Born to be Glorified: Assumptionist Altarpieces in the Final Phase of the Spanish 'Reconquista' [1 ed.] 9042949708, 9789042949706

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Born to be Glorified Assumptionist Altarpieces in the Final Phase of the Spanish Reconquista Paul Vandenbroeck PEETERS

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

Born to be Glorified Assumptionist Altarpieces in the Final Phase of the Spanish Reconquista Paul Vandenbroeck

PEETERS LEUVEN – PARIS – BRISTOL, CT



Cover image: Hans Memling and workshop, –. Music making angels. Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, n° 

A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: ---- eISBN: ---- D/// No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage or retrieval devices or systems, without prior written permission from the publisher, except the quotation of brief passages for review purposes.

Table of Contents Foreword



I. Memling’s altarpiece for Santa María la Real in Nájera



The commission Memling’s altarpiece between  and  When was the altarpiece painted? II. The Somalo copy An immense relief sculpture in Logroño Somalo, ‘farm or priorate’ of Santa María la Real in Nájera The disastrous Desamortización III. The Virgin triumphant and her ministry of the Incarnation and Salvation in Castilian altarpieces c. 1480–1560 c. –: Monzón de Campos (Palencia) c. –: Torremuña de Cameros (Rioja) c. –: Tudela (Navarra) : Santa María del Paular de Rascafría (Madrid)  onwards: Gumiel de (H)izán (Aranda de Duero) -: Coimbra (Portugal) –: Bolea (Huesca) : Mayorga de Campos (Valladolid) : Toledo (Toledo) c. : Burgos (Burgos), San Gil c. –: Marañón (Navarra) c. –: Olano (Álava) c. : Trujillo (Cáceres) c. –: Valencia (Valencia) c. : Becerril de Campos (Palencia)

      

               

VI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

–: Seville (Sevilla) –: Palencia (Palencia) –?: Villaescusa de Haro (Cuenca) c. –: Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Rioja) c. –: Ezcaray (La Rioja) -: Lekeitio (Vizcaya) –: Dueñas (Palencia) –: Oviedo (Oviedo)  onwards: Ourense (Ourense)  onwards: Arceniega (Álava) : Llanes (Asturias) c. : Zeanuri (Vizcaya) –: Marchena (Sevilla) c.  onwards: Cañas (La Rioja) c. : Errentería (Guipúzcoa) –: Olivares de Duero (Valladolid) –: Markina-Xemein (Vizcaya) c. : Burgos (Burgos) c. : Elexalde-Galdakao (Vizcaya) : Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Rioja) –: Portugalete (Vizcaya) c. : La Puebla de Arganzón (Álava) : Toro (Zamora) c. –: Pajares de la Lampreana (Zamora) –: Sangüesa (Navarra) c. : Armañanzas (Navarra) c. : Albelda de Iregua (La Rioja) c. : Oñate (Navarra) c. : Becerril de Campos (Palencia) c. : Padrones de Bureba (Burgos) ff.: Ziortza (Vizcaya) : Sonsierra (Álava) –: El Grañón (La Rioja) ?–: Arriola (Álava) c. : El Villar (Álava) : Ribera de Valderejo (Álava)

                                   

VII

BO RN TO BE GLO RIFIED

–: Alberite (La Rioja) c. –: Logroño (La Rioja) ……and many others c. –: Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajóz) c. –: Cáceres (Extremadura) c. –: Medina Sidonia (Cádiz) –: Arroyo de la Luz (Cáceres) IV. The figure of the Virgin Mary between Christianity and Islam: Virgo triumphans The glorified body and bodily Assumption of Mary Mary/Maryam The Virgin Mary as epitome of spiritual enlightenment in Islam The ‘Hispano-Christian’ Virgin Incarnation, Passion and Salvation: Christology and Mariology in the Nájera altarpiece Conclusions Postscript Endnotes Bibliography List of illustrations

                 

Foreword The triumph and glorified body of the Virgin Mary as agent of the Incarnation and Salvation: the iconography of Memling’s Nájera altarpiece in the final phase of the Reconquista*

The altarpiece created for the principal altar of the church at the Abbey of Santa María la Real in Nájera was one of the most important Flemish works of art in fifteenth-century Spain. All that now remains of that work painted by Hans Memling (–) and his assistants are three monumental panels in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (KMSKA) in Antwerp, which the institution acquired from an art dealer in . Art historians have consistently focused on the three surviving panels, even though it has long been known that they were just part of an altarpiece that must have been gigantic. This essay only refers to the Antwerp panels

obliquely, as part of a complex whole, the rest of which has been lost. The central element of that huge work was a monumental Assumption of the Virgin. From around  onwards, the Assumption theme was the focus of many altarpieces in Spain, where its iconography was frequently conflated with that of the Coronation of the Virgin, the Woman of the Apocalypse (‘clothed with the sun and with the moon beneath her feet’) and the Immaculate Conception. The present study aims to shed light on what this extended Assumption theme entailed for late-fifteenth-century Spain and what made it so important.

* ILLUMINARE, KU Leuven. My heartfelt thanks to my colleague and dear friend Jan Van der Stock, director of Illuminare Research Center, whose magnanimity made this publication possible, to Ted Alkins, for his excellent translation and exceptional generosity, to dr. Julie Beckers (Illuminare) for her ceaseless editorial work and to dr. Wendy Wauters for the search for qualitative images. I am very grateful to my colleagues Maité Barrio Olano (Albayalde – Centro de Restauración, Donostia/ San Sebastián), Aintzane Erkizia and Jesús Múñiz Petralanda (Universidad del País Basco/ Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Bilbao) and Justin Kroesen (University of Bergen, Norway) who generously provided me with a great number of HR images of retables in Spain, without which any illustration of these important art works would have been impossible. I gratefully remember my professor J.K. Steppe (KU Leuven) (-) whose unforgettable teachings, i.a. about the cultural relationships between the Low Countries and the Iberian Peninsula, paved the way for this essay. I am also greatly indebted to my wife Pé Vermeersch and our daughter Marmer Montserrat for the many trips in the scorching midsummer heat of Andalucia, to study the works of Roque de Balduque (–).

2 I. MEMLING’S IN NÁJERA

PAUL VANDENBROECK

ALTARPIECE FOR

SANTA MARÍA

LA

REAL

The commission Until recently, the commissioning of the altarpiece and its early history remained a mystery. The panels include the painted arms of León (lion) and Castile (castle), with no further indication. Another coat of arms features a black lily on a golden field. There is no other iconographical element referring to a potential patron. The recent restauration of Memling’s panels at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (ill. --) brought the question of their origin firmly to the fore once again. Local Spanish scholars like José Luis Sáez Lerena and art historians such as Aurelio Barrón García had in fact already identified the key archival sources concerning Memling’s altarpiece, but this had gone unnoticed by

the international art-historical network. Sáez Lerena published a brief account of his findings in a local journal, La Voz del Najerilla, in . The Libro segundo de los censos, a microfilm of which is kept in Nájera, revealed that Gonzálo de Cabredo (? –   May ) commissioned Memling’s altarpiece some time before   July  and that his successor, Pablo Martínez de Uruñuela, had the work finished and installed on the high altar. Barrón García revealed (albeit briefly) in two scholarly publications – one devoted to late-Gothic silver and goldsmithery in Castile, the other to lateGothic vaults in La Rioja – that the original manuscript is located in the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid. The same author cited a seventeenth-century history of the Benedictine order in Spain, La soledad laureada (), which contains the following information regarding Don Pablo de Uruñuela (p. ): ‘In this way,

1. Hans Memling and workshop, 1483-1494. Music making angels. Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, n° 779.

2. Hans Memling and workshop, 1483-1494. Christ/God among singing angels. Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, n° 778.

3. Hans Memling and workshop, 1483-1494. Music making angels. Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, n° 780.

4

PAUL VANDENBROECK

he governed [the abbey] for several years; […] some memorable facts and achievements of his time: […] the high altarpiece, painted in honour of the Mystery of the Assumption of the Virgin, which is traditionally said to have been painted in Flanders’. (ill. ) At the invitation of Lizet Klaassen, head of the Antwerp museum’s conservation studio, Bart Fransen (Royal Institute for

4. Gregorio DE ARGAIZ, La soledad laureada, Madrid, Bernardo de Herbada, 1675, p. 386.

Cultural Heritage, Brussels) and his colleague Louise Longneaux have independently examined the question of the altarpiece’s patron, original destination and early history. Additional details can be found in their study of the original Libro segundo de los censos8 from Santa María la Real. It confirms that Gonzálo de Cabredo, prior mayor of the abbey from  to , commissioned the altarpiece in  and that Cabredo’s successor, Pablo Martínez de Uruñuela, had the work completed and installed in the choir of the church in , eleven years later. Uruñuela served as tesorero from , mayordomo from  to , prior claustral from  to  and prior mayor from  ( May) to . He was then appointed abbot in June  and remained in that post until his death in . The altarpiece was installed in , eleven years after its commission. The total price of the art work came to , maravedíes, of which Cabredo, who died on  May , had paid just ,. (Contrary to what some art historians have argued, this was not an extraordinarily high sum: other large altarpieces of the same period commanded similar or higher prices). Uruñuela set out to embellish his church in other ways too: he pursued the architectural completion of the choir, for instance, under the supervision of Sancho Sánchez de Villanueva and Juan Martínez de Cirueña, and funded the choir stalls, which Andrés and Nicolás Amutio finished in . For all the praise his vigorous abbacy has earned him in the literature, Uruñuela was a Machiavellian figure, who cultivated his personal power through a series of machinations, simony and downright falsehoods, even in his reports to the Holy See. His utter lack of scruples enabled him to secure his power, reward his allies with positions and stipends and, with the support

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

5

of Pope Alexander VI, to extricate Nájera from French (Cluniac) influence in . To achieve the latter goal, he departed for Rome on  June  and did not return to Nájera until June . As abbot, meanwhile, he resisted the ambition of the Catholic Kings to reform Santa María la Real. Uruñuela was buried in the Church of Saints Servandus and Germanus in the village for which he was named. His tomb, complete with gîsant, is located in a niche in the north wall. Having returned from Rome in June , he must have concentrated his energies on Memling’s altarpiece, the installation of which was completed two years later. Two centuries later, the work was dismantled again. Don Pedro Manrique III de Lara (–) – viceroy of Navarra and Duke of Nájera, who had been involved since  in the Catholic Kings’ military campaign to reconquer Granada – might also have contributed to the funding of Memling’s altarpiece. He had a funerary monument constructed for his son Manrique, who died in  – the precise moment that Memling’s altarpiece was being installed. Pedro’s own remains were added in , as well as those of several of his descendants in the course of the sixteenth century. Although numerous princes and nobles had tombs located within the abbey complex, his and those of certain of his relatives are the only ones located in the choir itself, next to the altarpiece – more specifically in the north wall of the choir. It was the same Don Pedro who, a few years later (), tried to acquire the Somalo estate, but was thwarted by the abbey.

choir to this day. Memling’s altarpiece must therefore have been dismantled by that date and its remnants stored in the abbey. The Libro segundo does indeed state that several panels from the original altarpiece had been placed in the cloister at the time of writing (i.e. final quarter of the eighteenth century). Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the famous Spanish statesman, author, philosopher, Enlightenment figure and restless traveller Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (–) visited La Rioja and Nájera. His journal records that he arrived in the latter on Monday  May :

Memling’s altarpiece between 1675 and 1795 According to La soledad laureada, the altarpiece was still in its original location in . A new Baroque altarpiece was then constructed in , which adorns the

‘We admired the panels of the old altarpiece standing in a corner of the chapter room. What a pity! They are astonishing! They appear to be by the same hand, the same also as that of the Assumption in the cloister, perhaps by

‘At the Abbey of Santa María. Received very attentively by the Abbot. We viewed the abbey. Everything is fatiguing for me. I will try to resume the visit later or tomorrow. The “lower cloister”, late-Gothic, with tracery in the upper third of the arches, in clearly defined ajour work, of very good taste. The upper cloister, good architecture, decorated with Ionic pilasters, clearly fluted. There [stands] an excellent painting of the Blessed Virgin, roughly life-sized, of the Assumption. It is from the German School, and might be by Albrecht [Dürer]. Everything is most beautiful: face, hands, robes, truly heavenly angels, frame; at the top, however, the sky is patchy, with very hard clouds that are out of keeping.’

Jovellanos continued his visit the following day, Tuesday   May : he inspected the archives, mentioning that the original documents had been hidden for fear of an imminent French incursion. He was nevertheless shown a becerro in four folio volumes, ‘containing the documents until the year ’ (que contienen las escrituras hasta el año 1500). Then:

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PAUL VANDENBROECK

Albrecht [= Dürer]. A God the Father, three choirs of angels, singing and making music; the holy martyrs Vitalis and Agricola; Saints Prudentius and Benedict; and two Apostles.’

The Nájera altarpiece must have been enormous: the surviving panels, representing Christ/God and the angels in heaven, were just one of at least three levels. The central panel measures  ×  cm and the lateral ones  ×  cm, to which the width of the frames needs to be added. With the original frames included, the three panels measure . ×  cm. A plan of the abbey church, drawn by Francisco de Odriozola in , shows the position of the altarpiece in the choir. It ran not quite the entire width of the east wall, which measures  feet across. The six saints must have occupied the lower level, as was customary in fifteenth and sixteenth-century Spanish altarpieces consisting of several vertical (calles) and horizontal registers (pisos or cuerpos). The ‘less important’ figures were placed in the lowest level with the holiest protagonists situated higher up. A brotherhood (hermandad or cofradía) devoted to Saints Vitalis, Agricola and Prudentius had been founded at the time of the commission and might have been involved in the commissioning of the altarpiece by contributing to the costs. Alternatively, images of these saints could have been chosen because of their ancient link with Nájera, where their relics were venerated (Vitalis and Agricola’s relics appear to have been papal gifts to the monastery’s founder). A fourth saint, Eugenia, whose relics were also kept and venerated in Nájera, was not included however. St Benedict’s presence is explained by the fact that Santa María la Real was a Benedictine foundation. The identity of the apostles remains unknown.

We do not know whether the six saints were depicted full length or as busts. If represented full length, three such panels will have been as wide as one of the altarpiece’s side panels in Antwerp. If represented as busts, they might have been part of the predella. Prof.  J.K. Steppe (–) reported documentary evidence that the Nájera altarpiece also comprised a predella and two relic shrines, but the documents in question were never published and their current whereabouts are unknown. Hence the disposition of the lower part of the altarpiece remains unclear: the six saints, the predella, the two relic shrines, the tabernacle, and possibly the ancient cult statue of the Virgin (venerated since the high Middle Ages in the crypt), could have been assimilated in a variety of ways. The central tier included the panel with the ‘life-size’ (according to Jovellanos) Assumption. The iconography of the panels to the left and right of the Assumption is not known – perhaps these elements had already been lost by the time Jovellanos described the remnants of the altarpiece. The panels might have depicted other scenes from the Life of the Virgin, such as the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple or the Annunciation (as in the Assumption altarpiece in the Church of San Gil in Burgos, for instance, or in Ourense: see further in this study). It is less likely that saints would have been accorded a similar status to the Virgin, although this did occur in the Coimbra altarpiece on the same theme. The topmost level represented Heaven (Christ/ God and angels). In addition to three choirs of angels, Jovellanos refers to a ‘Padre Eterno’, though it is not clear whether he was alluding to the figure of Christ/ God in the central panel of the upper tier or to a different image of God the Father that might have crowned the altarpiece as a whole. Christ wears the tiara

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

– iconographically an attribute of the Father and a symbol of spiritual governance – and holds the globe, representing worldly power. It was commonly held that no mortal could see the Father, only the Son. God also appears as the Son in Jan van Eyck’s Mystical Lamb, yet he is identified there with the words Hic est Deus – ‘This one is God’. Memling followed this tradition (ill. ). God is surrounded by singing and music-making angels as part of a long-standing tradition of visualizing paradise with ‘heavenly’ music as the highest, ethereal expression of beauty. The angels play a psaltery, tromba marina, lute, tenor trumpet, oboe (no.  ), straight and sliding trumpets, portative organ, harp and viol (no. ): instruments considered ‘eminent’ in the fifteenth century. The angels in the marvellous Fountain of Life by a follower of Jan van Eyck (c. –) similarly play the viol, portative organ, tromba marina, psaltery, harp and lute. Historical musicology falls beyond our area of expertise and so these aspects will not be explored in greater detail here. It should be noted that several of the musical instruments are made in the ‘Hispano-Moresque’ manner and are depicted with great precision. The artist must have seen them in person to have been able to paint the instruments so faithfully. When was the altarpiece painted? Dendrochronological examination performed on behalf of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp shows that the three existing panels could have been painted from around  onwards. This does not mean that they actually were, however: the seasoning time might have been longer – especially for the large panels – so that execution during Uruñuela’s priorship (–) or abbacy ( onwards) is equally possible.

7

Given that Memling died in Bruges on   August , he is unlikely to have been directly involved in – let alone present at – the inauguration of the altarpiece. The three Antwerp panels undeniably display Memling’s style, although we cannot comment on the majority of the paintings, now lost. It is highly implausible that he executed the huge altarpiece on his own: several collaborators must have been involved. Fransen and Longneaux have rightly noted that the relatively small sum paid by Cabredo cannot have been intended to cover significant progress in the realization of the altarpiece, but will instead have been an advance on the price of the completed work. II. THE SOMALO

COPY

The Cathedral of Santa María la Redonda in Logroño has an immense relief sculpture on the theme of the Assumption (ill. ). The monumental figure of the Virgin, her eyes downcast and her hands clasped in prayer, is accompanied by six angels while two more hold a crown above her head. Mary’s face is too wide and plump, however, to be truly ‘Memlingesque’. The composition is similar to an Assumption by Michiel Sittow from around  (in which the Virgin likewise stands on an inverted crescent moon), to corresponding images in a triptych by Ambrosius Benson, c.  and – to a somewhat lesser extent – to one by the Master of the Legend of St Lucy, c. –. The new frame is inscribed in Latin (most probably repeating the original text): ‘Sing to the Lord a new song. Mary is taken up into heaven. The angels rejoice, joyfully they bless the Lord. Rejoice, for she reigns with Christ forever.’ Mary is thus also ‘Queen of Heaven’, where she rules alongside her Son.

5. Hans Memling and workshop, 1483-1494. Christ/God among singing angels : the figure of Christ. Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, n° 778.

6. Anonymous hispano-flamenco sculptor, c. 1494ff. Assumption (from Somalo). Logroño, Catedral Santa María la Redonda.

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Jovellanos had visited Somalo towards the end of the eighteenth century and he too was struck by an odd similarity. On Thursday   May , he viewed ‘the farm or priorate of this convent’ (quinta o priorato de este Monasterio). ‘In the chapel I saw an Assumption, an exact copy of the Flemish panel in the room [of the convent]. But it is sculpted in half relief, and excellently done’. This is the huge sculptural work now in the Santa María la Redonda Cathedral in Logroño. Local travel guides repeatedly claim that this enormous relief once formed part of Memling’s work and some authorities likewise argued during the restoration of the Antwerp panels that the piece in Somalo was the lost central element of the Nájera altarpiece. Other comparable altarpieces do indeed exist in which the central element was carved and the others painted: examples include the high altarpiece at Santo Domingo de la Calzada and the one in Alanís on the western border of Seville province. Another is the altarpiece at San Lorenzo in Toro, executed by Fernando Gallego and other artists. What’s more, this has wide, flat frames (like those of Memling’s panels) with Gothic tracery. In other words, a carved central scene within an otherwise painted altarpiece was entirely possible in late-fifteenthcentury Spain. Somalo is located near to Nájera and it was considered highly unlikely that the abbey at the latter would have installed two virtually identical – and no doubt extremely costly – altarpieces, one painted, the other carved, a few short kilometres apart. This was, nevertheless, actually the case. Jovellanos saw both during his visit : Memling’s Assumption ánd the Somalo sculptural version, which rules out the possibility that the Somalo relief was once the center of the Nájera retable. Somalo was not a religious centre nor indeed an impor-

tant place at all, but a fertile rural estate running to  hectares, which belonged to the abbey and supplied it with food. In that sense, therefore, it did have an exceptionally significant role to play. According to the historical vecindarios of Logroño province, which Govantes studied in the early nineteenth century, only twelve people lived in Somalo in the sixteenth century. It is already mentioned in the Privilegio grande (), when King García Sánchez III granted the land to the abbey he founded there. The property was also used, Jovellanos reported, as a country retreat or a place for the monks’ ‘recreation’. Diego Martínez de Somalo served as the mayordomo of Santa María la Real from  to  and as the subprior from  to ; he came from Somalo and so might have been responsible for the production of the monumental relief for that location during his subpriorate. Given that the monks’ recreation took place four times a year, the Somalo relief, which served as the chapel’s altarpiece, offered them the same religious imagery and a sense of being home at the abbey. The artistic and real estate holdings of the (then) Somalo site came into the possession during the Desamortización () of the merchant, soldier and senator () León García Villarreal (Brieva de Cameros, La Rioja,  February –Madrid,  November ), who eagerly bought up church property during this period. (His rudimentary education, resolve and devious political and economic calculation would have made him the perfect model, incidentally, for Calogero Sedàra in Giuseppe Tommasi de Lampedusa’s Il Gattopardo.) The Desamortización consisted of the state-ordered disposal of ecclesiastical real estate that had been the inalienable property of religious institutions for centuries and as such prohibited from sale (mortmain). The

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

reversal of that prohibition was prompted by the physiocratic and liberal ideas of the Enlightenment and was put into practice during waves of anticlerical and liberal politics in nineteenth-century Spain. Jovellanos, who had discovered Memling’s panels in Nájera and the sculpture in Somalo and who paid considerable attention to local artistic heritage in his travel journals (simply diaries, in fact), helped propagate these political ideas in Spain. He was the author, for instance, of the Informe de la ley agraria and the Tratado de la regalía de la amortización, and contributed in this way to the destruction and dispersal of countless works of art in his country. The process had, in theory, begun earlier, but it was only put into practice during the Trienio Liberal (‘Liberal Triennium’, –). King Ferdinand VII halted the sales, but they were resumed on a huge scale after his death by Mendízabal () and Espartero (). The Desamortización meant that countless goods were purchased – often for ridiculously low prices – by unscrupulous citizens, including in La Rioja. When Fernando VII succeeded to the throne in , García Villarreal was briefly deprived of the property he had purchased. But following Fernando’s death, they were restored to him under the decree of  September . He went on to acquire several other estates in La Rioja – in Nájera, Badarán, Azofra, Alesanco and San Millán de la Cogolla. In , he also purchased an altarpiece by Gillis Coignet, which he installed in the chapel at Somalo (transferred to Logroño Cathedral on  March ). For reasons that are unclear or have been forgotten, he ordered several interventions, including the destruction of Uruñuela’s burial place. After Villarreal’s death, the properties in La Rioja passed to his son, Eusebio García Villarreal (one of the leading magnates of Rioja Media, who took up residence

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at the Somalo estate, which belonged at that point to the municipality of Torremontalvo) and subsequently to the latter’s heirs, the Ruiz de Azcárraga family. When the family died out in turn, the goods were split between the Museo de la Rioja, the Concatedral Santa María la Redonda (Logroño), another family, and the Foundation of Our Lady of Valvanera (the famous shrine where a Black Virgin is venerated). The Somalo property was placed under the supervision of the Salesian Fathers in , following which it was used for youth gatherings and retreats. The estate was taken over by the municipality of Uruñuela in . The sculpture of the Assumption was installed in the church at Logroño in  and was restored around . The reliefs had been mounted in a dosel – the original altarpiece case complete with frame – but all this was discarded. III. The Virgin triumphant and her ministry of the Incarnation and Salvation in Castilian altarpieces c. 1480–1560 The saints in the lower tier of the Nájera altarpiece had to be present because of their link with the town, where their relics were venerated or their rule (Benedict’s) was followed. The core theme, however, is the Triumph of the Virgin as principal agent of the Incarnation and Salvation. Memling’s work was one of the earliest of dozens of important, iconographically complex and monumental altarpieces in Spain (c.  –), of which the Assumption and the Triumph of the Virgin form the central theme. The subject is plainly linked to Spanish religious sensibility and political evolution in that era (the concluding phase of the Reconquista). More than sixty artistically important and mostly gigantic altarpieces with similar content were created in these

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decades. At this point we ought to mention a number of Spanish panel paintings with the same theme: – An Assumption by the so-called Maestro de las Once Mil Virgenes, active in Segovia c. – (Madrid, Museo del Prado)(ill. ); – An Assumption by the Hispano-Flemish master Diego de la Cruz, active in Burgos between  and ) (Madrid, Museo del Prado) (ill. ); – An Assumption by Pedro Berruguete (Oviedo, Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias), in which the Virgin is also the bride from the Song of Songs (a banderole above her reads: Veni amica mea…), the Apocalyptic Woman, ‘clad with the sun and with the moon at her feet…’, attended by eight angels, the upper pair of whom crown the Virgin; at the top, God the Father, with the tiara on his head and long, silvery hair, making a gesture of benediction with his right hand and holding the globe of the universe in his left hand (ill. ). These panels, which date from the final decades of the fifteenth century and to which others could be added, most likely formed part of larger altarpieces. The altarpiece from Ontiñena (Huesca), painted by Blasco de Grañen around  and burned by the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War (), was a partial precursor of the thematic complex studied here. In ascending order, the work’s central axis presented the enthroned Virgin and Child surrounded by music-making angels; Christ receiving and crowning Mary in heaven; and Calvary. The Assumption itself was not included at this point. The banco or predella contained six scenes from the Passion, from the Last Supper (i.e. the institution of the Eucharist) to the Road to Calvary; eighteen other panels depicted scenes from the Life of Mary.

7. ‘Maestro de las Once Mil Virgenes’, c. 1490. Assumption. Madrid, Museo del Prado, n° P001328.

At the risk of being a rather dry read, this chapter describes each of the altarpieces in question, since even the best photographs rarely reveal the iconography of these complex and astounding works of art in full. Their dazzling detail and staggering decorative surrounds quickly lead the gaze astray and induce a dream-like state in the viewer. – c. 1480–90: Monzón de Campos (Palencia) The relatively small Monzón de Campos altarpiece is one of the earliest examples of the Virgin Triumphant iconography. Below, we read an inscription : O mater

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

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8. Diego de la Cruz, 1492. Assumption. Madrid, Museo del Prado, n° 2515.

9. Pedro Berruguete, c. 1495. Assumption. Oviedo, Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias.

Dei. Memento mei. Este retablo mandó hacer el Señor Sancho de Rojas (‘Oh Mother of God, remember me. This retable has been made by order of the Lord Sancho de Rojas’). The central group of carved figures (ascribed by a number of art historians to Alejo de Vahía) is, however, badly damaged: an elegant, standing Virgin and Child surrounded by a few remains of sunbeams and with two small angels at the top. The sculpture represents Mary as the Woman of the Apocalypse (sun and moon)/Immaculate Conception, and/or Assumption (the angels). The four principal scenes surrounding this central group are, in the upper register: Annunciation

left and Visitation right; in the register below: Nativity left and Adoration of the Magi right. The predella incorporates a tabernacle (centre, surrounded entirely by refined late-Gothic openwork tracery, resembling threedimensional lace), with two saints on the left and the Lamentation and St Anne with the Virgin and Child on the right. The central axis features the Eucharist and the Triumph of the Virgin as agent of the Incarnation and Salvation (ill. ).

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10. Alejo de Vahía (?) and others, c. 1480-90. Retable of the Assumption. Monzón de Campos (Palencia), Iglesia Parroquial El Salvador.

