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Abstract
By the turn of the sixteenth century, Burgos had become one of Castile’s leading mercantile centres, with a substantial population of middle-class merchants who were integral to both the city’s economy and artistic production. While the trading practices of this group have been well studied, their artistic patronage and funerary culture have not received thorough scholarly attention. This study examines the funerary altarpiece and will of the merchant Gonzalo López de Polanco (d. 1505). The altarpiece, which measures approximately 51 by 30 ft and includes representations of over 300 holy personages, was unusually elaborate compared to other lay commissioned altarpieces in Burgos at the turn of the sixteenth century. Likewise, the quantity of masses and prayers requested in Polanco’s will surpassed most other Burgalese testators, as did the scale of the many pious bequests that he made to institutions throughout the city. This study analyses the altarpiece and will together in order to present a more complete understanding of the patron, and then compares them to contemporary examples from Burgos in order to demonstrate the unique nature of Polanco’s funerary preparations. It is argued that Polanco’s unusual programme of funerary preparations was prompted by his desire to ensure heavenly salvation, and to create a fashionable and opulent memorial that would enhance his family’s earthly status.
Abstract
A comienzos del siglo XVI, Burgos se había convertido en uno de los centros mercantiles más importantes en Castilla, con una población considerable de comerciantes de la clase media. Este grupo jugaba un papel integral tanto en la economía como en la producción artística de la ciudad. Aunque las prácticas comerciales de los mercaderes han sido bien estudiadas, su mecenazgo artístico y sus prácticas funerarias no han recibido suficiente atención académica. Este estudio examina el retablo funerario y el testamento del comerciante Gonzalo López de Polanco (fallecido en 1505). Con sus dimensiones de dieciséis por diez metros y sus representaciones de más de 300 personajes santos, el retablo es atípicamente elaborado en comparación con otros retablos laicos comisionados en Burgos a comienzos del siglo XVI. Del mismo modo, tanto las muy extensas solicitaciones de misas y oraciones que se incluyen en el testamento de Polanco como sus legados piadosos a las instituciones de la ciudad eran poco frecuentes entre otros testadores burgaleses. Este estudio comienza con un análisis estas dos obras — testamento y retablo — a fin de llegar a un entendimiento más completa del patrón. Luego se compara este retablo de Polanco con ejemplos burgaleses contemporáneos para demostrar la naturaleza única de los preparativos funerarios de Polanco. De este modo, se sostendrá que el programa de preparativos funerarios tan inusual de Polanco fue afectado por su deseo de asegurar su salvación y crear un monumento moderno y opulento que mejoraría el estatus de su familia.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Kathleen G. Arthur, Daniel Gates, Tom Nickson, Jessica Streit, and the two anonymous peer reviewers for their suggestions on the drafts of this article. In addition, I am indebted to Don Rodrigo Aguilera Fuentespina and Félix Zatón Gómez, who generously allowed me to conduct research at the Church of San Nicolás. The research for this article was supported by funding from Saginaw Valley State University, the Medieval Academy of America, the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities, and Cornell University.
Notes
1 On the materials for the altarpiece, see P. Coop, ‘Estudio y propuesta de intervención para la restauración del retablo mayor de la iglesia de San Nicolás de Bari (Burgos)’ (unpublished report, Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, Dirección General de Patrimonio y Bienes Culturales, November 2005), pp. 5, 18, and 27. On Francisco de Colonia, N. López Martínez, ‘Evolución y declive de Francisco de Colonia’, in Estudios de historia y arte: homenaje al profesor Alberto C. Ibáñez Pérez, ed. by L. S. Iglesias Rouco, R. J. Payo Hernanz, & M. P. Alonso Abad (Burgos: Universidad de Burgos, 2005), pp. 297–300; B. Gilman Proske, Castilian Sculpture Gothic to Renaissance (New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1951), pp. 99 and 259–63; T. López Mata, La catedral de Burgos (Burgos: Instituto Municipal de Cultura y Turismo, 2008), pp. 421–23; and L. Vasallo Toranzo, ‘El convento de San Pablo de Valladolid contra Simón y Francisco de Colonia’, Boletín del Museo Nacional de Escultura, 4 (2000), 7–10.
