The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 1 (of 3)Williams, Leonard
History
The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 1 (of 3)
Williams, Leonard
Decorative arts -- Spain -- History
[75] He is called Domingo de Céspedes by Cean Bermudez, although, as
Zarco del Valle remarks, the surname does not appear in any of the
documents relating to this craftsman which are yet preserved in the
archives of Toledo cathedral. These documents merely tell us that
Domingo was his Christian name, that his own signature was _Maestre
Domingo_, and that he and Fernando Bravo were required to find
surety to the value of 375,000 _maravedis_ for the faithful and
expert performance of their work, which they were to complete
within two years, receiving for it the sum of six thousand ducats.
[76] Conde de Cedillo, _Toledo en el Siglo XVI_. Reply to the Count's
address, by J. de Dios de la Rada y Delgado.
[Illustration: XXIV
_REJA_ OF CHAPEL ROYAL
(_View from interior. Granada Cathedral_)]
Excellent Plateresque _rejas_ are those of the Capilla Mayor and Coro of
Palencia Cathedral--the latter from the hand of Gaspar Rodriguez of
Segovia, who finished it in 1571 at a cost of 3400 ducats. In the same
city is the _reja_ of the chapel of Nuestra Señora la Blanca, finished
in 1512 by Juan Relojero, a Palencian, who received for his labour
25,000 _maravedis_ and a load and a half of wheat.
The noble and colossal gilt and painted[77] _reja_ of the Chapel Royal
of Granada Cathedral was wrought between the years 1518 and 1523 by one
Master Bartholomew, whose name is near the keyhole. This was a person of
obscure life though mighty powers as a craftsman. We know that he
resided at Jaen, and, from a document which still remains,[78] that he
petitioned Charles the Fifth for payment (sixteen hundred ducats) of
this grille, because the clergy had continually refused to liquidate it.
He made, besides the work I herewith describe, the _reja_ of the
presbytery for Seville cathedral,[79] and possibly, as Sentenach
suggests, the iron tenebrarium, ten feet high by five across, for the
cathedral of Jaen.
[77] The painting of a _reja_ was commonly executed by the
"image-painter" (_pintor de imaginería_). As the term implies, it
was this artist's business to gild or colour sacred furniture,
such as altars, panels, images, and decorative doors and ceilings.
[78] Archives of Simancas. _Descargos de las R.C._; _Legajo 23 prov._
Valladar, _Guía de Granada_ (1st ed.), p. 302, note.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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