Title

Praying sculpture by Alonso de Mera

sculptor

Montejo, Juan de (Active in Zamora and Salamanca)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

An accumulation of adversities is the reason that our knowledge of the appearance of the tomb of Don Alonso de Mera is limited to the descriptions of travelers and chroniclers, since the exclaustration first and the incuriosity later ended up destroying not only this work, but also the building that housed it, the monastery of San Pablo (Zamora). There are many local scholars and nineteenth-century historians who came to see the funerary monument in situ and who offered different information about it, such as José María Quadrado (1861), Cesáreo Fernández Duro (1882), or Eduardo J. Pérez (1895). Thanks to the details offered by each one of them, to the data recovered from the will of the deceased himself and from the fulfillment of certain dispositions bequeathed to his headmen, we can reconstruct the tomb in a quite precise way. However, it is Don Manuel Gómez-Moreno who will complete all this information during his visit to Zamora between 1903-1904. To him we owe the last brushstrokes on the whole, although by then the funerary bundle had already disappeared "mysteriously" from the Hieronymite monastery. All that was left of the building was the whole inset, made of mollar stone, the epitaph, and the crowning of the whole, where two muscular infants held the arms of Don Alonso de Mera.

By then, although the whole documentary record is unknown, the work had already been dated in the century; and certainly the judgment was not misguided. Its origin is to be found in the Zamora workshop of Antonio Falcote, a master carver who had been commissioned in the last decades of the 16th century by Gregorio de Sotelo, Mera's principal executor. However, as a result of his early death in 1592 or a manifest inability to undertake round sculptures or to work with alabaster, the orante was never begun. This circumstance is made clear in the master's will, but it is in the division of his estate - carried out by his widow - when the work was transferred to the Salamancan sculptor Juan de Montejo - by then living in the city of Duero - and the alabaster was sold to him to carry it out. Two years later, the commission was finished, it was moved to the church and it was appraised. Thus, the final result was a work carried out by Falcote and Montejo, the first one taking care of the fitting and the minor work, the second one of the sculptural group and the relief of the finial.

The foundation of Hieronymite nuns, promoted by Alonso de Mera with higher expectations than he was able to assume with his fortune, remained active, with no few problems throughout the Modern Age. In it the sculpture of the promoter stood out, in its presbytery, looking towards the chancel and accompanied by a page that in attitude of sleeping appeared at the feet of the set. But the penury of the 19th century and the disentailment processes meant the end of the conventual life: the building was left empty, part of its rooms were used for welfare purposes, as a municipal warehouse..., and the few goods that still remained were completely exposed. This was the main reason why Bishop Luis Felipe Ortiz gave license for the sale of the funeral bundle, with whose income the nuns were able to attend to more urgent needs. Undoubtedly, in the business had to mediate some dealer or local antique dealer whose name we do not know, who quickly transferred it to the British Lionel Harris, who proceeded to send it to The Spanish Art Gallery (London) and from there, at an imprecise date, but before November 28, 1940, it passed into the hands of the tycoon William Randolph Hearst. After his collection was dissolved, the Brummer brothers, from New York, acquired the figure in 1944and the eventful journey of the Zamoran alabaster came to an end: at the end of that year it was acquired by the Fine Arts Museum of Boston, where a few years ago we were able to locate and identify it.

Description

The founder of the monastery of San Pablo is shown kneeling, armed as a knight, with his hands joined in prayer. The armor is complete, with all its pieces perfectly differentiated, including a meticulous coat of mail that peeks out from behind the breastplates. The only thing missing is the helmet and the mittens -nowadays missing- which would have been placed at the feet, together with a page boy. His attire, therefore, serves to recall his military exploits in the lands of Peru, but also to mark social status, as is also shown by the delicate lechuguillas of the collar and cuffs. Little can be said about the author's style when faced with an image dressed in such attire, although the human type used can be related to those habitually used by the Salamancan master Juan de Montejo, traceable in works such as the recumbent figure of Simón de Galarza in the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites of Alba de Tormes or the Saint Joseph of the lignified group of the Nativity that is housed in the chapel of Cardinal Mella in the cathedral of Zamora.

All of them have common and defining features, with serious faces of hurried and personal features that convey tension and softness at the same time, which affects the strong naturalism that Montejo gave to some of his creations, and the wise handling of the chisel allowed him to resolve the hair and beard based on small and profuse curly locks, whose split and pointed end is, as we already know, a feature as characteristic as the "bud" or central toupee on the forehead. Other recurring styles are the disposition of the open mouth, slightly showing the teeth and with a wavy upper lip, or the posture of the hands, with the ring and middle fingers joined together. The detail and the high quality of the carving are also evident in the treatment of the armor, full of moldings, studs and buckles.

Locations

• 1594 - 1898

  monastery

  Monastery of San Pablo, Zamora, Zamora (Spain)

• 1898 - Early XX^th c.

  dealer/antiquarian

  The Spanish Art Gallery, London, London (United Kingdom) *

• First quarter of the XX^th c. - 1940

  private collection

  Collection of William R. Hearst, New York (United States) *

• 1940 - 1944

  dealer/antiquarian

  Joseph Brummer, New York (United States) *

• 1944 - present

  museum

  Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (United States)