2 This document also indicates that work on the retable was underway when the testament was authored in 1504. While it does not provide exact dates for work on the retable, we might infer that the death of Polanco’s wife in December of 1503 provided impetus for the retable’s construction and that it was complete, or nearly so, by Polanco’s last addition to his testament in February of 1505, in which no mention of the retable is made. M. Martínez Burgos transcribed Polanco’s testament in ‘La iglesia de San Nicolás en Burgos: Los Colonia y Gil de Siloe’, Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 138.2 (1956), 153–227 (see pp. 218–23 for the last modifications to his testament). The original document is located at the Archivo Diocesano de Burgos: ‘Testamento de Gonzalo López de Polanco’, San Nicolás, signatura 23.
3 The semicircle depicting God was not part of Polanco’s original altarpiece; it was added in 1778: ‘Estudio y propuesta’, pp. 6 and 19.
4 The main publication on the altarpiece is J. López Sobrino’s La iglesia de San Nicolás de Bari (Burgos: AMABAR S.L., 2000), which offers a chapter on the altarpiece that provides basic information about the patron and a thorough overview of the iconography (pp. 50–71). My own recent article offers a new approach, with a contextual reading of the St Nicholas narrative on the retable. E. D. Kelley, ‘Servant of God and Protector of the Faithful: St. Nicholas as Saint and Redeemer in Late Medieval Burgos’, The Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 4.2 (2012), 199–232.
5 Much has been written on Burgos as a centre of commerce. See, for example: Actas del V Centenario del Consulado de Burgos (1494–1994), ed. by F. Ballesteros Caballero et al., 2 vols (Burgos: Excma. Diputación Provincial de Burgos, 1994); Castilla y Europa: Comercio y mercaderes en los siglos XIV, XV y XVI, ed. by H. Casado Alonso (Burgos: Excma. Diputación Provincial de Burgos, 1995); Señores, mercaderes y campesinos: la comarca de Burgos a fines de la Edad Media, ed. by H. Casado Alonso (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 1987); Comercio y hombres de negocios en Castilla y Europa en tiempos del Isabel la Católica, ed. by H. Casado Alonso & A. García-Baquero (Madrid: Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, 2007). Studies of the patronage of Burgalese merchants focus on the style and iconography of their commissions, providing an important foundation for the analysis of these objects but not contributing to a nuanced understanding of the reasons underlying these iconographic and stylistic choices. Such studies include, for example, A. Fernández Casla, ‘La capilla de los Reyes de la iglesia de San Gil de Burgos. Un ejemplo de fundación privada a fines de la Edad Media’, Boletín del Museo e Instituto Camón Aznar, 75–76 (1999), 125–28; M. J. Gómez Bárcena, ‘Escultura gótica de importación en Burgos: el retablo de la Santa Cruz en la iglesia de San Lesmes’, Boletín de la Institución Fernán González, 2 (1994), 279–96; and M. J. Gómez Bárcena, ‘El retablo de Nuestra Señora de la iglesia de San Gil de Burgos’, Boletín del Museo e Instituto Camón Aznar, 23 (1986), 59–92.
6 Polanco’s will references his nephews Juan de Salamanca and Gonçalo de Polanco overseeing trade in Florence: Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, pp. 189–90 and 206. Archival documentation at the Archivio Salviati in Pisa also records Polanco’s son and son-in-law (Gregorio de Polanco and Rodrigo de Carrion) trading with the Salviati family in Florence: ‘Libro Bianco Segnato a con rubrica 1538–1545’, Archivio Salviati Pisa, serie I, n. 969, fols 9v–10r; ‘Salviati alamanno e averardo compagnia’, Archivio Salviati Pisa, serie I, n. 437, fol. 146v. Polanco’s sale of silk in Burgos is documented in the Archivo Histórico Catedral de Burgos, ‘Nombre jueces a las Cuatro Témporas a Pedro Fernández de Villegas’, 19 December 1500, RR-34, fol. 77. Secondary sources with information on Polanco’s trade include, M. Cabrera Sánchez, Nobleza, Oligarquía y Poder en Córdoba al Final de la Edad Media (Córdoba: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Córdoba, 1998), p. 209; B. Dini, ‘Mercaderes españoles en Florencia (1480–1530)’, in Actas del V Centenario del Consulado de Burgos, i, 339–43; N. Palenzuela, Los mercaderes burgaleses en Sevilla a fines de la Edad Media (Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, 2003), p. 136. See Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, p. 177, for a reference to Polanco’s house. Polanco’s house was large enough to have resulted in a lawsuit between Polanco and the church of San Nicolás in July of 1500: ‘Trata sobre el edificio que construye Gonzalo López de Polanco’, 15 July 1500, RR-32, fol. 451, Archivo Histórico Catedral de Burgos.
