Some Account of Gothic Architecture in SpainStreet, George Edmund
History
Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain
Street, George Edmund
Architecture, Gothic -- Spain; Church architecture -- Spain
The Retablo is no less worthy of notice. Its colour as well as its
sculpture is of the richest kind. Below, on either side of the
tabernacle (which has been modernized), are St. John Baptist and S. Mary
Magdalene, and subjects on either side of them; on the left the
Annunciation, and S. Mary Magdalene anointing our Lord’s feet, and on
the right the Adoration of the Magi, and the Betrayal of our Lord;
whilst beyond, Alfonso and Isabel kneel at faldstools, with their
coats-of-arms above them. Above the Tabernacle is the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin, and above this a grand circle entirely formed of
clustered angels, in the centre of which is a great crucifix surmounted
by the Pelican vulning her breast. Within this circle are four subjects
from the Passion, and a King and a Pope on either side holding the arms
of the Cross, which is completely detached from the background. On
either side are S. John and S. Mary; and beside all these, a crowd of
subjects and figures, pinnacles and canopies, which it is impossible to
set down at length. The whole of this work was done by the same Gil de
Siloe, assisted by Diego de la Cruz, at a cost of 1,015,613 maravedis,
and was executed between A.D. 1496 and 1499. Behind the Retablo some of
the old pavement remains, of encaustic tiles in blue, white, and red.
The works at this church seem to have made but slow progress owing to
the troubled state of the kingdom after the death of Juan II. His son
gave something towards the works in A.D. 1454, but nothing more until
A.D. 1465. In A.D. 1474 he died, and was succeeded by Isabel the
Catholic, who, in A.D. 1476, confirmed the grants to the monastery, and
completed the church in A.D. 1488; but it was not, as we have seen,
until the end of the century that the whole work was really finished.
Juan de Colonia made the plan for the building in A.D. 1454, for which
he received 3350 maravedis: he directed its construction for twelve
years, and after his death, in A.D. 1466, Garci Fernandez de Matienzo
continued it till he died of the plague in the year 1488, when Simon,
son of Juan de Colonia, completed it.[43]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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