The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 2 (of 3)Williams, Leonard
History
The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 2 (of 3)
Williams, Leonard
Decorative arts -- Spain -- History
Among the artists who produced the coloured windows of León cathedral
were Master Joan de Arge (A.D. 1424), Master Baldovín, and Rodrigo de
Ferreras. Those of Toledo date from early in the fifteenth century, and
were made by Albert of Holland, Vasco Troya, Luis Pedro Francés, Juan de
Campos, and others, including the eminent Dolfín, who, according to
Cean, began to work here in 1418, by order of the archbishop, Don Sancho
de Rojas. The documents collected and published for the first time by
Zarco del Valle tell us that on March 22nd, 1424, Dolfín received from
Alfonso Martinez, treasurer and superintendent of works, two hundred
gold florins and certain other moneys on account of his total payment of
four hundred gold florins for "the eighth window he is making for the
head of the cathedral." Other certificates of payment relating to
Maestre Dolfín (as he always signed himself) are included in the same
collection. By 1427 he was "defunct, God pardon him!" and the windows
he had left unfinished were terminated by his assistant Lois
(Louis).[109]
[109] _Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de las Bellas Artes en
España_, p. 282 _et seq._
In 1458, and also at Toledo, a friar named Pablo began to repair the
painted windows of the _crucero_. His pay was fixed by the "abbot and
superintendent of works" at fifty _maravedis_ each day, and that of "his
lads, Ximeno and Juanico," at one half of this amount. Other artists
engaged in the same work were Pablo (not the friar just referred to),
Peter, a German, and "Master Henry," who was also German. Pablo received
authority to purchase ten and a half _quintales_ and thirteen pounds of
coloured Flemish glass, at two thousand _maravedis_ for each _quintal_.
By a contract dated 1485 (he died between 1487 and 1493), Master Henry
was handed by the cathedral authorities a sum of 150,000 _maravedis_ "to
proceed to Flanders or any other part he may desire, and where good
glass is to be found, white, blue, green, scarlet, purple, yellow, or
blackish (_prieto_), equal in thickness to the sample which he bears,
and bring us thence such quantity as he has need of for the windows of
our cathedral."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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