7 Polanco’s connection to Asturias de Santillana is documented in a plaque accompanying the tomb of Gonzalo’s son, Gregorio (d. 1552), at the church of San Nicolás.
8 On the confraternity, see Libro de la Real Cofradía de los Caballeros del Santísimo y Santiago, ed. by M. Vicario Santamaría (Burgos: Gil de Siloé, 2000–2002); J. D. Rodríguez-Velasco, Order and Chivalry: Knighthood and Citizenship in Late Medieval Castile, trans. by E. Rodríguez Ferguson (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010). On Polanco’s daughters at San Ildefonso: Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, pp. 178, 193–203, and 218–20. Gregorio de Polanco’s testament also mentions his four sisters at San Ildefonso and indicates that Leonor had become the Mother Superior: I. García Rámila, ‘Testamento otorgado en la ciudad de Burgos y en el año 1546, por el matrimonio integrado por Gregorio de Polanco, regidor y vecino de Burgos y su esposa Doña María de Salinas’, Boletín de la Institución Fernán González, 47 (1969), p. 15. On the monastery, see Á. Montenegro Duque, Historia de Burgos II: Edad Media (Burgos: Caja de Ahorros Municipal de Burgos, 1986), p. 347.
9 Proximity to the Eucharist made the altar or central nave the most desirable spaces for burial in a church: P. Ariès, The Hour of Our Death, trans. by H. Weaver (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981), p. 79; F. Martínez Gil, La muerte vivida. Muerte y sociedad en Castilla durante la baja edad media (Toledo: Diputación Provincial, 1996), p. 94; E. Panofsky, Tomb Sculpture: Four Lectures on its Changing Aspects from Ancient Egypt to Bernini, ed. by H. W. Janson (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1964), p. 46; C. Polanco Melero, Muerte y sociedad en Burgos en el siglo XVI (Burgos: Diputación de Burgos, 2001), pp. 285, 292–94. No merchant chapels are found in the Cathedral of Burgos, which was seemingly reserved for the nobility, church officials, and their close relatives. For a comprehensive survey of these tombs: M. J. Gómez Bárcena, Escultura gótica funeraria en Burgos (Burgos: Diputación Provincial de Burgos, 1988), pp. 45–129.
10 G. Martínez Diez, El Camino de Santiago en la provincia de Burgos (Burgos: Diputación Provincial de Burgos, 1998), pp. 168–71. Prior to Polanco’s commission, several merchant families sponsored chapels or altars in the parish church of San Gil, which was one of the city’s largest churches but was located further from the marketplace, cathedral, and pilgrimage route than San Nicolás. On these retables: Bertolaza y Esparta, La Iglesia de San Gil en Burgos. Breve reseña de sus monumentos e historia (Burgos: Imprenta y Librería Hijos de Santiago Rodríguez, 1914–1915), pp. 13, 66–73; A. Fernández Casla, ‘La capilla de los Reyes’, pp. 125–28; and Gómez Bárcena, ‘El retablo de Nuestra Señora’, pp. 59–92.
11 López Sobrino, La iglesia de San Nicolás, pp. 9–10; Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, p. 205.
12 F. Arribas, ‘Simón de Colonia en Valladolid’, Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, 2 (1933), 153–66; I. G. Bango Torviso, ‘Simón de Colonia y la cuidad de Burgos. Sobre la definición estilística de las segundas generaciones de familias de artistas extranjeros en los siglos XV y XVI’, in Actas del Congreso Internacional sobre Gil Siloe y la Escultura de su época (Burgos: Institución Fernán González, 2001), pp. 51–69; I. Fuentes Rebollo, ‘El Maestro Simón de Colonia en San Pablo y San Gregorio (nueva lectura documental)’, Boletín del Museo Nacional de Escultura, 3 (1998–1999), 6–10; López Martínez, ‘Evolución y declive’, pp. 297–300; López Mata, La catedral de Burgos, pp. 419–23; Proske, Castilian Sculpture, pp. 22–25, 36–47, 99, 259–63; and Vasallo Toranzo, ‘El convento de San Pablo’, pp. 7–10.
