Title

Pax of St. Ildephonsus

original work author

Horna (el Mozo), Juan de (Burgos, pre. 1510 - ?, 1568)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

It is possibly one of the two pax that Juan de Horna ‘el Mozo’ made for the Miraflores Carthusian monasteruy in Burgos (Tarín and Juaneda, 1897, p. 194). If so, it is not known how it ended up in London, although it may have followed the same route as Van der Weyden's Triptych of the Virgin, which was stolen during the Napoleonic invasion and auctioned decades later in the capital of England.

In any case, the mark of the silversmith Juan de Horna (HOR/NA:) alongside those of the markers Pedro de Acebedo and Andrés de Santa Cruz (OS/PA) place the date of this piece between 1521 and 1526, the period during which the latter two held office. It also includes the hallmark of Burgos, a castle or tower with a crowned head above it and the name of the city below. 

Charles Oman (1968, p. 21) points out that it was part of the Special Loan Exhibition of Spanish and Portuguese Ornamental Art (p. 138), which took place at the South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria & Albert Museum, in 1881. The catalogue erroneously states that the pax comes from Salamanca and was made around 1540-1550 by Alonso Dueñas. It maintains the considerations of Juan Facundo Riaño, author of another catalogue in 1872 of Spanish objects preserved in the museum (pp. XXII and 31). Therefore, it may have been acquired by the institution in the middle decades of the 19th century, when numerous items that now form part of the Victoria & Albert Museum's collections arrived.

Description

According to Aurelio Barrón (1998, Vol. I, pp. 304-305), this pax represents the beginning of the full Renaissance in Burgos silverwork due to the use of architectural elements and the sculptural details of the scene in relief.

The piece is organised like a façade with a semicircular arch. It stands on a bench with protruding side plinths, which hold laurel wreaths with coats of arms on the fronts. The central part of the base also protrudes, dividing the predella into two concave sections, decorated on the front with symmetrically arranged plant volutes.

The arch is framed by balustrade columns and pilasters with Plateresque candelieri motifs, topped with Corinthian capitals. The spandrels feature the same type of plant decoration surrounding laurel wreaths with coats of arms. The perimeter of the arch is decorated with winged angel heads, which also appear on the frieze, alternating with scrolls of parchment with a plant motif, in the style of triglyphs. The pediment features God the Father in a blessing pose, two vase-shaped acroteria, cresting on the slopes and, at the top, a round sculpture of a monk, who could be identified as a Carthusian.  

The central scene shows the Imposition of the Chasuble on Saint Ildephonsus, a group in relief featuring the saint from Toledo kneeling, dressed in his habit and with his hands joined in prayer. On the left is the Virgin, crowned and placed on a glory of winged angel heads, imposing the chasuble on the saint while being assisted by two other women. In the background of the scene, evoking the oratory of Saint Ildefonso, there is a small image of Christ crucified flanked by two figures, presumably the Virgin Mary and Saint John. The delicacy of the gestures, the stylisation of the canon and the oval faces seem to refer to the influence of the sculptural work of Diego de Siloé, who was then at the height of his activity during his Burgos period.

The reverse side is also decorated. The handle is designed as a volute, decorated with acanthus leaves and topped with a venera shell, which holds a man's head in high relief. The bench and the pilasters at the sides feature embossed plant decoration in the Plateresque style, while the interior surface and the spandrels are decorated with engraved laurel wreaths enclosing faces in profile, reminiscent of classical art.  

In general, the silversmith Juan de Horna replicated in the pax the model of the grille in the Condestable Chapel in Burgos Cathedral, a work by Cristóbal de Andino in 1523 that was praised by Diego de Sagredo as a precedent for his architectural treatise Las Medidas del Romano. The decoration, the use of balustrade columns and retro-pilasters, as well as the crowning system, are constructive and ornamental resources that appear for the first time in Castilian silverwork in this piece, making it a unique work of implicit importance. 

This connection and the above-mentioned sculptural influences demonstrate the interdisciplinary character of religious silverwork and the cross-disciplinary training of silversmiths at a time when social recognition of their professional work was still in its early stages.

Locations

• ca. 1521 - First half of the XIX^th c.

  monastery

  Miraflores Charterhouse, Burgos (Spain)

• Mid XIX^th c. - present

  museum

  Victoria & Albert Museum, London (United Kingdom)