The history of Spanish sculpture would be incomplete did we omit to mention the Custodias which almost no large church in Spain is without. These idealistic tower-like structures, always wrought in silver and finely carved, are the great architectural achievements of the metal-workers. The first examples belong to the Gothic period. The Custodia of the Cathedral of Gerona, richly adorned with enamels and precious stones, is one of the most beautiful, while another of almost equal merit is that of Barcelona. The sixteenth century was the great period for the production of these silver works, and this was due mainly to the talented Arfes, a Spanish family of German origin, who produced Custodias for most of the important cathedrals. To Enrique de Arfe (1470-1550), the first of the family, we owe the Custodias of Cordova and Toledo; these works are in the late Gothic style. But the most celebrated member of the family was Juan Arfes, the grandson of Enrique, who was born about the middle and died at the close of the sixteenth century. He was the creator of the celebrated Custodia of Avila (Plate 120). He also executed two Custodias for the city of Valladolid--one for the Convent of Carmel and the other for the cathedral. This work bears an inscription, “Juan de Arfe y Villafañe, f. MDXC.,” and the price paid for it was 1,518,092 _maravedis_. At about the same time he made another Custodia for the Cathedral of Burgos, and yet another for that of Seville. Besides excelling as a silversmith, Juan was an excellent carver of statues, though he always used the title _escultor de plata y oro_ (sculptor of gold and silver). His skill as a sculptor is proved by the group of Adam and Eve, which was executed to occupy the centre of the first stage of the Valladolid Custodia, but is now on the pedestal. His greatest sculptured piece was the kneeling statue of Cristobal de Royas y Sandoval, Archbishop of Seville, in the Church of San Pedro de Lerma at Burgos (Plates 121 and 122). Juan died before the completion of the work, which was finished by Fernandez del Moral, under the direction of Pompeo Leoni; and for this reason this splendid monument for long has been wrongly attributed to Leoni.