6

Diego Siloe’s sculptural œuvre shines light on the artist before he became master in Gra-

nada. Despite the characterisation of his architectural work solely a la romana and his stay

in Naples, a more intimate side – until recently – remained to be discovered in his sculptural

development. A man following the footsteps of his father, who fought with other carvers like

Felipe Bigarny but helped many others with their designs, including emparejador Juan de

Vallejo on the Burgos Cathedral cimborr io and Juan Maeda on the façade of the Saint Gil

Church (cat. 16) in Granada.

Diego has a singular style that changes depending on his medium. By virtue of still-existing

contracts and documents at the time, certain key works are concretely attributed to him.

The Constable Chapel altarpieces demonstrate his style in wood, while the tombs of Acuña,

Santander, and Antonio de Rojas represent his style in stone. In stone his gesture was more

static, with a focus on decorative detail as evidenced in pillows and collars of clothing, most

likely due to the fact that Siloe let the artisans in the workshop complete the pieces beyond

their design. Whereas in wood, Siloe takes a personal interest, and certain themes reoccur.

The Saint Sebastian (cat. 1) is a marble version of what Siloe usually did in wood; working with

a dynamic contrapossto posture, anatomically correct compared to other Spaniards’ carving

at the time. He tends to carve the same type of base under his figures, a rocky surface that

looks like slabs of granite - perhaps simply as a signature feature. When he needs a bit of a

background, he uses a knotted tree, or a pattern of his fantastical grotesques.

This essay and catalogue intend to document the trajectory of Diego’s sculptural work,

and much research remains to be completed. Further delving into the connections to the en-

gravings by Nicoletto de Modena is necessary, particularly beyond the design of grotesques.

Also, many more connections between Diego’s other works in Naples with Ordóñez and his

later commissions in Burgos exist. Moreover, deeper research into the archives of the Burgos


6

Cathedral, whose entire documentation will be published digitally later this year, might pro-

vide deeper information regarding Diego Siloe’s relationship with his father Gil, his master

Felipe, his brother Juan, and many other members of the Burgos circle. Alonso Berruguete, a

contemporary of Diego’s, who is only briefly mentioned in this catalogue, followed a similar

path between Italy and Spain yet developed a different italianate style. The connections be-

tween these two artists also leave much to be discovered. Additional research on the Biblical

iconography used by the artists in the Burgos Cathedral and their sources, at the date of this

catalogue, have yet to be published.

Spanish Renaissance sculpture provides art historians with a field of research that feeds off

of two extremely interesting movements, the Italian Renaissance and the Gothic movement of

the North as seen interpreted in the estilo isabelino. The combination of these artistic streams

with Spanish tradition creates a melange that is at times difficult to discern. Illuminating

the works of Diego Siloe, it is the author’s hope that the value of sixteenth-century Spanish

sculpture will recapture its proper spotlight in present-day art history.


IV. Catalogue, 65The Sculpture of Diego Siloe | B. Bröcker

Exhibit ion Catalogue

IV


attributed to Diego SiloeSaint Sebastian

1.

Place where i t was made: poss ibly Naples, Italy, or Burgos, Spain

Date of work: c. 1519-1528

Size: height: 33.2 in | 85 cm

Material: White Carrara Marble

Provenance: Donated to the par ish church of Barbadillo de Herreros by Don Mart ín Leonardo de la Barga

P re s e n t L o ca t i o n : Ba rba d i l lo de Herreros Parish Church, Spain

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Checa, Fernando. "El Modelo Clásico y los intentos

de reg u lar i zac ión" P i n t u ra y e s c u l t u ra d e l R enac imi en t o e n España . Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1983. 146, Fig. 123

Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. Las Águilas del Renacimiento Español : Ordóñez , S ilóe , Machuca , Ber ruguet e . Madrid: C.S.I.C., Instituto Diego Velázquez, 1941. 53. 131

Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. Diego de S iloe: Homenaje e n e l I V c e n t e n a r i o d e s u mu e r t e . Granada: Universidad de Granada, 1963. 17, lam. V

Pantorba, Bernardino de. Imagineros Españoles: estudio histór ico y cr ít ico. Madrid: Blass, 1952. 29. Fig. 24, 25

Rubio Velasco, Cándido. Barbadi l l o d e Her re ros . Burgos: Impresora Santos, 2001. 188-190. 187, 189.

Wethey, Harold E. "The Early Works of Bartolomé Ordóñez and Diego Siloe." Art Bulletin Vol. 25 (1943): 345

Zorr i l la , J. Mart ín. Apun t e s pa ra l a h i s t o r i a d e Barbadillo. Archivo Parroquial de Burgos. f. 144.

Catalogues:Catálogo General de la Exposición de arte retrospectivo,

con occas ion del IV cent enar io de la Catedral de Burgos. Burgos: Aldecoa, 1926. 9. Fig 669.

According to legend, the martyr Saint Sebastian was ordered to be shot with arrows for being secretly Christian. The subject was often used by Renaissance Italians as an reason to portray the male nude.


attributed to Master Gil SiloeSaint Sebastian

2.

Place where it was made: Burgos, Spain

Date of work: last decade of f ifteenth century


Mater ial: Wood with paint ing and gilding

Inscriptions: none

P r o v e n a n c e : B u r g o s C a t h e d r a l Museum collection

Present L ocat i on : Santa Cata l ina Chapel, Burgos Cathedral

The frontality and size of this Saint Sebastian contrasts greatly to his son’s version years later. Joaquín Yarza Luaces postulates that most of Gil’s work was actually carved by Diego de la Cruz - this small sketch in wood, painted and gilt, could perhaps be a presentation to master Gil, the head of the workshop, as a preliminary sketch for future work.


Gil SiloeSaint Mar y of Eg ypt

3.


Date of work: towards 1500

Size: height: 20.635 inches | 53 cm width: 23 cm

Material: Wood with polychromy and gilding

Inscriptions: none

Provenance: Made for the Saint Anne A l t a r p iec e i n t he C on s t ab le Chapel

Present Location: Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Estel la Marcos, Margar ita. La imag in e r í a d e l os

re tablos de la Capil la del Condestabl e . Burgos: Cabildo Metropolitano, Asociación de Amigos de la Catedral, 1995. 60, 61.

This piece was previously thought to be of Saint Mary Magdalene as penitent in the desert. However the cloak on her back (an allusion to the cloak given to her by the monk Zosimus) relates the piece to the story of Mary of Egypt. Diego Siloe carves a f igure of Mary Magdalene (f ig. 36) in the Saint Anne Altarpiece reiterates that this must be a different saint. The ambiguity arises out of the lack of her typical attributes (that differentiate her from the penitent Mary Magdalene): three breadloafs, her only nourishment in the desert.


attributed to Felipe BigarnySaint Catherine of Alexandria

4.

Place where it was made: Salamanca, Spain

Date of work: 1505

Dating Evidence: part of the altarpiece of the University of Salamanca commissioned from Bigarny


Material: Wood, paint and gilding

Provenance: Acquired in 1972 as an eff igy of Queen Isabel, until Luis Luna attributed it in 1987.