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

– c. 1480–90: Torremuña de Cameros (Rioja)49 The remains of the magnificent altarpiece from Santa María la Blanca in what is now a deserted village are kept at the Museo de la Rioja (Palacio de Espartero) in Logroño. The work consists of three horizontal registers, each with seven vertical registers. The ensemble was reframed in  in the Renaissance style, at which point several scenes were replaced with new paintings and the sequence of the panels was undoubtedly disrupted. In the middle, in ascending order: a statue of the Virgin Mary as Woman of the Apocalypse on the crescent moon (Immaculate Conception); a carved Assumption group; and a painting () of the Holy Trinity, topped by a sculpture of a bearded God the Father. Nine painted scenes appear on both the left and the right. Since the theft of three panels in , the altarpiece has been reassembled and placed in the Museo de la Rioja. The original order of the scenes has not been preserved. The eighteen panels represented (in chronological order): Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate; Joachim and Anna; Joachim and the Angel; Birth of the Virgin; Mary in the Temple; Wedding of Mary and Joseph; Annunciation; Visitation; Nativity; Epiphany; Prophecy of Zachariah; Circumcision; Flight into Egypt; Jesus among the Doctors; Dormition; Coronation of the Virgin; and two scenes unrelated to the Virgin: the Transfiguration of Christ, and Noli me tangere. Although the scenes are no longer in their original order, it is clear once again that the figure of the Virgin Mary, her triumph and her Glorification are inextricably linked with the mystery of the Incarnation and Salvation (ill. -). – c. 1487–94: Tudela (Navarra) The Tudela altarpiece by Pedro Díaz de Oviedo (active c. –) and Diego del Águila was commissioned

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by the Cabildo of Tudela. The work follows the traditional pattern of five horizontal registers or cuerpos (there are actually six, but the one at the top is made up entirely of abstract gablets) and a corresponding number of vertical registers or calles (ill. ). The central axis is taken up at the bottom by the Man of Sorrows (Passion/ Salvation), followed by the Assumption of the Virgin accompanied by six angels and crowned with an enormous Gothic gablet. A remarkable proportion of altarpieces with this thematic material is given over, incidentally, to ‘decorative’ structures of this kind. The background behind the gablets at the top is sky blue and evokes heavenly spheres. The carved Assumption group is a Baroque replacement of an original late-Gothic group on the same theme which was often also Coronation of the Virgin. The sub-predella (sotobanco) contains portraits of St Peter (far left) and St Paul (far right) and the twelve Apostles. The predella – with the Man of Sorrows at its centre – is devoted to the Passion, the upper registers to the Life of the Virgin. From left to right, the upper register shows the Birth of the Virgin, the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, the Annunciation, and the Visitation. The latter scene comprises a mystical-devotional complex: in Elizabeth’s womb we see the unborn John the Baptist, as if in X-ray, kneeling before the Christ Child in Mary’s womb, appearing here in Eucharistic guise as a sun with curling rays. In the register below this: Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Massacre of the Innocents, Flight into Egypt. In the next register down: Purification in the Temple, Christ among the Doctors, incident with Jephonias at Mary’s funeral, and an idiosyncatic rendering of Mary’s arrival in heaven. The Virgin is awaited in heaven in the latter scene by angels and God in the guise of Christ as in Memling’s altarpiece. Predella:

11. Anonymous masters, c. 1480–90. Retable of the Assumption (From Santa María la Blanca, Torremuña de Cameros). Logroño (La Rioja), Museo de la Rioja (Palacio de Espartero).

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

12. Anonymous masters, c. 1480–90. Retable of the Assumption. Original situation in Torremuña de Cameros, Santa María la Blanca.

Pilate washing his hands, the Mater Dolorosa (with Christ in the Garden of Olives in the background), Mary Magdalene (with the Road to Calvary in the background) and the Flagellation of Christ. Once again, Mary’s crucial role as agent of the Incarnation and Salvation is central, as is her triumph in the lost central Assumption Coronation group. Her role is also prefigured by the prophets and Old Testament figures in the narrow vertical registers on the far left and right and, at the very top, in the guardapolvos or dust-guards.

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– 1490: Santa María del Paular de Rascafría (Madrid) A large main altarpiece in polychrome alabaster has been executed in the Hispano-Flemish style in the circle of Simón de Colonia, Gil de Siloé or Juan Guas. The work consists of five registers and is the result of years of work by several different workshops (ill. -). The lowest register, directly above the altar, contains a relief of the Assumption flanked by two passageways (now bricked up to form niches). Mary is entirely surrounded by angels who bear her up to heaven; they play musical instruments, like their counterparts in Memling’s paradise. It is clear from the clouds that the scene is not taking place on the earth. The second tier features six scenes from the Life of the Virgin: Mary’s Presentation in the Temple, Annunciation, Visitation, Prophecy of Simeon, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi. The third and fourth registers in ascending order are devoted to the Life and Passion of Christ and are topped by Christ in Limbo and the Resurrection. Mary is literally and metaphorically the basis of both the Incarnation and Salvation. Unlike most representations of the Assumption in the period in question, the Virgin is also shown carrying the Christ Child, so that she resembles the Woman of the Apocalypse (Revelation, :-) and the Immaculate Conception. – 1493 onwards: Gumiel de (H)izán (Aranda de Duero) The high altar (ill. ) of the Iglesia de la Asunción in Gumiel de Izán – a village that prospered in the fifteenth century from the wool trade – is the work of a master of the Burgos School around . The inclusion of the arms of Alonso Ulloa Fonseca y Quijada (–), bishop of Osma from  to , suggests that he was

13. Pedro Díaz de Oviedo (active c. 1487–1510) and others, c. 1487–94. Retable of the Assumption. Tudela (Navarra), Cathedral.

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

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14. Anonymous Hispano-Flemish masters, c. 1490. High altar. Santa María del Paular de Rascafría (Madrid), Cartuja.

the initial patron. Those of his successor, Alonso Enríquez (–), meanwhile, tell us that the immense work was completed under his patronage. The altarpiece comprises five horizontal and five vertical registers, with a central axis that perfectly matches the Nájera scheme (ill. -). In ascending order: a much older (thirteenth-century) cult statue of the Virgin and Child, the Birth of the Virgin, the Assumption (in which the Virgin is surrounded by six angels)(ill. ), the Coronation of the Virgin; at the very top, a triumphal Crucifixion group.

The Virgin is flanked in the bottom level by the Four Evangelists, whose writings are the foundation of Christian doctrine. At the top, from left to right: Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple, Prophecy of Simeon. To the left and right of the Assumption: Christ among the Doctors, Last Supper, Judas Kiss, Road to Calvary. On either side of the Nativity: Crucifixion, Lamentation, Entombment, Resurrection. In other words, the scenes to the left and the right are supposed to be read from upper left to lower right and narrate the Childhood

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15. Anonymous Hispano-Flemish masters, c. 1490. Retable, detail : Assumption of the Virgin. Santa María del Paular de Rascafría (Madrid), Cartuja.

and Passion of Jesus. The Calvary scene is repeated on a large scale by the triumphal group at the very top. The idea of Mary’s role in the Incarnation and Salvation is once again expressed at the centre, from her Birth to her Glorification by the Holy Trinity. – 1498–1509: Coimbra (Portugal) The Flemish sculptors Oliveiro de Gante and João d’Ypres (Olivier van Gent and Jan van Ieper respectively) created the gigantic high altar in Coimbra

Cathedral between  and . It is another colossal construction measuring about fifteen metres in height and is devoted once again to the Virgin Mary (ill. ). Unlike most other fifteenth and sixteenth-century Spanish altarpieces, this one is not divided strictly into horizontal and vertical registers but is decorated by a profusion of tracery and ornamentation. The central part is taken up by an immense Assumption, with four large saints’ figures, two on either side (ill. ). Here too, Mary is accompanied by six angels, although the

16. Anonymous masters of the Burgos school, 1493–1505. Retable of the Assumption. Gumiel de Izán (Burgos), Iglesia de la Asunción.

17. Anonymous masters of the Burgos school, 1493–1505. Retable of the Assumption. Upper part of the altarpiece. Gumiel de Izán (Burgos), Iglesia de la Asunción.

18. Anonymous masters of the Burgos school, 1493–1505. Retable of the Assumption. Central part. Gumiel de Izán (Burgos), Iglesia de la Asunción.

19. Anonymous masters of the Burgos school, 1493–1505. Retable of the Assumption Detail : Assumption. Gumiel de Izán (Burgos), Iglesia de la Asunción.

20. Oliveiro de Gante and João d’Ypres, 1498–1509. Retable of the Assumption. Coimbra (Portugal), Cathedral.

21. Oliveiro de Gante and João d’Ypres, 1498–1509. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Coimbra (Portugal), Cathedral.

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presentation in this case is rendered ‘historical’ and almost anecdotal by the teeming group of Apostles who look on from below. Beneath the central group we see the Nativity and Resurrection – the beginning and the end of the Incarnation – together with the Four Evangelists, representing the core Christian narrative. Mary is once again allotted the leading role here in the story of the Incarnation. – 1494–1504: Bolea (Huesca) One of the largest, most important and also most beautiful altarpieces on the theme of Mary’s triumph is the one executed between  and  for the Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor in Bolea (ill. ). The twenty paintings by the unidentified ‘Master of Bolea’ blend Spanish, Flemish and Italian stylistic trends in a unique manner, with the altarpiece completed by over fifty sculptures. The central carving is the work of the sculptor Gil de Brabante (Gillis van Brabant): A Virgin Mary with long, golden hair and her hands clasped as if in prayer, rises up to heaven accompanied by six white-clad angels, the two highest of which blow wind instruments. Two other angels hold the crescent moon beneath her feet, while the gold background represents the light of the sun. Four Old Testament prophets with banderoles flank the Virgin, as if manifesting the eternal decree of her essence and role in the history of the Salvation. She is the Immaculate Conception. A refined late-Gothic baldachin is suspended over her head, below a circular window containing a square (the squaring of the circle?), behind which a textile relic is visible, and higher still the Crucifixion as a triumphal group. This serves to crown the central axis, at the bottom of which there is an exceptional tabernacle with subtle tracery. Eucharist – Immaculate Conception/Assumption – Passion.

– 1498: Mayorga de Campos (Valladolid) This altarpiece, which originally came from the Church of Santa María de Ambás in Mayorga, consists of seven vertical and five horizontal registers and is a masterpiece of the Hispano-Flemish painter known as the Master of Palanquinos (active in León between around  and ) (ill. ). The lowest of the rows with painted panels is given over to the Apostles, arranged in six pairs. From left to right in the second register: Massacre of the Innocents, Flight into Egypt, Dormition, Assumption, Coronation of the Virgin and the Virgin in Paradise. Above this: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Circumcision, Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple. In the uppermost register: Joachim Expelled from the Temple, Annunciation to Joachim, Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate, Birth of the Virgin, Presentation of Mary in the Temple and the Wedding of Joseph and Mary. It is noteworthy that the central vertical register consists of two large spaces, each topped with a huge baldachin with Gothic openwork tracery. The lower of these contains a late-Gothic Virgin and Child sculpture and the upper one a much older cult statue from the thirteenth century (ill. ). These sculptures are set before an extremely interesting painted background: a gigantic ‘omega’ against a red ground at the bottom and a ‘mandorla’ or almond at the top. Both ‘forms’ show two archaic little trees and tendril decoration. The superposition of two cult statues is unusual, while the omega is a fundamental motif that evokes matrixial, life-creating forces (ill. ). The mandorla is the sign of death and resurrection/eternal life. We do not know whether this is the original arrangement. The Assumption and Coronation are already represented in two of the panels, which would make the duplication of one of the themes in the central axis a little odd, although not impossible in principle.

22. ‘Maestro de Bolea’ (painter) and Gil de Brabante (sculptor), c. 1494–1504. Retable of the Assumption. Bolea (Huesca), Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor.

23. Master of Palanquinos (active c. 1470–1500), c. 1498. Retable of the Assumption. (From Santa María de Arbás). Mayorga de Campos (Valladolid), Iglesia del Salvador.

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

24. Master of Palanquinos (active c. 1470–1500), c. 1498. Retable of the Assumption. (From Santa María de Arbás). Detail : Virgin and Child, c. 1320. Mayorga de Campos (Valladolid), Iglesia del Salvador.

25. Master of Palanquinos (active c. 1470– 1500), c. 1498. Retable of the Assumption. (From Santa María de Arbás). Detail : central axis. Mayorga de Campos (Valladolid), Iglesia del Salvador.

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– 1498: Toledo (Toledo) This masterpiece of the Spanish late-Gothic (– ) was commissioned by Cardinal Cisneros and subsequently by Archbishop Mendoza from a group of artists including Pedro Gumiel, Enrique Egas, Sebastián de Almonacid, Juan de Borgoña, Copín de Holanda and Peti Jean (ill. ). It perfectly embodies the unified Marian and Eucharistic devotion promoted by Isabella the Catholic. The central axis contains, in ascending order: a thirteenth-century Sedes sapientiae flanked by two large and six small angels; a ‘eucharistic tower’ surrounded by six angels with the Instruments of the Passion and with five prophets at the front; Mary, Joseph and three angels worshipping the Infant Christ (the Incarnation); the Assumption of the Virgin as Woman of the Apocalypse supported by six angels (ill. ); the triumphal Crucifixion group. The old cult statue at the lowest level is flanked by introductory scenes from the Passion: Last Supper, Washing of the Feet, Christ in the Garden of Olives (and a scene with Cisneros). The ‘tower monstrance’ is surrounded by four scenes relating to the Incarnation and Childhood of Christ: the Annunciation on the left and the Epiphany on the right (both with angels), and above these the Presentation in the Temple on the left and the Massacre of the Innocents on the right. Other reliefs feature themes from the Passion to the Ascension: bottom left the Flagellation; above it the Ecce Homo and above this the Road to Calvary with St Veronica (the ‘True Face’); to the latter’s right, the Descent from the Cross/Lamentation. The reading on the other side runs from top to bottom: to the right of the Assumption: Resurrection; and in the right vertical register, in descending order: Ascension, Pentecost, Last

27. Pedro Gumiel, Enrique Egas, Sebastián de Almonacid, Juan de Borgoña, Copín de Holanda, Peti Jean, and other masters, c. 1487–1504. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Toledo (Toledo), Cathedral.

Judgement. There are countless statuettes of saints spread across the entire altarpiece, with larger figures of prophets in the niches of the final, narrow vertical registers on either side. The central axis is dominated by Mary as conditio sine qua non of the Incarnation, Passion, Eucharist and Redemption – from the history of Salvation to the Last Judgement. The Eucharistic relevance of the Marian altarpiece is also evidenced visually by the strong resemblance between the ‘tower monstrance’ in the middle and the monumental Sacrament Tower or sagrario.

26. Pedro Gumiel, Enrique Egas, Sebastián de Almonacid, Juan de Borgoña, Copín de Holanda, Peti Jean, and other masters, c. 1487–1504. Retable of the Assumption. Toledo (Toledo), Cathedral.

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– c. 1495: Burgos (Burgos), San Gil A niche altarpiece, enclosed at the top by an ogee arch, was installed in the chapel of La Buena Mañana in the Church of San Gil in Burgos towards the end of the fifteenth century (ill. ). It is attributed to Gil de Siloé. The location served as the funerary chapel of the merchants García Martínez de Mazuelo and Alonso de Lerma Polanco. The altarpiece comprises three horizontal and three vertical registers. In the central axis, at predella level: Christ’s Vera Icon; above, a seated Virgin with the Child

28. Gil de Siloé ( ?), c. 1495. Retable in the funerary chapel of García Martínez de Mazuelo and Alonso de Lerma Polanco. Burgos (Burgos), Iglesia de San Gil, Capilla de la Buena Mañana.

in her lap (the Virgen de la Buena Mañana); at the top, the Assumption of the Virgin (ill. ), surrounded by six angels. Left and right: large sculptures of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel and the Apostles Peter and Paul; smaller figures also in the niches of the frame, prophets and saints. In the predella: the Four Evangelists as the textual foundation of Christianity. Once again, therefore, we find the Triumph of the Virgin Mary as agent of the Salvation and the Mother of God, appearing in the guise of the True Face. – c. 1495–1505: Marañón (Navarra) The tiny village of Marañón lies in the valley of Santa Cruz de Campezo; its church, dedicated to the Assumption, has a mutilated late-fifteenth-century altarpiece, the iconography of which is entirely devoted to the Triumph of the Virgin and her role in the Salvation (ill. ). The central axis consists of the tabernacle, with two angels surrounding the (lost) painting or relief on the front. It is flanked by Saints Peter and Paul, the other Apostles being depicted in groups of five on the predella. Above the tabernacle is a magnificent Isabeline sculpture of the Virgin and Child enthroned, surmounted by an Assumption accompanied as usual by six angels, two of whom crown her (ill. ). The Virgin, standing on the crescent moon, is the Woman of the Apocalypse and suggests the Immaculate Conception. The compartment at the top displays a magnificent Calvary scene. The left and right vertical registers comprise six panel paintings by a master from the circle of Pedro Díaz de Oviedo: first horizontal register: Nativity and Epiphany; second: Annunciation and Visitation; upper register: Lamentation and Resurrection. Incarnation, Passion, Redemption and the glorified (Assumption,

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

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29. Gil de Siloé ( ?), c. 1495. Retable in the funerary chapel of García Martínez de Mazuelo and Alonso de Lerma Polanco. Detail : Assumption. Burgos (Burgos), Iglesia de San Gil, Capilla de la Buena Mañana.

Resurrection) and the divine body (Eucharist) summarize the essential moments in the Salvation. – c. 1500–05: Olano (Álava) This altarpiece from the Church of San Bartolomé was exhibited at the Catedral Nueva in Vitoria/Gasteiz, Álava, a few years ago after undergoing fifteen years of restoration (ill. ). Although it was dedicated to St Bartholomew, the church’s patron saint, he nevertheless had to play second fiddle to the Virgin.

The predella at the bottom contains the Apostles and, in the middle, the tabernacle with a relief of the Pantocrator giving his blessing. The first tier and the right half of the second are given over to a large sculpture of Bartholomew and six painted scenes from his life. The left half of the second tier and the whole of the third are reserved for the Virgin Mary: six panels with the Meeting at the Golden Gate, Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Massacre of the Innocents and Flight into Egypt. The principal scene at the top is

30. Master from the circle of Pedro Díaz de Oviedo, and other masters, c. 1495–1505. Retable of the Assumption. Marañón (Navarra), Iglesia de la Asunción.

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

31. Master from the circle of Pedro Díaz de Oviedo, and other masters, c. 1495–1505. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Marañón (Navarra), Iglesia de la Asunción.

a carved group with the Assumption of the Virgin, her hands clasped in prayer, her eyes downcast, and raised up by six angels (ill. ). Mary is being crowned and above her crown is an ornament in Gothic openwork tracery that is repeated numerous times. Above the Assumption: Calvary, flanked by four female virgin martyrs. Besides the vita of the church’s patron saint, the altarpiece is devoted once again to the role of Mary, the Incarnation and Passion (and hence Salvation) and her Glorification and Coronation.

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– c. 1500: Trujillo (Cáceres) The late-Gothic main altarpiece in the Church of Santa María, decorated with refined tracery, has undergone several later interventions: a Baroque crowning element and the renewal of the three lowest segments of the central vertical register (ill. ). The latter axis contains, in ascending order, a classicizing tabernacle and a large niche opening onto a Baroque camarín (still with its original baldachin). This holds a carved Assumption group by Modesto Pastor (), which replaced a painting of the same theme from  (this covered the niche and seven of the original paintings)(ill. ). A Romanesque Sedes – possibly brought by the Christian knights who recaptured Trujillo in  – probably stood at the bottom of the altarpiece, below a long-lost representation of the Assumption. Above this a Coronation of the Virgin by Christ/God, surrounded by four prophets with scrolling texts and two angels holding up a majestic baldachin. The twenty-four original paintings depict: in the far left and right vertical registers, the Four Evangelists and two Doctors of the Church (Ambrose with the Eucharist and Augustine with the City of God); the predella features three scenes from the Passion on the left and three scenes with the Glorified Christ, dressed in a red cloak, on the right: Descent into Limbo, Resurrection and Ascension. The two main vertical registers offer extensive depictions of the Life of the Virgin in twelve images that should be read in an S-pattern from lower left to upper right: Meeting of Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate, Birth of Mary, Wedding of Mary and Joseph, Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Circumcision, Flight into Egypt, Christ among the Doctors, Dormition and Mary borne aloft by angels above the tomb. Unusually, the Virgin is clad throughout in a bright white cloak rather than blue as is so often the case.

32. Anonymous masters, c. 1500–05. Retable of the Assumption. Olano (Álava), Iglesia de San Bartolomé.

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33. Anonymous masters, c. 1500–05. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Olano (Álava), Iglesia de San Bartolomé.

– c. 1496–1508: Valencia (Valencia) The unique, marvellous altarpiece from the Convento de la Puridad does not include a large Assumption scene of the kind found in the other altarpieces discussed here, but it ought still to be mentioned (ill. ). Strictly speaking, the subject is the Immaculate Conception – that much-loved expression in Spain of the Mother of God’s cosmic importance. The centre of the altar takes the form of an immense carved mandorla with a triple, concentric frame, filled with angels (the three angelic hierarchies). The mandorla is none other than the ‘nameless motif’ known from female weaving but also from Christian iconography and even – and on countless occasions – in the so-called ‘decorative’ (but nevertheless highly meaningful) arts (ill. ). Above this mandorla, we see a painting of the Dormition, and on top of the altarpiece, a smaller painting with the Holy Trinity crowning the risen Virgin, clad in white (ill. ). The predella is taken up by six paintings of the Childhood of Jesus and the Glorified Christ: left, Annuncia-

tion, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi; right, Noli me tangere, Ascension, Pentecost (scenes with the Glorified Christ and Holy Spirit). – c. 1500: Becerril de Campos (Palencia) The patrimony of the Iglesia de Santa María (desanctified in  and now used as a museum) included the main altarpiece Nuestra Señora de la Antigua, with eight paintings by Pedro Berruguete (–) and others by the Master of Becerril (ill. ). The work has survived in a fragmented state. Along the central axis we see a painted Lamentation (only the upper half still exists); a grand but empty niche with a wonderful abstract painting (reminiscent of certain Berber rugs from the Rehamna Tribal Confederation, Morocco!), which undoubtedly served as the background for a sculpture, most likely the saint to whom the church was dedicated; a Sedes sapientiae; and, at the top, a painted panel with the Assumption of the Virgin. The predella depicts four Old Testament kings and prophets (David,

34. Anonymous masters, c. 1500, with Baroque modifications. Retable of the Assumption. Trujillo (Cáceres), Cathedral.

35. Anonymous masters, c. 1500, with Baroque modifications. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : central part. Trujillo (Cáceres), Cathedral.

36. Anonymous masters, c. 1496–1508. Retable of the Inmaculate Conception. Valencia, Convento de la Puridad

37. Anonymous masters, c. 1496–1508. Retable of the Inmaculate Conception. Detail : the mandorla. Valencia, Convento de la Puridad

38. Anonymous masters, c. 1496–1508. Retable of the Inmaculate Conception. Detail : Dormition and Coronation of the Holy Virgin. Valencia, Convento de la Puridad.

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– 1500–60: Seville (Sevilla) Main altarpiece of the cathedral, the making of which took almost three quarters of a century (ill. ). Along its central axis, in ascending order: thirteenth-century sculpted Sedes sapientiae, Nativity, Assumption of the Virgin, Resurrection, Ascension. Separated by a cornice at the top: La quinta angustia or Lamentation. The figure of the Virgin as agent of the Incarnation, the Passion and the Glorification of both Mary and Christ (the Assumption/Ascension) form the axis of this gigantic altarpiece (the largest in the world) with its hundreds of scenes and figures.

39. Pedro Berruguete (1450–1502), the Master of Becerril, and other masters, c. 1500. Retable of the Assumption. Becerril de Campos (Palencia), Iglesia-Museo de Santa María.

Solomon, Ezekiel, Isaiah), and two angels, one on either side of the central Lamentation. The eight panels by Berruguete show scenes from the Life of the Virgin: Meeting at the Golden Gate, Birth of Mary, Presentation of Mary in the Temple, Annunciation, Wedding, Nativity, Epiphany, and Circumcision.

– 1505–09: Palencia (Palencia) This high altarpiece is an extremely unusual creation: it was made a lo romano by Felipe Vigarny (c. –) in the Renaissance style, whereas all the other altarpieces discussed here from the period – are entirely late-Gothic (ill. ). It is made up of six horizontal registers and nine to eleven vertical ones, partly carved, partly painted. The oversized Calvary that crowns the altarpiece seems very heavy relative to the corpus itself. The central axis, the width of which varies, contains, in ascending order: the tabernacle, an earlyseventeenth-century statue of St  Antolinus, a carved Assumption group and the Crucifixion. This sequence must have been altered at a later stage. It originally comprised, beginning at the bottom once again: Lamentation (La quinta angustia), Assumption with seven angels (ill. -), and Christ on a cloud (que ha de venir asentado en una nuve, according to the contract with Vigarny) who awaits Mary in heaven. Once again, Mariological and Christological themes are unified. The superposition of the Assumption and Christ/God in heaven matches what we find in Memling’s

40. Various masters, c. 1490–1560. Retablo mayor. Sevilla, Cathedral.

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42. Pedro de Guadalupe, Juan de Flandes, Felipe Vigarny, and other masters, c. 1504– 1609. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Palencia (Palencia), Cathedral.

41. Pedro de Guadalupe, Juan de Flandes, Felipe Vigarny, and other masters, c. 1504–1609. Retable of the Assumption. Palencia (Palencia), Cathedral.

43. Pedro de Guadalupe, Juan de Flandes, Felipe Vigarny, and other masters, c. 1504– 1609. Retable of the Assumption. Deatil : the Holy Virgin. Palencia (Palencia), Cathedral.

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

altarpiece. In addition to dozens of free-standing figures and busts, there are two principal cycles: the Passion through to the Resurrection, Descent into Limbo and Noli me tangere; and the Marian cycle with the Annunciation and Visitation on the left, and the Nativity and Adoration of the Magi on the right. All four of the latter scenes are related to the Incarnation. The glorified body of the Virgin appears in the Assumption, and that of Jesus in several painted scenes, with its true, mystical guise manifested in the Eucharist. – 1505–09: Villaescusa de Haro (Cuenca) This grandiose altarpiece is installed in the Chapel of the Assumption, for which it was originally produced (ill. ). The work was commissioned by Don Diego

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Ramírez de Villaescusa (–), a theologian educated at Salamanca University. His first position was that of canon in Jaén and he then became dean of the cathedral in Granada. The Catholic Kings later appointed him as their spiritual counsellor and as personal confessor of Doña Juana I de Castilla. One of his first tasks in this capacity was to accompany Princess Joanna to Flanders, where she was to marry Philip the Handsome (). Ramírez returned to the Low Countries two years later as ambassador to congratulate the couple on the birth of their daughter. In that same year of , he was appointed bishop of Astorga and in  bishop of Málaga. The altarpiece has five horizontal and five vertical registers and a predella. Numerous statues representing

44. Anonymous masters, c. 1505–09. Retable of the Assumption. Villaescusa de Haro (Cuenca), Iglesia de San Pedro, Capilla de la Asunción.

45. Anonymous masters, c. 1505–09. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Dormition. Villaescusa de Haro (Cuenca), Iglesia de San Pedro, Capilla de la Asunción.

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

figures from the ‘genealogy of Christ’ feature between the vertical registers. The ensemble resembles the ones by Gumiel de Hizán and Ourense that are discussed here. Although the contract for the work has yet to be traced, art historians agree that it ought to be dated to around – and situated in the circle of Felipe de Vigarny. The central axis is dominated by two monumental scenes: at the bottom, the Dormition with the Apostles around Mary’s bed (ill. ) , and above it the Assumption. The crowned Virgin, her hands once again clasped as if in prayer, is borne up to heaven by eight angels; a lone putto, consisting solely of a winged head, hovers between the crescent moon and Mary’s feet. Four tiers with large reliefs surround the central scenes. In ascending order and from left to right: (first tier): Birth of the Virgin, Presentation of Mary in the Temple, Wedding of Joseph and Mary, Annunciation; (second tier): Visitation, Nativity, Circumcision, Adoration of the Magi; (third tier): Christ among the Doctors, Wedding at Cana (a theme with a Eucharistic dimension in the shape of the wine); (at the very top): the Resurrected Christ appearing to His Mother, Pentecost. Christ/God giving his blessing, appears above the cornice, as in Memling’s altarpiece, accompanied by two angels. – c. 1510–20: Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Rioja) The Capilla de Santa Teresa in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada is home to a monumental altarpiece of the Virgen de la Leche, the principal theme of which is the Assumption (ill. ). It is a gigantic lateGothic creation running to three vertical registers and seven horizontal ones. The predella houses the tabernacle (no longer present) and paintings of the Four Evangelists. The central axis is formed by three monu-

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mental sculpture groups: in ascending order, the Virgin suckling the Child (Galaktotrophousa) – a work by Felipe Vigarny – the Assumption (ill. ) and Calvary. The Assumption group presents the Virgin as Woman of the Apocalypse, ‘clothed with the sun and with the moon beneath her feet’. Each of the three central compositions corresponds with two tiers of the vertical registers on either side. To the left and right of the Crucifixion, we see eight scenes from the Childhood of Christ, from the Annunciation to Christ among the Doctors. On either side of the Assumption, eight panels with scenes from the Passion, from the Garden of Olives to the Resurrection. The Madonna, lastly has four paintings on either side devoted to the Glorified Christ: Ascension, Pentecost, Christ in heaven crowning his Mother, and the Incredulity of Thomas; below this, four sculptures of saints. Here too, physical motherhood, the Incarnation, Passion and Glorification of both Mary and Jesus are presented as a single complex. – c. 1505–10: Ezcaray (La Rioja) There is another magnificent example of this altarpiece type in Ezcaray. This one consists of three, four and five horizonal registers and five (seven in the predella) vertical ones (ill. ). The central axis contains five crucial scenes: in ascending order: the tabernacle (sheltering the Host, i.e. the unbloodied, ‘sublimated’ presence of the sacrifice of Christ); an older Sedes sapientiae (the Basque Andra Mari) flanked by sculptures of St  Peter and St  Paul); the Assumption of the Virgin, crowned and surrounded by six angels; the Lamentation; and the Crucifixion. Together, they narrate the story of Salvation, with the bloody sacrifice followed by grief (human despair), the Incarnation (Andra Mari with the Child on

46. Felipe Vigarny and other masters, c. 1510–20. Retable of the Assumption. Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Cathedral, Capilla de Santa Teresa.

