Page 19 - The mystery of faith

If the wood was to be gilded using the water-gilding process, several Fig. 2
layers of red bole were laid onto the white ground. Gold coins were
pounded to make gold leaf, which was applied to the dampened
bole, and then burnished with polished stone. Oil-gilding, in which
the gold leaf was applied with an oil medium, was less commonly
practiced and resulted in a matt finish because the gold could not be
burnished.4

Then, colour would finally be added by a pintor de imaginería. In the
case of this altarpiece carved by Diego de Siloé, the painter was
Diego de la Cruz. In large-scale commissions the work of painting
the sculpture was shared by two specialists: the encarnador, who
painted the flesh tones in either a polished or matt finish, and the
estofador, who created the illusion of gorgeous textiles that is one of
the outstanding characteristics of Spanish sculpture. The estofador,
using techniques that originated in Flanders in the fifteenth century,
would paint in oils over the gilded areas of draperies and then
delicately scratch through the paint with a stylus to reveal the gilding
beneath. This technique, with variations, results in the glowing
impressions of brocades and damasks, the ‘stuffs’ that give the
painter his title. Patterns for estofado designs were often based on
actual luxurious textiles whose design motifs were depicted through
a variety of parallel, wavy, or zigzag lines, dots, the pattern of fish
scales and close imitations of needlework techniques.

The carvers and painters of these coloured sculptures were originally quite distinct, working on the
same project, but with separate contracts as required by guild rules. However, some painters of
canvases (pintores de pincel) such as Francisco Pacheco and Alonso Cano also painted sculptures. For
example, the architecture and sculpture of the altarpiece dedicated to the titular saint in Santo Domingo
de Portaceli (Seville) was commissioned from the sculptor Juan Martínez Montañés in 1605, and
Pacheco painted the flesh tones. Both artists received payments when the altarpiece was completed in
1609.5 The polymath Alonso Cano, who was a painter, sculptor and architect, surely participated in
the finish of his own sculptures.

The completed polychrome sculpture was equally apt for large altarpieces that would be illuminated by
the flickering of hundreds of candles or for the small devotional pieces on view in this exhibition at The
Matthiesen Gallery. Not all carved Spanish sculpture was polychromed, however. Despite the immense
care with which the polychromed object was produced, the surface is relatively fragile. Therefore,
carvings for choir stalls in particular were left natural, and so were a certain number of smaller objects.

Beatrice Gilman Proske eloquently summarized the character of late Gothic sculpture in Spain:

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