Present Locat ion: Museo Naciona l de Escu ltura del Coleg io San Gregorio, Valladolid

Museum no.: CE0722

Literature or Documentation:Literature:G ómez Moreno, M a nue l . "L a Capi l l a de l a

Univers idad de Sa lamanca," Bol e t í n d e l a Soc i edad Cast e l l ana d e Excurs i on es. tomo VI (1913-1914): 321-329, 324.

Marcos Vil lán, Miguel Ángel. Santa Catal ina de Al e jandr í a . Val ladol id: Museo Nacional de Escultura. number 12807.

Urrea Fernández, Jesús. Tesoros del Museo Nacional de Escultura. Valladolid: Museo Nacional de Escultura, 2005. 60-62.

Catalogues:Arbeteta Mira, Letizia et al. : The Heart of Spain:

a rare exhibit ion of Spa in's rel ig ious ar t , ant iquit ies and icon: Exhibit ion catalogue.Alexandria Museum of Art, 2003. 129.

Escul t u ra d e l s i g l o XV I e n Ca s t i l l a y L eón . Luna Moreno, Luis, ed. 1987. 10-12 cat. 6509

Gómez Moreno, Manuel. Catálogo Monumental de España : Prov inc ia de Salamanca . Salamanca, 1967. 238, cat. 1980

Obras del Museo Nac ional de Escul tura , expos i c ión . Urrea Fernández, Jesús, ed. (Valladolid, 1997): 36-37

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, supposedly of royal birth, converted to Christianity baptised by a desert hermit and underwent a mystic marriage with Christ. Her popularity is second only to Saint Mary Magdalene of all the female saints. Her special attribute is a wheel, usually with spikes, on which she was tortured but broke in the process.


attributed to Diego SiloeRoundel: Relief of Virgin and Child

5.


Date of work: c.1520-1528

Size: height: 10.625 in | 27.25 cm

width: 7.625 in | 20.1 cm

Mater ial: A labaster, with traces of paint and gilding

Inscriptions: i l legible inscription on the band on Virgin’s clothing

Provenance: Acquired from the John Charles Robinson Col lect ion, 1879.

P r e s e n t L o c a t i o n : V i c t o r i a a n d A lber t Museum, London, UK (Mus. No.: 153-1879)

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Gómez Moreno, Manuel. Diego Siloe. 17.

Gómez Moreno, Manuel. Las Águilas del Renacimiento Español, 1941. 51

Estella Marcos, Margarita. “Obras escultóricas del siglo XVI en los conventos de la Trinidad y de la Merced de Burgos.” Archivo español de arte. 205 (1979).

Wethey, Harold E. “A Madonna and Child by Diego de Si loe." Ar t Bul l e t in . Vol. 22, No. 5 (Dec. 1940): 190-196. f ig. 2.

Wethey, Harold. 'The early works of Bartolome Ordonez and Diego de Siloe' Art Bullet in. 25, (1943): 336.

Catalogues:L i st of Objects in the Art Divi s ion , South Kens ington

Museum acquired in the Year 1879. London, 1880, 15.

Catalogue of the Spec ial Loan Exhibi t ion of Spani sh and Portuguese Ornamental Art London, London: South Kensington Museum, 1881. 113, cat. 704.

Trusted, Marjorie. Spanish sculpture : catalogue of the post-medieval Spanish sculpture in wood, terracotta, alabaster, marble, stone, lead and jet in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996. 31-34, cat.7.

Tesoros en la Cathedral de Burgos: El arte al servicio del culto. Bana Bilbao Vizcaya, 1995. 136-7.

Zalama, M.A. Catá l ogo d e l a expos i c i ón R e ye s y Mecenas. Toledo: Museo de la Santa Cruz, 1992. 340-1, cat. 72.

This piece in the V&A has been attributed to Diego de Siloe since its acquisition in 1879 from the John Charles Robinson Collection. The composition, the technique, and the fact that the Christ-child is clothed all point towards it being a Spanish piece. The gesture, with the child holding the mother’s chin, is inf luenced by Flemish compositions. Diego, as the most Italianate descendant of the Burgos school, and some of his followers produced many versions of this small, framed image. All versions seem to derive from the composition by Desiderio da Settignano en Pinacoteca Sabauda de Turin, sizably larger and more classicist than the posterior interpretations. Marjorie Trusted, in a letter to Alberto Bartolomé Anaiza, the director of the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas mentions that the V&A roundel is closest in composition to the Santander relief, but also has a “more classical, less sweet-featured” visage.


Diego SiloeVirgin and Child Mir ror

6.



Mat e r i a l : A laba s ter, i n or ig i na l wooden frame

Inscr ipt ions: mark of the Velasco family (patrons of the Constable Chapel) on the escutcheon of the frame

Provenance: documented in Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral since 1524

Present Location: Museo Diocesano, Burgos Cathedral

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. Las Águilas del Renacimiento

Español, 53.

Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. Diego Siloe. 1963. 17, lam. V

Pantorba, Bernardino de. Imagineros Españoles. 29. Fig. 24, 25

Rubio Velasco, Cándido. Barbadi l l o d e Her re ros. Burgos: Impresora Santos, 2001. 188-190. 187, 189.

Wethey, H. E. "The Early Works," 345.

Wethey, H.E. A Madonna and Child by Diego Siloe. Art Bullet in . Vol. 22, No. 4 (Dec., 1940): 192, 194, f ig. 5.

Zorri l la, J. Mart ín. Apuntes para la histor ia de Barbadillo. Archivo Parroquial de Burgos. f. 144.

Catalogues:Tesoros de la catedral de Burgos: el arte al ser vic io del

culto. Burgos: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, 1995. 136.

In a 1995 catalogue in the Burgos Cathedral, the piece is described as of a Florentine origin because of the inclusion of the cherub head, the high waisted dresses, and showing the f igures at three-quarter length. In contrast,, the gesture of the Christ child, reaching for his mother’s chin, derives from a more Flemish source.


Castilian school | previously attributed to Diego SiloeVirgin and Child

7.

Place where it was made: Castile, Spain

Date of work: second quarter of the sixteenth century

Dating Evidence: In a 1985 cession of the Direct ion génera le des Douanes the object is described having “the massive forms, the ample drapery, the round face are, in a less scholarly art form, distinctive signs of the Castilian work of the movement of Diego de Siloe and his workshop.”


width: 12.6 in | 32 cm

Material: Stone with traces of paint

Provenance: A free cession in 1984 to the Louvre museums from the Direct eur Gèneral des Douanes , along with a Saint Anthony from Catalonia, Virgin Enthroned from Carclagne, and a processiona l Crucifixion.

Present Location: Museé National du Louvre (RF 3587)

This stone sculpture of the Virgin and Child, weathered greatly by time, correlates strongly Diego’s style. The massiveness of the Virgin’s f igure and the circular drapes around the arms, the gesture of the Christ child and the carving of the hair is similar to carving in Burgos of the early sixteenth century. The base is different from Diego’s usual rocky style, but may be cut down.Though the piece is very different from other Virgins by Diego, it relates strongly to the carving of the Antonio Rojas tomb from Palencia (cat. 8).


attributed to Diego SiloeDon Antonio de Rojas Tomb

8.