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

her lap) and the sublimated bodies of Christ (the Eucharist in the tabernacle) and Mary (her Assumption, Coronation and Glorification). The Annunciation theme is split in two: the angel Gabriel to the left of the tabernacle and Mary to the right. The most important scenes are, in descending order, on the left: Presentation in the Temple, Nativity and Epiphany; on the right: Wedding of Mary and Joseph, Circumcision and Flight into Egypt, all of which allude to the Incarnation and the Virgin’s essential role in the Salvation story.

47. Felipe Vigarny and other masters, c. 1510–20. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Cathedral, Capilla de Santa Teresa.

48. School of Felipe Vigarny and other masters, c. 1505–10. Retable of the Assumption. Ezcaray (La Rioja), Santa María la Mayor.

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– 1510–15: Lekeitio (Vizcaya) Basque ports like Lequeitio (Lekeitio in the Basque language) flourished in the late Middle Ages as entrepots and trading centres for merchants operating between the Spanish interior and Northwest Europe. Between  and , Juan García de Crisal produced one of the largest altarpieces in Spain for the town’s parish church. Measuring . m in height and . m in width, it has four levels on its vertical axis (five including the triumphal cross group at the top – a late-Baroque work that possibly reprises an original sculptural group). The altarpiece is arranged into five wide vertical registers with sculptural groups and four narrower ones containing individual sculptures (ill. -). The central axis is occupied by the Dormition (predella), an earlier cult statue of the Andra Mari (Basque term for a Sedes sapientiae, meaning ‘Lady Mary’) of c. , crowned by a huge tabernacle in Gothic tracery (first and second tier), and by a monumental Assumption (third and fourth tier) (ill. ). Here too, the Virgin stands on a crescent moon and clasps her hands as if in prayer. Sunbeams gleam behind her and her hieratically serene gaze is fixed on a different reality. Six angels bear her upwards, while three others play music. A crown is suspended above Mary’s head. The other sculptural groups represent: top, Annunciation, Visitation, Descent from the Cross and Resurrection; middle, Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate, Birth of Mary, Presentation of Mary in the Temple and Wedding of Mary and Joseph; bottom, Annunciation to the Shepherds, Adoration of the Shepherds, Circumcision and Prophecy of Simeon. In the predella: Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Massacre of the Innocents, and Christ amongst the Doctors.

The niches of the narrow vertical registers and numerous small consoles feature dozens of statues of prophets, kings, Apostles and saints. At the very top, above the pointed Gothic arches, we see the personifications of Church and Synagogue, together with two holy warriors: Saints Michael and George, both raising their swords to defend Christendom. They are flanked by the sun and moon, while the guardapolvos or dust-guard is decorated with lots of shining stars; this is the cosmic background to the depicted events. The Lekeitio altarpiece amounts to a comprehensive Marian encyclopaedia visualizing the Virgin’s fundamental and indispensable role in the Incarnation and Salvation in all its aspects. She is simultaneously the Woman of the Apocalypse, ‘clothed with the sun and with the moon beneath her feet’, and the Immaculate Conception, ante saecula concepta. – 1511–18: Dueñas (Palencia) A certain ‘Master Antonio’ and Alonso de Ampudia created the unusual main altarpiece ( onwards) for the Church of Santa María de la Asunción in this small town to the south of Burgos. Executed in the style of a shrine, it is framed all the way around by a wide surround decorated with tendrils (ill. ). The altarpiece is arranged in the typical manner: a wide vertical axis with two other vertical registers and two narrower subdivisions (entrecalles) on either side. Here too, the story of the Salvation is foretold by eight prophets in the predella. The three main horizontal registers relate to both cycles: the Mariological and the Christological. The Nativity is flanked by the Annunciation, Visitation and Presentation in the Temple. Central register: Epiphany, Flight into Egypt and the Baptism of Christ. At the top,

49. Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c. 1510–15. Retable of the Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial.

50. Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c. 1510–15. Retable of the Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial.

51. Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c. 1510–15. Retable of the Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial.

52. Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c. 1510–15. Retable of the Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial.

53. Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c. 1510–15. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial.

54. ‘Master Antonio’ and Alonso de Ampudia, c. 1511–18. Retable of the Assumption. Dueñas (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa María de la Asunción.

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

on either side of the Calvary: Entry into Jerusalem, Christ in the Garden of Olives, Peter and Malchus, Flagellation. The central axis shows, in ascending order: Lamentation, Nativity, Assumption, Crucifixion. Once again, we find a fusion of Christological and Marian scenes, with the Assumption of the Virgin, crowned by a monumental baldachin, as the largest and most prominent episode. – 1511–17: Oviedo (Oviedo) This immense creation in one of Spain’s most important historical cathedrals, was commissioned by Bishop Valeriano Ordóñez de Villaquirán from the sculptor Giralte de Bruselas. The contract is dated   August . Giralte carried out the work between  and , assisted by other artists including Juan de Balsameda, Guillermo de Holanda (Willem van Holland) and Estebán de Amberes (Stefaan van Antwerpen). León Picardo polychromed the sculptures between  and  (ill. ). The altarpiece stands on a base measuring .  m across and is  m in height and . m in width (its actual width is  m, as the ensemble is articulated to follow the polygonal shape of the apse). Overall, it comprises five horizontal and five vertical registers (plus two narrow lateral ones); the central axis consists of larger scenes: at the bottom, Christ in Majesty (Maiestas Domini); in the middle, the Assumption; at the top, the Crucifixion. Four large cycles are represented: Christ’s Childhood, Ministry, Passion and Glorification. The predella alternates the Incarnation scenes (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi) with the Four Doctors of the Church and four saints. The lowest of the three main horizontal registers continues the Childhood of Christ with the Presentation in the Temple, Flight into Egypt, and Christ among

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the Doctors. The uppermost tier is devoted to the Glorification theme: Resurrection, Incredulity of Thomas, Ascension, Pentecost. Between the vertical registers, in niches: dozens of prophets, Kings of Israel and Apostles. While the altarpiece as a whole displays a Christological iconography, the Assumption of the Virgin, her physical and spiritual glorification, nevertheless provides the central scene: she is the axis of the Incarnation and Salvation. – 1515 onwards: Ourense (Ourense) A huge main altarpiece was funded in the s for this town in Galicia. The work, which narrowly escaped being destroyed and replaced in the nineteenth century, was executed by Cornielis de Holanda and his assistants (ill. ). The arrangement consists once again of five vertical and four horizontal registers, separated by immensely complex canopies and pedestals in lateGothic tracery. As usual, the vertical registers are separated by narrow subdivisions (entrecalles). The central scene is reserved on this occasion for St Martin, to whom the church was dedicated. Below it is the Lamentation (with two Passion scenes on either side) and above the Assumption of the apocalyptic Virgin-in-the-sun, borne up by four angels and crowned by two others. The two uppermost registers are purely Marian in terms of theme. Upper register, left to right: Birth of the Virgin, Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, Annunciation, Visitation; in the register below: Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Circumcision, Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and Dormition. The two other horizontal registers are Christological in character: from Christ among the Doctors to the Resurrection. Given that the most important scenes in Spanish late-Gothic altarpieces are customarily placed at the top, the Ourense altarpiece is essentially Marian.

55. Giralte de Bruselas, Juan de Balsameda, Guillermo de Holanda, Estebán de Amberes, León Picardo and other masters, c. 1511–17. Retable of the Assumption. Oviedo (Oviedo), Cathedral.

56. Cornielis de Holanda and other masters, c. 1515–20. Retable of the Assumption. Ourense (Ourense), Cathedral.

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– 1515 onwards: Arceniega (Álava) The Basque shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Encina (‘Our Lady of the Oak’) has an exceptional altarpiece (c. – ), in which the place of honour is once more occupied by the Assumption. It is configured as a triptych with five horizontal registers (ill. --). The lowest of these shows the Last Supper with two scenes from the Passion: left, Arrest of Christ and right, Flagellation. The large scene at the centre is the Madonna of the Oak, crowned and surrounded by angels, with worshippers seeking refuge under the tree. The scenes flanking this central presentation are spread over two horizonal

57. Anonymous masters, c. 1515–20. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina.

registers, with the Epiphany and Circumcision/Presentation in the Temple on the left, and the Massacre of the Innocents and Flight into Egypt on the lower of these levels. The higher register shows the Wedding of Mary and Joseph and the Annunciation on the left, and the Visitation and Nativity on the right. Above the Madonna of the Oak, we see the Assumption (ill. --), with the Annunciation to Joachim and the Meeting of Anne and Joachim on the left, and the Birth of the Virgin and her Presentation in the Temple on the right. The topmost register has a Crucifixion in the middle, with the Road to Calvary on the left and the Lamentation on the right. Once again, Christological and Marian themes are fused: the childhood of Mary with that of Jesus, and the Glorification of the Virgin with the Passion. Apostles and several prophets and saints are also present. – 1517: Llanes (Asturias) An exceptional early-Renaissance altarpiece belongs to the basilica of Santa María del Concejo in the small town of Llanes. According to the chronicle of Laurent Vital, who accompanied Charles V on his visit to Spain in , the sculptor responsible for the work was a native of Saint-Omer in Flanders (now France), who lived at the time with his family in Burgos (ill. ). The altarpiece comprises four horizontal and three vertical registers, the latter separated by four narrower, intermediate entrecalles containing twelve niches with statues of saints. The vertical axis is made up, in ascending order, of the tabernacle, a magnificent Sedes sapientiae, a monumental Assumption and the Crucifixion. The predella incorporates the Four Evangelists and two saints with the tabernacle at the centre. The painted wings comprise, from bottom to top, left: Nativity,

58. Anonymous masters, c. 1515–20. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina.

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59. Anonymous masters, c. 1515–20. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina.

Annunciation, and Dormition; and right: Epiphany, Visitation, and Coronation of the Virgin by the Holy Trinity. The Mariological and Christological iconography are fully interwoven in the Llanes altarpiece. The Triumph of the Virgin is situated between Calvary and Eucharist, and her Dormition is paired with her Coronation by the Trinity.

– c. 1520: Zeanuri (Vizcaya) The high altar of the parish church dates from around  (paintings) and  (predella sculptures); the structure was renewed in . It is an immense work running to seven vertical and five horizontal registers (ill. ). The outermost vertical registers feature the Apostles on the left (i.e. the heraldic right) and a

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61. Anonymous masters, c. 1515–20. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Detail : the Holy Virgin. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina.

60. Anonymous masters, c. 1515–20. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Detail : Assumption. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina.

62. Anonymous masters, c. 1515–20. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina.

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63. Anonymous Flemish masters, 1517. Retable of the Assumption. Llanes (Asturias), Santa María del Concejo.

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64. Anonymous masters, c. 1520. Retable of the Assumption. Zeanuri (Vizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial.

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corresponding number of female saints on the right (heraldic left), in a rare example of ‘gender equality’. The programme of the late-Gothic paintings is entirely Mariological: from her conception (Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate) to her Assumption. The central axis depicts, in ascending order: Annunciation, Virgin and Child (sculpture), Assumption and Calvary. As Mary rises up to heaven, she stands on an inverted crescent moon and is crowned by angels. The five paintings on the left depict, also in ascending order: Golden Gate, Wedding of Mary and Joseph, Adoration of the Magi, Flight into Egypt, Christ among the Doctors. On the right: Circumcision, Nativity, Presentation in the Temple, Visitation and Massacre of the Innocents (the sequence of several paintings might have been altered in ). – 1521–33: Marchena (Sevilla) One of the most elegant and luminous late-Gothic altarpieces is the one at the main altar of the Church of St  John the Baptist in Marchena, a small town in the Serranía Este of Sevilla (ill. ). Its composition follows the common type: predella (banco), three horizontal registers (cuerpos) and five vertical ones (calles), with a narrower vertical register on the outer left and right. A profusion of delicate late-Gothic tracery and elaborate baldachins, protected by a magnificent dust-guard (guardapolvos), gives the altarpiece the air of a huge piece of golden lacework. The paintings are attributed to Alejo Fernández and the sculptures to Jorge Alemán. The predella contains a number of angels, the Head of St John, a tabernacle (centre), the Mystic Lamb and four coats of arms (including those of Casa de Arcos and Fray Diego de Deza). The lower of the main horizontal registers features reliefs of the Annunciation, Visitation,

65. Alejo Fernández, Jorge Alemán, and other masters, 1521–33. Retable of the Assumption. Marchena (Sevilla), Iglesia de San Juan.

Nativity of Christ (centre), Epiphany and the Massacre of the Innocents. The panel paintings on the second tier show the Sermon of St John the Baptist, Circumcision, Flight into Egypt, and Baptism of Christ, while in the third we see the Wedding at Cana, Transfiguration, Temptation of Christ and Beheading of St John. There is a statue of the Baptist in the middle of the second register (the church was dedicated to him). The work as a whole is surmounted by a magnificent Assumption. Unlike most altarpieces of the ‘Assumptionist’ type, there is no Calvary. Once again, this altarpiece combines the Incarnation (numerous scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Childhood of Christ) with the Glorification of the Virgin.

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– c. 1523 onwards: Cañas (La Rioja) The high altar of the church belonging to the Cistercian abbey of the Holy Virgin in Cañas was adorned until  by a magnificent altarpiece commissioned by Abbess Leonor de Osorio, who held that position from  until her death in . She was also responsible for the commission in  of a huge armario in which to keep the church’s relics. The altarpiece – the work of the sculptor Guillén de Holanda and the painter Andrés de Melgar – follows the now-familiar scheme: five horizontal and three main and four intermediate vertical registers (ill. ). An almost complete ChristoMariological iconography is developed. The predella features a scene from the Passion on either side of the tabernacle (Last Supper, representing the institution of the Eucharist, and the Flagellation) and a number of Apostles. Above the tabernacle, in ascending order: a fourteenth-century cult statue of the Sedes sapientiae; the Epiphany (i.e. the revelation of the Christ Child to the Magi and hence to the world); the Assumption of the Virgin (surrounded by six angels, as customary for this iconographical type) and the Crucifixion. The axis of the altarpiece is formed by the Virgin’s motherhood, the Epiphany and Passion of Christ and the manifestation of the Virgin’s Wisdom (Sedes) and Glorification of the Virgin. Two further ‘epiphanies’ are represented below: to the left, the Mass of St Gregory (i.e. the manifestation of the bodily presence of Christ in the Host) and the appearance of Mary and the Christ Child to Sister Leonor, supported by St Bernard. The lateral registers show several scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Childhood of Christ: to the left, Annunciation, Meeting of Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate, Dormition; to the right, Visitation, Flight into Egypt, Birth of the Virgin. The upper tier has

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four ‘displays’ of the suffering body of Christ or a saint imitating Christ’s suffering. From left to right: Ecce Homo; St  Jerome doing penitence; the ‘Trinitarian Pietà’ (God the Father holding and presenting the wounded body of Jesus, with the dove of the Holy Spirit between them); and the Deposition. The Cañas altarpiece is one of the most comprehensive expositions of the ‘Assumptionist’ Glorification of the Virgin, linked to the story of Salvation. – c. 1528: Errentería (Guipúzcoa) The Church of the Assumption in the Basque town of Rentería has a rectangular altarpiece of an unusual type, which was made in Brussels, possibly in the Borman workshop (ill. ). The Assumption theme is linked, on the left, to the miracle of Pentecost (the Apostles, gathered around Mary, receive the Holy Spirit) and on the right to the Last Supper, representing the institution of the Eucharist. The Assumption simultaneously forms the Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity, attended by a large number of angels, in a single composition. A connection is drawn between Mary’s heavenly glory and the Eucharist, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and the highest mystery – the Holy Trinity – through which the Virgin was ‘immaculately conceived’. – 1525–30: Olivares de Duero (Valladolid) This modest little village (approx.  residents) boasts an enormous early-Renaissance main altarpiece in the Church of St  Pelagius (ill. ). The central vertical register is occupied by the monumental figure of the church’s patron saint (bottom), an Assumption (middle) and a Calvary group (top), flanked by two groups of angels with the Instruments of the Passion. ‘Pelayo’ or Pelagius was a young Christian martyr (Córdoba,  CE)

66. Guillén de Holanda, Andrés de Melgar, and other masters, c. 1523. Retable of the Assumption. Cañas (La Rioja), Museo de Santa María de Cañas.

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67. Anonymous Brussels masters, c. 1528. Retable of the Assumption. Errentería (Guipúzcoa), Iglesia de Santa María.

during the rule of Caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III, who is also depicted lying at the saint’s feet, morally vanquished. Mary, with long golden hair, rises up to heaven praying and supported by six angels, the crescent moon beneath her feet and the sun at her back; in other words, she is simultaneously the Woman of the Apocalypse and the Immaculate Conception.

The paintings present three major cycles: bottom, the Martyrdom of St Pelagius (six scenes); middle, the Marian cycle (six scenes, from Annunciation to Coronation); top, the Passion (also six scenes). The ensemble further includes a comprehensive encyclopaedia of separate figures: twenty-nine ancestors of Christ (Joseph’s line), beginning with Nahshon; prophets and sibyls; the

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68. Anonymous masters, c.1525–30. Retable of the Assumption. Olivares de Duero (Valladolid), Iglesia de San Pelayo.

twelve Apostles; the Four Doctors of the Church; and several saints. The sub-predella contains, left to right: the prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, Solomon, David, the Sibyl (Veniet desuper filius dei) and Daniel; the group is flanked by two Doctors of the Church. The superposition of St Pelagius and the Virgin Mary seems odd. Pelagius was martyred at the hands of Muslims, while Mary (whom Muslims also held in special

regard) made possible the Incarnation. This in turn paved the way to the Crucifixion (the physical reality of which was not accepted by Islam) and hence the Salvation (likewise rejected by Islam, which considered Jesus a prophet but not the Son of God). In this way, the central vertical axis proclaims the victory and necessity of the Christian faith, as supposedly proclaimed by the Old Testament prophets and the ancient Sibyl.

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– 1526–45: Markina-Xemein (Vizcaya) The main altarpiece of the Iglesia de la Asunción was executed over an extended period (–) by the sculptors Juan Martínez de Ayala I, Diego Ruiz (?) and Jean de Beaugrant (ill. -). It consists of three vertical registers (with four narrower, intermediate ones containing twenty-four carved evangelists, Apostles and saints figures) and six horizontal registers. In ascending order along the central axis: tabernacle, Virgin and Child Enthroned, Lamentation, Assumption, Calvary. Once again, we find Marian and Christological themes placed along a single line. As she is borne up to heaven, Mary is simultaneously the Woman of the Apocalypse, ‘clothed with the sun and with the moon beneath her feet’, and the Immaculate Conception, crowned by angels. Main vertical register on the left, top to bottom: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity; on the right: Presentation in the Temple, Epiphany, Circumcision. The two lowest levels feature scenes from the Passion together, oddly enough, with the Presentation of the Temple once again (carved in this instance). – c. 1529: Burgos (Burgos) This remarkable niche altarpiece from the Church of San Gil – more specifically the Capilla de la Natividad de María – is both late-Gothic and Plateresque in style (ill. -). Executed entirely in sculpture on behalf of Juan de Castro and his wife Inés de Lerma, it combines Mariological and Eucharistic themes. Central axis, in

69. Juan Martínez de Ayala I, Diego Ruiz (?), Jean de Beaugrant, and other masters, c. 1526–1545. Retable of the Assumption. Markina-Xemein (Vizcaya), Iglesia de la Asunción.

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70. Juan Martínez de Ayala I, Diego Ruiz (?), Jean de Beaugrant, and other masters, c. 1526–1545. Retable of the Assumption. MarkinaXemein (Vizcaya), Iglesia de la Asunción.

71. Anonymous masters, c. 1529. Retable of the Assumption. Burgos (Burgos), Iglesia de San Gil, Capilla de la Natividad de María.

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Meeting of Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate (i.e. Mary’s historical conception). On either side of the Wedding: two pairs of saints. The lateral bays in the two upper registers represent: the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, Annunciation, Visitation and Nativity. Yet again, the Life of the Virgin, the Incarnation, the Salvation (Eucharist) and the Glorification of Mary are interwoven in a single whole.

72. Anonymous masters, c. 1529. Retable of the Assumption. Iconographical schema. Burgos (Burgos), Iglesia de San Gil, Capilla de la Natividad de María.

ascending order: Mass of St Gregory (alluding to the bodily presence of Christ/God in the Eucharist), Wedding of Mary and Joseph, Dormition and Assumption. Mary is accompanied in the latter scene by eight angels as she stands on the crescent moon, identifying her as the Woman of the Apocalypse. On either side of the Mass of St  Gregory: Annunciation to Joachim and

– c. 1530: Elexalde-Galdakao (Vizcaya) The altarpiece in the parish church at Galdakao is fairly primitive in execution yet still fascinating (ill. ). Its structure differs from the average, with two lower horizontal registers that are wider than the section above. A very high predella contains three enormous niches; the central one houses a twelfth-century Sedes sapientiae, while the two outer ones are empty (now at least). Six scenes from the Passion appear on either side of the old cult sculpture. There is a second predella above this with the Twelve Apostles and Christ in the middle. Central axis, ascending order: the tabernacle with the Resurrection, the Romanesque Sedes, Christ, an enthroned and crowned Virgin and Child, the Assumption with six angels (again with the crown above Mary’s head) and the Crucifixion. Three Marian and three Christological scenes are set out here in a single line. The Romanesque cult statue, a contemporary and less hieratic version of it, and the Glorification of Mary during her Assumption on the one hand; and the Glorified Christ of the Resurrection, his ‘ordinary’ guise, and the suffering Christ of the Crucifixion on the other. The beginning of humankind and the need for Salvation are set out to the left and right of the Calvary: Adam and Eve at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the Fall.

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73. Anonymous masters, c. 1530. Retable of the Assumption. Elexalde-Galdakao (Vizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial.

The twelve paintings on either side of the central axis are all Marian. They are not arranged chronologically but in an apparently random order. Left: Annunciation, Visitation (i.e. the Magnificat), Flight into Egypt, Christ in

the Temple, Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds. Right: Annunciation to Joachim, Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate, Massacre of the Innocents, Miracle at Cana, Epiphany and the Presentation in the Temple.

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The five topmost registers are ‘framed’ on either side by monumental gilded scallop shells as symbols of the matrixial power of life, death and rebirth and a reference to the pilgrimage to Compostela. – 1532: Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Rioja) The altarpiece that Damian Forment created for the high altar of this church was a highly progressive one for the time, complete with some very unusual iconographical features. The piece comprises three main vertical registers, four subdivisions (entrecalles) between them and one more on either side forming a frame (ill. ). The five horizontal levels comprise a sub-predella (sotabanco), predella (banco) and three main registers (cuerpos). The narrow vertical registers are occupied by the figures of numerous saints. Three scenes from the Passion feature in the predella: Road to Calvary (left), Flagellation (right) and Lamentation (centre). The Passion returns thematically in the free-standing images at the top of the altarpiece: angels with the Arma Christi. To the left and right of this are more than life-size sculptures of Adam and Eve, embodying the historical necessity for the Salvation. The three main vertical registers unite the Marian and Christological themes in a unique manner. Left, in descending order: Annunciation, Adoration of the Shepherds, Adoration of the Magi; right: Circumcision/ Presentation in the Temple, Resurrection, Pentecost. Central axis, in ascending order: the Glorified Christ as Pantocrator, giving his blessing while holding a globe with a cross in his left hand and worshipped by angel musicians (entirely in the manner of Memling’s panels); Assumption of the Virgin borne up by eight angels; and, beneath a baldachin as a symbol of majesty and surrounded by four angels, a huge mandorla with projections/rays and containing a monstrance with an aureole of its own (ill. ). The ‘nameless motif’ – the matrixial

symbol of birth, rebirth and the creative force – is thus rendered present in a dual manner. – 1533–55: Portugalete (Vizcaya) The Renaissance main altarpiece in the Iglesia de Santa María was made by the Southern Netherlandish sculptor Guiot de Beaugrant, his brother Jean and Juan de Ayala II. It consists of three vertical registers (with four subdivisions or entrecalles between them containing twenty statues of saints) and five horizontal levels (ill. ). Central axis, in ascending order: Andra Mari (‘Lady Mary’, Basque type of the Romanesque or Gothic Sedes sapientiae, c. ), Annunciation, Assumption (later replaced by a Baroque sculpture), and the Trinity with the matrixial ‘nameless motif’ of creative power. The bottommost and topmost registers feature four scenes from the Passion cycle: Washing of the Feet, Last Supper (bottom) and Road to Calvary and Lamentation (top). The six scenes between them are, from left to right and bottom to top: Visitation, Nativity, Epiphany, Presentation in the Temple, Flight into Egypt, Christ among the Doctors. – c. 1535: La Puebla de Arganzón (Álava) The Church of Santa María de la Asunción in this humble village southwest of Vitoria/Gasteiz has an immense main altarpiece dedicated to the Assumption. Entirely sculpted in the early-Renaissance style, it consists of six horizontal registers surmounted by a huge Calvary group, and eleven vertical registers (ill. ). Central axis, in ascending order: tabernacle; lateRomanesque/early Gothic Sedes sapientiae; Madonna and Child from the time of the altarpiece; and an Assumption. The Virgin stands on the crescent moon and is hence also the Woman of the Apocalypse. She is guided heavenwards by six angels. Six scenes from the Life of the Virgin are represented to the left and right. In

74. Damian Forment and other masters, c. 1532. Retable of the Assumption. Santo Domingo de la Calzada (La Rioja), Cathedral.

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75. Damian Forment and other masters, c. 1532. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption and the mandorla with the Eucharist. Santo Domingo de la Calzada (La Rioja), Cathedral.

76. Guiot de Beaugrant, Jean de Beaugrant, Juan de Ayala II, and other masters, c. 1533–55. Retable of the Assumption. Portugalete (Vizcaya), Iglesia de Santa María.

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77. Anonymous masters, c. 1535. Retable of the Assumption. La Puebla de Arganzón (Álava), Santa María de la Asunción.

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the wide bays, on the far left, from top to bottom: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity; to the right of this: Birth of the Virgin, Presentation of Mary in the Temple, Circumcision of Christ; to the right of the central bay: Wedding of Mary and Joseph, Dormition, Adoration of the Magi; far right, in ascending order: Flight into Egypt, Massacre of the Innocents, Christ among the Doctors. Angels, prophets and saints can be seen in the narrow subdivisions between the vertical registers and in dozens of niches. To the left and right of the old Sedes sapientiae: the Lamentation and the Entombment, which together with the gigantic Calvary scene at the very top form the Passion cycle. – 1535: Toro (Zamora) One of the altarpieces in the Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor in Toro is dedicated to the ‘Santos Juanes’ (John the Baptist and John the Evangelist). Although both saints feature prominently, the central scene is given over to the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, standing on a cloud and accompanied by six angels (ill. ). The upper register shows the Crucifixion flanked by the Nativity on the left and the Epiphany on the right. This altarpiece offers a summary, so to speak, of what the more important examples develop in greater depth. The work was commissioned by the heirs of the archbishop of Burgos, Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, for the chapel of the hospital he founded. The architectural elements were provided by the entallador Pedro Diez, while the eight panel paintings were done by Lorenzo de Ávila. Both these artists were from Toro itself. – c. 1530–40: Pajares de la Lampreana (Zamora) This altarpiece comes from a small and very remote village, where it originally adorned the high altar of the

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former parish church (now ermita) of Santa María del Templo (ill. ). It is remarkable that a rural hamlet was able to afford such a large and excellent work of art. Blas de Oña, an artist from Zamora, who was active until the s, was responsible for the altarpiece’s execution. The structure of the surround is earlyRenaissance and the work as a whole comprises three horizontal registers and seven vertical ones. The central axis is topped by an Assumption of the Virgin, below which are two relatively large niches, probably dating from the eighteenth century. The panels on either side – four in total – likewise suggest that the niches are not original, as a vertical piece has been sawn from each one, as can also be seen in the now incomplete compositions. The topmost niche is now empty and opens onto the camarín, while a later tabernacle has been installed in the lower one. A Romanesque statue of the Virgin of the Temple previously stood in the upper niche. It was enlarged for many years by the addition of a Baroque robe in the shape of a pyramid and by a crown with an aureole. The removal of those additions meant that the statue was too small for such an immense niche. The Romanesque Sedes sapientiae was probably located originally in the lower or middle segment of the central vertical register. A contemporary (i.e. seventeenthcentury) statue of Mary possibly stood in the central niche. This might appear odd, but a High Gothic and a sixteenth-century Virgin and Child are similarly superposed in the central axis of the altarpiece in La Puebla de Arganzón. The narrow, outermost bays show the Four Evangelists and Saints Barbara and Lucy. The other panels ought to be read from top left to bottom right: Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate, Birth of Mary, Presentation of Mary in the Temple, Wedding of Mary and

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78. Pedro Diez and Lorenzo de Ávila, c. 1535. Retable of the Assumption. Toro (Zamora), Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor.

