The Renaissance came to Spain almost a century later than to Italy. Here "the essen tial point of contact was in the domain of decoration; artistic imagination, accustomed to Muclejar and Gothic ornamentation recog nized in the new style a new class of motives, enlarging its previous range." An important example is the corn of the cathedral of COr dova, although this had been begun in 1523 in the Gothic style. So suggestive of works in the precious metals was the new manner of ornamentation that the term Plateresque (from platero, meaning silversmith) was given to it. An honored name among architects at the time was that of Diego de Riaflo (d. 1533), who de signed the Sevillan city hall and portions of the cathedral; representatives of a reaction in favor of severity and restraint, advocating the attainment of more stately effects through pro portion alone, without • decoration, were Juan de Toledo, who began the Escorial, and Juan de Herrera, who completed that huge, late Renaissance structure. In the 18th century the Churrigueresque, a style peculiar to Spain and Spanish colonies, ran riot (see CHURRI GUERA in foregoing list of painters, architects and sculptors) and the canons of classic de sign were disregarded. "Stucco and gilding were lavishly used," says Sturgis, "and broken pediments, twisted shafts and contorted scrolls abound. The result is, like nearly all Spanish work, highly decorative and not without a cer tain theatrical splendor, but it lacks structural reasonableness. About HO) a more academic style began to displace the Churrigueresque." Best of the 18th century "more academic" buildings is the Royal Palace at Madrid, a dignified and well-balanced composition. In the 19th century and thus far in the 20th, eclecti cism has been the rule. It has seemed the part of wisdom, in a country so rich in varied tra ditions of art, to reproduce approved old forms rather than minister to the craving for novelty.
Sculpture.— In the Renaissance period the Italian influence was overwhelming and during many years the marble-cutters of the better class were almost exclusively natives of Italy. This circumstance has occasioned general ac ceptance of the theory that, during earlier and later periods as well, this or that foreign influ ence usurped the place lawfully belonging to original Spanish talent. We shall try to indi cate the correct limitations of such a theory, in the course of a brief review .of the main essential facts.
And first we must realize that native works of great merit, such as those of Pedro of Tar ragona in the Tarragon Cathedral, date from 1426, 1434 and so on; that Bartolome's apostles at the main door of the same cathedral date from 1278; and that the Apostles' Door at the cathedral of Burgos was also executed in the 13th century. In other words, Spain did not wait for the coming of the Italian Renaissance, or for its long-delayed arrival at her shores (end of the 15th century), but on the contrary created ideal figures, portrait statues and what ever was required for the embellishment of architectural design, long before Italianization prevailed. French influences are evident in some of the sculptures of the 13th and 14th centuries; Netherlandish influences in some of those of the 15th century. But an art critic should not fail to observe the relatively small number of those sculptures which belong to the schools mentioned and may properly be called foreign products. He will perceive Spanish realism, with its directness and forcefulness of expression, stamping as Iberian the vast ma jority of early sculptures, down to or even be yond the middle of the 15th century. Gil de Si loe, toward the end of that century, produced such sculptures as the monument in honor of Bishop Alonso de Cartagena at Burgos and the well-known works at Palencia and in Car tuja de Miraflores. A few years afterward, however, the supremacy of Italian sculpture was recognized. Bartolome Ord6fiez frankly em
ployed Italian assistants, and was working with them at Carrara when he died (1520). Alonso Berruguete, who returned from Italy in the year of Ord6ilez' death, was a versatile artist whose impulse, on rare occasions, to regain originality led to extravagances; but his chief work (if we accept Professor Justi's view to this extent) °shows how deeply he had steeped himself in the spirit of Michelangelo.° Da mian Forment and Diego Morlanes were in spired by Italian and classic ideals.
The period of complete emancipation ar rived when Spanish sculptors chose wood as a convenient substitute for stone—a period or epoch during which was accomplished a revo lution in ecclesiastical taste that is peculiar to Spain. The enthusiasm for figure sculpture grew into a marked predilection for bulk and multiplicity of detail; and uone result of this was that stone-carving was practically aban doned, and the artist confined himself almost exclusively to wood (pine, cedar, linden, larch) as a cheaper and more easily worked material. Coloring was not used at first. Now arose those huge retablos which cover a choir-wall reaching up to the vaulting with a Jacob's Ladder of statues. All that had been ex pressed in the 14th and 15th centuries by small painted groups and panels was now translated into lifesize statues.> Miguel de Ancheta made a retablo containing 35 statues and groups. Gaspar Becerra was one of the most famous sculptors (in this medium) among Castilians. In Seville, at the beeinning of the_17th century, Martinez Montailez, in whose works there is not a trace of the Italian style, or indeed of any other foreign influence, led popular interest in and appreciation of polychrome 'sculptures, whose art is °the result of an essentially Span ish attitude of mind, while the sense of form through which it is expressed is probably pecu liar to Seville.° The polychrome figures did not, however, represent the best achievements in this distinctively Spanish phase. Pedro de Mena, a sculptor of Granada in the last half of the 17th century, carved statues and statu ettes that reouired no paint to enhance veri similitude. The unpainted small wooden fig ures of saints by this artist are remarkably original, as all critics will admit. But they show more than independence of foreign schools: they show such marked superiority that foreign students of art may learn the fine secret of true characterization by visiting the cathedral at Malaga and copying Mena's sculp ture there.
It seems to us that the story of enfranchised Spanish sculpture — often wholly or in a meas ure free and sometimes lawless, ungovernably Iberian, as in the days of Churriguera and those of Francisco Zarcillo (1707-48), Aris mendi, and Ron— reaches its true climax when Mena's success is recorded. A classic reaction of no genetic value at the beginning of the last century resembled what took place in France at the same time. The present century wit nesses reassertion of the national tradition, in this art as in the art of painting, and now looks for an exponent of Spanish realism who, as sculptor, shall stand beside the painter, Ignacio Zuloaga.
Bibliography.— Beruete, A. de, 'Velazquez) (London 1906); Beruete y Moret, A. de, 'The School of Madrid) (London 1909); Byne, A., and Stapley, M., 'Spanish Ironwork) (New York 1915) ; Calvert, A. F., 'Sculpture in Spain) (London 1912) • Contreras, R., 'Estu dio Descriptivo de los Monumentos Arabes de Granada, Sevilla y Cordoba) (2d ed., Madrid 1878) ; Fatigati, E. S., 'Escultura en Madrid) (Madrid 1912) ; Leroy, M., ed., Materiales y Documentos de Arte Espanol (Barcelona 1900 10, and continued under title Materiaux et Doc uments d'Art Espagnol, Barcelona 1913); Tyler, R., 'Spain: a Study of her Life and Arts) (London 1909) • Whishaw, B. and E. M., 'Arabic Spain) (London 1912). See also ref erences in the body of the article.