Place where it was made: Pa lencia, Spain

Date of work: 1526

Dating Evidence: Contract found in the Santovo Parish Archives, fol. 95, leg. 1. Dated 20 june mdxxvi. (1526)


Material: White stone from Atapuerca

Provenance: This piece, commissioned d i r e c t l y b y t he B i s ho p D on Antonio de Rojas from Diego in 1526, when he felt his health was fail ing him, was to be placed in the Main Chapel of the Villasilos Monastery in Palencia. After the dest ruct ion of th is monaster y, it was moved to the hospita l in Boadilla de Camino, after which it was moved to the Iglesia de la Dehesa, where it currently stands.

Present Location: Iglesia de la Dehesa de Espinosa, Palencia, Spain

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Castro, Lázaro de. “Diego de Siloe y el sepulcro del

Obispo burgalés Don Antonio de Rojas." Boletin de la Institución Fernán González. No. 183, (1974): 319-320

Portela Sandoval, Francisco José. La escultura del S iglo XVI en Pal enc ia . Palencia: Diputación Provincial, 1977. 123-125.

Redondo Cantera, María José. “Diego Siloe, autor del sepulcro de Don Antonio de Rojas.” Boletín del Seminario de Arte y Arqueología: BSAA. Tomo 44. (1978): 446-451.

This kneeling portrait — all that is left of the entire structure of the Rojas tomb — was saved from the destruction of its original location. Hence we have the unique opportunity of exhibiting a sixteenth century tomb f igure from Spain. The piece currently sits outside in the garden of the Dehesa de Espinosa Church in Palencia.


attributed to Diego de SiloeSaint Jerome in the Desert

9.



Material: Alabaster

Present Location: Museo Diocesano, Burgos Cathedral

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. Diego de Siloe, 1963. 20.

This piece in alabaster is intimately related to the Saint Jerome carved for the Saint Peter Altarpiece in the Constable Chapel (f ig. 41). While the composition differs slightly, particularly in the addition of a skull rather than a cross, and the positioning of the saint’s legs. While the Constable piece positions its feet in an elegant contrapposto despite the saint’s seated position, the alabaster piece uses a wider stance. Furthermore, the saint’s pose changes from that of a ref lective penitent staring at the cross to the typical melancholia, leaning chin in hand. The key elements of Diego Siloe’s work are present, including the knotted tree and the slabs on the ground, and it would be tempting to think of this piece as a possible f irst version of the Constable Jerome - it even has some traces of polychromy - but its grosser feeling, the windswept beard, the careless depiction of the lion and the aforementioned differences leads one to believe this piece is by a different hand than the master, regardless of the attribution.


attributed to Diego SiloeSaint Jerome in the Desert

10.



( The Bode-museum considers the piece of circa 1540, a time which would make no sense as by then Diego Siloe had left Burgos, and the st y le in Spa in had moved on to a much more mannered neoclassicism.)


Material: White marble

Provenance: acquired in 1906

Pre se n t L oca t i on : Böde -museum, Berlin inv. no. 3013

Literature or Documentation:Catalogue:Staat l iche Museen Berl in, Sculp t u re i n t h e Bod e

Museum. Munich, Munich: Prestel, 2008. No. 236, pp.180-181. 181

Much like the previous Saint Jerome, this one is also attributed to Siloe despite the strong differences in the composition and technique from the original piece in the Saint Peter Altarpiece (f ig. 41).


Diego SiloeSaint John the Evangel ist

11.


Date of work: Towards 1523

Dating Evidence: statue from the Saint Peter Altarpiece in the Constable Chapel


width: 29.1 in | 34 cm

Material: Pinewood, painted and gilt

Provenance: currently in situPresent Location: Constable Chapel,

Burgos Cathedral, Spain

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Estella Marcos, Los retablos de la capilla del condestable,

128

Gómez-Moreno, Las Águilas del Renacimiento español, 45, 108

Saint John the Evangelist was one of the apostles. He is the presumed author of the fourth gospel, that includes the Apocalypse. His attribute, a book or scroll, is an allusion to these writings. The eagle is John’s attribute, as one of the four apocalyptic beasts of the four evangelists. Saint John as a youth is usually portrayed as a beautiful, slightly effeminate male, with long, f lowing curly hair and beardless.

See cat. 18 for an other version of the young Saint John by Diego.


attributed to Diego SiloeChrist Tied to the Column

12.



Dating Evidence: Similar piece in the Pur i f icat ion A ltarpiece in the Constable Chapel of the Burgos Cathedral

Material: Polychrome wood

In sc r ip t i on s : On t he ba se of t he column, in Roman capital letters, the word “REPLICA” - possibly carved to indicate the column is not of Siloe’s time

Provenance: Made and kept in the Burgos Cathedral

Present Location: Museo Diocesano, Burgos Cathedral (number 130)

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Checa, Fernando. "El Modelo Clásico y los intentos

de reg u lar i zac ión" P i n t u ra y e s c u l t u ra d e l R enac imi en t o e n España . Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1983. 146, Fig. 122

Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. Las Águilas del Renacimineto español. 127, 128

Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. D iego S i l o e . 19, Lam. XXVII, XXX.

Pantorma, Bernardino de. Imagineros Españoles, 29

Another version of this scene is one of the central f igures of the High Altar on the Constable Chapel (f ig. 26)

Christ tied to the Column is different than the Ecce Homo. Within the story of the Passion, it occurs a bit earlier, probably sometime before the Crowning with Thorns, after the Flagellation of Christ.

See Glossary: flAgellAtion


attributed to Diego SiloeEcce Hommo

13.




Provenance: Made by the art ist for the Saint August ine Church in Dueñas near Burgos

Present Location: Iglesia San Agustín de Dueñas, Spain

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Gomez-Moreno, Manuel. Diego Siloe. 17, Lam. XXIX,

XXXI.

Gomez-Moreno, Manuel. Las Águilas del Renacimiento español, 129.

Pantorba, Bernardino de. Imagineros Españoles. 29.

Wethey, "The Early Works", 341.

This Ecce Homo in Dueñas relates to Diego’s Christ tied to the Column on the High Altar of the Constable Chapel and Catalogue No. 12. Christ wears the crown of thorns and stands judged before the people.

See Glossary: ecce homo


attributed to Diego SiloeEcce Hommo

14.

Place where it was made: Granada, Spain

Date of work: c.1530s


Provenance: Made by the artist for the Andalucian church of San José

Present Location: Iglesia de San José, Granada, Spain

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Gomez Moreno, Manuel. Las Águilas del Renacimineto

español. 271, 272

Gomez-Moreno, Manuel. Diego de Siloe. 1963. 17, 51, Lam. CXXXIV.