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79. Blas de Oña and other masters, c. 1530–40. Retable of the Assumption. Pajares de la Lampreana (Zamora), Santa María del Templo.

Joseph, Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Circumcision, Epiphany (the two latter panels were once placed in reverse order), Flight into Egypt, Presentation in the Temple, Prophecy of Zachariah, Christ among the Doctors. In this example too, Mary’s triumph is inextricably linked with the Incarnation. – 1537–48: Sangüesa (Navarra) The retablo mayor of the Iglesia de Santa María la Real in Sangüesa is an iconographically unique creation (ill. ). All the scenes refer to the Virgin Mary (ill. ). The altarpiece was designed by Gabriel Joly but realized by several other masters, including Juan Pérez Vizcaíno. It has three horizontal and three vertical registers, with the exception of the lowest level, which has five bays. There is a predella decorated with grutescos, in the middle of which stands the tabernacle, topped by a

relatively small Crucifixion. The niche, which might originally have housed a lost sculpture, is flanked by ‘expressionist’ sculptures of the Four Evangelists – the founding communicators of the Christian faith. The sculptures in the lateral bays represent the Visitation and Annunciation, Epiphany and Nativity. A splendid cult statue of Our Lady of Rocamadour (France), dating from around , stands above the tabernacle. The largest niche at the top contains a Baroque Assumption group by Martín de Andrés of Pamplona (); the original sculpture is preserved in the church. – c. 1540: Armañanzas (Navarra) The predella contains reliefs of the Lamentation and Entombment on either side of the tabernacle, which is adorned with the figure of the Flagellated Christ at the Column, flanked by St  Peter and St  Paul. The

80. Gabriel Joly, Juan Pérez Vizcaíno, and other masters, 1537–48. Retable of the Assumption. Sangüesa (Navarra), Iglesia de Santa María la Real.

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81 Gabriel Joly, Juan Pérez Vizcaíno, and other masters, 1537–48. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Holy Virgin and the Child. Sangüesa (Navarra), Iglesia de Santa María la Real.

82. Anonymous masters, c. 1540. Retable of the Assumption. Armañanzas (Navarra), Iglesia Parroquial.

tabernacle originally had a second level, with sculpted images of the Pietà and two saints. The vertical axis of the altarpiece is devoted to the glorification of the Virgin and her role in the Incarnation: bottom, an earlier, majestic and crowned Sedes sapientiae (c. –) (temporarily replaced by an outsized statue of a saint); centre, a Virgin and Child enthroned, crowned by two angels, dating from the period of the altarpiece; top, the Assumption, with Mary assisted by six angels, two of which crown her. In this way, the idea of Mary as Queen of Heaven is expressed repeatedly (ill. ).

– c. 1540: Albelda de Iregua (La Rioja) The parish church, dedicated to St Martin, of this tiny village in La Rioja is home to an unusual altarpiece created by the Flemish sculptor ‘Maestro Anse’ in around  (ill. ). This ‘Master Hans’ was also responsible for the altarpieces in Alberite, Villa de Ocón and Nuestra Señora de la Paz in La Redonda, and his work displays an undeniable relationship with that of Guiot de Beaugrant. The Apostolado (cycle of the twelve Apostles) is shown in the predella. The altarpiece’s vertical axis comprises St Martin on his bishop’s throne; the Assump-

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83. ‘Maestro Anse’ and other masters, c. 1540. Retable of the Assumption. Albelda de Iregua (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Martín.

tion of the Virgin, surrounded by six putti and crushing the snake with her right foot (thus also identifying her as the Woman of the Apocalypse); and Calvary, with a prominent and unusual focus on Mary Magdalene at the foot of the Cross. The Assumption is flanked by the Annunciation and the Visitation. The Nativity appears to the left of the statue of St Martin and the Adoration

of the Magi to the right. The popular story of St Martin sharing his cloak with a beggar is shown below the Nativity, while the corresponding scene on the right shows a celebrant elevating the Host (i.e. the Eucharist) (St. Gregory’s Mass?). The lateral bays are surmounted by the personifications of a blindfolded Synagogue and the Church holding a book.

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– c. 1540: Oñate (Navarra) This key early-Renaissance altarpiece from the Basque country was commissioned for the Capilla de Sancto Spiritu by Rodrigo Mercado de Zuazola – counsellor to both Ferdinand of Aragón and Charles V and founder of the old University of Oñate. The author of the work was Pierre Picart, with two painters from Ávila – Jerónimo Rodríguez and Cristóbal Bustamante – polychroming the sculptures (ill. ). It is an immense creation with seven vertical registers and five horizontal ones. The central axis displays, in ascending order: St Michael (the chapel’s patron), the Last Supper, the Assumption, the donor’s coat of arms, and God the Father. There is no highly developed Mariological or Christological programme. Almost every part of the altarpiece is occupied by sculptures of saints creating a sense of iconographical confusion. – c. 1540: Becerril de Campos (Palencia) The high altarpiece of the Iglesia de San Pedro in Becerril de Campos (Palencia) was transferred to Málaga in  (ill. -). The principal altar in the small Iglesia del Sagrario in Málaga, not far from the immense Baroque Cathedral, had been destroyed during the Spanish Civil War (–) and was replaced with the one from Becerril. The enormous work is attributed to the ‘Maestro de Becerril’ or to Juan Ortiz el Viejo. Once again, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin forms the iconographical focus. The central axis comprises, in ascending order: the tabernacle, a niche with St Peter and St  Paul (the latter as patron saint of the original church), Assumption, Lamentation and Crucifixion. A lack of iconographical coherence is palpable in this retable too.

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– c. 1540: Padrones de Bureba (Burgos) The huge and complex altarpiece of Padrones –exhibited since  in the Museo de Retablos (the former Iglesia de San Estebán) in Burgos – is an exceptional work (ill. -). Unlike the other pieces dating from the period in question, it is a three-part altarpiece, making it much wider than it is high. The author of this immense work, which comprises three horizontal registers and five main and four intermediate vertical ones, was Ortega de Córdoba. Its format might be unusual, the altarpiece otherwise typifies the loss of coherence in Assumptionist iconography that we find from around  onwards. A monumental Crucifixion group crowns the ensemble’s vertical axis, the largest scene in which is the Assumption directly below the Calvary. Four prophets recall Old Testament foretellings of the coming of the Messiah. The predella, with the tabernacle at its centre, incorporates medallion images of the altarpiece’s two main protagonists: Christ and Mary. We also find the Four Evangelists (the key communicators of the divine Word) and four saints: Peter, Paul, Michael and another unknown saint (sculpture now lost). The lowest horizontal register represents the original church’s patron, St  Mames (whose statue is at the centre), via three scenes from his life, as well as several other saints. The second level features several more saints or episodes from their Vitae on either side of the Assumption. While the predella and the vertical axis still serve as a vehicle for Christo-Mariological Assumptionist ideas, the profusion of saints – mostly likely chosen for their local significance – blurs the clarity of the message.

84. Pierre Picart, Jerónimo Rodríguez and Cristóbal Bustamante, c. 1540. Retable of the Assumption. Oñate (Navarra), Iglesia de San Miguel, Capilla de Sancto Spiritu.

85. ‘Maestro de Becerril’ or Juan Ortiz el Viejo, c. 1540. Retable of the Assumption. Originally in Becerril de Campos (Palencia), Iglesia de San Pedro. Málaga (Málaga), Iglesia del Sagrario.

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87. Ortega de Córdoba and other masters, c. 1540. Retable of the Assumption. Originally in Padrones de Bureba (Burgos). Burgos, Museo de Retablos (Iglesia de San Estebán).

86. ‘Maestro de Becerril’ or Juan Ortiz el Viejo, c. 1540. Drawing of the Retable of the Assumption. Drawing. Málaga (Málaga), Iglesia del Sagrario.

– 1543ff.: Ziortza (Vizcaya) The main altarpiece in the Iglesia de Santa María (Colegiata de Santa María de Cenarruza) was commissioned in  by Abbot Diego de Arusta and executed by local artists like Juan de Larrumbe, Juan de Anitua and Pedro de Orma (ill. ). It consists of three vertical and five horizontal registers. The predella presents an Apostolado. Central axis, ascending order: fourteenthcentury Andra Mari; Assumption with four angels and a crown and baldachin above symbolizing arcane dignity;

88. Ortega de Córdoba and other masters, c. 1540. Drawing of the Retable of the Assumption from Padrones de Bureba (Burgos). Burgos, Museo de Retablos (Iglesia de San Estebán).

89. Juan de Larrumbe, Juan de Anitua, Pedro de Orma, and other masters, c. 1543ff. Retable of the Assumption. Ziortza (Vizcaya), Iglesia de Santa María (Colegiata de Santa María de Cenarruza).

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Crucifixion and God the Father in a triangle (representing the Trinity). On either side of the cult statue and the Assumption, left to right and top to bottom: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity and Epiphany. – 1545: Sonsierra (Álava) Several artists created this altarpiece – another example of Assumptionist thinking – for the church of San Vicente (ill. ). The Beaugrant brothers (Guiot, Jehan, Mateo) collaborated with other masters including Arnao de Bruselas, Andrés de Araoz, Juan del Campo and

90. Guiot, Jehan, Mateo Beaugrant and other masters, c. 1545. Retable of the Assumption. Sonsierra (Álava), Iglesia de San Vicente.

Bernal Forment. No clear distinction is drawn between scenes referring to the Virgin and those from the Passion. Since the parish church was dedicated to St  Vincent, his statue occupies the centre of the altarpiece on the second level. The predella combines Mariological scenes with the Deposition (centre, coinciding with the position of the tabernacle): Wedding of Mary and Joseph, Annunciation, Nativity and Circumcision. The first main horizontal register has a sculptural group showing the Virgin with Jesus and St John the Baptist as children, flanked by the Epiphany and Flight into Egypt. The second and third horizontal registers feature scenes of the Passion (Jesus in the Olive Garden, Christ bound to the column, Road to Calvary, Resurrection). The topmost level is given over to a Calvary, including the two thieves and the theological virtues. Life-size statues of Adam and Eve stand at the far left and right, lastly, as if to remind the viewer of why Redemption was necessary. – 1545–56: El Grañón (La Rioja) The main altarpiece of the Church of St John the Baptist was made by Bernal Forment and Jehan de Beaugrant. The sumptuous Renaissance work has three main vertical registers with six narrower, intermediate ones (ill. ). There are four horizontal levels. The church is dedicated to both Santos Juanes, and so statues of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist occupy the largest niche on the second tier; two scenes, left and right, represent the Baptism of Christ and the Martyrdom of St  John the Evangelist. Aside from the two St  Johns, the axis is devoted to the Virgin Mary’s role in the Salvation story. On the lower level, a statue of the Madonna and Child stands on the tabernacle. The two upper sections illustrate the Assumption of the Virgin, accompanied and crowned by eight angels, and the Crucifixion.

91. Bernal Forment & Jean de Beaugrant, 1545–1556. Retablo mayor. Grañón (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Juan Bautista.

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The lateral bays contain the Lamentation and Judas Kiss (lowest register); the Nativity and Annunciation (third level); and the Visitation and St Anne with the Virgin and Child. – 1547–48: Arriola (Álava) This is another example of a beautiful altarpiece in a tiny village, which flourished briefly in the sixteenth century. As so often the case, it comprises three levels (the predella and two main horizontal registers) surmounted by a Crucifixion, and five vertical registers (with two narrower ones displaying statues of the Four Church Fathers and two prophets) (ill. ). There is an unusually elaborate tabernacle at the centre of the predella with two sculptures: on top, the Man of Sorrows, suffering and humiliated, and on the door, the Resurrection of Christ, glorified. The tabernacle is flanked by images of St Peter and St Paul and by the Four Evangelists. A Calvary surmounts the altarpiece, recalling the turning-point in the story of Salvation. The principal vertical axis between these Passion and Resurrection scenes is reserved for the role of the Virgin. A monumental enthroned Madonna and Child above the tabernacle is attended by angels, who crown the Mother of Christ; the second level has the Assumption as its centre (ill. ). In the lateral vertical registers: Nativity and Epiphany (first tier); Annunciation and Visitation (second tier). Once again, the triumph of the Virgin (Coronation and Assumption) are presented as crucial elements in the story of the Incarnation (elucidated by the four main reliefs in the two principal registers) and Redemption. – c. 1547: El Villar (Álava) The prolific and idiosyncratic sculptor Guiot de Beaugrant designed the gigantic altarpiece for the church

92. Anonymous masters, c. 1547–48. Retable of the Assumption. Arriola (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial.

in the small village of El Villar de Álava (Bilar in Basque) some time before  (ill. ). The Passion of Christ is represented in the lower and upper levels, with Mariological themes in the two main horizontal registers in between. The predella shows the Last Supper and the Washing of the Apostles’ Feet, with the middle section dedicated to the Four Evangelists arranged on either side of the tabernacle. The altarpiece is surmounted by a

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93. Anonymous masters, c. 1547–48. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Arriola (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial.

Crucifixion (in which Mary Magdalene is once again prominently present), with the Road to Calvary on the left and the Deposition on the right. The ensemble’s central focus is the Assumption (ill. ), which runs the height of the two main registers. Mary is shown standing on the crescent moon, attended by four angels (part of this composition has been lost) and being crowned. Above her head, God the Father makes a sign of blessing to receive her into heaven. Understandably – though perhaps odd at first sight – the space between the Assumption and Calvary is occupied by the Annunciation; the dove of the Holy Spirit hovers between the two protagonists (‘because what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit’, Matthew :). In

94. Guiot de Beaugrant and other masters, c. 1547. Retable of the Assumption. El Villar (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial.

this way, the Assumption occurs under the auspices of the Holy Trinity: the Father immediately above the Virgin, the Holy Spirit (in the form of the dove) between, and the crucified Christ. The Nativity and Epiphany connect the Virgin’s role with Christ’s advent into the world.

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four paintings, each grouping three Apostles. The principal scenes below the Calvary are a fourteenth-century Andra Mari or Sedes sapientiae, surmounted by a monumental Assumption in which the Virgin is accompanied by six angels, the two at the top placing the crown on her head. The crescent moon is shown beneath her feet and she is surrounded by a luminous mandorla. The Virgin thus also appears as the Immaculate Conception or the Woman of the Apocalypse (‘a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet’, Revelation :). The four paintings in the lower horizontal register depict scenes from the life of St Stephen, to whom the church was dedicated. The four in the uppermost tier are devoted to the Life of the Virgin and the Childhood of Christ. From right to left: Birth of the Virgin, Annunciation, Epiphany and St  Anne enthroned with the Virgin and Child.

95. Guiot de Beaugrant and other masters, c. 1547. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. El Villar (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial.

– 1548: Ribera de Valderejo (Álava) The Hispano-Flemish altarpiece from St  Martin’s Church at Ribera, dated , is a joyously colourful specimen (ill. ). It was reinstalled in  at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Vitoria/Gasteiz. Once again, the central axis is devoted to the glory of the Virgin in conjunction with the Salvation, in the shape of the Crucifixion at the top and the tabernacle for the Host at the centre of the predella. It is flanked by an Apostolado:

– 1549–54: Alberite (La Rioja) A Flemish sculptor identified as ‘Maestre Anse’ or ‘Master Hans’ was commissioned in  to create a huge altarpiece for the parish church of St Martin in Alberite. He fell foul of the Inquisition, however, and was obliged to abandon the work the following year, at which point he had only finished the Calvary, the Assumption and the figures of the four Evangelists, as well as St John the Evangelist and St John the Baptist. The altarpiece was subsequently completed by another sculptor of Flemish origin – the renowned Arnao de Bruselas, whose real name was Arnaut Spierinck. Half a century later, the entire altarpiece was polychromed by Francisco Fernández Vallejo, whose painting gives the ensemble a lateMannerist appearance (ill. ). The altarpiece’s central focus is a monumental Assumption with the tabernacle and Last Supper (i.e.

96. Anonymous masters, c. 1548. Retable of the Assumption. From Ribera de Valderejo, Iglesia de San Martín. Vitoria/ Gasteiz, Museo de Bellas Artes.

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coherence. A multitude of saints on the same scale as the principal scenes confuses the overall comprehension of the work. A similar blurring of content is found in smaller altarpieces too.

97. ‘Maestre Anse’, Arnao de Bruselas (= Andreas Spierinck), and other masters, c. 1549–54. Retable of the Assumption. Alberite (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Martín.

the institution of the Eucharist) below and the Crucifixion at top. The sequence thus links the Passion and death of Christ, his transubstantiated body in the form of the host, and the glorified body of the Virgin. Between the Last Supper and the Assumption, a huge statue of St Martin presides over the altarpiece (the church was dedicated to him), with scenes from his vita on either side. The lower levels depict scenes from the Passion and the Childhood of Christ/Life of the Virgin: Annunciation, Nativity, Epiphany and Circumcision. The iconographical programme in Alberite is once again complex, but already shows signs of weakened

– c. 1549–50: Logroño (La Rioja) The main altarpiece from Santa María del Palacio is an exceptional creation, which cannot be overlooked in this context. The work was begun by Pedro de Bustamante, but he swiftly asked Juan de Goyaz to take over the task. Juan died, however, and so the commission passed in turn to the renowned sculptor Arnao de Bruselas (ill. ). What is by far the altarpiece’s largest compartment houses the genealogy of the Salvation: the ‘Tree of Jesse’, comprising the human ancestors of Mary and of Jesus. Jesse is represented as sleeping. He dreams of a shoot sprouting from his belly and growing into the Messiah. The composition culminates at the top with a bust of the Virgin holding her Child. A monumental Assumption (ill. ) rises up above this scene, while the altarpiece as a whole is surmounted by the Crucifixion. The bottom of the vertical axis is given over to the Last Supper – the institution of the Eucharist. ——— …and many others … Substantial though it is, the above review is by no means complete. Having completed this text, and more by chance than through systematic research, we found more examples of this retablo type: Cenzano (La Rioja), Iglesia de la Asunción); Villamediana (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa Columba (c.  –) (ill. -); Robledo de Chavela (Madrid), Iglesia de la Asunción (c.  –) (ill. ); Camarena (Burgos), Iglesia

98. Pedro de Bustamante, Juan de Goyaz, Arnao de Bruselas, and other masters, c. 1549–50. Retable of the Assumption. Logroño (La Rioja), Santa María del Palacio.

99. Pedro de Bustamante, Juan de Goyaz, Arnao de Bruselas, and other masters, c. 1549–50. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Logroño (La Rioja), Santa María del Palacio.

100. Anonymous masters, c. 1500–05. Retable of the Assumption. Villamediana (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa Columba.

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101. Anonymous masters, c. 1500–05. Retable of the Assumption. Villamediana (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa Columba.

103. Alonso Berruguete, 1527–1533. Retable for the church of the Monasterio San Benito el Real. Virtual reconstruction.

102. Anonymous masters, c. 1500–10. Retable of the Assumption. Photograph of 1929. Robledo de Chavela (Madrid), Iglesia de la Asunción.

Parroquial (c.  –); Valladolid, Monasterio San Benito el Real (c. –) (ill. -); Cortiguera (Burgos), Iglesia Parroquial (c.  ); Fontecha (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial (c.  ) (ill. ); Torremormojón (Palencia), Santa María del Castillo (Juan de Valmaseda, c.  )(ill. ); Aberásturi (Álava), San Esteban (c. –); Villalba de Rioja (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Pelayo (c. ) (ill. ); San Cebrián de los Campos (Palencia), Iglesia de San Cornelio y San Cipriano (Juan de Valmaseda and/or Juan Ortiz el Viejo, c. ) (ill. ), Paredes de Nava (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa Eulalia/Museo Parroquial (c.  –); Domaiquia (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Bartolomé (c. –); Aldeanueva del Ebro (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Bartolomé (c.  –); Katadiano

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104. Alonso Berruguete, 1527–1533. Retable for the church of the Monasterio San Benito el Real. Detail : the Assumption and surrounding scenes. Valladolid, Museo Nacional de Escultura.

(Álava), Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Escolumbe (Juan de Ayala & Jerónimo de Nogueras, c. –) (ill. ); Markinez (Álava), Iglesia de Santa Eulalia (anonymous masters, c. –)(ill. ), Ullibarri Arana (Álava), Iglesia de San Juan Bautista (Pierre Picart?, c.   ?); Manjarrés (La Rioja), Iglesia Parroquial de La Asunción (Pedro de Arbulo, c. )…

For the third quarter of the sixteenth century in Navarra alone, we could mention other important Renaissance altarpieces devoted entirely to the Virgin and her glorification : those of Genevilla (–) (ill. -), Lapoblación (c.  )(ill. -), Piedramillera (c.  ) (ill. ), Fustinianza (– ), Cáseda (–). Several other works from

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105. Diego de Torres & Ortega de Córdoba, 1539. Retable of the Assumption. From Fontecha (Álava), I glesia Parroquial. Vitoria/Gasteiz, Museo Diocesano de Arte Sacro, no. 0514.

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106. Juan de Valmaseda & Jean de Cambray, c. 1540–1545. Retable of the Assumption. Torremormojón (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa María del Castillo.

108. Juan de Valmaseda and/or Juan Ortiz el Viejo, c. 1550. Retable of the Assumption. San Cebrián de los Campos (Palencia), Iglesia de San Cornelio y San Cipriano. 107. Anonymous masters, c. 1530–40. Retable of the Assumption. Provenance : despoblado of Negeruela. Villalba de Rioja (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Pelayo.

109. Juan de Ayala and Jerónimo de Nogueras, c. 1565–67. Retable of the Assumption. Katadiano (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial

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the same province combine Mariological themes with the cult of locally venerated saints (as was already the case, it should be noted, in Nájera): namely those from Mendigorria, Tudela, Tafalla, Huarte and Olza. Many other altarpieces could likewise be added to the above list if Spain’s catálogos monumentales were to be systematically sifted. ———

110. Juan de Ayala y Jerónimo de Nogueras, c. 1565–67. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Katadiano (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial.

The Assumption remained extremely important in Spain in the years after . The theme continued to provide the core focus of many altarpieces, but the specific and complex coherence of Mariological and Christological iconography present in the examples in the period of roughly – was not always maintained. On the other hand, it would be exaggerating to conclude that a general loss of theological insight and devotional incoherence occurred. We need to shift our attention at this point to Andalusia and to the work of another Flemish sculptor: Roque de Bolduque (?–). This artist, whose ‘surname’ refers to his town of origin (’s-Hertogenbosch or ‘Bois-leDuc’ in French, which was Hispanicized as ‘Bolduque’ or ‘Balduque’), was a versatile and prolific sculptor, active in Seville from at least . For our purposes, we need only dwell on some of Roque’s grandest altarpieces: those of Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajóz), Cáceres and Medina Sidonia. These monumental creations date from the ‘Second Evangelization’ in the sixteenth century, when a fresh wave of religious fervour arose in the Andalusian territories that Fernando III ‘el Santo’ had recaptured in the mid-thirteenth century. The threehundredth anniversary of the conquest of Seville and several other important towns (including Alcalá del Río, Alcalá

111. Anonymous masters, c. 1560–70. Retable of the Assumption. From Markinez, Iglesia de Santa Eulalia. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Museo e Arte Sacro, n° 0406.

112. Arnao de Bruselas & Andrés de Araoz, c. 1549–63. Retable of the Assumption. Genevilla (Navarra), Iglesia de San Esteban.

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de Guadaira and Carmona) was celebrated around , sparking a revival in the issues that had been at stake during the mythical epoch of the Reconquista.

113. Arnao de Bruselas & Andrés de Araoz, c. 1549–63. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Genevilla (Navarra), Iglesia de San Esteban.

– c. 1545–55: Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajóz) The principal altarpiece in the Iglesia de Santa Ana is devoted to the Virgin Mary. Its iconography is extremely complex: the predella alone runs to thirtyeight scenes centring on the tabernacle and including the Theological and Cardinal Virtues, the Church Fathers, and several dozen saints (ill. ). Above the tabernacle, five superposed scenes form the ensemble’s iconographical axis. St Anne with her daughter Mary, the Assumption of the Virgin (ill. ), the Resurrection of Christ (ill. ), Pentecost and the Crucifixion. The statue of St Anne and the Virgin has been set in a rococo surround and is relatively small compared to the dimensions of the niche, suggesting that another subject might originally have been chosen for this spot, even though the theme of the sculpture does tally with the church’s patron saint. This first main horizontal register incorporates scenes from the Life of the Virgin: her conception (the Meeting of Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate) and her birth. Both stories were recounted in the apocryphal Proto-Gospel of St James. The second level focuses on two scenes from the Life of Christ: his Entry into Jerusalem (left) and the Ecce Homo (right). The centre, as noted already, is given over to the Assumption. The Passion narrative continues in the third level (Road to Calvary, left) but also introduces episodes featuring the glorified body of Christ: the Resurrection (centre) and Ascension of Christ (right). The narrow fourth register depicts Pentecost – the Holy Spirit illuminating and energizing the Apostles and by extension the faithful in general.

114. Arnao de Bruselas & other masters, c. 1560. Retable of the Assumption. Lapoblación (Navarra), Iglesia Parroquial.

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115. Diego de Araoz & other masters, c. 1565. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Lapoblación (Navarra), Iglesia Parroquial.

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116. Diego de Araoz & other masters, c. 1565. Retable of the Assumption. Piedramillera (Navarra), Iglesia Parroquial.

117 Roque de Bolduque, c. 1545–55. Retable of the Assumption. Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajóz), Iglesia de Santa Ana.

118. Roque de Bolduque, c. 1545–55. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajóz), Iglesia de Santa Ana.

119. Roque de Bolduque, c. 1545–55. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Resurrection of Christ. Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajóz), Iglesia de Santa Ana.

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The enormous altarpiece is crowned by a monumental Crucifixion. It combines in exemplary fashion the triumph of the Virgin and her role as agent of Salvation, with Christological doctrine: the Birth and Childhood of the Virgin, Conception, Incarnation, Passion, Redemption, the parallel Glorification of Mary and Christ (Assumption, Resurrection, Ascension), the blessings of the Eucharist, and the role of the Holy Spirit. – c. 1547–51: Cáceres (Extremadura) Five main and four intermediate vertical registers and five horizontal ones make up this huge creation en blanco (natural polished rather than painted wood; the varieties used were: madera de borne de Flandes or ‘Flemish oak’, cedar and pine) by Roque de Bolduque and Guillén Ferrán or Ferrant. The central focus is naturally the Assumption of the Virgin, accompanied as usual by six angels (ill. -). The lower tier is occupied by the tabernacle (in which the Host is kept). Above the Assumption are statues of the Theological Virtues Faith and Charity, while the other principal scene, higher up, consists of the Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity. The ensemble is surmounted by freestanding sculptures of the crucified Christ, the weeping Virgin and John the Evangelist, with four Old Testament prophets foretelling the suffering of the Messiah. Here too, the central scenes on the vertical axis provide a perfect summary of the theme: the triumph and glorification of the Virgin and their link with the Redemption: the crucified Christ and the Eucharist. The predella (at altar level) shows the Four Evangelists, as is often the case. To the left of the tabernacle (i.e. the first level), we see the Meeting of Anne and Joachim at the Golden Gate opposite the Birth of the

Virgin. The second horizontal register is devoted to the Incarnation through the agency of the Virgin, and the Childhood of Jesus: Annunciation, Nativity, Epiphany, Circumcision. The third main horizontal register displays scenes from the Passion to the left and right of the Theological Virtues: Flagellation, Road to Calvary, Descent into Limbo and Resurrection; far left and right: angels with the Instruments of the Passion. – c. 1559–84: Medina Sidonia (Cádiz) This truly gigantic work (  m high, .  m wide) was begun in  and took fully half a century to finish. It completely covers the east wall of the choir at the mysterious Santa María la Coronada (ill. ). The Plateresque architectural elements were created by Andrés López del Castillo and Nicolás León, while the sculptors were Roque de Bolduque, Juan Bautista Vázquez  I and Melchor Turín. Roque was initially asked in  to execute all the sculptures for the ensemble, but he fell ill in  and was unable to continue. The altarpiece has five main and four intermediate vertical registers and six horizontal ones. The centre of the ensemble is devoted to a magnificent Assumption of the Virgin, standing on the crescent moon and surrounded by angels. She wears an impressive crown, which means the scene represents her Coronation too. The predella is devoted to the Passion, with five reliefs of very high quality: Jesus praying at the Mount of Olives, the Judas Kiss, Flagellation, Ecce Homo, Road to Calvary and the Nailing to the Cross. The lowest main horizontal register recalls episodes from Mary’s childhood: Virgen Tota Pulchra (the Virgin clad with the sun), Meeting of Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate, Birth of the Virgin (centre), Presentation of Mary in the Temple, the Virgin and her parents. The

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120. Roque de Bolduque and Guillén Ferrán, c. 1547–51. Retable of the Assumption. Cáceres (Extremadura), Concatedral Santa María.

third and fourth levels, which together match the height of the Assumption refer to the Childhood of Christ in the lower tier: left, Annunciation (Conceptio per aurem) and Epiphany; right: Nativity and Circumcision; upper tier, left: Visitation and Presentation in the Temple; right: Descent from the Cross and Lamentation (Pietà: Mother Mary with her dead Son on her lap).

