Title

A sitial from the choir stalls of La Armedilla Monastery

Anonimous

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

In 1402, Prince Ferdinand of Antequera founded the Monastery of Our Lady of Armedilla (Cogeces del Monte, Valladolid) for the Order of Saint Jerome. It was built on the site of an ancient hermitage where an image of the Virgin Mary was already being venerated (Herguedas Vela, 2017). In the early 15th century, it received support from figures such as John II of Aragon, Álvaro de Luna, and Juan Velázquez de Cuéllar, which spurred its construction. After being named Duke of Albuquerque, Beltrán de la Cueva took charge of the complex upon receiving the town and lands of Cuéllar (Herguedas Vela, 2017).

However, the monastery’s decline began in the 19th century: the French occupation, the War of Independence, and the confiscation of church property resulted in significant losses of assets. To make matters worse, in 1809 a decree forced the clergy to return to their hometowns. On October 10, the Armedilla community was expelled, and when it managed to return, it was definitively dissolved in 1835 (Herguedas Vela, 2017; Escribano and Losa, 2019).

The decline of this monastery led to the dispersal of some of its most notable assets, such as the Lamentation tympanum, currently preserved at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas (United States). However, it was not the only piece sold off. At the foot of the church stood a choir where a late-Gothic choir stall was installed, allowing people to attend cultural events (Escribano and Losa, 2019). There are no references regarding the date it was installed, so we must wait for the inventories compiled following the secularization of the monastery. Thus, in 1809, “a walnut choir stall with fifty-seven high and low seats” is mentioned. Later, in 1820, there is mention of “a walnut choir stall, well-maintained and of good taste, composed of two tiers” (Marcos, 2003).

In 1844, the Commission for Historic and Artistic Monuments of Valladolid asked Joaquín Maldonado to visit the monastery to assess which items might be of interest. He noted that “a walnut choir stall located in the choir should not be allowed to perish among the ruins, and that, while not of extraordinary merit, it is quite suitable for a cathedral or church” (Marcos, 2003). Upon receiving this information, the Commission contacted the mayor of Cogeces del Monte to ask him to report on the condition of the choir stalls and the possibility of their relocation. The mayor stated that the choir stalls had been moved to the town’s parish church and that they were “quite dirty because the glass in the choir windows was broken, allowing swallows to fly freely through them,” though he could not provide details regarding their relocation due to a lack of knowledge (Marcos, 2003).

In October of that same year, the Commission requested that the mayor send them “two chairs that had adorned the monastery’s choir and were also stored in the church of Cogeces,” but he refused, stating that there was no carpenter in the village capable of dismantling the seats. Therefore, the task fell to Pedro González, director of the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts in Valladolid (Marcos, 2003). In addition to addressing this issue, the Commission received a request from Félix López Baños, parish priest of Rueda (Valladolid), who asked for “a set of choir stalls from among the many left over from the suppressed convents” for his church. With the aim of resolving both problems, the Commission decided on May 28, 1846, to grant the parish priest of Rueda the pews “that belonged to the Jerónimos Monastery of La Armedilla, for which purpose they would be handed over to Mr. Mayor Const. of Cogeces del Monte, who has them stored in the parish church of that town” (Marcos, 2003).

However, when the transfer took place, the Commission learned that it had been deceived and that the choir stalls were not in the parish church of Cogeces del Monte, but in the monastery, “at risk of being consumed by flames or thrown into the woods by shepherds who, since the walls are riddled with holes everywhere, gather there on cold nights and burn whatever they find” (Marcos, 2003). The precarious conditions in which the choir stalls were found led to the loss of seven stalls, reducing the number from fifty-seven inventoried in 1809 to fifty. On September 24, 1846, the choir stalls were moved to Rueda, and on October 31, one of the stalls was removed to serve as an exhibit at the Provincial Museum of Fine Arts in Valladolid. Today, this stall is on display at the Museum of Valladolid.

But this was not the final destination of the choir stalls; rather, in 1902, forty stalls from the set were sold illegally (Escribano and Losa, 2019). In 1901, both the tower and the roofs of the church in Rueda were in poor condition, and its treasurer, Mariano M. López, asked the Archbishopric to sell the choir stalls to restore the church. An antique dealer from Villafranca de la Sierra (Ávila), Florentino Ramírez, offered 14,000 pesetas. Finally, on June 20, 1902, the Nuncio authorized “the sale of the choir stalls mentioned in the preceding request, with the proceeds to be used for the necessary restoration work on the Parish Church of Rueda, to which they belong” (Marcos, 2003).

From that point on, the trail of the choir stalls is lost. Initial inquiries led to the Louvre Museum (Paris); however, the whereabouts of these stalls have recently been discovered at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris (Escribano and Losa, 2019). According to existing documentation, in 1905 Guillaume Emile Peyre, a Belgian architect and collector, donated one of the pews to the museum, where it remains today.

Description

The pews were carved from walnut around 1517. The decoration is concentrated mainly on the backrest, where one can see grotesques formed by a lobed vase from which plant scrolls emerge. More original is the decoration on the armrests, featuring fantastical animals, and that on the mercy seat, which also features animals (Herguedas, 2012).

Locations

• ca. 1517 - 1846

  monastery

  Monastery of Nuestra Señora de La Armedilla, Cogeces del Monte (Spain)

• 1846 - 1902

  church

  Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Rueda, Rueda (Spain)

• Early XX^th c. - ca. 1904

  private collection

  Émile Peyre, Paris (France) *

• ca. 1905 - present

  museum

  Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris, Paris (France)