This much later piece relates to the Ecce Homo Diego carved in Dueñas near Burgos (cat. 13)

The manner in which Christ’s arms reach across his body is reminiscent of the Saint John the Baptist panel by Diego in the Choir Stalls of Saint Benito (f ig. 42)

This piece is still used in processional ceremonies during the Easter week, called “Cristo del Perdón.” This is also the source of the rays radiating from Christ’s head, a later addition to the sculpture.


attributed to Diego SiloeArchangel Saint Michael

15.

This gigantic sculpture by Siloe is described by Gómez Moreno as “serene, well grounded and elegant.” Set on a pedestool, the passer-by usually is at eye-level with Saint Michael’s knees, that are carved with two faces of judgement.

The Saint Michael, archangel is the Saint of the Church militant. The scale that Michael holds is skewed, supposed to represent the weight of the soul of the sinner versus the righteous.

Place where it was made: Sasamón, Burgos, Spain

Date of work: c.1525

Dating Evidence: Wethey considers the date to be 1525, as the head is very similar to the Virgin in the Constable Chapel altarpiece

Size: According to Gómez Moreno, the sculpture measures 15 metres.

Material: Wood with paint and gilding

Provenance: In situ, as made by the artist for the Iglesia Santa María Real in Sasamón

Present Locat ion : Ig les ia de Santa Mar ía Rea l, Sasamón, Burgos, Spain

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. Las Águilas del Renacimiento

español. 53, 132.


Wethey, Harold E. “On the Early Works," 340.


Juan Maeda, Diego SiloeArch of Saint Gil

16.

Place where it was made: Granada, Spain

Date of work: 1560

Size: Arc Diameter: 182.7 in | 464 cm

Material: Stone (franca)

Provenance: Originally the façade/entrance of the Parroquia de San Gil, Granada. Other pieces from the façade are in the Museo Arqueológico de Granada.

Present Location: Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada, CE0024/3

Literature or Documentation:Literature: Barrios Rozúa, Juan Manuel. Guía de la Granada desaparecida.

Granada (1999), 211.

Barrios Rozúa, Juan Manuel. Reforma urbana y destrucción del patr imonio histór ico en Granada. Ciudad y desamort ización. Granada (1998), 480-487

Gallego y Burín, Antonio Granada. Guía artística e histórica de la ciudad. Granada (1996), 142,324

Gallego y Burín, Antonio: ´El Museo Arqueológico ,́ Boletín del Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes de Granada, núm. 1, (mayo 1923): 19.

Gómez-Moreno Martínez, Manuel. Las águilas del Renacimiento español. Madrid (1983), 85.

Gomez-Moreno, Manuel. Diego de Siloe (1963) Lam. CXXXII.

Gómez-Moreno Calera, José Manuel. ´Juan de Maeda a la sombra de Siloé. Noticias y ref lexiones sobre su vida y obra ,́ Cuadernos de Arte de la Universidad de Granada, Núm. 23, (1992): 150-151.

This arch, made later in Diego’s life, demonstrates the development of his architectural ornamentation in Granada. It is f lanked by two roundels - circles were popular in Renaissance Italy - with Saints Peter and Paul. The panels over the doorway alternate between the winged cherub heads grotesque f igures greatly reminiscent of Diego’s work on the Escalera Dorada in the Burgos Cathedral. (f ig. 29-31) The main difference lies in the harshly regimented compartmentalising that Diego adds to the ornament.

Orozco Díaz, Emilio. El Museo de Bellas Artes -I- Escultura. Granada, (1975), 9.

Saiz-Pardo Benito, Julia. De la medina al Renacimiento. Granada, (2001), 119-120.

Villafranca Jiménez, María del Mar, Nuevos paseos por Granada y sus contornos, T. II. Granada, (1993), 92.

Catalogues:Gómez-Moreno González, Manuel. Catálogo del Museo Provincial de Bellas

Artes (inédito), Granada, (1899): nº 68.

Orozco Díaz, Emilio. Guía del Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes de Granada. Granada, (1966), 37.


Diego SiloeVirgin and Child

17.

Place where it was made: Monastery of Saint Jerome, Granada, Spain

Date of work: 1544

Size: height: 54.1 inches | 137.5 cm

Material: Carved wood with traces of polychromy and gilding on the dragons.

Provenance: Commissioned by Duke

Present Locat ion: Museo de Bel las Artes de Granada, Spain (Mus. No. CE/0015)

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Azcárate, José Mª. Éscultura del siglo XVI´, Ars

Hispaniae. Vol. XIII, Madrid. (1958), 150

Bernales Ballesteros, J. Él arte del Renacimiento. Escultura, pintura y artes decorativas ,́ Historia del Arte en Andalucía, Sevilla (1989), 119, 121.

Gallego y Burín, Antonio. Granada. Guía art íst ica e histórica de la ciudad, Granada. (1996), 142

Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. Diego de Siloe. (1963) 51 . Lám. CXXXV, CXXVI.

Gómez-Moreno, Manuel. Las águilas del Renacimiento español . Bartolomé Ordóñez, Diego S ilóee , Pedro Machuca, Alonso Berruguete. Madrid.(1983), 90.

Gómez-Moreno, Mª Elena Breve historia de la escultura española, Madrid (1951), 85.

Martínez Justicia, María José. La vida de la Virgen en la escultura granadina, Madrid.(1996), 162.

Mateos Gómez, I. López-Yarto Elizalde, A. Prados García, JM (1999): El arte de la Orden Jerónima: Historia y mecenazgo, Bilbao. (1999), 150.

Orozco Díaz, Emilio. El Museo de Bellas Art es -I- Escultura, (1996), 6, 8.

Pantorba, Bernard ino de. Imag in e ros e spañol e s . Madrid (1996), 30.

Quesada, Eduardo (2004): Óbras del Museo de Bel las Artes de Granada´, Rev i s t a d e l a s instituciones del patrimonio histórico de Andalucía, núm. 3 (abril 2004): 185.

Quesada, Luis. Obras maestras en museos andaluces. Madrid. (1996), 36.

Villafranca Jiménez, María del Mar. Nuevos paseos por Granada y sus contornos T. II. Granada,(1993), 92.

Wethey, H.E. A Madonna and Child by Diego Siloe. Art Bullet in . Vol. 22, No. 4 (Dec., 1940): 192, f ig. 3.

Wethey, Harold E. T he Early Work s of Bar tolome Ordoñez and Diego Siloe. 345, Fig. 25

Catalogues: J iménez Díaz, N.; L . Mar t ín-Moreno and L .

Balmaseda. Registro del Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada. (1986-1987), Nº Reg. 15

Orozco Díaz, Emilio (1966): Guía del Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes de Granada. Granada, 31, f ig. 6

This relief ’s composition is very similar to the series of Virgins Diego completed in Burgos, especially from the tomb of Diego Santander. Except here the f igures are shown in full-length, and the Christ child is placed upon a classical column. The treatment of the relief is similar to the Saint John the Baptist from the choir stalls of Saint Benito (f ig. 42)

The f igure is surmounted by dragon grotesques, reminiscent of the f igures used by Diego in the Escalera Dorada of the Burgos Cathedral. (f ig. 26)


Attributed to Diego SiloeA Young Saint John

18.