The fifth horizontal register consists of, left: Resurrection and Entombment of Christ; centre: Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity; and right: Dormition and Noli me tangere (the Risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene). The sixth level depicts Pentecost and the Ascension (?) and is dominated by a monumental Calvary.

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121. Roque de Bolduque and Guillén Ferrán, c. 1547–51. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Cáceres (Extremadura), Concatedral Santa María.

The focus of the vertical axis is on the human and bodily suffering and humiliation of the Saviour (predella and the Calvary at the top) and on the transubstantiated body (tabernacle), Nativity, bodily Assumption (also the Immaculate Conception) and Coronation of the Virgin in Heaven. By receiving the crown, the Virgin is also the Queen of Heaven. Further scenes from the Christological and the Mariological cycles occupy the altarpiece’s other compartments. This altarpiece is, perhaps, the most coherent, fully developed and persuasive example of the iconographical type studied here. – 1548–63: Arroyo de la Luz (Cáceres) One year after Roque de Bolduque and Guillén Ferrán started work on the high altarpiece for the concatedral of Santa María in Cáceres (Extremadura), a certain Alonso

Hipólito from Plasencia was commissioned to create the altarpiece for Arroyo de la Luz (Cáceres) (ill. -). The aforementioned Guillén Ferrán was appointed as supervisor of the work. Hipólito worked for eight years on the altarpiece, which comprised three pisos (or four if the banco or predella is included), five calles and four entrecalles. Along the central axis, we see (in ascending order): a statue of St  Gregory, Arroyo’s patron; the Assumption; the Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity; and the Calvary group. The piso with the Assumption also represented (from left to right): Annunciation, Nativity, Epiphany, and Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Flanking the Coronation of the Virgin, there are scenes from the Passion: Jesus in the Garden of Olives, Carrying of the Cross, Deposition, and Entombment. On the lower level: the Harrowing of Hell, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost. Several dozen sculptures of saints (apostles, evangelists, Church Fathers) fill the entrecalles. Once again, this altarpiece highlights the intertwining of Mary’s life, the Incarnation, the Passion, and Redemption. It is clear that the theological and devotional content of these huge and magnificent altarpieces was extremely well-elaborated and that it was akin to the religious message underlying the best of the earlier, fifteenth and sixteenth-century altarpieces. The devotional and ideological needs of Christians in Andalusia were comparable with those of northern Spain in the past. A substantial minority of the Andalusian population continued to consist of Muslims until the early seventeenth century and so the religious ‘debate’ continued to rage, even if the balance had tilted definitively in political terms in favour of Christianity.

122. Roque de Bolduque, Juan Bautista Vázquez I, Melchor Turín, Andrés López del Castillo, Nicolás León, c. 1559–84. Retable of the Assumption. Medina Sidonia (Cádiz), Iglesia de Santa María la Coronada.

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123. Alonso Hipólito & Guillén Ferrán, c. 1548–63. Retable of the Assumption. Arroyo de la Luz (Cáceres), Iglesia de Santa María.

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124. Alonso Hipólito & Guillén Ferrán, c. 1548–63. Retable of the Assumption. Arroyo de la Luz (Cáceres), Iglesia de Santa María.

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IV. THE FIGURE OF THE VIRGIN MARY BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM: VIRGO TRIUMPHANS The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin formed the central focus of Memling’s Nájera altarpiece and it is clear from the many important altarpieces dating from the period around – that intense importance was placed on this theme in Spain. So how ought we to interpret this Assumption? The glorified body and bodily Assumption of Mary While much has been written concerning Christianity’s supposed ‘antipathy to the body’, it does not hold entirely true, given that the notion of a magnificent, glorified body was present from the outset. The Assumption of the Virgin is preceded in the Christian historical account by the glorification of a male body: that of Jesus during the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. ‘And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white’ (Mark :-). The account in John’s Gospel (:) of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, meanwhile, states that the disciples were only able to understand Jesus’ words after he had been ‘glorified’. Jesus appeared in a glorified body after the Resurrection too, which is also how the risen Christ is depicted in art. It is similarly stated that the bodies of the blessed will be glorified when they rise again on Judgement Day. The article from the Credo on ‘the resurrection of the body’ has prompted all manner of fanciful imaginings and debates for centuries. Yet it was clear that the resurrected body in heaven could not be an ordinary ‘earthly’ body: it had to meet other criteria. The paradisiacal body of popular imagination was a beautiful one at the ‘ideal age’ of thirty-three. Theologians and philosophers speculated in more abstract terms as to its nature and the

relationship between ‘person’, soul and body. To Thomas Aquinas, ‘the soul [...] is not the whole human being and I am not my soul.’ The body therefore had to be combined with the soul in heaven in order to achieve perfection. A pursuit of ‘gender balance’, as it were, quickly prompted a yearning among Christians in the East (see the apocryphal texts in this regard) for a glorified female body which, in this particular religious context, could only be that of the Mother of God. The thought of her body mouldering in the grave was insupportable; it had to be glorified, just as it had to be perfect in the spiritual sense: Mary alone was free of the ‘original sin’ that marked humanity. Nor could her perfection be the result of divine decree, issued at a given moment, as any such temporal specificity would be at odds with divine providence. Mary’s conception – within the ‘mind’ of God – needed to be situated ante saecula, ‘before time/space’. In this way, a female perfection preceded the categories of space and time (the Creation). The not unconnected idea arose in parallel of the Immaculate Conception, a notion that tends to be confused nowadays – even by practising Christians – with the ‘virgin birth’. It actually alludes, of course, to Mary’s conception by God, to her essential nature. The Immaculate Conception is not about the body as such, but this ‘Marian’ body had to be special, even unique. Given the unique role assigned to Mary within the overall history of humanity, it was already impossible for pious early Christians to accept that her body should suffer the same fate as that of every other human being: to decay and be transformed into dust and ashes. A conviction dating back to the earliest days of Christianity, and which can be found in the apocryphal gospels in particular, stated that not only

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was Mary’s soul borne up into heaven, the Blessed Virgin was also assumed into paradise physically intact. The apocryphal Syrian ‘Dormition of the Virgin’ states: ‘[The angels] took the body of the Mother-Virgin and brought it to the Earthly Paradise, to the foot of the Tree of Life. There was fulfilled the mystery of her resurrection.’ The other sources have the Virgin rising up into the heavenly paradise itself. Pseudo-Melito contains a detailed account of this in a long exchange between Christ, the Virgin and the Apostles: ‘Then the Saviour spoke, saying: Come, most precious pearl, within the receptacle of life eternal. [...] Arise, my beloved and my nearest relation; thou who hast not put on corruption by intercourse with man, suffer not destruction of the body in the sepulchre. [...] And kissing her, the Lord went back, and delivered her soul to the angels, that they should carry it into paradise.’

According to ‘Transitus W’, Christ had the Archangel Michael bear her up physically into the clouds, ‘and so the clouds laid the body of the Blessed Virgin in Paradise [...] and the angels brought her soul and reunited it with her body.’ The Latin version of Pseudo-John has Jesus say: ‘Henceforth shall your precious body be translated to paradise, and your holy soul shall be in the heavens [...]’; ‘twelve shining clouds shall bear the apostles and the body of the Virgin to paradise;’ all the angelic choirs venerate ‘the precious relic of the Mother of God’s body’. In Pseudo-Cyril, Jesus says to Mary: ‘Fear not death, my mother, for all Life is with you.’ A text by Theodosius of Alexandria () has Jesus declare at his mother’s tomb: ‘Arise from your sleep, holy body, that has served me as temple. Rise up, body, [...] and reunite with your imperishable soul, that you too might be imperishable, [...] Receive

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from me resurrection before the whole of creation.’151 Two apocryphal Coptic texts – the ‘Doctrine of Evodius’ and the ‘Gospel of the Twelve Apostles’ – state that Jesus reunited his mother’s body and soul at her tomb and bore her up to heaven. ‘The flesh of which the Virgin was formed in her mother’s womb, that same [body] rose again and [sits] at her son’s right hand.’ The apocryphal texts contradict one another in terms of details, yet all testify to the same thought, namely that after ‘falling asleep’ (‘Dormition’), Mary was bodily translated into heaven (and does not therefore have to wait until Judgement Day to live in this glorified completeness). We find the same conviction in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the writings of, amongst others, Absalon von Sprinckersbach, Martin of León, Peter of Poitiers, Huguccio, Vincent of Beauvais, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, Albertus Magnus, Conrad of Saxony, Matteo d’Acquasparta, Jacobus de Voragine and others. The Iberian world played a strikingly prominent role when it came to the defence of this idea by important theologians in the late Middle Ages: Martin of León (c.  –), Durand of Huesca (c.  –), Rodrigo de Toledo (c. –), Anthony of Lisbon (i.e. ‘of Padua’; –), Ramón Llull (– ), Vincent Ferrer (–), Sancho Porta (? –), whose works were printed in the early sixteenth century, and Jacobo Pérez de Valencia (– ). Italian writers and preachers too, including Bernardino of Siena (–), devoted a considerable amount of space to it; Bernardino offered seven ‘reasons’, for instance, as proof that Mary ‘rules [as the inscription in the Somalo relief has it] in heaven with glorified body and soul’. A great many liturgical

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hymns, meanwhile, most of them dating from the fifteenth century, sing of Mary’s bodily assumption and her glorified body. True and complete resurrection must also entail a paradisiacal and hence indescribably beautiful physicality. Bonaventura (–): ‘Her happiness would not be complete unless she were there personally [i.e., bodily assumed into heaven]. The person is not the soul; it is a composite. Thus it is established that she must be there as a composite, that is, of soul and body. Otherwise she would not be there in perfect joy; for (as Augustine says) the minds of the saints [i.e. before their resurrection] are hindered, because of their natural inclination for their bodies, from totally being borne into God.’

The glorified body is thus a conditio sine qua non for heavenly existence in bliss and beauty. Christian art, meanwhile, did indeed represent Mary as the epitome of female beauty: invariably young and unwrinkled, even when depicting her at the foot of the cross in her middle age. As the Sedes sapientiae, the Virgin was imbued in Romanesque art with a supraindividual, austere and at times sublime nobility, while during the High Gothic, she was frequently granted a courtly, slightly smiling sophistication. The Mother of God is similarly presented in Late-Gothic and Renaissance art: the noblest of souls deserved the noblest of physical beauty. A corresponding motivation is found in literary and musical creations too. The Virgin Mary features in the iconography of the Immaculate Conception from the fifteenth century onwards as the radiant and modest epitome of beauty – one only has to think of her representation by the likes of Murillo, Zurbaran and

so many other artists. The defence of this mystical beauty does not exclude the vision of physical beauty: the mystical and – more generally, even – the religious experience remained a ‘holistic’ one until the seventeenth century. It has frequently been argued from an Enlightenment, Modernist or anti-Catholic point of view that worship of Mary has been accompanied by and has also fuelled misogyny in society: one Blessed Virgin, countless sinful women. In our view, however, there is no causal link between the two. Surely the idea of the Immaculate Conception emerged from the grassroots and at a very early stage out of a desire to create a timeless and highly potent image of female perfection. It is noteworthy too that the earliest written sources in this regard take the form of apocryphal literature: in other words, this is not a concept that developed within the official hierarchy. Indeed, the ‘paradox of Mary’ had become so strong by the High Middle Ages that the debate surrounding the Immaculate Conception and the female value associated with it continued to rage for fully half a millennium. Conversely, the idea was undeniably appropriated on numerous occasions to serve a masculinist and official vision, both ecclesiastical and civil. The way the concept of the ‘Immaculate Conception’ was formulated was far from uniform, yet the Marian controversy in the fifteenth century cannot be considered separately from ‘la querelle des femmes’ – the proto-feminist debate regarding the dignity of women. It appears that besides the official, misogynistic vision, voices were also heard in late-medieval Spain that offered a female interpretation of ‘anthropological finality’.

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Mary/Maryam The concept of the Assumption was, implicitly, a core issue during the final phase of the Reconquista. So much has been written on late-medieval worship of the Virgin Mary that it would be impossible to summarize in the present context. Two points ought to be highlighted, however, as being of importance to our thesis. Firstly, Islam was a reality in Spain throughout the fifteenth century and would remain so long after the fall of Granada: a minority of Muslims (Moriscos) were a continuing social, religious and political reality until they were expelled to North Africa in the period –. And secondly, Marian devotion assumed exceptionally intense and special forms in the Iberian Peninsula. In this way, the cult of the Assumption, the ‘Marian’ Encarnación, the Visitation (Magnificat) and the Inmaculada Concepción became crucial in the late Middle Ages. At first sight, there would appear to be little connection between these two points. And yet the specific forms of Marian devotion discussed here were the ‘eye of the storm’, as it were: they ‘embody’ the unbridgeable divide between the Islamic and Christian visions of the relationship between God and humanity. For eight centuries, the Iberian Peninsula experienced a forced coexistence between Islam and Christianity. The Reconquista, which required seven hundred years of improbably persistent conflict, was not solely a political and military affair: throughout all those years, two monotheistic religions were ranged against one another (or three, in fact, since there were also significant, albeit much less numerous Jewish communities). There were religious convictions that connected but also irrevocably separated them. Both of these coincided in the figure of Mary. Different aspects of her rather hazy

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nature (of which there is little discussion in the Gospels) were highlighted, depending on whether the motivation was to promote mutual understanding or to reject, convert or eliminate the ‘Other’. The Virgin Mary as epitome of spiritual enlightenment in Islam The Virgin Mary was held in high esteem by Muslims too. Islamic respect for her figure rests primarily on the Surah Maryam in the Qur’an. There are likewise several Hadith (sayings or opinions traditionally attributed to the Prophet Mohammed). Muslims agreed that Mary enjoyed a unique place in humanity: together with Jesus, she was the only person free of sin. ‘Iberian Islam’ in the late Middle Ages held her to be the exemplar of the highest spirituality, purity and enlightenment; she was a devotional and contemplative role model. For Muslims, the Virgin Maryam was a figure of spiritual authority independently of her role as mother of the prophet ῾Isa (Jesus). ‘Many of the specific characteristics of the Castilian Virgin, moreover, resonate strongly with the most salient traits of the Qur’anic Maryam’. Muslims and Christians alike made pilgrimages to sites associated with the Virgin Mary. Islam also repeatedly attributed the capacity of prophecy (noubouwwa) to her, as incidentally did early Christianity. Mary was considered the most saintly and holy of mortal women. The views of the Andalusian thinker Al Qurtubi (‘the Cordoban’, died  CE) towards the figure of the Virgin often went even further than those of other Muslims. He declared that Mary was preferred over all women ‘until the day of the sounding of the last trumpet’. Muslims believed Mary to be free from the touch of sin because of her purity of body and soul;

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for this reason she was called al batoul, ‘the Virgin’. The epithet al batoul can also refer to physical beauty, if not perfection, just as medieval Christianity constantly stressed the beauty of the Virgin, as we find in countless texts and visual representations. The fifth form of the verb root b-t-l (from which the noun batoul, ‘virgin’, was derived), tabattala (ila Allah) has connotations of severance, meaning ‘to withdraw in order to devote oneself to divine worship’. Islam looks favourably on occasional periods of withdrawal for worship and contemplation, although an exclusive dedication to a contemplative life implies neglect of the world and its obligations, and is thus frequently viewed with mistrust. In other words, the Virgin was ‘permitted to do what was not allowed to others’. She was considered a singular human being, set apart from ordinary humankind and as such was ‘perfect’. Ibn ‘Arabi (– CE) stressed Mary’s unique spirituality. While undoubtedly an exceptional thinker, the mystic shared the sexism of his era: he thus stated that it was not normally a woman’s role to connect knowledge of the Oneness of the Essence (ahadiyyat al dhatiyya) with perception and knowledge of God’s divine being – the Unity of the Many – before going on to declare that Mary was an exception, who had attained the mystical state of perfection. Maryam/Mary was considered a source of LightIllumination-Luminosity in the spiritual and even the literal sense. A hadith ascribed to Al Walid ibn Muslim presents Mary in these terms: ‘Some of our respected elders narrated that when the Messenger of God appeared at the noble sanctuary of Bayt al Maqdis [Jerusalem] on the night of the Isra’, two radiant lights were shining to the right of the mosque and to the left, so he asked, “O Gabriel, what are those two lights?”

And he replied, “The one on your right is the mihrab of your brother David, and the one on your left is the grave of your sister Mary”.’

The Virgin’s perfect purity is partly analogous with the concept of the Immaculate Conception – an idea that probably would not have offended Muslims. In Islam, everyone is born pure of sin, but the devil interferes immediately, except in the case of Mary (and Jesus). She thus remains immaculate. The Shi῾a form of Islam likewise developed a particular appreciation of the Virgin, as in the Persian sufi mystic Ruzbihan al Baqli (– CE): ‘The true indication here is that the essence of Mary is the essence of the holy fitra [primordial human nature]. And her essence was trained by the Real, by the light of intimacy. And in all her respirations [in every breath], she was majdhuba [from the root j-dh-b, ‘to rage, to be in trance’] by the attribute of the closeness and intimacy to the Source of Divine illumination. She became constantly in a state of spiritual vigilance (muraqaba) for the manifestation of the illumination of the World of Sovereignty (jabarut), from the point of the rising place of spiritual orientation (mashriq) in the realm of the Kingdom (malakut). And she withdrew from the world via spiritual resolve (himma) of the highest category, characterized by the light of the Unseen. And she approached the rising-places (mashariq) of the Illumination of the Essence (dhat), and she inhaled the Attributes – fragrances from the Eternal World without beginning (῾alam al ῾azal). And the gift reached her – the communion with the Pre-eternal (‘azaliyya). And the Illumination of the witnessing of the Eternal (mushahadat al qidammiyya) shone upon her. And when she experienced the vision of the Illumination of the

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

Manifestation of Eternity, its lights flashed, and its secrets reached her spirit (ruh), and her spirit became impregnated with the Divine Secret, and she became the bearer of the glorious word [mother of the incarnated Word or Logos] and the light of the Most High. And when her state became magnified with the reflection of the beauty of the Illumination of Eternity upon her, she concealed herself out of fear [of people] and withdrew [from them] with the ‘bridegroom’ of Reality (al haqiqa).’ This image is entirely in keeping with the sponsussponsa typology in Christianity: Mother and Son as mystical pair. Judging from texts like those written or compiled by the ‘mudéjar’ Muslim writer known as El mancebo de Arévalo (Servant of Arévalo), these views on Maryam held firm well into the fifteenth century. ‘Mary had no fleshly fire, and for this reason the Arabs say that she was not touched by the stimulus of flesh and that she was a spiritual butativa, which, if we are speaking good Romance, means a robber who stole spiritual appetites from the world, and her fleshly appetites were rendered infertile.’ Christians would have agreed with such opinions. Spanish devotion constantly reiterated the Virgin’s ‘purity’, the absence of carnal appetite in she who was the agent of the Incarnation, her prophet-like and most illuminated character, and her miracle-working powers. The ‘Hispano-Christian’ Virgin The Iberian Holy Virgin is characterized by a number of striking particularities vis-à-vis her European and Mediterranean counterparts: high esteem for her spiritual and mystical achievements; a strong belief in her sinless state (Immaculate Conception); and an

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emphasis on her bodily role in the Incarnation and Salvation. The first two convictions were shared by Muslims and Christians alike. The third, however, would be rejected by Muslims, even though they believed Maryam to be the mother of the prophet (not God’s son) ῾Isa. The development of late-medieval forms of Marian devotion was, of course, a collective process, which particular writers crystallized. Two male authors from the late thirteenth and the fourteenth century are worth mentioning in this regard, as their work exerted a profound influence that persisted until the sixteenth century. The Catalan mystic, philosopher and poet Ramón Llull (c. –?), firstly, reflected at length on the Incarnation, in his Libre de Santa Maria, amongst other works. To his mind, the Blessed Virgin was not simply the passive ‘receptacle’ for the mystery of the Incarnation: she herself brought about the transformation that rendered that mystery possible, making Mary – and hence not Christ alone – the locus at which human and divine nature were united. Llull was also an early and fervent champion of the concept of the Immaculate Conception. King Ferdinand of Aragón, husband of Isabella the Catholic, favoured Llull’s ‘immaculist’ views in  and . Spain was a bastion of immaculism from the thirteenth century onwards, with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception already being officially celebrated in Santiago de Compostela in , in Burgos and Ourense in , and in Seville in . The idea of the Immaculate Conception was the subject of fierce debate for over half a millennium, before being adopted as a dogma of the Catholic Church in , reflecting the fact that it was at bottom a ‘feminist’ issue. Christian thought placed the responsibility

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for the Fall on the shoulders of the woman (Eve and the apple). The figure of Mary compensated for this burden to some extent: she was the mother of the Saviour and so surely could not have been tainted by ‘original sin’. But if that were the case, at what point did she become ‘spotless’? At a particular moment of her existence? Proponents of a radical notion of the Immaculate Conception rejected such temporality as this would be at odds with divine providence, which had to be perfect. For that reason, Mary’s ‘conception’ must have existed eternally in the mind of God, ante saecula, preceding the categories of space and time. In this way, a sinless female principle had always existed. The extratemporality of the Immaculate Conception led to swift acceptance of the idea in cultures that had traditionally venerated a female universal godhead such as the Pachamama (‘mother of time/space) in the Andes. A second champion of a similarly Mariological devotion was the Catalan Franciscan tertiary Francisco Eiximenis (c.  –), who promulgated ideas that would have been readily acceptable to Muslims. Eiximenis was in full agreement with his Muslim predecessors and contemporaries in his presentation of the Virgin as a religious and spiritual authority, inspired by divine knowledge and revelation. He also concurred with Muslim exegesis in concluding that these privileges were bestowed on her before her son’s conception or birth, and even before her own conception – before the beginning of time and space (ante saecula). He drew a deliberate parallel, moreover, between the revelation accompanying her conception and the one that foretold the advent of her son, effectively placing her on a level with Jesus (as did his Muslim fellow thinkers). ‘In essence, Eiximenis presents her as a doctor of the Church, thus intimating her status as a prophet-like

figure, another characteristic Eiximenis’s Maria shares with the Qur’anic Maryam. In Eiximenis’s account of the Epiphany, he portrays her as a direct source of divine knowledge, just as she was for the Muslims. […] Eiximenis, then, in full agreement with his Muslim predecessors and contemporaries […] presents the Virgin as a religious and spiritual authority […] He was also in agreement with the general tenor of Muslim Marian exegesis that these privileges were bestowed on the Virgin before her son’s conception or birth as well as independent of her status as mother. […] Eiximenis states that these divine favours and blessings were bestowed on the Virgin from the beginning of time, even before her own conception’. Eiximenis engaged in a lengthy discussion of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, which was similar in many ways to the sinless state in which the Muslim Maryam was believed to exist. This was one of the points most readily accepted by Moriscos. The Franciscan might even have consulted apocryphal texts like the ‘ProtoGospel of James’ in his quest for sources for the Immaculate Conception. Eiximenis was also read, incidentally, by none other than Queen Isabella the Catholic. Historians disagree as to whether the figure of Mary served to bring Christians and Muslims closer together in a multi-confessional Spain, or rather to drive them apart. Some have argued that opinions regarding the Virgin were initially ‘a malleable and open signifier’, capable of acting as a bridge between the two religions, but that emphasis was then placed during and after the Reconquista on the difference in interpretation. The Virgin Mary was a highly complex-paradoxical figure. Some aspects of her could be singled out to stress the correspondences between Islam and Christianity, other traits could be used to ‘prove’ the incompatibility of both religions. Mary was a ‘political pawn’. In times of peace,

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

she could be used as an interreligious bridge, in times of tension or war, Muslins or Christians focused on the incompatible ‘dimensions’ of the Holy Virgin. By the end of the fifteenth century, Christians stressed the essential differences. To give an example, following the conquest of Granada, Fray Hernando de Talavera (–), a member of the Order of St Jerome, was appointed the first Archbishop of Granada and tasked with converting the substantial Muslim population to Christianity. He took an already deeply-rooted Muslim devotion to Maryam as his starting point in bridging the crucial gap between the two competing notions of Marian devotion. Fray Hernando used Eiximenis’ writings on the Virgin – a Virgin who bore a striking resemblance to the Qur’anic Maryam. A contrary attitude increasingly held sway, however, during and after the conquest of Granada, with an outright rejection of these similarities in favour of transforming the Virgin into a canvas on which not correspondences but differences could be clearly set out. Within this belligerent atmosphere, Fray Hernando was relieved of his position by Cardinal Cisneros in / for his peace-loving stance and found himself accused of heresy. As long as Iberian Islam had not been overcome politically (i.e. ), Catholic apologists had to walk a tightrope: how to make their views acceptable to Moriscos and Muslims, while simultaneously maintaining their own, deepest tenets of faith? There was often a tendency among Christian writers in the High Middle Ages to look for common beliefs: the Virgin as bridge between Islam and Christianity. At this stage, Christian writers and apologists occasionally set out to formulate their ideas about the Virgin Mary in a manner acceptable to Moriscos and Muslims. Commentaries on Mary or the characteristics of the Castilian Virgin could

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therefore resonate strongly with the most salient aspects of the Qur’anic Maryam. In order to triumph completely (i.e. to convert Muslims), the traits of the Christian Mary needed to correspond with Muslim beliefs. Such writings were, however, a form of interconfessional polemic: dialogue, yes, but ultimately intended to elicit conversions. The idea that these faith communities were able to co-exist in mutual respect and continuous understanding is, in part, a myth constructed by liberallyminded historians in the twentieth century. If dialogue remained open at all, it was because both sides ultimately hoped to convert the ‘other’. At the end of the day, an unbridgeable divide remained: Islam recognized ‘Maryam’ as the mother of the prophet ῾Isa (Jesus), but not that the latter was the ‘Son of God’. The oneness of God, professed in the Tawhid (La ilaha ill’allah), was felt by Muslims to exclude the possibility of God having a ‘son’: ‘He begets not, nor is He begotten.’ This implied an insurmountable barrier between Christianity and Islam: the former focusing on the Incarnation (God becoming human in the form of the Son), the latter denying any possible admixture of godhead and human existence. The concept of a ‘Son of God’ and the Holy Virgin giving birth to him was thus haram in Islam. The more one sought to stoke enmity between the two creeds, the more this concept was defended or attacked, depending on one’s religious adherence. In the course of the fifteenth century, the similarities linking the Muslim Maryam with the Christian Mary ceased to be emphasized in order to promote peaceful coexistence between the two religious confessions. Instead, they now served Christians and Muslims alike in their respective articulation of claims to exclusive truth. Until the end of that century at least, polemical

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positions were staked out just as frequently through the construction of sameness as they were through the expression and manipulation of stark differences. While Immaculate Conception as a belief was understandable/ acceptable to Muslims to some degree, the Incarnation certainly was not. As noted in the previous paragraph, the very notion of God taking on form-within-humanity was unthinkable to Muslims. And while the Virgin could be a spiritual and sinless exemplar of the highest order in Islam, belief in her bodily assumption (as articulated since the apocryphal writings of early Christianity) was also absent. It was precisely – and necessarily – in Christian Spain that forms of devotion relating to the Conception and Incarnation, to Mary’s bodily assumption and glorification, and to the bodily aspects of divine manifestations like Corpus Christi increased in fervour. As such, they created and emphasized powerful counterpoints with the incorporeal God of Islam. Mary functions for Christians as the bridge or threshold par excellence between the godhead and humanity, the co-redeeming mediator. The saints were other, less important ‘bridges’. The ‘official’ Islam of the ῾ulama (‘those who know’/ ‘theologians’) does not recognize mediators between Allah and the faithful, even if popular Islam has for centuries venerated human saints as distributors of baraka, interlocutors and mediators. Many a mystically inclined tariqa has been founded by or has venerated a saint as ‘ancestor’. It was mystical inclination rather than theological striving for definition that favoured interreligious understanding: the mystic pursues a holistic, psychocorporeal experience of the divine, while the religious scholar clings to ‘scholastic’ definitions and logocentric knowledge. Based on logocentric doctrine, the latter will be quick to reject the ‘unbeliever’s’

conviction, whereas the former is more likely to be struck by the similarity of the devotional and/or mystical experience. Incarnation, Passion and Salvation: Christology and Mariology in the Nájera altarpiece (1483–1494) Mary is linked iconographically with the Incarnation, the Passion of Christ and hence the Salvation in virtually all the Iberian altarpieces on the theme of the Assumption and Triumph of the Blessed Virgin. At first sight, the Nájera altarpiece does not appear to pay much attention to this connection. It is nevertheless present, albeit in a symbolically subtle manner. Incidentally, since we do not know what was painted on the panels to the left and right of the Assumption, we have to rely provisionally on the Antwerp panels, in which the connection with the Incarnation, Passion and Salvation is manifestly present, as MacNamee has postulated based on the following arguments. The Greek words – though written in Latin letters – Agyos o theos, ‘Holy (is) God’, can be read on the hem around the neck of Christ’s robe. These are the opening words of the Improperia during the Worship of the Cross on Good Friday, one of the few prayers in the Latin rite to have retained their old, Greek form: Agios ho theos / Agios ischuros / Agios athanatos / eleison imas (‘Holy God, holy, mighty, holy, immortal, have mercy on us’). These lamentations are sung antiphonally by the celebrant, deacon and subdeacon during the adoration of the cross before the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday (in pre-Vatican II liturgy). In this antiphonal chant, the celebrant takes the place of Christ to recount his providential favours to the chosen people and reminds them of their ungrateful treatment of him. The deacon and subdeacon respond with the following

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

two antiphons, one of which is addressed to the congregation: ‘My people what have I done to you? Or in what have I grieved you?’ They then address the cross itself, displayed on the altar for veneration: ‘We adore your cross, o Lord, and we praise and glorify your holy resurrection: for behold, by the wood of the cross joy came into the whole world’. These antiphons are followed by the famous hymn Crux fidelis (‘Faithful cross’). This hymn too is sung antiphonally by the celebrant, the deacon and the subdeacon. Its antiphon recapitulates the old parallels between the tree of Eden and the tree of the Cross: ‘Faithful cross, o tree all beauteous! Tree all peerless and divine. Not a grove on earth can show us such a flower and leaf as thine. Sweet the nails, and sweet the wood, laden with such a load’.

