Page 197 - The mystery of faith

1 The first theoretical Spanish treatise on the subject was
written in 1526 by Diego del Sagredo in his famous work
Medidas del Romano in which he sets out the fundamental
principles of canonical proportioning of the human according
to the 9:1 ratio of Polyclitus and cites Bigarny’s improvement
of this classical formula by increasing it by one third.
2 Tomb of Don Diego de Avellaneda and Isabella de Proaño,
Madrid, private collection, c. 1536–1542.
3 This ornate architectural style was derived largely from
late Gothic styles in the Low Countries, namely the Florid
and Brabant styles, and is characterized by ornate surface
decoration. It was particularly popular in Salamanca,
reaching its peak in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries, and was later transferred to Spanish-owned
colonies in the Americas. It is considered to be the last phase Antonio de Guevara, Biblioteca Castro, Fundación José
of Gothic in Spain before the adoption of Italianate forms.
The term means ‘in the manner of a silversmith’ (plata
meaning silver in Spanish) and was coined by Cristóbal de
Villalón around 1539 in his description of the facade of the
Cathedral of León.
4 In 1531, the Grandee of Spain was invested in the
Cathedral of Tournai. One of his sons, Juan de Zúñiga y
Avellaneda, was tutor to Prince Philip from 1535 until his
death in 1546.
5 I. DEL RÍO DE LA HOZ, El Escultor Felipe Bigarny (h.
1470–1542), Junta de Catilla y León, 2001, pp. 327–328.
6 M. JOSÉ ZAPARAÍN, El arte en la Ribera del Duero.
7 This book is in the collection of the British Museum. Cited
in F. J. SÁNCHEZ CANTÓN, Fuentes Literarias para la Historia
del Arte Español, vol. I, pp. 27, 29. Villalón’s treatise is
basically a dialogue in which he debates whether there were
wiser, more inventive figures in the sciences and arts, in the
ancient past or in the present.
8 M. C. GARCÍA GAINZA, ‘Alonso Berruguete y la Antigüedad’,
in Boletín del Museo Nacional de Escultura, 2002, pp. 15–21.
197
9 Bigarny was remarkably well connected in this respect.
Guevara, who was also Constable of Castile, was cousin to
the Count of Miranda and related to the Duke of Bejar, who
were also connected by their involvement in the Emperor’s
various military campaigns. See A. REDONDO, Antonio de
Guevara (1480?–1545) et l´Espagne de son temps, Geneva,
p. 115, under note 128.
10 First published in Valladolid (1542), these are a collection
of essays on a wide variety of cultural and social issues and
their associated practices. While Guevara’s writings were
often later criticized for inconsistencies and falsification of
sources, they were also treasured for their linguistic beauty
and sophisticated phrasings. Guevara is even credited with
having Latinized the Castilian language, that is, giving it
greater cadence and rhythm. See Obras Completas de Fray
Antonio de Castro, Madrid 1994, vol. II, pp. 1–943.
11 SÁNCHEZ CANTÓN, Fuentes Literarias cit., vol. I, p. 155.
Guevara’s main field of scholarship was archaeology and he
wrote a treatise on Roman coins. A collector of the diverse
and unusual, Guevara also made plaster casts of coins and
sculptures, and wrote a treatise on painting, Comentarios a
la Pintura.
12 An edition of Guevara’s Comentarios a la Pintura was
published in 1788 by Antonio Ponz.
13 Archaeological excavations of the palace patio unearthed
a life-sized sculpture of a woman, signed ‘Aphrodisias’, and
dating to the second century. It is now in the Museo
Provincial in Guadalajara. Another Aphrodite from
Aphrodisias was found in Beja, Portugal, on the site of the
Roman settlement of Pax Julia. See P. NÖLKE, ‘Zwei
unbekännte Repliken der Aphrodite von Aphrosias in Köln’,
in Arkäologischer Anzeiger, no. 98, vol. 1, pp. 107–131.