Place where it was made: Dominican C o n v e n t S a n t a C r u z R e a l , Granada, Spain

Date of work: 1544

Size: diameter: 21.25 in | 54.5 cm

Material: Pinewood with paint and gilding

Inscriptions: “Sn Juan/Siloe Ft” on halo; possibly added when placed in the monastery’s chapel

Provenance: Monastery of St. Jerome, Granada

Present Locat ion: Museo de Bel las Artes de Granada, Spain (Mus. No. CE/0016)

Literature or Documentation:Literature:Gallego y Burín, Antonio (1996): Granada . Guía

artística e histórica de la ciudad, Granada., p. 142

Gómez-Moreno, Manuel: Diego de Siloe. pp. 51-52 . Lam. CXL (a).

Gómez-Moreno Martínez, Manuel: Las águilas del Renacimiento español. Madrid.1983 , p. 91

Henares Cuéllar, Ignacio (1981): ´Arte´, Granada, Tomo IV, Granada, pp. 1206 y 1208

Orozco Díaz, Emilio (1975): El Museo de Bellas Artes -I- Escultura, p.8

Orozco Díaz, Emilio (1966): Guía del Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes de Granada. Granada, 31-32

Pantorba, Bernardino de (1952): Imagineros españoles, Madrid., p. 30

Sánchez-Mesa Martín, Domingo (1971): Técnica de la escultura policromada granadina, Granada., pp. 77- 78

Catalogues:Catálogo de la exposición (1958): Carl os V y s u

ambiente, Toledo., nº 268

Catálogo de la exposición (1984): La escul tura en Andalucía. Siglos XV al XVIII, Valladolid, nº 24, pp. 84-85 y 88

Catálogo de la exposición (1940): Escultura granadina anterior a Alonso Cano, Granada., nº 33

Orozco Díaz, Emil io (1958): Museo Prov incia l de Bel la s A r tes de Granada. Breve Guía Provisional, nº 4, p. 8

Quesada, Luis (1989): Obras maestras en museos andaluces, Madrid., p. 36

Villafranca Jiménez, María del Mar (1993): ´Visita a los museos de Granada´, Nuevos paseos por Granada y sus contornos, T. II, Granada, p. 92

This roundel of the young Saint John reminds us of a sculpture of the same topic originally in the Saint Peter altarpiece. Saint John is placed in a roundel, one of Diego Siloe’s preferred shapes when he arrives in Granada. The composition is similar to the Saint Peter and Paul in the Arch of Saint Gil. (cat. 16)

V. Appendix, 84The Sculpture of Diego Siloe | B. Bröcker

Support Material: Chronolog y & Maps

Appendix a & b


Key events for Diego Siloe, for Spain

Commissions Diego Siloe, with Felipe Bigarny, with Bartolomé Ordoñez, with Gil Siloe

Chronolog y

Appendix a

Date

1483

1492

1492 - 1495

1500-1505

1505-1509

1505

1509

1516

1517

1516-1518

Spring 1519

1519

1519 - 1522

1519 - 1523

1520

1522

1523

1523-1526

1524

1526

1527

1527

1528

Event

Gil Siloe makes model of Miraflores tombs for Queen Isabel

Expulsion of the Moors from Spain, Columbus arrives in New World

Death of Constable of Castile, Don Pedro Fernández de Velasco

Birth of Diego Siloe

Death of Gil Siloe, between 1500 and 1505

Diego as an apprentice in Burgos

Burgos Cathedral Choir Stalls

Pleito with Bigarny about payment for work; DS leaves Burgos

Travels, perhaps through Rome and Florence

Charles takes over Spanish throne as Charles I of Spain

Diego Siloe in Naples

Caracciolo altarpiece, San Giovanni da Carbonara

Madonna and Child Tondo in San Giorgio Maggiore

Tomb of Giovanni Tocco, Naples Cathedral

Choir stalls, Barcelona Cathedral

Ordoñez's illegitimate son is born in Naples, and Diego is the godfather.

Charles meeting of Order of Golden Fleece in Barcelona

July 1519 - Back in Burgos

Tomb of Luis Acuña, Burgos Cathedral

Escalera Dorada (Golden Staircase), Burgos Cathedral

Saint Anne Altarpiece, Visitation Chapel, Burgos Cathedral

Tomb of Diego Santander, Burgos Cathedral

Saint Anne Altarpiece, Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral

Death of Bartolomé Ordoñez in Carrara, Papal States. Diego Siloe is

mentioned as Ordoñez's socius - partner in his will

Diego and his brother, Juan Siloe request the right to bear arms after an

attempted assault in Burgos

Saint Peter Altarpiece, Constable Chapel, Burgos Cathedral

High Altarpiece (of the Presentation), Constable Chapel

Diego Siloe's middle period: working from Burgos workshop

Altar of Santiago de la Puebla, Salamanca

Cathedral of Jaen (1521-22)

Santa Casilda, Saint Vincent Church, Buezo

Colegio de los Irlandeses, Salamanca

Saint Michael Archangel, Santa María Real Church, Sasamón

Ecce Homo, Iglesia San Agustín, Dueñas

Tomb of bishop Antonio Rojas, Palencia

Tomb of Toribio Gómez de Santiago, Chapel of the Immaculate

Conception, Santiago de la Puebla, Salamanca

Cathedral of Málaga ( January 1527)

Competition for the Santa María del Campo church tower in Burgos

Another pleito with Bigarny over Santa María church tower commission

Sack of Rome

Goes to Granada

Sculptures of Isabel and Ferdinand, Capilla Real, Granada

Chapel and doorways Saint Jerome Monastery, Granada


Appendix a

1535

1538

1540

1543

1544

1545

1546

1547

1549

1556

1560

1561

October 22nd, 1563

Design of Granada Cathedral

Tomb of Archbisop Fonseca, Saint Ursula Church, Salamanca

Cloister and Cathedral, Santiago School, Salamanca

Tomb of Bishop Rodrigo de Mercado, Parish of Oñate

Chapel of the New Kings, Toledo

Choir Stalls, Monastery of St. Jerome, Granada

Short trips to Castile

Salvador Chapel, Úbeda for Secretary Francisco de los Cobo

Works in Palencia and Albacete

Diego's first wife, Ana de Santotis, dies.

• 22 March 1543 - The Granada Chapel is completed

S. Salvador Parish Colegiate Chapel Door, Albaicin, Granada

Illora Parish Church, Granada (1544-1546)

1544 - Sells his belongings in Burgos via the notary Bernardo de Santotis

Council of Trent

Montefrío Church

Moves to a home with his new wife, Ana de Bazán, near the Granada Cathedral

Letter to the Duke, Diego refers to himself as "old"

Draws Parroquail Church, Iznalloz, completed by Juan de Maeda

Abdication of the throne by Charles I, succeeded by Philip I of Spain

Draws the Cathedral of Guadix, Guadix

Colegio de Santiago, Salamanca

Church of Saint Gil, Granada

1563 - Death of Diego Siloe

Key events for Diego Siloe, for Spain

Commissions Diego Siloe, with Felipe Bigarny, with Bartolomé Ordoñez, with Gil Siloe


1. Key Places

Appendix b


2. Burgos Cathedral

Appendix b


Glossar y of Art Ter ms and Subjects

Appendix 3


Main sources: Clarke, Michael. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Art Terms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.and: Hall, James. Hall’s Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, Revised Edition. London: John Murray, 1996.