The antiphon is alternated with a number of stanzas, of which the first, Pange lingua gloriosi is the best known: ‘Sing, my tongue, the Saviour’s glory, tell his triumph far and wide; Tell aloud the famous story of his body crucified; How upon the cross a victim, vanquishing in death, he died.’

The Passion and the Salvation that flowed from it were rendered possible only by the Incarnation – the birth of Christ from the Mother-Virgin: ‘All within a lowly manger, lo!, a tender babe he lies. See his gentle virgin mother lull to sleep his infant cries. While the limbs of God incarnate round with swathing bands she ties.’

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This incarnation led to the terrible passion: ‘Thus did Christ to perfect manhood in our mortal flesh attain: Then of his free choice he goeth to a death of bitter pain; And as a lamb, upon the altar of the cross, for us is slain.’

The angel on the right in Memling’s right-hand panel wears a cope, the fastening of which prominently depicts a Paschal Lamb. The final stanza links the Incarnation with the ‘Pantocrator’, the ‘Almighty’, creating by the Word, and leaving his Father’s throne (to be incarnated) at the fullness of the sacred time: ‘So when now at length the fullness of the sacred time drew nigh, Then the Son, the world’s Creator, left his father’s throne on high, From a virgin’s womb appearing, clothed in our mortality.’

Christ is also referred to here as ‘the world’s Creator’, descended from the paternal throne to be born of a Virgin. Memling painted Christ/God seated as the visual manifestation of the Father – or more accurately the Holy Trinity – on the throne, with the tokens of earthly and spiritual omnipotence. (The orb with cross and a white headdress somewhere between the white tiara of the Pope and an emperor’s crown: prior to the fourteenth century, the papal tiara was frequently white and without its three tiers.) The reference to the Trinity is apparent from the fact that Christ/God’s chasuble is held together by an immense cloak pin in the form of a circle containing three smaller circles: the emblem of the Holy Trinity. The previously mentioned hymn likewise concludes with an invocation of the Holy Trinity:

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‘Blessing, honour everlasting, to the immortal deity: ‘To the Father, Son, and Spirit, equal praises ever be. Glory through the earth and heaven to trinity in unity.’

The hymn is immediately followed by the communion service or the Mass of the Presanctified, in which the celebrant receives in holy communion the host consecrated during the mass on Holy Thursday (Good Friday is indeed the only day in the ecclesiastical year on which no mass is dedicated; the priest alone takes communion, with the host consecrated on Maundy Thursday – the day of the Last Supper and hence the institution of the Eucharist.) Hymn and Eucharist are aligned with one another. ‘In the light of all this, it is interesting to note in more detail the vestments that the artist has employed. Christ is vested not as the celebrant in the actual [i.e. preVatican  II] Good Friday ceremony in amice, alb, and black chasuble, but in a dark purple, almost black alb, a red cope lined in the same mournful colour as the alb, and a stole worn properly crossed on the breast as the celebrant wears it. […] He [Christ] is not wearing a chasuble, the vestment worn exclusively by the celebrant of the mass. Good Friday is the one day of the year on which the mass may not be offered. […] Christ is functioning here as the celebrant of the Eternal, Heavenly Exaltation of the Cross. That is sufficiently and correctly indicated by his wearing the stole as the celebrant wears it and by the fact that he is displaying the cross for veneration. His red cope would symbolize his bloody suffering and sorrowful death on the cross’.

In Memling’s panel, Christ/God wears the cope and crossed stole, but not the chasuble – the robe specific to the celebrant of the mass. He appears as both high priest and ruler of all, vested with the highest spiritual and

earthly power in the manner of the Pantocrator in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition. ‘It would seem, then, that what [Memling] is representing is a kind of heavenly, eternal exaltation of the Cross. […] That it is the cross which is being exalted and praised in angelic hymn and orchestra is evident by the prominent position of the engemmed cross surmounting a glass globe – itself a symbol of the world redeemed by the Cross. In the glass globe the mullions of a window are reflected in the form of a cross’.

The last antiphon sung before the Crux fidelis reminds us not only of Christ’s Passion and death, but also of his triumph and resurrection, and of the joy overwhelming the world: ‘We adore your cross, o Lord, and we Praise and glorify your holy resurrection: For behold, by the wood of the cross Joy came into the whole world.’

These words, invoked by the symbolic allusions in Memling’s representation of God, express sadness at the suffering and glorification of the Cross (note the cross in the reflection in the cosmic globe in Christ’s hand) as well as jubilation at the Resurrection and the triumph over death through Salvation. This cosmic joy and jubilation were manifested through the musicmaking and singing angels. The previously discussed altarpieces visualize the connection between the ‘humble’, human aspects of incarnation and suffering on the one hand and salvation and divine omnipotence on the other, in a manner entirely in keeping with these liturgical songs. Just as those Spanish altarpieces devoted to the Assumption and Glorification of the Virgin Mary do, Memling (or more accurately his patron) unites the theme of the

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

Triumph of the Blessed Virgin in the uppermost central panel with the Incarnation, the Passion, Salvation through the Cross, and Heavenly Glory by means of the subtle symbolism of the topmost register. The repeated inscriptions MARIA and IHES[US] on the garments of the angels likewise emphasize the connection between Virgin and Son. It is not surprising that the theological and iconographical programme should have been so carefully conceived, given the status of Santa María la Real as a highly important, ‘royal’ foundation boasting erudite theologians. The two missing panels to the left and right of the Assumption of the Virgin (given the available space, there might also have been four) most likely depicted scenes from the Incarnation (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, etc.) and/or the Passion. Considering the dimensions and proportions of the altarpiece and above all the complex symbolic connections that characterized its iconography, we think it more likely that there were four such panels or, a third register, now lost, with a similar disposition of three panels. Conclusions . Memling’s altarpiece did not adhere to the Netherlandish tradition. It had to comply fully instead with the customary structure for monumental altarpieces of this kind in Spain: at least three horizontal registers (cuerpos or pisos) and at least three vertical ones (calles). Almost all of the Spanish Assumptionist retables display a much more complex composition. Only Monzón de Campos (ill. ) and Marañón (ill. ) are structurally, comparable to the Nájera alterpiece Toro (ill. ) and Sangüesa (ill. ) too. Unlike their Netherlandish counterparts, the Spanish works were

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conceived on a very large scale, not infrequently taking up the entire east wall of the choir. Often, their structure is complex and idiosyncratic. The three surviving panels indicate that Memling’s altarpiece measured approximately seven and a half metres across. A plan of the abbey church, drawn by Francisco de Odriozola in , shows the original position of the altarpiece in the choir. It did not run the entire width of the east wall, which measured  feet (roughly nine metres). The horizontal register in the middle, with the Assumption at its centre, must have been considerably taller than the oblong Antwerp panels. Representation of the Assumption would have required a vertical composition, as is also the case, incidentally, with almost all of the Spanish Assumption retables, and with several Flemish compositions by the Master of the Legend of St Lucy, Michiel Sittow and Ambrosius Benson that must have derived from Memling’s lost creation. Memling’s altarpiece does not apper to have influenced caetaneous Spanish retables. . Memling’s altarpiece for the high altar of Santa María la Real in Nájera (commission , completion and installation –) was devoted to the ‘mystery of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin’. Judging by the Somalo copy and three surviving imitations of a Memlingesque ‘Assumption’, Mary will have been crowned by angels. The three surviving panels, which must have formed the altarpiece’s uppermost horizontal register (cuerpo), evoke ‘heavenly glory’, with the music of the angels as supreme beauty around God in the shape of the Son – the divine manifestation perceptible to human beings. The Pantocrator receives his Mother in heavenly glory. According to the text on the sculpted copy from Somalo, she will

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reign in eternity (‘regnat in aeternum’) with him there, as the crowned Queen of Heaven. The theme of the ‘Regina Coeli’ is prominent. . It is striking how the visual emphasis is placed on the ‘heavenly music’, to which the upper register is almost entirely devoted, and on ‘joy’. The Somalo copy was inscribed with a reference to ‘singing a new song’ and the joy of the angels: ‘Sing to the Lord a new song. The angels rejoice, joyfully they bless the Lord [...]’. The angelic singing and the ‘heavenly music’, as well as the ‘heavenly liturgy’ performed by Christ/God and the angels, refer to sublime beauty and hover above the ‘earthly’ liturgy, performed by humans. A similar parallelism between earthly and heavenly liturgy is likewise central to the Byzantine Orthodox tradition, while heavenly music as supreme beauty is also an expression of the utmost joy: propter lignum venit gaudium in universo mundo, ‘by the wood of the Cross, joy came into the whole world’. This cosmic, universal joy is caused by the Redemption, necessarily preceded by Incarnation and Passion. . Christ/God wears the cope and the crossed stole but not the chasuble of the celebrant or priest who dedicates the mass (a lamb can, however, be found on the garment of the angel on the right of the righthand panel, referring to the Mystical Lamb and hence the Eucharist), as well as a tiara/imperial crown and an orb with the cross. He therefore appears as both high priest and ruler of all, vested with the highest spiritual and earthly power, once again in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition. The Greek words – though written in Latin letters – Agyos o theos, ‘Holy (is) God’ – the opening words of the Improperia during the Worship of the Cross on

Good Friday – can be read on the hem around the neck of Christ’s robe. The words express sadness at the suffering of the Cross (note the cross in the reflection in the cosmic globe in Christ’s hand) as well as jubilation at the Resurrection and the triumph over death through Salvation. Christ/God is represented as a priest on Good Friday. As in the other altarpieces discussed in this study, Marian iconography is connected here with the Christological and Eucharistic dimension. . The complete iconography of the altarpiece has yet to be determined: the earliest detailed description of the dismantled panels dates from  –  years after the overall work was broken up. It is possible, therefore, that several panels had already been lost in the meantime. The panels to the left and to the right of the Assumption probably represented Mariological themes. Nor should we forget that the altarpiece incorporated two relic shrines and a predella, although this can only be confirmed when the documents found by Steppe are rediscovered. This predella might have consisted of the shrines and, for example, bust portraits of the six saints. . It only required relatively brief research to identify over sixty monumental altarpieces in Spain, the iconographical focus of which almost invariably comprises the Assumption of the Virgin in conjunction with Christological themes and which are mostly located in ‘old Christian’ areas (Castilla la Vieja, the Basque Country, the Northwest) and a few further to the south (Valencia, Seville, Trujillo). The most iconographically complex and coherent altarpieces are those from mid-sixteenth-century Andalusia by the Flemish sculptor Roque de Bolduque (?–).

BORN TO BE GLORIFIED . ASSUMPTIONIST ALTARPIECES IN THE FINAL PHASE OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA

Further research will undoubtedly reveal further works of this kind. . In each instance, the Marian themes have Christological (Childhood of Christ, Passion) and/or Eucharistic connections, the meaning of which is that Mary is the agent of Salvation history. . From  onwards, the Catholic Kings did everything in their power to unite Spain and to recapture Muslim Granada from the Nasrids. The crucial decade that preceded the Conquest of Granada () and those that followed coincided with a fervent desire for the religious unification of Spain and jubilation after  at the triumph of the Christian faith. It is at this precise moment that we witness a flowering of monumental altarpieces dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgo triumphans in her spiritual and bodily yet glorified manifestation, as the Mother of God (Theotokos) and as the essential agent of the Incarnation. In almost all these cases, the Virgin is crowned by angels: she is ‘Queen of Heaven’. . The figure of Mary was held in high esteem by Muslims too, who viewed ‘Maryam’ as the epitome of sinless purity, piety, mystical knowledge, enlightenment and, of course, also as the mother of Jesus, the Prophet Isa. For Islam, however the latter was a man, not the ‘Son of God’. Maryam was likewise recognized – together with Jesus – as the only ‘sinless’ human being. While Islam did not use the literal concept of the Immaculate Conception, it stated that Mary was without sin because Iblis (the Devil), who ‘infects’ every person who comes into the world with sinful urges, was prevented from intervening on the birth of the Blessed Virgin. For as long as the two religions more or less tolerated

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one another, Mary/Maryam served as a bridge between them. However, as soon as the relationship shifted to one of polemic or conflict, Mary/Maryam became a point of rupture. Two aspects were unacceptable to Muslims: the bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary and the Incarnation of the Saviour. The concept of the Incarnation through the ministry of the Holy Virgin and her own bodily assumption was, consciously or unconsciously, a crucial theme within the theological polemics between Christianity and Islam during the final phase of the Reconquista and the first decades of the unified Spain. The Virgin triumphant is also the Church (Maria Ecclesia), the mystical ‘bride’ of Christ, rising up in bliss and collaborating in the Salvation (co-redemptio). The Assumption served in late-fifteenth-century Christian Spain as an image of the Church/Faith Triumphant, after seven centuries of forced religious cohabitation (convivencia). The altarpieces studied here highlight the inextricable link between two themes that were unacceptable to Muslims: the Assumption of Mary’s soul in her glorified body and the Incarnation/Salvation through Christ born of Mary. The iconography of Memling’s altarpiece, though ‘Flemish’ in execution, is ‘Castilian’ and ought to be viewed entirely within the Spanish tradition. The highly specific forms of Marian devotion in the Iberian Peninsula (with their focus from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries on the Immaculate Conception, Incarnation through Mary and bodily Assumption) grew out of a stance in opposition to Islam, with a preliminary phase during the definitive breaking of Almohad power (Las Navas de Tolosa, ; conquest of the major cities of Al

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Andalus, –, under Fernando III ‘el Santo’ ). A second phase then occurred during and after the conquest of the Nasrid empire of Granada (). A third phase can be noted around  – the tercentenary of the reconquista of Seville and the surrounding parts of Andalucía by Saint King Fernando III. . There are noteworthy ‘Byzantinisms’ in the iconography of Memling’s creation (Greek inscriptions, heavenly liturgy), since an awareness of the connections between Western and Eastern Christianity was growing after the fall of Constantinople. In earlier centuries, the focus had been on the religious divide between East and West – an unnecessary hostility that rendered unification impossible and paved the way to the fall of Byzantium in .

Postscript Maintaining the interconnectedness of spirituality, religious experience and the body was lost in Western Europe in a prolonged process lasting from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Paradoxically, this very ‘disembodiment’ of spiritual experience resulted in religious sclerosis and secularization. Spain was the region that breached this covenant the least and it is no coincidence that the country is the only one in Europe where the collective performances and experiential forms of Holy Week have been preserved as living works of art, capable of moving tens of thousands of worshippers in a single uplifting spiral. Holiness and bodiliness were no opposites, but inextricably linked realities. This is, perhaps, a positive effect of the Reconquista and the centuries-long confrontation with Islam, to which the idea of the Incarnation of God himself was and remains haram (unthinkable, taboo). The concept of the Incarnation of Jesus and of the bodily untainted, immaculate state of Mary implied the belief in a glorified, sublimated body.

Endnotes

 Colección documental de Santa María la Real de Nájera, (Fuentes documentales medievales del País Vasco), Pamplona, Eusko Ikaskuntza, .  Paul VANDENBROECK, Catalogus schilderkunst 14e en 15e  eeuw. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, , pp. –, with bibliography to ; the present text had been finalized before the publication of: Harmony in Bright Colors. Memling’s God the Father with Singing and Music-Making Angels Restored, ed. Lizet KLAASSEN & Dieter LAMPENS, Turnhout, Brepols, .  José Luis SÁEZ LERENA, ‘Quién trajó el tríptico de Memling al monasterio?’ in La voz del Najerilla, January , p. : ‘El Patronato de Santa María la Real ha adquirido recientemente un magnífico lector de micro-films, con lo que ahora podremos leer más de dos mil metros de película que tenemos en el Monasterio de los Archivos de la antigua Abadía […]. He examinado el libro segundo de Censos. En su folio  vo. leemos esta corta nota: “Año de , a  de julio, ya había encargado don Gonzalo de Cabredo, Prior de Nájera, el retablo de Flandes”. […] Más adelante […] se cuenta la vida de don Pablo Martínez de Uruñuela […] Fol.  se dice […] “hace que se concluyera el retablo antiguo, que su antecesor había mandado a toda costa en Flandes, hasta colocarlo en su sitio”.’  BARRÓN GARCÍA , pp. –, p. : ‘En el Museo Real de Bellas Artes de Amberes se muestran tres tablas de Hans Memling con ángeles músicos a los lados de Dios Padre. Proceden de Santa María la Real de Nájera y formaban parte del antiguo retablo mayor del convento dedicado a la Asunción. El retablo lo había encargado en Flandes, antes del  de julio de ’, Gonzalo de Cabredo, prior del monasterio desde ; A.H.N., Clero, Leg. , f. v. ‘Según el padre Argáiz llegó al monasterio durante el priorato de Pablo Martínez de Uruñuela, hacia ’; ARGÁIZ, Fr. Gregorio: La Soledad Laureada por San Benito y sus hijos en las iglesias de España y teatro monástico de la provincia tarraconense, Madrid, Bernardo de Herbada, , p. r. ‘Argáiz sitúa en  el comienzo del priorato de Martínez de Uruñuela pero otras fuentes señalan el año ; dice que este prior hizo el retablo del altar mayor “que es de pincel, dedicado al Misterio de la Asumpcion de la Virgen, y tienen por tradicion que se pintó en Flandes”.’  Aurelio BARRÓN GARCÍA, ‘Bóvedas con figuras de estrellas y combados del Tardogótico en La Rioja’, in TVRIASO (Revista del Centro de Estudios Turiasonenses, Tarazona), , –, pp. –, p. , note : ‘En este año se había obligado con el prior Gonzalo de Cabredo –el mismo que había encargado en  el retablo mayor en Flandes a Hans Memling – a traer tres mil sillares de las canteras de Cenicero y San Asensio y casi otro medio millar para capiteles y arcos; A(rchivo) H(istórico) N(acional), Sección Clero, Leg(ajo) ’.

 Gregorio DE ARGAIZ, La soledad laureada, por San Benito, y sus hijos, en las iglesias de España, Madrid, Bernardo de Herbada, , p. : ‘Governó [Pablo Martínez de Uruñuela] de este modo algunos años: en cuya sazón se hallan algunas cosos memorable suyas, y obras que hizo, como [[…] el retablo del Altar mayor, que es de pinzel, dedicado al Misterio de la Assumpcion de la Virgen, y tienen por tradicion que se pintó en Flandes’.  FRANSEN .  Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Clero secular/regular, legajo ; this is a copy from the final quarter of the eighteenth century after a lost original.  ‘Año de  a  de Julio ya había encargado don Gonzalo de Cabredo, Prior de Nagera, el Retablo en Flandes’ (fol. ; the copyist has added a note: this information was found on fol. v in the original manuscript).  ‘[Martínez de Uruñuela hizo] varias obras que habían quedado empezadas en tiempos de su antecesor Don Gonzalo y otras nuevas. De las primeras: […] hacer que se concluyere el Retablo antiguo, que su antecesor había mandado hacer a toda costa en Flandes, hasta colocarlo en su sitio’. This must have been mentioned in the original on fol. .  E.g. the high altarpiece of Palencia; the gilding and polychromy alone of the gigantic high altarpiece at Lekeitio in the Basque Country, completed on  December  after seven years of work, cost , maravedíes – more than twice the price of Memling’s altarpiece.  CANTERA MONTENEGRO .  He was not the first in this respect: see Margarita CANTERA MONTENEGRO, ‘Falsificación de documentación monástica en la Edad Media: Santa María de Nájera’, in Espacio, tiempo y forma. Series III, Historia medieval, nº , , p. –.  Margarita CANTERA MONTENEGRO, ‘Viaje a Roma de un prior de Santa María de Najera (siglo XV)’, in Berceo, nº , , p. –.  See Margarita CANTERA MONTENEGRO, ‘Elección de sepultura y espacio funerario: Santa María la Real de Nájera (Siglos XI – XV)’, in Hispania Sacra, , , pp. –, esp. pp. –. Diego López de Haro, a hero of the Reconquista (during the decisive Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, ), is buried in the abbey. Felipe ABAD LEÓN, Guia para visitar los santuarios marianos de la Rioja, (María en los pueblos de españa, ), Madrid, , p. .  Fol.  (referring to fol.  in the original manuscript): ‘La segunda obra fue el hacer [que] se llevase a execución, y acabase el retablo, que su antecesor Don Gonzalo de Cabredo había encargado en Flandes, y es el que hoy persevera deshecho y en cuadros en el Claustro alto, de unas pinturas muy bellas; este retablo, puesto en casa, costó . maravedies, y todos

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los pagó Don Pablo, a excepción de . maravedies que tenía pagados Don  Gonzalo, quando murió. Púsose en su sitio dicho retablo Año . Otras muchas obras hizo tanto en la Iglesia, como en el Monasterio, porque a quien conoce el estado que tenía entonces la casa, y los pocos medios para emprehender semejantes obras, admirará el corazón magnánimo de este hombre’.  Eduardo PATERNINA GONZALO, ‘Jovellanos en La Rioja’, in Revista Panacea, August , pp.   ff.; Jovellanos’ text can be found in: Biblioteca de autores españoles, , Madrid, Ediciones Atlas, , pp. –; Jovellanos en La Rioja: diarios riojanos, 1795 y 1801, (Biblioteca de La Rioja), Centro de Estudios Jarreros Manuel Bartolomé Cossío, .  The abbey has both a ‘lower cloister’ and an ‘upper cloister’, as well as a ‘lower choir’ and ‘upper choir’. Regarding the ‘lower’ and ‘upper choir’ in late medieval Spanish churches, see: José Luis CAMPANO CALVO and Eduardo CAMPANO AGUIRRE, ‘Coros altos y bajos en las iglesias de los monasterios de la Orden del Cister’, in Do espírito do lugar. Música, estética, silêncio, espaço, luz. II. Residências Cistercienses de São Bento de Cástris (2013, 2014), ed. Antónia FIALHO CONDE and António CAMOES GOUVEIA, s.l., ; KROESEN , p. –.  The word arremolachado does not appear in the Diccionario published by the Academia Española; remolacha means ‘beet’.  ‘Al Monasterio de Santa María; nos recibe muy atentamente el abad. Vemos el monasterio. Me canso. Seguiré después o mañana. El cláustro bajo, gótico moderno, con rellenos en los tercios interiores de los arcos, de entalladuras caladas, de muy buen gusto. El alto, de buena arquitectura, adornado con pilastras jónicas, estriadas y resaltadas. En éste [= cláustro alto], una excelente tabla que representa a la Virgen, casi del tamaño natural, en su Ascensión, de la escuela alemana, y puede ser muy bién de Alberto Durero; todo es bellísimo: cabeza, manos, paños, angelitos verdaderamente celestiales, bordaduras; sólo tiene en derredor un cielo arremolachado y una nubes durísimas que no corresponden’ (p. ).  Jovellanos en La Rioja. Diarios riojanos, 1795 y 1801, ed. Eduardo PATERNINA GONZALO et al., Haro, Fuente del Moro/Publicaciones del Centro de Estudios Jarreros ‘Manuel Bartolomé Cossío’, , pp. –.  ‘A ver los cuadros del retablo Viejo, que están en el Capítulo arrinconados. Qué lástima! Son asombrosos; parecen todos de una mano; todos de la misma que la Asunción del Claustro; acaso de Alberto; un Padre Eterno; tres coros de ángeles con instrumentos músicos y cantando; San Vidal y Agrícola, mártires; San Prudencio y San Benito; de apóstoles, dos’ (p. ).  We ought not to forget that the panels were made for an altarpiece in Spain; prior to the early fifteenth century, Spanish altarpieces sometimes had dark-coloured, flat frames (e.g. Soriguela, c.  and Barbastro, c. –  (both now Barcelona, MNAC)); sometimes gold and black (Villahermosa del Río, c. ; Estopiñán, c. – (Barcelona, MNAC)); sometimes flat or gilded and black frames painted with abstract or vegetal motifs (Santa María de Mosull, c.   and Casbás, c.  ; Sigena, c.  – (all three now Barcelona, MNAC); Abella de la Conca, c.  (Seu d’Urgell); the latest example of this type is the altarpiece from Buitrago de Lozoya (now Viñuelas, Palacio del Duque del Infantado)); fifteenth and early sixteenth-century Spanish altarpieces almost never had black frames, only gilded ones; see Bernat Martorell’s ‘Transfiguration Altarpiece’ (c. ) in the Cathedral of Barcelona); flat frames were sometimes decorated with sculpted gothic tracery,

as on Dalmau’s altarpiece for the town hall chapel in Barcelona, c. –, or Jaume Huguet’s ‘Epiphany Altarpiece’ (c.  ) in the Palau Major in Barcelona. Memling’s frames will therefore have been painted with decorative motifs or adorned with gothic tracery. They will not have been (so it would appear to me, at least) black frames or natural wood; nor have I found any examples of broad, flat frames, simply and plainly gilded, in late fifteenthcentury Spain.  Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Plano nº .  BARRÓN GARCÍA , p. .  P. KEHR, Papsturkunden in Spanien. Vorarbeiten zur Hispania Pontifica, vol. II-, Berlin, , p. .  STEPPE .   Desde él ars nova hasta 1600, ed. S. RUBIO, Madrid, , pp.  –: Apéndice. See also: Sara WOODBURY, ‘The angels of the Najera panels: musical representation and the Divine’, MA thesis, Lake Forest College, ; Jeremy MONTAGU, ‘Musical instruments in Hans Memling’s paintings’, in Early Music, , , pp. –.  Madrid, Museo del Prado, no. P . The work was already in Spain in the mid fifteenth-century, when Enrique IV donated it to the Monastery of El Parral in Segovia.  Reynaldo FERNÁNDEZ MANZANO, ‘Introducción al estudio de los instrumentos musicales de Al Andalus’, in Cuadernos de estudios medievales, –, , pp. –; Idem., La música de Al-Andalus en la cultura medieval, imágenes en el tiempo, Granada, Universidad, ; Luis AFONSO, ‘Patterns of Artistic Hybridization in the Early Protoglobalization Period’, in Journal of World History (University of Hawai’i Press), , , pp. –.  The panels’ direct connection with Spain is heraldically unmistakable. The arms of Castile can be found, for instance, on the left shoulder of the angel to the right of God and on the maniple of the angel on the far left (the viewer’s far right). The left shoulder of the angel to the left of God bears the arms of León. Another angel has an unidentified coat of arms: a gold lily on a field of gules.  Washington, National Gallery.  Navarrete, Iglesia de la Asunción. Central panel:  × cm; doors:  × cm.  Washington, National Gallery. Borchert , p. . BORCHERT , p. –, notes that the Lucy Master must have based himself on the entire altarpiece and not just the Assumption panel.  ‘Cantate Domino canticum novum. Assumpta est Maria in caelum. gaudent Angeli, laudantes benedicunt Dominum. Gaudete quia cum Christo regnat in aeternum’.  ‘Vi en el oratorio [de la quinta] una Asunción exactamente copiada del cuadro flamenco que está en el cuarto, pero de escultura en medio relieve y de excelente forma’ (p. ).  Luis GATO MARTÍN, La Catedral de Logroño, Santa María de la Redonda, (Edilesa Monografías, ), s.l., , p. : ‘Conjunto flamenco de lo mejor de nuestro patrimonio artístico riojano. Procede del señorío de Somalo y es obra de la mitad del siglo XV. Título en su día de la Iglesia del Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Nájera –panteón de los reyes de Navarra– que se complementaba con el famoso tríptico de Hans Memling, llamado de ‘Los Angeles Músicos’, hoy en un Museo de Bélgica’; Gloria

