In decorative _sillerías_ or sets of choir-stalls, Spain has produced examples worthy to be set beside the masterpiece of Vitry in the abbey of Sainte-Claude, the best productions of Dürer and his followers in Germany, or those of Donatello, Brunelleschi, Valdambrino, Vechietta, and Verrochio in Italy. Nevertheless, her most distinguished _sillería_-makers were at almost every moment inspired and directed by the foreigner. Germans or Flemings were her first preceptors in this craft. These artists had been sent for, or proceeded of their own accord, to Spain, and settling in this country rapidly spread the technics of their art among the Spaniards. In the Peninsula the origin of this school or movement may be traced to Burgos. Here, just as the fifteenth century was drawing to its close, and just before the breath of the Renaissance crossed the Spanish frontier at its eastern side, was gathered a small though influential group of eminent workers in more crafts than one; painters and sculptors, architects, embroiderers, carvers of wood, _reja_-makers, and painters of cathedral glass. Prominent among them all was a foreigner named Philip Vigarny,[50] who is described by Diego de Sagrado as "singular above all others in the art of making statuary and sculpture; a man of vast experience, general in his mastery of the liberal and mechanic arts, and no less resolute in all that is related with the sciences of architecture." [50] In Spanish he is called Felipe de Borgoña, but Martí y Monsó says that the proper spelling of the surname is Biguerny. [Illustration: XXX DETAIL OF CHOIR-STALLS (_Convent of San Marcos, León_)] Burgundy is said to have been the birthplace of Felipe de Borgoña, but of his early history we have no tidings. In documents which bear his signature he styles himself "_imaginario_, resident at Burgos." Three such documents exist. On August 1st, 1505, he agrees, for 130,000 _maravedis_, to make "such images as may be necessary" for the altar of the high chapel of Palencia cathedral, "he with his own hand to carve the hands and faces, out of good smooth walnut, without painting." This document is dated from Palencia. The other two are dated severally, Burgos, December 6th, 1506, and Corcos, September 6th, without the addition of the year.[51] We also know this craftsman to have made the great _retablo_ of Burgos cathedral. Such, from the fragmentary semblance we can trace of him, was Philip Vigarny, the pioneer of the wood-carvers of older Spain, and who, aided by other craftsmen from abroad, communicated all the secrets of his art to Spaniards such as Gil de Siloe, Ruy Sanchez, Diego de la Cruz, Alonso de Lima, and Berruguete. [51] Zarco del Valle, _Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de las Bellas Artes en España_, pp. 161, 162.