Glossar y of Art Ter ms and Subjects

3

AlAbAster: a f ine-grained, smooth, slightly translucent form of gypsum, typically white with marble-like veins, often carved for ornaments. In Spain, where there was a lack of marble avail-able, alabaster was the next best option for tombs and altarpieces

A lA romAnA: term used in many contracts of the late f ifteenth- and early sixteenth-century to refer to surface design inspired by the Italian Renaissance and ancient Roman and Greek forms. Spain imported these ideas into its ornamentation starting in the f ifteenth century. It wasn’t until the time of the likes of Diego Siloe that the pieces integrally understood Renaissance ideals and con-ceptual development beyond ornament, and there may be a clash between what a patron would think was in the Roman style versus the artist.

Anthropocentrism: the idea of man as centre of the universe. This idea developed in the Italian Renaissance to contradict the church’s creed of God as centre of all things.

A priori: a principle prior to any individual or corporeal concern for feeling

bAsement: in architecture, the f loor of a building partly or entirely below ground level

brAvurA: a triumphant conjuring trick, with an emphasis on the obscure, the problematic, and the ambiguous. Often applied to work that seems to play with perception or masterful imitative tech-nique. Phrased in Italian, it has roots in the Italian Renaissance and subsequent styles.

cAlvAry: The hill outside Jerusalem where Christ was crucif ied. Term used in Spain for depic-tions of the crucif ixion.

clAssicAl: Of or related to the ancient cultures of Rome and Greece.

Cimborrio: In Gothic architecture, a structure made to hold up the central nave of the church.

CondestAble/constAble: in the Middle Ages, the highest ranking off icial of a royal household, court, etc. The Constable of Castile was a title coined by King John I of Spain in 1382, and this title invoked the titular with all authority in the absence of the King.

contrApposto: an asymmetrical arrangement of the f igure, where the line of the arm/shoulder area aligns opposite to the legs/hips. The delicate balance between the lines of the body are sup-posed to conceptualise the balance between opposites; passive and active, vertical and horizontal, etc.

cupolA: a small dome adorning a roof or ceiling

ecce homo: “Behold the Man!” ( John 19:4-6) are the words of Pontius Pilate, the Roman gover-nor of Judea, to the Jews gathered outside the judgement hall, after Christ had been scourged and then mocked by soldiers. The passage goes on to say: “The chief priests and their henchmen saw him and shouted, ‘Crucify! Crucify!’” The theme became widely represented during the Renais-sance in two distinct ways, either as a devotional image, showing the crowned head or half-f igure of Christ alone; or as a narrative statement in a town square or on the balcony of Pilate’s judge-ment hall. In Spain, the devotional image reached larger proportions, as the f igure of Christ is shown in


3

full-length, in-the-round sculpture. His wrists, often crossed, are usually tied with a chord or chain and he might have a rope around his neck. His body often shows the marks of scourging, and his expression, always a challenge to artists in this context, is generally one of compassion towards the hostility that surrounds him.

euchArist: Also known as the holy communion. In Catholic culture, the pious reach a further level of connection with Christ by eating bread and wine meant to symbolise/incarnate Christ’s body and blood. Some humanist scholars of the Renaissance correlated this communion and Christ’s sacrif ice with the religious experience of pagan sacrif ice.

estilo isAbelino: The Spanish interpretation of the High Gothic, named after Queen Isabel (1451–1504). The same features as Northern art, simply mixed with what already existed in Spain at the time, tracery made out of carved stone and geometrical designs for ceilings.

flAgellAtion of christ: Christ’s scourging, ordered by Pontius Pilate the governor of Judea, just before Christ is led away to be crucif ied. It was customary to show Christ tied to a column, per-haps in the colonnade that formed Pilate’s judgement hall.

frieze: the middle division of an entablature between the architrave and the cornice. Also the decorated band on an internal wall, just below the cornice

gothic: the style of art and architecture in Europe before the Renaissance. Coined by Italian architect and writer Alberti to deride the style of the Middle Ages. It is generally agreed to have appeared in France f irst, at the church of St. Denis in the 1140s. Inspired greatly by nature and f loral imagery, common features of Gothic architecture are the pointed arch, f lying buttress, and elaborate tracery.

grotesques: A fantastic, strange and incongruous hybrid of arabesques and other f igures used in decorations originally inspired by the grottos discovered in Pompeii.

hApsburg: One of the major ruling dynasties of European history, the members of which have included several important art patrons and collectors. The family can be traced back to the 10th century and it established a hereditary monarchy in Austria in the 13th century. From 1452 a link with Rome provided the Hapsburg ruler with the title of “Holy Roman Emperor.” The fam-ily’s territories reached their greatest extent in the 16th century under Charles V (1500-1558) who - as a result of marriage, diplomacy, and conquest - ruled one of the largest empires ever created. It included central Europe, Spain, the Kingdom of Naples and other parts of Italy, most of the Netherlands as well as vast colonial possessions in the Americas.

high gothic: term for the last phase of Gothic architecture before the shift to the Renaissance. At this time, artists and architects create playful diversions from the motifs, including broken tracery or exaggeratedly elongated forms. Its characteristics vary depending on the country.

humAnism: approach or philosophy in life that preaches human values. In the Renaissance, these were believed attainable through the study of classical texts. These beliefs stimulated the educa-tion of individuals at the time, the development of the vernacular language, and the study of the humanities.

imAginArio: a carver in sixteenth century Spain, creating the sculptures for altarpieces, tomb-pieces, as well as reliquaries. They mainly worked in alabaster, wood, and slate, depending on the project. Various artisans often worked together with the sculptor:

ensambladores: created the wooden frame


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aparejadores: painted the f irst layer of gesso over the woodestofadores: painted the polychromy, considered masters as well and sometimes ran an entire workshop. doradores: in charge of the gildingtalladores: carvers, usually reserved for ornamental elements while the master imaginario carved the f igurative elements

in mediA res: a literary term, used to describe a narrative that starts “in the middle” of the action, without much of an introduction

itAliAnism/itAliAnAte: related to the ‘a la romana’ style in Spain, a modern word for the inf lu-ence of ideas and art of the Italian city-states around Europe

Jerome: His full name was Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, and lived from 342-420 AD. He is one of the four Latin (western) fathers of the church. He is usually grey-haired and bearded, and is portrayed in three distinct ways: as the penitent, (dishevelled, partly naked, kneeling before a crucif ix in the desert, with a stone to beat his breast, and often a skull and an hourglass); as the man of learning (seated at work in his study), and as the Doctor of the Church (standing wearing cardinal’s robes and holding a model of the church). His commonest attributes are the cardinal’s hat and the lion. He supposedly tamed a lion to live in the church he worked. He translated the bible into Latin.