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TREVIÑO, Santa María la Real de Nájera, Barcelona, Ediciones Escudo de Oro, , p. : ‘Logiquement, l’église gothique possédait un autre retable bien différent; il s’agissait d’un retable où se distinguait un ensemble de sculptures dédiées à l’Ascension-couronnement, un crucifix (qui selon quelques critiques d’art est aujourd’hui réutilisé sur le calvaire du retable actuel) et un célèbre triptyque appelé ‘los Ángeles Músicos (les Anges musiciens). On sait que le premier se trouve dans la cathédrale de la Redonda de Logroño et quant au triptyque il ne serait pas exagéré d’affirmer que son départ de Najera pourrait être le sujet d’un scénario de cinéma sur l’Espagne noire’.  Julián CANTERO ORIVE, Un cartulario de Santa María le Real de Nájera del año 1209, www.vallenajerilla.com/.../cartulariosantamarialarealdenajera.htm [consulted  August ]: ‘Somalo. L. . Fue granja del monasterio de Santa María la Real de Nájera y residencia varaniega de sus abades. Es tierra fértilísima situada a orillas del Najerilla y cerca de Villarrica, Torremontalvo y San Asensio. Estaba tan íntimamente unido al monasterio, aunque distante, que a través de los documentos parece adivinarse formar un todo con él. Hoy es propiedad particular. (Apeo ,°)’.  Angel Casimiro de GOVANTES, Diccionario histórico-geográfico de España. II. Comprende La Rioja o toda la provincia de Logroño y algunos pueblos de la de Burgos, Madrid, Imprenta de los Sres. Viuda de Jordán y Hijos, , pp.  and .  ‘A ver la casa: grande; sirve para las recreaciones de la Comunidad: , antes de Cuaresma; , después de Resurección; , cerca de San Juan [= end of June]; , al otoño’ (p. ).  CANTERA MONTENEGRO p. .  See Boletín oficial de Madrid, no. ,  May , p. : ‘D. Leon Garcia Villarreal, primer comandante del ° batallon de linea’. See also GOVANTES , p. : ‘últimamente granja del monasterio de Santa María de Nagera, hoy propiedad particular’. Biographical data also in: https:// dbe.rah.es https://www.senado.es https://www.memoriademadrid.es  Teodoro MARTÍN, La desamortización. Textos político-jurídicos, Madrid, Narcea, ; Francisco SIMON SEGURA, La desamortización española del siglo XIX, Madrid, Ministerio de Hacienda/Instituto de Estudios Fiscales, .  Rosa María LÁZARO TORRES, Desamortización de Espartero en la provincia de Logroño, Logroño, Excma. Diputación Provincial, , pp. – and table after p. .  See http://www.bermemar.com/REPUBLICA/rusti.htm [Consulted  August ]: ‘Los  mayores propietarios rústicos de La Rioja durante los siglos XIX y XX’.  Confirmed to us by Don Pablo Diaz de Bodegas, Delegado Episcopal para el Patrimonio Cultural Diocesano. Don Pablo informed us (e-mail dated  November  to [email protected]): ‘La imagen que comenta es, efectivamente, una parte del retablo de Nájera. El retablo fue desmontado para colocar el que actualmente preside el presbiterio de la iglesia y permaneció por varios años arrinconado en las dependencias del monasterio. Parece ser que en tiempos de la desamortización una familia adquirió este conjunto, el cual posteriormente fue llevado a la iglesia de Somalo, en aquel tiempo parroquia, aunque propiedad de una familia. El fallecimiento sin herederos del último

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miembro de esta familia, dejó, entre sus disposiciones, que parte de los bienes de la capilla pasaran a propiedad de la Diócesis y que se depositaran en Santa María de la Redonda, como así fue. Por el año  se dispuso colocarla en la ubicación que hoy está, pero tan sólo las imágenes, pues el dosel que poseía estaba totalmente deteriorado. Hace, aproximadamente,  años, se procedió a una simple limpieza de las imágenes, se retiraron los “azulones” de baja calidad que se había dado para disimular los desperfectos y se le puso el marco y el fondo que hoy tiene, siendo colocada en el mismo lugar’.  Pilar SILVA MAROTO, ‘Diego de la Cruz en el Museo del Prado’, in Boletín del Museo del Prado, Madrid, , p. -; Pilar SILVA MAROTO,  Pintura hispano-flamenca castellana: Burgos y Palencia.  Obras en tabla y sarga, Valladolid, Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Cultura y Bienestar Social, , pp. -; Didier MARTENS, Diego de la Cruz, cuarenta años depués de su redescubrimiento: balance de las investigaciones y nuevas propuestas, in Goya (Madrid), n° -, , p. -.  María LACARRA DUCAY, ‘Blasco de Grañén y la pintura del Gótico internacional en Aragón’, in La pintura gótica en Aragón, ed. EAD., Zaragoza, Institución ‘Fernando el Católico’, , pp. –, esp. –.  For an overview of Marian sanctuaries in La Rioja, see: Jaime COBREROS AGUIRRE, Santuarios marianos de La Rioja, (María en los pueblos de España, ), Madrid, Encuentros Ediciones, .  In , several panels were stolen by a Belgian criminal known locally as Erik el Belga. They were never recovered.  Alberto ACELDEGUI APESTEGUÍA, ‘Influencias del grabador alemán Martin Schongauer en la pintura tardogótica de Pedro Díaz de Oviedo en el retablo mayor de la catedral de Tudela (–)’, in Cuadernos de la Cátedra de Patrimonio y Arte Navarro, , , pp. –; José Ramón CASTRO ALAVA, ‘Pedro Díaz de Oviedo y el retablo mayor de la Catedral de Tudela’, in Príncipe de Viana, , , pp. –, see www.culturanavarra.es [consulted  August ].  Julio ALTADILL in Boletín de la Comisión de Monumentos de Navarra, , , pp. –; María Concepción GARCÍA GAINZA, i.a., Catálogo monumental de Navarra. I. Merindad de Tudela, Pamplona, Institución Príncipe de Viana/Arzobispado de Pamplona/Universidad de Navarra, , pp. – / –.  CASTRO ALAVA , p. , with documents.  Cf. Paul VANDENBROECK, ‘The “nameless motif”: on the crosscultural iconography of an energetic form’, in Antwerp Royal Museum Annual  [=], pp. –.  Concepción ABAD CASTRO and María Luisa MARTÍN ANSÓN, ‘Estudio histórico-artístico’, in Retablo mayor de la cartuja de Santa María del Paular, Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura, Instituto del Patrimonio Histórico Español, , pp.  –. The altarpiece was carved in situ, as witnessed by the numerous leftover fragments of alabaster that were used to level the Patio de Matalobos.  Clementina Julia ARA GIL, ‘Los retablos de talla góticos en el territorio burgalés’, in El arte gótico en el territorio burgalés, Burgos, .  Guadalupe MENDOZA and Antonio MAYORAL, ‘Retablo Mayor de la iglesia de la Asunción, Gumiel de Hizán, Burgos’, in Restauración and Rehabilitación, nº , ; Patricia ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ, En torno a la iconografía gótica en la Ribera del Duero: iconografía gomellense a fines del medievo, Aranda de Duero, .

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ENDNOTES

 Francisco PATO DE MACEDO, ‘O retábulo-mor da Sé Velha de Coimbra’, in Estudos sobre escultura e escultores do Norte da Europa em Portugal. Época Manuelina, ed. Pedro DIAS, Lisbon, , pp. –.  Courtesy of the ‘Clube do Património da Escola Básica Eugénio de Castro’, Coimbra.  Javier GONZÁLEZ SANTOS, ‘Pedro de Mayorga: el Maestro de Palanquinos ?’, in Archivo español de arte, , , pp. –.  The sub-predella (sotabanco) below this is a later, sixteenth-century addition: a tabernacle in the middle, possibly by Benito Elías c.  , and seventeen reliefs by Juan de Angés, –.  As already found in the omega-shaped headgear of the ancient Egyptian goddess Hat-hor. See also Paul VANDENBROECK, Azetta. L’art des femmes berbères, Brussels-Ghent, Palais des Beaux-Arts/Ludion, .  Cf. Arte y cultura en la época de Isabel la Católica, ed. Julio VALDEÓN BARUQUE, Valladolid, ; see also the exhibition held in Spain in  to mark the th anniversary of Isabella’s death.  Cf. Carl HERNMARCK, Custodias procesionales en España, Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura/Dirección de Bellas Artes y Archivos, .  KROESEN , p. .  María Jesús GÓMEZ BÁRCENA, ‘El retablo de Nuestra Señora de la iglesia de San Gil de Burgos’, in Boletín del Museo e Instituto Camón Aznar, , , p. –.  José URANGA, ‘El retablo mayor de la Iglesia de Marañón’, in Revista Príncipe de Viana, , , pp. – +  pl.  Raquel SÁENZ PASCUAL, ‘Olano. Retablo mayor de San Bartolomé’, in Retablos, Vitoria/Gasteiz, Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco, vol. , , pp. –.  Similar ornamentation occurs in the decorative borders of tapestries in the early sixteenth century in Tournai for Philip the Handsome; see Paul VANDENBROECK, ‘En compañía de extraños comensales. Idea del hombre, código de conducto y alteridad en los tapices de Felipe el Hermoso’, in Felipe I el Hermoso. La belleza y la locura, Madrid, Villaverde Ediciones, , pp. –.  María del Pilar ANDRES ANTON, El Monasterio de la Puridad Santa Clara Primera Fundación de Clarisas en Valencia y Reino,  vols., Valencia, .  Matilde MIQUEL JUAN, ‘Damián Forment, Virgen niña. Retablo del convento de la Puridad, Valencia’, in Intacta María: política y religiosidad en la España barroca. Unblemished Mary: politics and religiosity in Baroque Spain: 30  November 2017, ed. Pablo GONZÁLEZ TORNEL, Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes, , pp. –.  VANDENBROECK  [=].  Ramón PÉREZ DE DASTRO and Irene FIZ FUERTES, ‘Precisiones sobre unas tablas del maestro de Becerril en Palencia y en Becerril de Campos’, in Boletín del Seminario de Arte y Arqueología (Universidad de Valladolid), , , pp. –.  El retablo mayor de la Catedral de Sevilla. Estudios e investigaciones realizados con motivo de su restauración, Seville, Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Sevilla, .  Jesús SAN MARTÍN, El retablo mayor de la Catedral de Palencia. Nuevos datos, s.l.,  ( pp. + XXXIV pl.).

 Almudena MARTÍNEZ MARTÍN, ‘Retablo de la Asunción de la Iglesia de San Pedro en Villaescusa de Haro (Cuenca)’ in Cuadernos de arte e iconografía, , , pp. –.  Juan Manuel MILLAN MARTÍNEZ & Carlos Julian MARTÍNEZ SORIA, Diego Ramírez de Villaescusi: obispo y mecenas, Civdad Real, Universidad, ; Alejandro SÁEZ OLIVARES, El obispo Diego Ramírez de Villaescusa y su papel como micenas de las artes, doct. diss. Madrid, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, .  F. G. OLMEDO, Diego Ramírez de Villaescusa 1459-1537. Fundador del Colegio de Cuenca y autor de los Cuatro Diálogos sobre la muerte del Príncipe Don Juan, Madrid, Editorial Nacional, .  I. DEL RÍO DE LA HOZ, El escultor Felipe Bigarny (h. 1470-1542), Valladolid, ; La Virgen en el arte de La Rioja, ed. Begoña ARRUE UGARTE, exhib. cat., Logroño, .  For an overview of major altarpieces in La Rioja, see: José Manuel RAMÍREZ MARTÍNEZ, Retablos mayores de La Rioja, s.l., Obispado de Calahorra y La Calzada, .  J. A. BARRIO LOZA, Lekeitioko andra mariko erretaula nagusiaren zaharberritza. Restauración del retablo mayor de Santa María de Lequeitio, (Guía de exposiciones, ), Bilbao, . Also: P. L. ECHEVERRÍA GOÑI, Erretaulak. Retablos,  vols., Bilbao, .  A. CABALLERO, Dueñas. Iglesia de Sta. María, Palencia, , pp. –.  Francisco DE CASO et al., La Catedral de Oviedo. Catálogo y bienes muebles,  vols., Oviedo, Ediciones Nobel, .  J. BARROSO YILLAR, ‘En torno al retablo mayor de la catedral de Oviedo’, in lmafronte, n° --, –, pp. –; F. DE CASO, ‘Historia del retablo mayor de la catedral de Oviedo’, in Academia, , , pp. –; Isabel María FRONTÓN, Francisco Javier PÉREZ CARRASCO, and Jesús María PURAS HIGUERAS, Retablo mayor de la Catedral de Oviedo, Oviedo, Hidroeléctrica del Cantábrico, .  Miguel Ángel GONZÁLEZ GARCÍA, ‘El intento de sustitución del retablo mayor de la catedral de Ourense a mediados del siglo XIX’ in Porta da aira. Revista de historia del arte orensano, , pp. –.  M. CHAMOSO LAMAS, La catedral de Orense, León, , pp. –.  Micaela PORTILLA VITORIA et al., Catálogo monumental de la Diócesis de Vitoria. VI. Las vertientes cantábricas del noroeste alavés, la ciudad de Orduña y sus aldeas, Vitoria/Gasteiz, , p. –; Lucía LAHOZ, ‘El retablo de Nuestra Señora de la Encina en Arceniega (Álava)’, in Kobie – Bellas Artes, , , pp. –.  Salvador HERNÁNDEZ GONZÁLEZ, La escultura en madera del Gótico final en Sevilla. La sillería del coro de la Catedral de Sevilla, Sevilla, Diputación de Sevilla, , pp.  –; Juan Luis RAVÉ PRIETO, La Parroquia de San Juan Bautista de Marchena, Sevilla, CODEXSA, ; José Fernando ALCAIDE AGUILAR, Iglesias, conventos y ermitas de la Serranía Suroeste. Un recorrido por el rico patrimonio religioso de la Serranía Suroeste de Sevilla, s.l., Asociación Serranía Suroeste Sevillana, s.d.  The altarpiece was moved to a different part of the church in , as it obscured three High-Gothic windows in the choir.  Antonio CEA GUTIÉRREZ, El tesoro de las reliquias. Colección de la Abadía Cisterciense de Cañas, Logroño, Fundación Caja Rioja, .

ENDNOTES

 José Gabriel MOYA VALGAÑÓN, ‘Santa María de Cañas y su museo‘, in Berceo, , , pp. –.  Jan-Karel STEPPE, ‘Het paneel van de Triniteit in het Leuvense Stadsmuseum. Nieuwe gegevens over een enigmatisch schilderij’, in Dirk Bouts en zijn tijd, exhib. cat., Leuven, , pp.  –. Like most of Steppe’s work, this fundamental study has never been translated into English.  Erretaulak. Retablos, ed. P.L. ECHEVERRÍA GOÑI, vol. , Vitoria/ Gasteiz, , pp. –; Le retable du Couronnement de la Vierge. Église de l’Assomption d’Errentería, ed. Maité BARRIO OLANO, Ion BERASAIN SALVARREDI and Cathéline PÉRIER-d’IETEREN, Brussels, Editechnart, .  There are similarities too with schemes found in Diego de Sagredo’s Las Medidas del Romano, ; see Jesús María PARRADO DEL OLMO, ‘Pedro de Guadalupe y Alonso Berruguete en el retablo de Olivares del Duero (Valladolid)’, in Boletín del Seminario de Arte y Arqueología (Valladolid), , , pp.  –; Carlos MARTÍN JIMÉNEZ, Retablos escultóricos: renacentistas y clasicistas, Valladolid, Diputación, . Other artists too had a hand in the altarpiece. Noteworthy elements are the grieving Mary in the triumphal group, and the inspired figures of James, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.  Juan José MARTÍNEZ GONZÁLEZ, ‘Actualidad del retablo mayor de Olivares del Duero’, in Boletín del Seminario de Arte y Arqueología (Valladolid), , , pp.  –; Javier BALADRÓN ALONSO, ‘La perla del Duero: el retablo mayor de la iglesia de San Pelayo de Olivares del Duero’, in http://artevalladolid.blogspot.be// [consulted  August ].  Salvador ANDRÉS ORDAX, Guía de Burgos, León, Ediciones Lancia, .  VANDENBROECK  [=].  Mario Ángel MARRODÁN, El retablo mayor de Santa María de Portugalete, Portugalete, Amigos de la Basilica, . Regarding Guiot de Beaugrant, see: Anna BERGMANS, ‘Enkele gegevens over de activiteiten van de beeldhouwer Guiot de Beaugrant in Bilbao (-)’, in Archivum artis lovaniense. Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van de kunst der Nederlanden opgedragen aan Prof.Em.Dr. J.K. Steppe, ed. Maurits SMEYERS, Leuven, Peeters, , pp. –; José Ángel BARRIO LOZA, Los Beaugrant en el contexto de la escultura manierista vasca, Bilbao, Museo de Bilbao/Caja de Ahorros Vizcaína, ; La escultura en la Ruta Jacobea: Arnao de Bruselas. Retablo Mayor de la Imperial Iglesia de Santa María de Palacio (Logroño), ed. Francisco FERNÁNDEZ PARDO, Logroño, , passim.  Cf. VANDENBROECK  [=].  Gerardo LÓPEZ DE GUEREÑU, Alava, solar de arte y de fe, Vitoria, Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad, , p. ; Maite BARRIO OLANO and Ion BERASAIN, ‘Consideraciones sobre el brocado aplicado en el retablo de la Puebla de Arganzón’, in Akobe: restauración y conservación de bienes culturales = ondasunen artapen eta berriztapena, n° , , pp. –; ibid., ‘El sistema constructivo en el retablo de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de la Puebla de Arganzón’, in Akobe: restauración y conservación de bienes culturales = ondasunen artapen eta berriztapena, n° , pp. –; ibid., ‘El retablo de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de La Puebla de Arganzón: estudio técnico’, in Homenaje a Micaela Portilla Vitoria. Jornadas in Memoriam. 21 febrero

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2007–24  febrero 2007, Vitoria/Gasteiz, Casa de Cultura Ignacio Aldecoa, , pp. –.  José Ramón NIETO GONZÁLEZ, Catálogo monumental del partido judicial de Zamora, Madrid, Dirección General de Bellas Artes, , pp. – , ill. –.  The vertical axis comprising Dormition–Assumption–Coronation of Mary is already found as early as the stained-glass window in Siena Cathedral designed by Duccio in c. –.  Catálogo monumental de Navarra. IV. Merindad de Sangüesa. JaurrietaYesa, ed. María Concepción GARCÍA GAINZA e.a., Pamplona, Gobierno de Navarra, , pp. – + pl. XL.  Catálogo monumental, op. cit., ill. .  El arte del Renacimiento en Navarra, ed. Ricardo FERNÁNDEZ GRACIA, Pamplona, Gobierno de Navarra, , p.  and ill. p. ; José Javier AZANZA LÓPEZ, ‘Armañanzas, tras las huellas de su iglesia, retablos y casas blasonadas’, in Los Arcos y su partido: tres siglos entre dos reinos, 14631753, ed. Román FELONES MORRÁS, Los Arcos, Ayuntamiento, , pp. –.  Carmen MORTE GARCÍA, i.a., ‘María de Urrea, priora y mecenas de las artes en el Real Monasterio de Sijena (-)’, in Emblemata. Revista Aragonesa de Emblemática, , , pp. –, esp. p. .  Anna BERGMANS, (see note ) in Archivum artis lovaniense. Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van de kunst der Nederlanden opgedragen aan Prof. Em.Dr. J.K. Steppe, ed. Maurits SMEYERS, Leuven, Peeters, .  J.A. LIZARRALDE, Historia de la Universidad de Sancti Spiritus de Oñate, Tolosa, , p. ; I. ZUMALDE, Historia de Oñate, San Sebastián, Diputación de Guipúzcoa, , p.  ; Oñatiko Historia eta arte bilduma / Inventario histórico-artístico del Valle de Oñati, Vitoria/Gasteiz, Biblioteca Pública Municipal de Oñati, , pp.  and ; Jesús María GONZÁLEZ DE ZARATE and Mariano J. RUIZ DE AEL, Humanismo y arte en la Universidad de Oñate, Vitoria/Gasteiz, Instituto Ephialte , p.  ; Jesús María GONZÁLEZ DE ZARATE GARCÍA, Arquitectura e iconografía en la Universidad de Oñate, Pamplona, Sendoa, , pp. –; M. FORNELLS ANGELATS, La Universidad de Oñati y el Renacimiento, Donostia/San Sebastián, Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa, , pp. –.  J.J. MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ, ‘Tipología e iconografía del retablo español del Renacimiento’, in Boletín del Seminario de Arte y Arqueología (Valladolid), ; María ARRAZOLA ECHEVERRIA, Renacimiento en Guipúzcoa. II. Escultura, San Sebastián/Donostia, Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia, , pp. –; P.L. ECHEVERRIA GOÑI e.a., Erretaulak / Retablos. Euskadi, vol. , Vitoria/ Gasteiz, Euskal Kultura Ondarearen Zentroko Katalogoak, , pp. –.  Patrimonio histórico restaurado en Andalucía 1987-97. Retablos, Málaga, Junta de Andalucía, .  Alberto IBÁÑEZ PÉREZ, ‘El escultor Ortega de Córdoba y los retablos de Fontecha (Álava) y Padrones de Bureba (Burgos)’, in Boletín del Seminario de Arte y Arqueología (Valladolid), , pp. –.  Francisco Javier RÚA ALLER and María Jesús GARCÍA ARMESTO, ‘San Mamed en Maragatería’, in Argutorio, , , pp. –.  Unfortunately, several elements of the ensemble were stolen in  by the notorious Belgian thief Eric, known in Spain as ‘El Belga’, and are still missing (see also note ).

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ENDNOTES

 Grañón. Un retablo para el futuro, (A través del camino de Santiago), Vitoria, Gobierno de La Rioja, . See: https://skfb.ly/QPGD  Micaela PORTILLA, ‘El retablo mayor de Arriola (Álava, País Basco) y los escultores Pedro Borges, Andrés de araoz y Felipe de Borgóña’, in Archivum artis lovaniense. Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van de kunst der Nederlanden opgedragen aan Prof.Em.Dr. J.K. Steppe, ed. Maurits SMEYERS, Leuven, Peeters, , pp. –.  Emilio ENCISO VIANA, ‘El arte flamenco en la Rioja alavesa (España) (siglo XVI)’, in Archivum artis lovaniense. Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van de kunst der Nederlanden opgedragen aan Prof.Em.Dr. J.K. Steppe, ed. Maurits SMEYERS, Leuven, Peeters, , pp. –.  Raquel SAENZ PASCUAL, ‘En torno al retablo de Ribera de Valderejo’, in Ondare, , , pp. –.  Julián RUIZ NAVARRO, ‘La iglesia de Alberite y su retablo mayor’, in Berceo, , , pp.  –; Francisco FERNÁNDEZ PARDO and Julián RUIZ NAVARRO, ‘El retablo de Alberite’, in La escultura en la Ruta Jacobea: Arnao de Bruselas, Logroño, Diócesis de Calahorra y La Calzada, , pp. –.  Aurelio BARRÓN GARCÍA, ‘Orígenes, formación y testamento del escultor renacentista Arnaut Spierinck, o Arnao de Bruselas’, in Santander. Estudios de Patrimonio, , , pp. –.  As in around , for instance, in the Church of St  John the Evangelist in the village of Arrabal de Portillo (Valladolid). Compared to the monumental altarpieces studied here, this Renaissance example is rather modest and its iconographical content relatively limited and incoherent. In the vertical axis, St  Anne holds Mary and her Son on her lap, while the Assumption is represented on the second tier. The lateral bays and niche at the top contain statues of five male saints. Jesús María PARRADO DEL OLMO, ‘La huella del retablo de San Benito de Alonso Berruguete en el obispado de Palencia’, in Laboratorio del arte, , , pp. –, esp. p. .  María Teresa ÁLVAREZ CLAVIJO, ‘El retablo mayor de la Imperial Iglesia de Santa María de Palacio’, in La escultura en la ruta jacobea: Arnao de Bruselas, ed. Francisco FERNÁNDEZ PARDO, Logroño, Diócesis de Calahorra y La Calzada, .  Susan GREEN, Tree of Jesse Iconography in Northern Europe in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, New York, Routledge, .  José Luis MORENO MARTÍNEZ, ‘La teología del retablo mayor de Santa María de Palacio‘, in La escultura en la ruta jacobea: Arnao de Bruselas, Logroño, Diócesis de Calahorra y La Calzada-Logroño, , pp. –.  Now in the Museo Diocesano in the Cathedral of Calahorra (La Rioja). See: Ana María GALILEA ANTON, Aportación al estudio de la pintura gótica sobre tabla y sarga en La Rioja, Logroño, Comunidad Autónoma de La Rioja, , p. -.  Laura & Carmen GUTIÉRREZ RUEDA,  Robledo de Chavela, un pueblo en la historia, Madrid, L y C, .  Dismantled during the nineteenth century; this history is too complex to be elucidated here. See: Cristina VILLAR BUENO, Intervención en el retablo de San Benito en el Museo Nacional de Escultura de Valladolid: trayectoria del retablo de San Benito, obra de Alonso Berruguete, in Museos.es: Revista de la Subdirección General de Museos Estatales, ,  p.  -; Manuel ARÍAS MARTÍNEZ, Alonso Berruguete, criado de Francisco de los Cobos. Una carta a María de Mendoza y la tasación del retablo de San Benito el Real de Valladolid, in Boletín de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes, , , p. -.

 Now in Burgos, Iglesia San Esteban, Museo de Retablos.  Now in Vitoria/Gasteiz, Museo Diocesano de Arte Sacro, no. .  Rafael MARTÍNEZ GONZÁLEZ, ’La escultura en el siglo XVI en el obispado de Palencia. Juan de Valmaseda’, in Boletín Real Academia de Bellas Artes de la Purísima Concepción, .  Gerardo LÓPEZ DE GUEREÑU, Álava, solar de arte y de fé, Vitoria, , p.  & ill. p. .  Translated from the church of the despoblado (abandoned village) of Negeruela.  Gerardo LÓPEZ DE GUEREÑU, Álava, solar de arte y de fé, Vitoria, , p.  & ill. p. . Sixteenth-century reliefs in later altar construction.  Gerardo LÓPEZ DE GUEREÑU, Álava, solar de arte y de fé, Vitoria, , p. -.  Gerardo LÓPEZ DE GUEREÑU, Álava, solar de arte y de fé, Vitoria, , p. -, & ill. p. .  El arte del renacimiento en Navarra, ed. Ricardo FERNÁNDEZ GRACIA, Pamplona, Gobierno de Navarra, , pp. , , , , .  Ibid. pp. , , , , .  See, for instance, the examples from the second half of the sixteenth century in: Aurelio BARRÓN GARCÍA, ‘Juan Fernández de Vallejo y el taller de Arnao de Bruselas’, in Boletín del Seminario de Arte y de Arqueología (Valladolid), , , pp. –.  Between  and , we studied almost all of his works in Andalusia. We are currently preparing a monograph of his oeuvre.  María Teresa RODRÍGUEZ BOTE, ‘D’imagier à ymaginero: la présence de sculpteurs septentrionaux en Espagne aux XVe-XVIe siècles’, in Bulletin du centre d’études médiévales d’Auxerre/BUCEMA, .,  [online].  Marta DOMÍNGUEZ DELMÁS and Harry VAN DEN BERSELAAR, ‘Nederlands hout op drift. Over handelsroutes en de herkomst van hout van de Late Middeleeuwen tot in de e eeuw’, in Vitruvius, , , pp. -; Harry VAN DEN BERSELAAR, ‘Een Brabantse erfenis in Spanje’, in inbrabant. Tijdschrift voor Brabants heem en erfgoed, , , pp. -  Florencio Javier GARCÍA MOGOLLÓN, Concatedral de Cáceres Santa María la Mayor, León, Edilesa, ; José HERNÁNDEZ DÍAZ, ‘Roque de Balduque en Santa María de Cáceres’, in Archivo español de arte, , , pp. –; X., ‘El retablo de la Concatedral de Cáceres’, in Boletín de información técnica, n° , , pp. –.  Javier GONZÁLEZ TORRES, ‘La primera capilla sacramental en la Andalucía del siglo XVI. La parroquia de Medina Sidonia (Cádiz) y la gestación de un proyecto pionero’, in Trocadero, , , pp. –.  BYNUM .  BYNUM , p. .  Juan Luis BASTERO DE ELEIZALDE, ‘El dogma de la Inmaculada Concepción. Breve recorrido histórico-teológico’, in Anales teológicos, , , pp. –; David MARTÍNEZ VILCHES, ‘La Inmaculada Concepción en España. Un estado de la cuestión, in ‘Ilu. Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones’, , , pp. –; MAYBERRY, Nancy, ‘The controversy over the Immaculate Conception in medieval and Renaissance art, literature, and society’, in Journal of medieval and Renaissance studies, , , p. –.  BOVER , p. .  BOVER , p. .  BOVER , p. .

