Title

Saint James the Greater from the Carthusian monastery of Miraflores (Burgos)

sculptor

Siloé, Gil de (Burgos. Active 1480-1500)

Generic classification

Object

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Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This small alabaster sculpture was part of the funerary monument of John II and Isabella of Portugal in the Carthusian monastery of Miraflores (Burgos). Queen Isabella the Catholic (1451-1504), daughter and successor of John II of Trastamara (1405-1454) commissioned the construction of the tomb in the Carthusian monastery, of which her father was the founder, and where he had planned his burial, in the center of the nave of the church before the main altar. In 1486 the traces were approved -at which time Gil de Siloe is mentioned in the documentation-, and three years later the alabaster began to be carved. It was made with material sent to Burgos from Cogolludo and Torre de Beleña, near Sigüenza, whose supervision was entrusted to the Constable of Castile, Pedro Fernández de Velasco (Gómez Bárcena, 1988, Pereda, 2001).

The funerary group is one of the most outstanding sets of sculpture of the late fifteenth century in Spain. However, it has suffered throughout its history unfortunate episodes that altered and deteriorated it. The first of them took place during the French occupation, as Arias Miranda points out, when the French troops entered Burgos on August 9, 1808 and “sacked the following day the venerable monastery of Miraflores, intact since its foundation. It was then that they took to France the rich paintings that adorned it and other precious things” ‘we cannot but bitterly grieve to see in the two sepulchers [that of the kings and that of the infant Don Alonso] many mutilated statues, some of them torn to pieces and others stolen, which are a sad reminder of the vandalism with which Napoleon's invading troops waged an impious and desolating war against us, the fruitful origin of so many evils’ (Arias Miranda, 1843). Thus it was that at the beginning of the 20th century some pieces of the tomb had disappeared and others were mutilated. This was not the case of this sculpture of Santiago el Mayor, which remained next to the head of the sovereign, as illustrated by several photographs taken in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as the one shown here from the Ruiz Vernacci Archive (IPCE, Ministry of Culture, Government of Spain).

The disappearance of this image of Santiago el Mayor from its original location took place in the context of the strange interventions carried out in the Cartuja de Miraflores in 1915 by the Count of Las Almenas, José María de Palacio y Abárzuza (1866-1940). It was in the course of such “restoration” when some sculptures of the sepulchral set disappeared, others changed place, some that were mutilated had their lost parts reintegrated, many were transferred to Madrid, where the pieces were emptied. In short, strange movements that took place in the course of the intervention commissioned by the Count. He was an engineer by training, and one of the great Madrid collectors of the time; it seems that, in this case, it was the collector's zeal that mainly moved his actions. Already at that time, doubts arose from some sectors of Burgos society about the strange management of the monastery's artistic patrimony by the collector, which caused a controversy that led the Provincial Commission of Monuments of Burgos to report on what was happening in the Charterhouse. However, Palacio y Abárzuza claimed that he had verbal authorization from the Archbishop of Burgos, and the Carthusian community had to trust his good work.

The truth is that the intervention, which he himself described as generous and altruistic, resulted, among other things, in the disappearance from the tomb of some pieces that later appeared in his private collection. A considerable part of this Almenas collection was auctioned in New York at the American Art Association in 1927. The scholars and dealers Arthur Byne and Mildred Stapley Byne had previously tried to sell the entire Almenas collection to William Randolph Hearst, who refused to acquire such a large lot of works that Byne finally exported to be auctioned in New York. In that 1927 sale - highlighted by The New York Times on January 2, 1927 as one of the great Spanish art auctions: “most important collection of Spanish art ever to arrive in this country” - this sculpture was sold: “alabaster statue of the apostle Santiago” (Spanish Art Collection of the conde de las Almenas, 1927, p. 214). The same sales catalog also included another piece presumably from the same monastery (Martínez Ruiz, 2006).

The Carthusian community did not learn of the sale of this piece in New York until the art historian Harold E. Wethey visited the Charterhouse in the summer of 1933 and informed the Prior of Miraflores, Father Edmundo Gurdon, of the sale of the piece. According to the researcher, the work had been acquired by a lady from New York who did not know its origin. The contact between Wethey and the new owner, in principle, seems to have been fruitful since, according to the scholar, she seemed to have the intention of bequeathing the sculpture to the Charterhouse in her will, preserving her name until the testamentary disposition took effect. However, the fact is that the work did not return to Burgos (García de Quevedo, 1934). In 1969 it became part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Description

Excellent state of preservation, of great technical quality, elegance and monumentality. The details are treated with exquisiteness, which has led to think that it is the work of the master Siloé himself and not of artisans from his workshop, as it is undoubtedly one of the best pieces of the tomb of John II and Isabella of Portugal of the Cartuja de Miraflores.  

Locations

• ca. 1489 - ca. 1915

  monastery

  Miraflores Charterhouse, Burgos (Spain)

• ca. 1915 - 1927

  private collection

  Collection of Conde de las Almenas, José María de Palacio y Abárzuza, Madrid y Finca Canto del Pico, Torrelodones (Spain) *

• 1927 - ca. 1969

  private collection

  Collection of Reginald de Covan, New York (United States) *

• 1969 - present

  museum

  The Cloisters. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (United States)