13 Proske, Castilian Sculpture, p. 263; Vasallo Toranzo, ‘El convento de San Pablo’, pp. 7–10.
14 For a discussion of Polanco’s retable relative to the production of sculpted altarpieces in Spain, see Kelley, ‘Servant of God’, p. 202.
15 ‘Estudio y propuesta’, p. 6. No record indicates the cost of his retable. However, J. Berg Sobre suggests that stone altarpieces were typically more expensive than wood, except in cases where the gilding and polychromy were sufficiently lavish to negate the less expensive wood: ‘The Sculpted Retable in Spain, 1500–1750’, in Spanish Polychrome Sculpture 1500–1800 in United States Collections, ed. by S. L. Stratton (New York: Spanish Institute, 1993), p. 55.
16 M. P. Silva Maroto and C. Rathfon Post have both dated these panels to a period between 1480 and 1490: M. P. Silva Maroto, Pintura hispanoflamenca castellana, Burgos y Palencia: obras en tabla y sarga, 3 vols (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Cultura y Bienestar Social, 1990), i, 273–83, and C. Rathfon Post, A History of Spanish Painting, 14 vols (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930–1966), iv, 252–54. López Sobrino, La iglesia de San Nicolás, p. 33, cites these dates and agrees that these panels formed the original high altarpiece. A restoration of the eight panels in 1988 revealed further details about the condition of the panels, their original dimensions, etc.: Conservación y restauración en la iglesia de San Nicolás de Bari Burgos (Salamanca: Junta de Castilla y León, 1990).
17 Gómez Bárcena, Escultura gótica, offers a comprehensive survey of funerary sculpture from Burgos during the late Middle Ages. She includes no other examples of a tomb and altarpiece combined, nor have I located any local parallels for this design.
18 This was an important consideration, given the ease with which sepulchres were transferred to new locations. See Gómez Bárcena’s Escultura gótica (pp. 155–66) for a number of relevant examples of displaced funerary sculpture now housed in the Museo de Burgos.
19 Similar examples in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Burgos are plentiful. Two notable examples of other merchant tombs include those of the merchant Martín Rodríguez de Maluenda and his wife Leonor Álvarez de Castro (c. 1476) at the church of San Nicolás, and the sepulchre of the merchant Hernando de Castro and Juana García de Castro in the Chapel of the Kings from the parish church of San Gil (c. 1500–1510). On the Maluenda tombs: López Sobrino, La iglesia de San Nicolás, pp. 22–23; Gómez Bárcena, Escultura gótica, pp. 149–51. On the Castro tombs: Bertolaza y Esparta, La Iglesia de San Gil, pp. 66–73; Gómez Bárcena, Escultura gótica, pp. 140–41.
20 Gómez Bárcena, Escultura gótica, pp. 24–25. Gonzalo López de Polanco’s effigy is in poor condition, rendering the alabaster no longer visible.
21 Gómez Bárcena, Escultura gótica, p. 152. Monastic robes, particularly those of the Franciscan order, were a mark of piety and humility. C. M. N. Eire, From Madrid to Purgatory: The Art and Craft of Dying in Sixteenth-Century Spain (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 106–11; M. J. Gómez Barcena, ‘La liturgias de los funerales y su repercusión en la escultura gótica funeraria en Castilla’, in La idea y el sentimiento de la muerte en la historia y en el arte de la edad media, ed. by M. Núñez and E. Portela (Santiago de Compostela: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 1988), p. 37; M. Núñez Rodríguez, ‘La indumentaria como símbolo en la iconografía funeraria’, in La idea y el sentimiento, pp. 9–15; Polanco Melero, Muerte y sociedad, pp. 167–68; A. Rucquoi, ‘De la resignación al miedo: La muerte en Castilla en el s. XV’, in La idea y el sentimiento, pp. 55–56.
