Title

Saint, formed part of the altarpiece of S. Benito in Valladolid

sculptor

Berruguete, Alonso (Paredes de Nava, ca. 1488 - Toledo, ca. 1561)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

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Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This sculpture, presumably an apostle, formed part of the main altarpiece of the monastery of San Benito el Real in Valladolid, most of which is preserved in the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid. It would have been located on the bench at the bottom of the altarpiece. This monumental altarpiece, made by the active workshop of the master Alonso Berruguete, was dismantled in the context of the ecclesiastical confiscation and sent to the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts, created in 1842. This museum was located in the College of Santa Cruz in Valladolid - currently the headquarters of the rectorate of the University of Valladolid. Later this museum split in two, on the one hand the current Museum of Valladolid, on the other, the rich sculpture collection gave rise to the creation of the National Museum of Sculpture in 1933, during the Second Spanish Republic, thanks to the impetus of Ricardo de Orueta, general director of Fine Arts and great scholar of Castilian sculpture. The destination of this museum would be the old College of San Gregorio in Valladolid.

The acquisition of this work by the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria & Albert Museum) took place in 1864 (V&A Museum Archive MA 30/237, núm. 249. 1864), just after the visit to Valladolid of the painter, collector and purchasing agent of the institution: Sir John Charles Robinson. This agent obtained this sculpture from the altarpiece of San Benito for 500 reales through the Valladolid apothecary and art dealer Mariano Pérez Mínguez. Robinson himself recounted in his diaries his visit to the Museum of Valladolid, where he made a sketch of Juan de Juni's Magdalene and where he took notes of Berruguete's sculptures; afterwards, through the doctor and antiquities dealer Pérez Mínguez, he was able to obtain this sculpture. This is how Robinson described it in his travel diary: “In the Museum made sketch of Juan de Juni Magdalene I noted the Berruguete figures – afterwards to doctor dealer in antiquities – got one of the Museum series of the Berruguete, but not one of the good ones...” (V&A Museum Archive, MA 3/6 I. 6).

Alonso Berruguete was commissioned to make this altarpiece after returning from his trip to Italy. And, of course, echoes of that trip and of the influence received from other masters of his time, with whom he lived, as well as from the classical legacy in general, can be perceived in this work; see aspects such as the careful treatment of the figure, its naturalism, its studied contrapposto and the elegance of its conception. The appreciation and projection of this altarpiece of Saint Benedict, in general, was early, as revealed by Manuel Arias Martínez, a great connoisseur of Berruguete's work and its projection throughout the history of art. Therefore, it is not surprising that it aroused the interest of the lively art trade of the 19th century.

Description

The work is carved in walnut and shows the exquisite polychromy and gilding typical of Berruguete's work. The apostle rests his weight on his right foot, while the other rests on a block; this allows the sculptor to carry out an interesting anatomical study that is revealed in this resting of the weight on part of his limbs and in the twisting of his body. The saint looks to the left, stretching out his arm, while with his right he carries the reason for his presence in the altarpiece, the written word, the message he is called upon to transmit, materialised in a panel or a book. 

Locations

• Unknown date

  monastery

  Monastery of San Benito el Real, Valladolid (Spain)

• ca. 1863

  study center

  Colegio Mayor de Santa Cruz, Valladolid (Spain)

• 1864 - present

  museum

  Victoria & Albert Museum, London (United Kingdom)