memento mori: Latin phrase meaning ‘remember your mortality.’ Symbols were often included in art to remind the viewer of God’s divine judgement, sending all souls either to heaven or hell.

miseriCordiA: a section of wood on the underside of choir stall chairs, only visible when the chair is folded up, in the standing position. The wood is moulded in a comfortable position to lean against for those standing for long periods of time during mass.

neoclAssicAl – Of, relating to, or characteristic of a neoclassic style, as in the decorative arts. Characterized by the use of delicate but elaborate ornamentation imitated from Greek and Ro-man examples or containing classical allusions, bas-reliefs of classical f igures, motifs of wreaths, torches, caryatids, lyres, and urns. Usually used for the later neoclassicism of the 18th century, but the practice of re-interpreting classical themes runs throughout art history. In Spain, neoclas-sicism is termed clasicismo.

pediment: in classical architecture, a low pitched facade, sometimes containing sculpture. Most are triangular, but there are also “broken” pediments that have an incomplete bottom of the triangle, or no apex at the top.

plAteresque/plAtAresCo: a very ref ined and ornamental style in Spain of the f ifteenth and six-teenth centuries, particularly in architecture. Literally means, “in the style of the silversmith,” and this probably refers to the overlap of forms from silversmiths into architecture. “Hyperdeco-rativism” f irst ornamentally Gothic and then taken over by Renaissance motifs, particularly from Lombardy but holding on to the Gothic ideas of proportion, disregarding Vitruvian (ancient Roman) standards.

pleito: a legal argument in Spain. Brought before a judge and usually pertaining to monetary is-sues, though sometimes it relates to other themes, such as Diego Siloe’s plea for the right to bear arms after his life was threatened in 1526.

polychrome/polychromy: Painting with more than one colour upon a surface, particularly sculp-ture. Often in Spanish art, the painter, known as an estofador intends to aide the realism of the piece.


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predellA: platform or step on which an altar stands. Comes from Italian for ‘kneeling stool’

relief sculpture: from Italian for ‘to raise’ this type of carving intends to take a f lat surface and give it the perception of depth. This relief can either be low-relief, implying very shallow cuts into the surface; or high-/bulk-relief, that extends to great depths and will look different from any angle you look at it. A good example of relief sculpture is Diego Siloe’s Virgin and Child from Granada. (cat. 17)

renAissAnce: originally a French term meaning ‘rebirth.’ Employed to describe the arts in Italy from the early 14th to the mid-16th centuries. By extension, it is also more loosely applied to other European countries of that era. Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt in 1864 writes to stress that this time is a ‘light’ compared to the medieval ‘Dark Ages.’

sculpture in-the-round: three-dimensional sculpture, as opposed to relief sculpture, these pieces are made to be seen from all angles. A good example of a sculpture in-the-round is Diego Siloe’s Saint Michael , archangel in Sasamón (cat. 15).

siloesque/ siloesCo: term formulated by past Spanish scholars to describe trademark features of Diego Siloe’s work. This includes, the bases made up of usually two tiers of rocky, slab-like sur-faces, the knotted, gnarled tree-trunks in the background, and Diego’s characteristic grotesques using bird-like and fantastical creatures combined with cherubs.

stiACCiAto/sChiACCiAto: Italian for “crushed” or “squashed,” this term describes the technique of extreme low relief sculpture, particularly in marble. The term was f irst used to describe the work of Donatello in the f ifteenth century, and subsequently often copied by those who wished to work in the Italianate manner

strApWork: term for decorative element that is derived from . Strapwork parallels the forms of leather straps, creating interesting scrolls and thick panels of material.

trAcery: the elaborate ornamental pattern-work in stone f illing the upper part of a Gothic win-dow.

virtues: The human f igure, generally female and with identifying attributes, personifying ab-stract concepts. A practice well-known in classical antiquity, it was taken up by the Church to teach moral lessons of the virtues versus the vices. The canon of the Christian virtues in the Mid-dle Ages was of three theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity, and the four cardinal virtues of Justice, Prudence, Fortitude and Temperance. Often contrasted with seven vices.

VI. Bibliography, 94The Sculpture of Diego Siloe | B. Bröcker

Selected Bibliog raphy

VI.


Bibliog raphy

VI.

ArA gil, Clementina Julia. En torno al escultor Alejo de Vahía (1490-1510). Valladolid:

Universidad de Valladolid, 1974.

ArAuJo, Fernando. Historia de la escultura en España de principios del siglo XVI hasta f ines del

XVIII y causas de su decadencia. Valencia : Librerías “París-Valencia”: 1992.

Arnould, AlAin And JeAn michel mAssing. Splendours of Flanders. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, The Fitzwilliam Museum, 1993.

bArrón gArcíA, Aurelio A. “Un retablo de Diego de Siloe para San Román de Burgos.”

Actas del Congreso Internacional sobre Gil Siloe y la escultura de su época. Burgos: Aldecoa,

2001. 583-585

Catálogo general de la exposición de arte retrospectivo, VII centenario de la catedral de Burgos,

1921. Burgos: El Monte Carmelo, 1926.

cAtedrAl de burgos. Capilla de la Concepción y Santa Ana. Burgos: Fundación Ana Mata

Manzanedo, 2001.

checA, Fernando. Pintura y escultura del Renacimiento en España 1450-1600. Madrid:

Ediciones Cátedra, 1983.

estellA mArcos, Margarita. Escultura castellana del Siglo XVI. Madrid : Información y

Revistas, D.L. 1991

estellA mArcos, Margarita. La imaginería de los retablos de la Capilla del Condestable.

Burgos: Cabildo Metropolitano, Asociación de Amigos de la Catedral, 1995.

fernández, Margarita. Los grutescos en la arquitectura española del Protorrenacimiento.

Valencia: Generalitat Valenciana, 1987

fernández gAllArdo, Luis. Alonso de Cartagena: Iglesia Politica y cultura en la Castilla del

Siglo XV. Madrid: Department of Medieval History of Universidad Complutense,

1998.