ENDNOTES

 André WILMART, ‘L’ancien récit de l’Assomption’, in Studi e testi, ,  et seq., pp. –.  BOVER , p. .  M. CHAINE, ‘Les discours de Théodose, patriarche d’Alexandrie, sur la Dormition’, in Revue de l’Orient Chrétien, –, pp. –. See also: M. JUGIE, ‘La mort et l’assomption de la Sainte Vierge dans la tradition des cinq premiers siècles’, in Revue des études byzantines, , pp. –; ID., L’Immaculée Conception dans l’Écriture Sainte et dans la tradition orientale, Rome, ; A. WENGER, L’Assomption de la T. S. Vierge dans la tradition byzantine du VIe au Xe siècle, Paris, Institut Français d’Études Byzantines, Paris .  BOVER , p.  and .  BOVER , p. .  BOVER , p. .  BOVER , p. : ‘Assumpta est Maria in caelum cum corpore et anima’; the author explains this in terms of the ‘dignities’ (dignitates) of Mary.  BOVER , pp. –. See also: C. PIANA, Assumptio B. Virginis Mariae apud scriptores saec(uli) XIII, Rome, .  BOVER , p. : the decay of the body is the result of original sin; Mary was free of this, and so it was possible for her glorified body to be borne up into heaven.  BOVER , p. : ‘corpus b(eatae) virginis, quod firmiter credimus in caelestibus cum Domino gloriosum esse […]’; cf. Francisco Javier PÉREZ DE RADA, El arzobispo don Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, Madrid, Fundación Jaureguízar, .  BOVER , p. : ‘Beata virgo in corpore […] est assumpta […] Surrexit Dominus […] surrexit et arca sanctificationis eius, cum in hac die mater virgo ad aethereum thalamum est assumpta’.  BOVER , pp. –: the Blessed Virgin asks the author in a mystical dialogue to put forward the arguments in favour of her bodily glorification and assumption.  BOVER , pp. –.  BOVER , p. , See also Jesús POLO CARRASCO, ‘Sancho Porta, O.P.: Mariale (Lugduni ). Edición facsímil e introducción’, in Scripta de María, , pp. –.  BOVER , pp. –: the tenth ‘dignity’ of the Virgin was that she arose ‘with a glorified body’ (in corpus gloriosum).  BOVER , p. –.  BOVER , pp. –.  An extraordinary and so far unstudied treatise in this regard is: Bartholomaeus RIMBERTINUS, Insignis atque praeclarus de deliciis sensibilibus paradisi liber cum singulari tractatu de quattuor instinctibus, Paris, Johannes Parvus and Jodocus Badius Ascensius, .  BYNUM , p. .  Countless modern authors have written in a rather clichéd manner concerning a ‘medieval hatred of the body’. It has been rightly noted, however, that it was precisely those saints with the keenest sensitivity to the body-soul conflict and the greatest ascetism who possessed the clearest and most intense awareness of the potential for bodily revelation and approach of God. See: Caroline BYNUM, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: the Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women, Berkeley, University of California Press, , passim.  Katherine SMITH, ‘Bodies of Unsurpassed Beauty: “Living” Images of the Virgin in the High Middle Ages’, in Viator, , , pp. –.

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 Fernando BAÑOS VALLEJO, ‘Belleza y virtud en las “vidas de María” castellanas’, in Medievalia (Barcelona), , , pp. –.  Jorge MARTÍN VALLE, ‘Un lenguaje musical entorno a la Virgen María y la mujer: la imagen sonora del sufrimiento y la belleza en la música del Renacimiento’, in Revista de musicología, , , pp. –.  Susan STRATTON, The Immaculate Conception in Spanish Art, Cambridge, Cambridge U.P., ; La Inmaculada Concepción en España: religiosidad, historia y arte, ed. Francisco Javier CAMPOS, Patrimonio Nacional, Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, .  Ángela MÚÑOZ FERNÁNDEZ, ‘María y el marco teológico de la Querella de las Mujeres (Interferencias y transferencias con los debates culturales de la Castilla siglo XV)’, in Arenal. Revista de historia de las mujeres, , , pp. –.  Montserrat CABRE I PAIRET, ‘Beautiful bodies’, in A Cultural History of the Human Body in the Medieval Age, ed. C. KALOF, Oxford, Berg, , pp. –.  Lesley TWOMEY, ‘Sor Isabel de Villena, her Vita Christi and an Example of Gendered Immaculist Writing in the Fifteenth Century’, in La Corónica: A Journal of Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures and Cultures, , , pp. –; Estrella RUIZ GALVEZ, ‘Sine labe. El inmaculismo en la España de los siglos XV-XVII: La proyección social de un imaginario religioso’, in Revista de Dialectología y Tradiciones Populares, , , pp. –.  Estrella RUIZ-GÁLVEZ PRIEGO, ‘La Inmaculada: emblema de la firmeza femenina’, in Arenal, , , pp. –.  Mercedes NAVARRO PUERTO, ‘La paradoja de María’, in Ephemerides Mariologicae, , , pp. –.  Juan CRUZ CRUZ, ‘Finalidad femenina de la creación? Antropología bajomedieval de la mujer’, in Anuario Filosófico, , , pp. –.  Luis BERNABÉ PONS, Los moriscos: conflicto, expulsión y diáspora, Madrid, Catarata, .  The ‘Mother of Sorrows’ (Virgen de los Dolores) and ‘Our Lady of Solitude’ (Soledad) were added to these, primarily from the Baroque era onwards.  ROBINSON , p. .  Alexandra CUFFEL, ‘“Henceforward all generations will call me blessed”: medieval Christian tales of non-Christian Marian veneration‘, in Mediterranean Studies, , , pp. –.  ROBINSON , p. .  Alexandra CUFFEL, ‘From practice to polemic: shared saints and festivals as “women’s religion” in the medieval Mediterranean’, in Bulletin of the School of African and Oriental Studies, , , pp. –.  N. CROY and Alice CONNOR, ‘Mantic Mary? The Virgin Mother as Prophet in Luke :– and the Early Church’, in Journal for the study of the New Testament, , , pp. –.  ROBINSON , p. .  The Arabic root b-t-l implies ‘to be separated, to cut off, to dedicate oneself exclusively to divine worship’; see A. de BIBERSTEIN KAZIMIRSKI, Dictionnaire arabe-français, , Beyrouth, Librairie du Liban, s.d. (p.  , sub voce.)  SCHLEIFER , pp. –.  SCHLEIFER , p. .  SCHLEIFER , p. .

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ENDNOTES

 Carl ERNST, Ruzbihan Baqli: Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism, Surrey, Curzon, 1996.  ROBINSON , p. .  ROBINSON , p. : ‘Mariam no tuvo incendio carnaloso y por es dicen los arábigos que no la tocó estímulo de la carne y que fue butativa espiritual que, hablando en buen romance quiere decir ladrona que hurtó al mundo los gustos espirituales y quedó su gusto corporal infecundo’.  ROBINSON , pp. –.  ROBINSON , p. .  América. Bride of the Sun. 500 years Latin America and the Low Countries, exhib. cat., ed. Paul VANDENBROECK and M.-Cathérine de ZEGHER, Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, , passim.  ROBINSON , p. .  ROBINSON , p. .  Nuria SILLERAS FERNÁNDEZ, Chariots of Ladies: Francesc Eiximenis and the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia, Ithaca, Cornell U.P., , p. .  ROBINSON , p. .  A. FERNÁNDEZ DE MADRID, Francisco Javier MARTÍNEZ MEDINA, and Felix OLMEDO, Vida de Fray Fernando de Talavera: primer Arzobispo de Granada, Granada, Universidad de Granada, ; Carolyn SALOMONS, ‘A Church United in Itself: Hernando de Talavera and the Religious Culture of Fifteenth-Century Castile’, in Catholic Historical review, , , pp. –.  T. HERRERO DEL COLLADO, ‘El proceso inquisitorial por delito de herejía contra Hernando de Talavera’, in Anuario de historia del derecho español, , , pp. –.  In some regions, a similar phenomenon can be observed today: Maura HEARDEN, ‘Ambassador for the Word: Mary as a bridge for dialogue between Catholicism and Islam’, in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, , , pp. –; Maura HEARDEN, ‘Lessons from Zeitoun: a Marian proposal for Christian-Muslim dialogue’, in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, , , pp. –.  Dario FERNÁNDEZ MORERA, The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain, Wilmington, ISI Books, .  Gustave DEPONT and Xavier COPPOLANI, Les confréries religieuses musulmanes, Paris, Maisonneuve, ; Émile DERMENGHEM, Le culte des saints dans l’Islam maghrébin, (Espace humaine, ), Paris, ; Ernest GELLNER, Saints of the Atlas, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, ; Les ordres mystiques dans l’Islam: cheminements et situation actuelle. Actes de la table ronde organisée à Paris les 13 et 14 mai 1982, Paris, EHESS, .  Maurice MACNAMEE, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, , , pp. –. The criticism expressed by VANDENBROECK  and BORCHERT  is incorrect.  MACNAMEE .  ‘Crux fidelis inter omnes/ arbor una nobilis:/ nulla silva talem profert/ fronde, flore, germine./ Dulce lignum, dulces clavos/ dulce pondus sustinet’.  ‘Pange lingua gloriosi/lauream certaminis/ et super crucis trophaeo/ dic triumphum nobilem:/ qualiter redemptor orbis/ immolatus vicerit’.  ‘Vagit infans inter arcta/ conditus praesepia,/ membra pannis involuta/ virgo mater alligat // et dei manus pedesque/ stricta cingit fascia’.

 ‘Lustra sex qui iam peregit,/ tempus implens corporis,/ sponte libera redemptor/ passioni deditus,/ agnus in crucis levatur/ immolandus stipite’.  ‘Quando venit ergo sacri/ plenitudo temporis,/ missus est ab arce patris/ natus orbis conditor./ Atque ventre virginali/ carne amictus prodiit’.  As depicted, for instance, in the fresco showing Pope Clement IV in the Tour Ferrande in Pernes-les-Fontaines (Vaucluse).  Lajos KALMAR, ‘Über die ihrem Charakter nach ‘uniformiter difformis’-Ausdehnung des Triangulums als Muster der mittelalterlichen Darstellung geschichtlicher Abläufe (Eine Untersuchung über die Koordination der Dreiecksminiatur im ‘Psalterium decem cordarum’ des Joachim de Fiore vom tropologisch-ikonologischen Aspekt aus)’, in Acta historiae artium academiae scientiarum hungaricae, , , pp. –.  ‘Sempiterna sit beatae/ trinitati gloria:/ aequa patri, filioque:/ par decus paraclito:/ unius trinique nomen/laudet universitas’.  MACNAMEE , pp. –.  Carla GOTTLIEB, ‘The mystical window in paintings of the Salvator Mundi’, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, th series, vol. , , pp. –.  MACNAMEE , p. .  ‘Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine/ et sanctam resurrectionem laudamus/ et glorificamus: ecce enim propter/ lignum venit gaudium in universo mundo’.  The unit of measurement in sixteenth-century Spain was either the pie castellano (. cm) or the pie romano (. cm). Use of the first would make the choir approx.  cm wide and the second approx.  cm.  Ambrosius Benson’s ‘Assumption’ belongs to the Iglesia de la Asunción in Navarrete, a few miles from Nájera. Perhaps a smaller and ‘more modern’ (c. ) version of Memling’s Nájera ‘Assumption’ was sought for that location. Another triptych by Benson – the ‘Lamentation’ – actually came from the Iglesia de la Santa Cruz in Nájera, although this seventeenth-century church was a ‘spin-off’ as it were of the old Capilla de la Santa Cruz in Santa María la Real itself. See Old Master Paintings: Evening sale. 9 July 2008, no. . The triptych must therefore have been intended originally for the abbey.  The Antwerp panels – in ‘oblong’ format – measure  ×  cm (central panel) and  ×  cm (side panels), giving a total of  ×  cm including the original frames. The Assumption must have been a vertical rectangle or at least a square ( ×  cm plus frame). The six saints’ portraits mentioned in  might in theory have formed the lowest horizontal register, with a tabernacle or the Romanesque Sedes sapientiae cult figure, for instance, at the centre (the predella was sometimes configured differently to the rest of the altarpiece); if so, we do not know which scenes appeared to the left and right of the Assumption. A second possibility is that they were located on either side of the Assumption, but that the altarpiece only had two horizontal registers. However, not only would this have been anomalous compared to other monumental altarpieces in Spain at the time, it also implies extremely narrow (approx.  cm) and very tall (approx. – cm) panels – proportions that are not feasible.  Jean LE PICHON, Le mystère du couronnement de la Vierge, Paris, Laffont, ; Frans BAUDOUIN, ‘De kroning van Maria door de Drieëenheid in de vijftiende-eeuwse schilderkunst der Nederlanden. Iconografische vaststellingen naar aanleiding van Dieric Bouts’ “Kroning van Maria” te Wenen’, in Bulletin van de Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België, , , pp. –.  VANDENBROECK .

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VANDENBROECK, Paul, ‘The “nameless motif”: on the cross-cultural iconography of an energetic form’, in Antwerp Royal Museum Annual  [=], pp. –.

List of Illustrations

. Hans Memling and workshop, –. Music making angels. Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, n° . . Hans Memling and workshop, –. Christ/God among singing angels. Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, n° . . Hans Memling and workshop, –. Music making angels. Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, n° . . Gregorio DE ARGAIZ, La soledad laureada, Madrid, Bernardo de Herbada, , p. . . Hans Memling and workshop, –. Christ/God among singing angels : the figure of Christ. Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, n° . . Anonymous hispano-flamenco sculptor, c. ff. Assumption (from Somalo). Logroño, Catedral Santa María la Redonda. . ‘Maestro de las Once Mil Virgenes’, c. . Assumption. Madrid, Museo del Prado, n° P. . Diego de la Cruz, . Assumption. Madrid, Museo del Prado, n° . . Pedro Berruguete, c. . Assumption. Oviedo, Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias. . Alejo de Vahía (?) and others, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Monzón de Campos (Palencia), Iglesia Parroquial El Salvador. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption (From Santa María la Blanca, Torremuña de Cameros). Logroño (La Rioja), Museo de la Rioja (Palacio de Espartero). . Anonymous masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Original situation in Torremuña de Cameros, Santa María la Blanca. . Pedro Díaz de Oviedo (active c.  –) and others, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Tudela (Navarra), Cathedral. . Anonypous hispano-Flemish masters, c. . High altar. Santa María del Paular de Rascafría (Madrid), Cartuja. . Anonymous hispano-Flemish masters, c. . Retable, detail : Assumption of the Virgin. Santa María del Paular de Rascafría (Madrid), Cartuja. . Anonymous masters of the Burgos school, –. Retable of the Assumption. Gumiel de Izán (Burgos), Iglesia de la Asunción. . Anonymous masters of the Burgos school, –. Retable of the Assumption. Upper part of the altarpiece. Gumiel de Izán (Burgos), Iglesia de la Asunción.

. Anonymous masters of the Burgos school, –. Retable of the Assumption. Central part. Gumiel de Izán (Burgos), Iglesia de la Asunción. . Anonymous masters of the Burgos school, –. Retable of the Assumption Detail : Assumption. Gumiel de Izán (Burgos), Iglesia de la Asunción. . Oliveiro de Gante and João d’Ypres, –. Retable of the Assumption. Coimbra (Portugal), Cathedral. . Oliveiro de Gante and João d’Ypres, –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Coimbra (Portugal), Cathedral. . ‘Maestro de Bolea’ (painter) and Gil de Brabante (sculptor), c.  – . Retable of the Assumption. Bolea (Huesca), Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor. . Master of Palanquinos (active c.  –), c.  . Retable of the Assumption. (From Santa María de Arbás). Mayorga de Campos (Valladolid), Iglesia del Salvador. . Master of Palanquinos (active c.  –), c.  . Retable of the Assumption. (From Santa María de Arbás). Detail : Virgin and Child, c. . Mayorga de Campos (Valladolid), Iglesia del Salvador. . Master of Palanquinos (active c.  –), c.  . Retable of the Assumption. (From Santa María de Arbás). Detail : central axis. Mayorga de Campos (Valladolid), Iglesia del Salvador. . Pedro Gumiel, Enrique Egas, Sebastián de Almonacid, Juan de Borgoña, Copín de Holanda, Peti Jean, and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Toledo (Toledo), Cathedral. . Pedro Gumiel, Enrique Egas, Sebastián de Almonacid, Juan de Borgoña, Copín de Holanda, Peti Jean, and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Toledo (Toledo), Cathedral. . Gil de Siloé (?), c. . Retable in the funerary chapel of García Martínez de Mazuelo and Alonso de Lerma Polanco. Burgos (Burgos), Iglesia de San Gil, Capilla de la Buena Mañana. . Gil de Siloé (?), c. . Retable in the funerary chapel of García Martínez de Mazuelo and Alonso de Lerma Polanco. Detail : Assumption. Burgos (Burgos), Iglesia de San Gil, Capilla de la Buena Mañana. . Master from the circle of Pedro Díaz de Oviedo, and other masters, c. – . Retable of the Assumption. Marañón (Navarra), Iglesia de la Asunción.

144

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

. Master from the circle of Pedro Díaz de Oviedo, and other masters, c. – . Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Marañón (Navarra), Iglesia de la Asunción. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Olano (Álava), Iglesia de San Bartolomé. . Anonymous masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Olano (Álava), Iglesia de San Bartolomé. . Anonymous masters, c. , with Baroque modifications. Retable of the Assumption. Trujillo (Cáceres), Cathedral. . Anonymous masters, c. , with Baroque modifications. Retable of the Assumption. Detail: central part. Trujillo (Cáceres), Cathedral. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Inmaculate Conception. Valencia, Convento de la Puridad. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Inmaculate Conception. Detail : the mandorla. Valencia, Convento de la Puridad. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Inmaculate Conception. Detail : Dormition and Coronation of the Holy Virgin. Valencia, Convento de la Puridad. . Pedro Berruguete (–), the Master of Becerril, and other masters, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Becerril de Campos (Palencia), IglesiaMuseo de Santa María. . Various masters, c. –. Retablo mayor. Sevilla, Cathedral. . Pedro de Guadalupe, Juan de Flandes, Felipe Vigarny, and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Palencia (Palencia), Cathedral. . Pedro de Guadalupe, Juan de Flandes, Felipe Vigarny, and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Palencia (Palencia), Cathedral. . Pedro de Guadalupe, Juan de Flandes, Felipe Vigarny, and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Deatil : the Holy Virgin. Palencia (Palencia), Cathedral. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Villaescusa de Haro (Cuenca), Iglesia de San Pedro, Capilla de la Asunción. . Anonymous masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Dormition. Villaescusa de Haro (Cuenca), Iglesia de San Pedro, Capilla de la Asunción. . Felipe Vigarny and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Cathedral, Capilla de Santa Teresa. . Felipe Vigarny and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Cathedral, Capilla de Santa Teresa. . School of Felipe Vigarny and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Ezcaray (La Rioja), Santa María la Mayor.

. Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial. . Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial. . Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial. . Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial. . Juan García de Crisal and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Lekeitio (Bizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial. . ‘Master Antonio’ and Alonso de Ampudia, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Dueñas (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa María de la Asunción. . Giralte de Bruselas, Juan de Balsameda, Guillermo de Holanda, Estebán de Amberes, León Picardo and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Oviedo (Oviedo), Cathedral. . Cornielis de Holanda and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Ourense (Ourense), Cathedral. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Detail : Assumption. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Detail : the Holy Virgin. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of Our Lady of the Oak. Arceniega (Álava), Nuestra Señora de la Encina. . Anonymous Flemish masters, . Retable of the Assumption. Llanes (Asturias), Santa María del Concejo. . Anonymous masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Zeanuri (Vizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial. . Alejo Fernández, Jorge Alemán, and other masters, –. Retable of the Assumption. Marchena (Sevilla), Iglesia de San Juan. . Guillén de Holanda, Andrés de Melgar, and other masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Cañas (La Rioja), Museo de Santa María de Cañas. . Anonymous Brussels masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Errentería (Guipúzcoa), Iglesia de Santa María. . Anonymous masters, c.–. Retable of the Assumption. Olivares de Duero (Valladolid), Iglesia de San Pelayo.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

145

. Juan Martínez de Ayala I, Diego Ruiz (?), Jean de Beaugrant, and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Markina-Xemein (Vizcaya), Iglesia de la Asunción.

. Ortega de Córdoba and other masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Originally in Padrones de Bureba (Burgos). Burgos, Museo de Retablos (Iglesia de San Estebán).

. Juan Martínez de Ayala I, Diego Ruiz (?), Jean de Beaugrant, and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Markina-Xemein (Vizcaya), Iglesia de la Asunción.

. Ortega de Córdoba and other masters, c. . Drawing of the Retable of the Assumption from Padrones de Bureba (Burgos). Burgos, Museo de Retablos (Iglesia de San Estebán).

. Anonymous masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Burgos (Burgos), Iglesia de San Gil, Capilla de la Natividad de María.

. Juan de Larrumbe, Juan de Anitua, Pedro de Orma, and other masters, c. ff.

. Anonymous masters, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Iconographical schema. Burgos (Burgos), Iglesia de San Gil, Capilla de la Natividad de María.

Retable of the Assumption. Ziortza (Vizcaya), Iglesia de Santa María (Colegiata de Santa María de Cenarruza).

. Anonymous masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Elexalde-Galdakao (Vizcaya), Iglesia Parroquial.

. Guiot, Jehan, Mateo Beaugrant and other masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Sonsierra (Álava), Iglesia de San Vicente.

. Damian Forment and other masters, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Santo Domingo de la Calzada (La Rioja), Cathedral.

. Bernal Forment & Jean de Beaugrant, –. Retablo mayor. Grañón (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Juan Bautista.

. Damian Forment and other masters, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption and the mandorla with the Eucharist. Santo Domingo de la Calzada (La Rioja), Cathedral.

. Anonymous masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Arriola (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial.

. Guiot de Beaugrant, Jean de Beaugrant, Juan de Ayala  II, and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Portugalete (Vizcaya), Iglesia de Santa María.

. Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Arriola (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial. . Guiot de Beaugrant and other masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. El Villar (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial.

. Anonymous masters, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. La Puebla de Arganzón (Álava), Santa María de la Asunción.

. Guiot de Beaugrant and other masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. El Villar (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial.

. Pedro Diez and Lorenzo de Ávila, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Toro (Zamora), Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor.

. Anonymous masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. From Ribera de Valderejo, Iglesia de San Martín. Vitoria/Gasteiz, Museo de Bellas Artes.

. Blas de Oña and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Pajares de la Lampreana (Zamora), Santa María del Templo.

. ‘Maestre Anse’, Arnao de Bruselas (= Andreas Spierinck), and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Alberite (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Martín.

. Gabriel Joly, Juan Pérez Vizcaíno, and other masters, –. Retable of the Assumption. Sangüesa (Navarra), Iglesia de Santa María la Real.

. Pedro de Bustamante, Juan de Goyaz, Arnao de Bruselas, and other masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Logroño (La Rioja), Santa María del Palacio.

 Gabriel Joly, Juan Pérez Vizcaíno, and other masters, –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Holy Virgin and the Child. Sangüesa (Navarra), Iglesia de Santa María la Real. . Anonymous masters, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Armañanzas (Navarra), Iglesia Parroquial. . ‘Maestro Anse’ and other masters, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Albelda de Iregua (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Martín. . Pierre Picart, Jerónimo Rodríguez and Cristóbal Bustamante, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Oñate (Navarra), Iglesia de San Miguel, Capilla de Sancto Spiritu. . ‘Maestro de Becerril’ or Juan Ortiz el Viejo, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Originally in Becerril de Campos (Palencia), Iglesia de San Pedro. Málaga (Málaga), Iglesia del Sagrario. . ‘Maestro de Becerril’ or Juan Ortiz el Viejo, c. . Drawing of the Retable of the Assumption. Drawing. Málaga (Málaga), Iglesia del Sagrario.

. Pedro de Bustamante, Juan de Goyaz, Arnao de Bruselas, and other masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Logroño (La Rioja), Santa María del Palacio. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Villamediana (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa Columba. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Villamediana (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa Columba. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Photograph of . Robledo de Chavela (Madrid), Iglesia de la Asunción. . Alonso Berruguete, –. Retable for the church of the Monasterio San Benito el Real. Virtual reconstruction. . Alonso Berruguete, –. Retable for the church of the Monasterio San Benito el Real. Detail : the Assumption and surrounding scenes. Valladolid, Museo Nacional de Escultura.

146

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

. Diego de Torres & Ortega de Córdoba, . Retable of the Assumption. From Fontecha (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial. Vitoria/Gasteiz, Museo Diocesano de Arte Sacro, no. . . Juan de Valmaseda & Jean de Cambray, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Torremormojón (Palencia), Iglesia de Santa María del Castillo. . Anonymous masters, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Provenance : despoblado of Negeruela. Villalba de Rioja (La Rioja), Iglesia de San Pelayo. . Juan de Valmaseda and/or Juan Ortiz el Viejo, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. San Cebrián de los Campos (Palencia), Iglesia de San Cornelio y San Cipriano. . Juan de Ayala y Jerónimo de Nogueras, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Katadiano (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial. . Juan de Ayala y Jerónimo de Nogueras, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Katadiano (Álava), Iglesia Parroquial. . Anonymous masters, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. From Markinez, Iglesia de Santa Eulalia. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Museo de Arte Sacro, n° . . Arnao de Bruselas & Andrés de Araoz, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Genevilla (Navarra), Iglesia de San Esteban. . Arnao de Bruselas & Andrés de Araoz, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Genevilla (Navarra), Iglesia de San Esteban. . Arnao de Bruselas & other masters, c. . Retable of the Assumption. Lapoblación (Navarra), Iglesia Parroquial.

. Diego de Araoz & other masters, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Detail : the Assumption. Lapoblación (Navarra), Iglesia Parroquial. . Diego de Araoz & other masters, c.  . Retable of the Assumption. Piedramillera (Navarra), Iglesia Parroquial.  Roque de Bolduque, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajóz), Iglesia de Santa Ana. . Roque de Bolduque, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajóz), Iglesia de Santa Ana. . Roque de Bolduque, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Resurrection of Christ. Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajóz), Iglesia de Santa Ana. . Roque de Bolduque and Guillén Ferrán, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Cáceres (Extremadura), Concatedral Santa María. . Roque de Bolduque and Guillén Ferrán, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Detail : Assumption. Cáceres (Extremadura), Concatedral Santa María. . Roque de Bolduque, Juan Bautista Vázquez  I, Melchor Turín, Andrés López del Castillo, Nicolás León, c.  –. Retable of the Assumption. Medina Sidonia (Cádiz), Iglesia de Santa María la Coronada. . Alonso Hipólito & Guillén Ferrán, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Arroyo de la Luz (Cáceres), Iglesia de Santa María. . Alonso Hipólito & Guillén Ferrán, c. –. Retable of the Assumption. Arroyo de la Luz (Cáceres), Iglesia de Santa María.

Colophon

Special thanks to Jan Van der Stock, director of Illuminare – Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Art Translation:

Ted Alkins

Editorial work:

Julie Beckers (Illuminare – KU Leuven) Annelies Vogels (Illuminare – KU Leuven) Wendy Wauters (Illuminare – KU Leuven)

Illustrations:

Maité Barrio Olano (Albayalde – Centro de Restauración, Donostia/ San Sebastián) Aintzane Erkizia (Universidad del País Basco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Bilbao) Jesús Múñiz Petralanda (Universidad del País Basco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Bilbao Justin Kroesen (University of Bergen, Norway)

Research trips (retables by Roque de Bolduque): Pé Vermeersch