Page 222 - The mystery of faith

friars, Muniátegui would most likely have looked to Fernández for its sculptural decoration, as he
certainly did in the altarpiece at Villaveta. Therefore, in this respect, there remains the possibility that
the present Moses and Elijah originally belonged to the altarpiece made for the Carmelite Friars of
Burgos,16 which was built by Muniátegui and completed before May 1612.

1 On the continent, and more particularly in Spain, a fashion 7 Martín González clarified the iconography of David in this
seems to have been introduced in the sixteenth century of piece, which was previously believed to depict the Prophet
constructing ostensoria of such enormous size it was often Elijah, but evidently confused the iconography of Moses
necessary to make the glass-fronted tabernacle in which the with that of Salomon. Ibid., p. 513.
Eucharist was displayed detachable, so that it could be used
for giving benediction. One of the most impressive 8 J. JOSÉ MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ, ‘Nuevas noticias sobre el
ostensoria was the great monstrance of Toledo Cathedral, retablo mayor de la cathedral de Plasencia (Cáceres)’, in
which is nearly four metres in height and is decorated with Boletín del Seminario de Arte y Arqueología, XL–XLI,
approximately 260 statuettes. 1975, pp. 297–321, 309; and pp. 311–312, under document
III. The ostensorium in Plasencia Cathedral is the most
2 Pompeo Leoni (c. 1530–1608) was in Valladolid in 1601 monumental of all those made by Fernández, who recorded
and worked for the court of Philip III, and the Duke of in 1625 that he remembered it as comprising up to fourteen
Lerma. He was the son of Leone Leoni (1509–1590), an reliefs and sculptures depicting Christ the Saviour, Christ at
Italian from Arezzo who is accepted as one of the greatest the Column, Christ Resurrected, the theological virtues, the
portrait sculptors of the late Mannerist and early Baroque Apostles, the Old Testament prophets and angels bearing the
periods. Leone was court artist to Philip II and also worked instruments of the Passion, few of which have survived.
in Valladolid for the Duke of Lerma, and other Spanish, Later, in the eighteenth century, Ponz specifically noted a
Austrian and Habsburg courts. His son Pompeo continued Moses and an Aaron included in this work.
the Leoni’s large bronze-casting foundry after his father’s
death, in a style that is not securely separated from that of 9 For an overview and discussion of the contracts for the San
his father. Miguel altarpiece, see MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ, El escultor
Gregorio Fernández cit., pp. 89–93; and more recently, J.
3 Now in the Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, see URREA, ‘El retablo mayor de la iglesia de San Miguel de
J. JOSÉ MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ, El escultor Gregorio Fernández, Valladolid’, in Retablo mayor de San Miguel de Valladolid,
Madrid 1980, p. 47, pl. 29. Foundation of the Historical Patrimonio of Castilla y León.
Restoration Notebook, no. 3, Valladolid 2007, pp. 10–55.
4 Elijah, who spent long periods of deprivation in the The ostensorium that is conserved today was attributed by
wilderness seeking the Word of the Lord, was often depicted MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ to ‘Fernández, but subsequently to the
posed to express a state of inner contemplation, his head contract’ (El escultor Gregorio Fernández cit., p. 92). URREA
cocked to catch an elusive inner voice. Having said this, the identifies the ostensorium with the one contracted by the
pose and covered bearded head in this figure could just as Dominicos of San Pablo in 1631 from Melchor de Beya,
easily represent any number of prophets, such as Abraham, Francisco Velázquez and Andrés Solanes, and the similarities
Isaiah or Ezekiel. of the sculpture with the style of Fernández are explained by
the fact that Solanes was one of his most talented disciples
5 J. MARTÍ Y MONSÓ, Estudios histórico-artísticos relativos (‘El retablo mayor’ cit., p. 48–49 and notes 55, 56; from the
principalmente a Valladolid, Valladolid 1901 (facsimile ed.), same author: ‘The tabernacle of the Convent of San Pablo,
p. 395. Apart from the subject matter, the contract also a work of Andrés de Solanes’, in Memoria Artis. Hommage
stipulated the measurements of the individual sculptures: for to Professor María Dolores Vila Jato, Santiago de
examples, each of the Church Fathers were to measure in Compostela 2003, pp. 553–558).
height approximately 56 centimetres, and each of the
Virtues or angels were to measure approximately 28 to 32 10 J. URREA FERNÁNDEZ, ‘En torno a Gregorio Fernández’, in
centimetres. For details of this contract, see the page cited Boletín del Seminario de Arte y Arqueología, XXXIX, 1973,
above. pp. 245–260, 247. See also the exhibition catalogue,
Gregorio Fernández, 1576–1636, Exposition Galleries of
6 J. JOSÉ MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ, ‘Un tabernáculo de Gregorio Banco Santander Central Hispano, Madrid 2000, pp.
Fernández en Villaveta (Burgos)’, in Boletín del Seminario 72–78; and MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ, El escultor Gregorio
de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, 1973, pp. 512–517.

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