Title

Fragment of the stalls of Santa Clara de Astudillo, Misión de San Diego

Anonimous

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Material

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Object history

At the beginning of the 20th century, choir stalls became the subject of numerous disposals (Martínez Ruiz, 2008; Yzquierdo, 2008-2009), such as that of Santa Clara de Astudillo (Palencia). The dismantling of this particular choir stall began in 1931. The 50 stalls that comprised it were divided: four of them ended up in the National Archaeological Museum (Madrid), ten of them ended up in the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit), while the others were sent to the Mission of San Diego (California). The precise origin of the choir stall's journey remains unclear, as it is uncertain whether Apolinar Sánchez-Villalba, an antique dealer based in Madrid, pressured the monastery to acquire the stalls or if the initiative came from the nuns themselves (Martínez Ruiz, 2011).

Regardless, the antique dealer needed an export permit to sell the stalls outside the country. It was at this point that Manuel Gómez-Moreno and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando began negotiations with Sánchez-Villalba (Martínez Ruiz, 2008; Franco Mata, 2013). It appears that the conditio sine qua non for the dealer to sell the choir stalls to an American buyer was the donation of four of them to the National Archaeological Museum (Madrid). Thus, on 30 March 1931, Apolinar Sánchez-Villalba donated four of the stalls to the National Archaeological Museum. The remainder were purchased in Italy, although it is uncertain who exactly bought them. Aguiló Alonso (2016) suggests that the Roman dealer Morandotti may have acquired them, as he painted and modified parts of the stalls on behalf of Daniel Donohue. It is unclear whether Donohue was the next buyer or if they first passed through the hands of Adolph Loewi. This dealer acquired the choir stalls, or at least part of them, in 1947. Ten of the stalls ended up at the Detroit Institute of Arts (Robinson, 1948), while the rest arrived at the Mission of San Diego. According to oral tradition (Aguiló Alonso, 2016), Donohue sent the choir stalls to an old friend, Brent Eagen, who was the parish priest at the Mission of San Diego. Due to the large size of the choir stalls, a construction company in San Diego built a chapel in 1978, where the choir stalls were installed and where they remain to this day.

Description

The Monastery of Santa Clara de Astudillo (Palencia) was founded by Doña María de Padilla in 1353. It was declared a National Monument by decree on the third of June, 1931. The choir stalls were composed of fifty polychrome wooden chairs (in red, green, pink, white, and yellow).

Locations

• ca. 1353 - ca. 1931

  monastery

  Santa Clara of Astudillo, Astudillo (Spain)

• Second quarter of the XX^th c.

  dealer/antiquarian

  Apolinar Sánchez-Villalba, Madrid (Spain) *

• ca. 1947 - ca. 1948

  dealer/antiquarian

  Adolph Loewi, Venecia/Los Ángeles (Italy) *

• Mid XX^th c.

  dealer/antiquarian

  Alessandro Morandotti, Roma (Italy) *

• Mid XX^th c. - ca. 1978

  private collection

  Daniel Donahue Collection, Spring Lake (United States) *

• ca. 1978 - present

  church

  Misión de San Diego, San Diego (United States)