VI.

gArcíA chico, Esteban. Los grandes imagineros en el Museo Nacional de Escultura. Valladolid:

Gráficos Andrés Martín, 1965

geers, G.J. De Renaissance in Spanje: kultuur, litteratuur, leven. Zutphen: W. J. Thieme & co,

1932.

gómez moreno, Manuel. Las águilas del Renacimiento español Bartolomé Ordóñez, Diego Siloe,

Pedro Machuca, Alonso Berruguete. Madrid: C.S.I.C., Instituto Diego Velázquez, 1941.

gómez moreno, Manuel. Diego Siloe: Homenaje en el IV centenario de su muerte. Granada:

Universidad de Granada, 1963.

gómez moreno, María Elena. Bartolomé Ordóñez. Madrid: Instituto Diego Velazquez,

1956.

hernández redondo, José Ignacio. “Diego Siloe, aprendiz destacado en el taller de

Felipe Bigarny.” Locus Amoenus. (2000-2001): 101-116.

holAndA, Francisco de. Conversaciones con Miguel Ángel. Buenos Aires: La Reja, 1956

heiJden, Chris van der. De zwarte Renaissance: Spanje en de wereld 1492-1563. Amsterdam:

Uitgeverij Contact, 2008.

ibáñez pérez, Alberto C.; Payo Hernanz, René Jesús. Del Gótico al Renacimiento. Artistas

burgaleses entre 1450 y 1600. Burgos: Cajacírculo, 2008.

mArques, Luis. “Una Paradoja Sobre las Relaciones Entre Italia y España en el

Renacimiento” El modelo italiano en la artes plásticas de la peninsula Ibérica durante el

Renacimiento. Universidad de Valladolid, 2004. 77-97

mArtínez burgos, Matías. Catálogo del Museo Arqueológivo Provincial de Burgos. Madrid:

Impresora Góngora, 1935.

mArtín gonzález, Juan José. El escultor en el siglo de oro. Madrid : Real Academia de

Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 1985

mArtín gonzález, Juan José, La imaginería de los retablos de la Capilla del Condestable

de la Catedral de Burgos , Archivo español de arte, 68:272 (1995:oct./dic.) p.439-441.

migliAccio, Luciano. “Precisiones sobre la actividad de Bartolomé Ordóñez en Italia y la


VI.

recepción del Renacimiento italiano en la península Ibérica.” El Modelo Italiano en las

Artes Plásticas de la Península Ibérica durante el Renacimiento. Valladolid: Universidad de

Valladolid, 2004. 377-392.

morán rubio, Manuela. “Un relieve de San Jerónimo (Covarrubias) próximo a Diego de

Siloe.” Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología. No. 46 (1908)

orozco díAz, Emilio. Guía del museo provincial de bellas artes de Granada. Madrid:

Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, 1966

orozco díAz, Emilio. La Capilla Real de Granada. Granada: Albaicin/ Sadea: 1968.

pAntorbA, Bernardino de. Imagineros españoles: estudio histórico y crítico. Madrid: Blass, 1952

peredA, Felipe. Las imágenes de la discordia: política y poética de la imagen sagrada en la España

del cuatrocientos. Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia, 2007

proske, Beatrice Gilman. Castilian Sculpture: Gothic to Renaissance. New York: Hispanic

Society of America, 1951.

quesAdA, Francesc Ruiz. La pintura gótica hispanof lamenca: Bartolomé Bermejo y su época,

Barcelona, Bilbao: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2003.

redondo cAnterA, María José, ed. El modelo italiano en las artes plásticas de la península

Ibérica durante el renacimiento. Valladolid: Secretaria de Publicaciones e Intercambio

Editorial Universidad de Valladolid, 2004

redondo cAnterA, María José. El sepulcro en España el el Siglo XVI: tipología e iconografía.

Madrid: Centro Nacional de Informacion y Documentacion de Patrimonio Histórico,

1987.

redondo cAnterA, María José. “El sepulcro de Sixto IV y su inf luencia en la

escultura del Renacimiento en España.” Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y

Arqueología:BSAA. Tomo 52. (1986): 271-282.

redondo cAnterA, Maria Jose. Diego Siloe, autor del sepulcro de Antonio de Rojas.

río, Isabel de. El escultor Felipe Bigarny 1491-1542. Valladolid: Consejería de Educación y

Cultura, 2001


VI.

rosenthAl, Earl E. Diego Siloe: árquitecto de la Catedral de Granada. Granada: Universidad

de Granada: 1966.

sierrA delgAdo, Ricardo. Diego de Siloe y la nueva fábrica de la Sacristía Mayor de la Catedral

de Sevilla. Sevilla: Tecnographic, 2008.

sousA, R.W. “The View of the Artist in Francisco de Holanda’s ‘Dialogues’.” Luso-

Brazilian Review 15 (1978): 40-47

trusted, M. Spanish Sculpture: Catalogue of the post-medieval Spanish Sculpture in Wood,

Terracotta, Alabaster, Marble, Stone, Lead and Jet in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

London : Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996.

WAntoch, Hans. Spanien, das Land ohne Renaissance. Munchen: George Muller, 1927.

Wethey, H. E. Wethey, Harold E. “A Madonna and Child by Diego de Siloe.” Art Bulletin.

Xxii, (1940), 190-196

Wethey, H. E.. ‘The early works of Bartolome Ordoñez and Diego de Siloe.’ Art Bulletin.

xxv. (1943): 226-238.

yArzA luAces, Joaquín. Gil de Siloe. Madrid: Grupo 16, 1991.

yArzA luAces, Joaquín. Gil Siloe: El Retablo de la Concepción en la capilla del obispo Acuña.

Burgos: Catedral de Burgos, 2000.

zAlAmA rodríguez, Miguel Ángel. “Diego de Siloe y la torre de Santa María del

Campo.” Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, Tomo 56 (1990): 404-414.

zAlAmA rodríguez, Miguel Ángel. “Diego y Juan de Siloe: un dato para su biografía.”

Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología. Tomo 58. (1992): 375-377.

VII. Acknowledgements, 99The Sculpture of Diego Siloe | B. Bröcker

Acknowledgements

VII.

This massive undertaking would not have been possible over a period of six months without the help of various people:

My parents, Marcus and Jorien, gave me the possibility to take this urge for learning about the history of art to a new level. I am blessed.

Oma Ted, omdat je eigenlijk het beste wist hoe leuk het is ‘tussen kunst en kitsch.’

Marika Leino, a wonderful advisor and supporter of my idea from when it was just a search for somewhere I could use my Spanish, to what turned out to be a magical trip to Spain; and thank you for our last thesis advisory session sitting on a Georgian park bench;

Rebecca Lyons, for a bit of a writing reality check, and my new love for the words ‘Roman-ticism’ and ‘grotesque’;

Luis Marte, photographer extraordinaire and a great friend in Madrid;

Gonzalo García for the help f inding myself (and Diego) in Granada;

Mathilde, Jyah, and Claudia for helping me start my search in Paris;

Jan Lap for spotting little details and describing Church secrets;

Professors Noël Claro, Julia Dault, Dr. Lisa Pincus, Bob Seidman, Anna Akbari, Nixi Cura, and innumerable more who have believed in what I do even when I don’t know what I’m doing;

Natasha Taylor for her marvellous collection of books;

Tati and Nashe for helping me settle in London at the very beginning, Cristina for a daily dose of Spanish. Rachel for the food and the short sentences, Liz for the reality checks and the great break ideas, Ellen for the attentiveness, Katie for the giggles, Adria for the muffins and the smile, Yolanda for crepes and (Broecker, 2010), Lucas for geographical information, Elizabeth for the self-esteem boosts when I think I’m writing gibberish;

Countless sources of inspiration along the way;

My two special Skype proofreaders (you know who you are),

And the f inal product speaks for itself, I can’t believe it’s all here.

the sculpture of diego siloe

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