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Title

Fragment of the stalls of Santa Clara de Astudillo, Detroit Institute of Arts

Generic classification
Furniture
Object
Choir stalls
Date
ca. 1353-1357
Century
Mid 14th c.
Cultural context / style
Gothic
Material
Wood
Iconography / Theme
Heráldica
Provenance
Santa Clara of Astudillo (Astudillo, Palencia, Spain)
Current location
Detroit Institute of Art (Detroit, United States)
Inventory Number in Current Collection
47.91
Object history

At the beginning of the 20th century the choir stalls were the object of multiple disposals (Martínez Ruiz, 2008; Yzquierdo, 2008-2009), such as that of Santa Clara de Astudillo (Palencia). In 1931 its dismemberment began. The 50 chairs that made up the stalls were divided: four of them ended up in the National Archaeological Museum (Madrid), ten in the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit), while the others ended up in the San Diego Mission (California). Apolinar Sánchez-Villalba, an antiquarian based in Madrid, acquired the set of seats, and was responsible for their dispersal (Martínez Ruiz, 1011).

This antiquarian needed an export permit to be able to sell the chairs outside the country. It was then that Manuel Gómez-Moreno and the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando negotiated with Sánchez-Villalba (Martínez Ruiz, 2008; Franco Mata, 2013). The condition sine qua non for the antiquarian to sell the chairs to an American buyer was to donate four of them to the National Archaeological Museum (Madrid). Thus, on March 30, 1931 Apolinar Sánchez-Villalba donated four of the chairs to the National Archaeological Museum. The rest were acquired in Italy, although it is not known with certainty who bought them. Aguiló Alonso (2016) argues that they may have been acquired by the antiquarian Morandotti of Rome, since he painted and modified parts of the chairs on behalf of Daniel Donohue. It is unclear whether Donohue was the next buyer or whether it first passed through the hands of Adolph Loewi. This dealer acquired the seating, or at least part of it, in 1947. Ten of the chairs ended up at the Detroit Institute of Arts (Robinson, 1948), while the rest landed at the San Diego Mission.

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 of June 3, 1931. The sillería was composed of fifty chairs of polychrome wood (red, green, pink, white and yellow).

Locations
* The relative location of dealers, antique shops, art galleries, and collectors leads us to the places where they were based or had one of their main headquarters. However, this does not always indicate that every artwork that passed through their hands was physically located there. In the case of antique dealers and art merchants, their business often extended across multiple territories; sometimes they would purchase items at their origin and send them directly to clients. Similarly, some collectors owned multiple residences, sometimes in different countries, where they housed their collections. It is often difficult to determine exactly where a specific piece was kept during its time in their possession. Consequently, the main location of the dealer or collector is indicated. These factors should be considered when interpreting the map. Refer to the object's history in each case.
Citation:

Isabel Escalera Fernández, "Fragment of the stalls of Santa Clara de Astudillo, Detroit Institute of Arts" in Nostra et Mundi. Cultural Heritage from Castile and Leon around the world, Fundación Castilla y León, 2025. https://inventario.nostraetmundi.com/en/work/42

Fragment of the stalls of Santa Clara de Astudillo, Detroit Institute of Arts

Detroit Institute of Arts, Míchigan. Public Domain

Detroit Institute of Arts, Míchigan. Public Domain

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