There are four altar-screens which are known certainly to be the work of Damian Forment, but of these only two are important. The first in date is the retablo of the Virgen del Pilar at Zaragoza (Plate 74), which was begun in 1509, the year in which Forment returned from Italy, and was finished eleven years later, in 1520. It has three large bas-reliefs, surrounded by a framing, and placed under a series of pinnacles and divided by pilasters, while above is a predilla containing seven small groups. In the centre of the three large groups is an exquisitely fine Annunciation of the Virgin, and on either side are the Birth and the Purification. Injudicious washings have ruined the polychrome, and no traces of colour remain except on two figures placed on the right and left of the altar. From these we can judge how fine the polychrome must once have been. It is interesting to note that while the bas-reliefs and statues, with their beautiful forms and great delicacy, so different from the realistic emaciated types of the late Gothic artists, show very clearly the influence Forment had experienced from his study of the Italian masters; in the architectural decorations he remained faithful to Gothic traditions. This mingling of styles is what we must expect in Spain; it is at once the interest and the weakness of her art. Nor was Forment alone in thus clinging to the old forms, while at the same time using the new. We find the same crossing of influences in the work of all the native artists, and in this way the Spanish Renaissance retained in sculpture a certain native style of its own. Damian Forment’s second important retablo, which was executed for the celebrated Abbey of Mount Aragon, and is now in the parish church of Huesca, is entirely Italian in sentiment and in execution. It has a sensuous charm, such as is seen in scarcely any other work of Spanish art. Forment began the screen in 1520, worked at it for thirteen years, and died, so tradition tells us, almost at once after its completion. Like the Zaragoza altar-screen, it is of alabaster. It is in three registers, and is adorned with bas-reliefs of the Bearing of the Cross, the Crucifixion, and the Descent from the Cross. Between these bas-reliefs and on the pilasters, crowned with elegant pinnacles, are figures of women of incomparable beauty and grace. Some of the figures show traces of colour, but here also the polychrome has been destroyed by washings. The medallions of Forment and his wife are on the base of the altar. The two remaining altar-screens of Forment are less important. San Pablo at Zaragoza has a retablo carved in wood, which, though designed by Forment, was probably carried out by his pupils. It was executed about the years 1516-1520. The second altar-screen is in the parish church of Velula de Ebro.