22 In Escultura gótica, Gómez Bárcena indicates that tombs with Latin inscriptions were rare in Burgos during the late medieval period. She cites only three examples other than the Polanco tombs, all of which belong to individuals with high positions in the Church (pp. 40–42, 55–60). Polanco Melero, Muerte y sociedad, p. 36, also notes the rarity of Latin inscriptions.
23 ‘Nobilis vir Gonsalus Lopis Polanco Atq. coniux Leonora Miranda huius sacri primariq. altaris autores hoc tumulo conquiescunt qui ecclesiam hanc honestis reditibus faulsiere obiit ille ano MDV hec vero MDIII’. López Sobrino, La iglesia de San Nicolás, p. 69, includes a transcription of this inscription. He also transcribes that on the tomb of Gonzalo’s brother: ‘Nobilis vir Alphonsus Polanco cum consorte Constantia Maluenda rebus humanis exempti hoc saxo conteguntur, Migravit ille ano MCCCCXCI, hec MDXX’. (The noble baron Alfonso de Polanco with his wife Constanza de Maluenda, freed from earthly things, are interred under this stone. He died in the year 1491 and she in 1520.)
24 Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, p. 177. Although appeals to saints and the Virgin were somewhat common in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Castilian wills, they tended to be much more concise than Polanco’s, and by the sixteenth century wills most often began with the generic phrase, ‘in the name of God, amen’. Two studies provide analyses of wills authored between the year 1520, when the preservation of notary records became standard, and 1600. Eire examines 436 wills from Madrid in his From Madrid to Purgatory and Polanco Melero’s Muerte y sociedad analyses 670 wills from Burgos. Testators in Burgos only called upon the saints in about 30 per cent of the wills composed between 1520 and 1545, and only 1.2 per cent of the wills during this period opened in the detailed manner of Polanco’s: Eire, From Madrid to Purgatory, pp. 62–63 and Polanco Melero, Muerte y sociedad, pp. 92–93 and 101. See also, Rucquoi, ‘De la resignación’, pp. 60–61. For a brief synopsis of the shifts that occurred in the solicitation of intercessory aid from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, see S. Royer de Cardinal, Morir en España (Bueños Aires: Universitas S.R.L., 1992), pp. 62–72; and R. Sánchez Sesa, ‘Los testamentos entre las élites castellanas de la segunda mitad del siglo XIV a la segunda del XV’, Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones, 5 (2000), 163–78, particularly p. 173.
25 Kelley, ‘Servant of God’, pp. 199–232.
26 I discuss these scenes more fully in ‘Servant of God’, particularly pp. 213–17 and 220–22.
27 Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, p. 187.
28 Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, p. 186.
29 In each of the additions to his testament, made on 23 August 1504 and 24 February 1505, Polanco restates and clarifies his requests for perpetual masses; see Kelley, ‘Servant of God’, pp. 215 and 221–22.
30 This was an important consideration as Christians believed that the majority of souls went immediately to purgatory, rather than heaven or hell, and could reside there for over one thousand years: Eire, From Madrid to Purgatory, pp. 171–74; L. Vivanco, Death in Fifteenth-Century Castile: Ideologies of the Elites (Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2004), pp. 94–125.
31 Eire, From Madrid to Purgatory, p. 202; Polanco Melero, Muerte y sociedad, pp. 220–21.
32 Kelley, ‘Servant of God’, pp. 213–17.
33 Kelley, ‘Servant of God’, pp. 220–21.
34 Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, p. 185.
35 Eire, From Madrid to Purgatory, pp. 234–37.
36 Kelley, ‘Servant of God’, pp. 220–21.
37 Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, pp. 182–83. On Jeronymite monasteries in Spain, see J. Antonio Ruiz Hernando, Los monasterios jerónimos españoles (Segovia: Gráficas Ceyde, 1997), pp. 221–41; I. Mateos Gómez et. al., El Arte de la orden jerónima: historia y mecenazgo (Madrid: Iberdrola, 1999), pp. 118–41.
38 The donation of 700 maravedíes was accompanied by Polanco’s request that the nuns pray for his soul: Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, pp. 181, 201–03, and 218–19.
39 Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, p. 181.
40 Eire, From Madrid to Purgatory, pp. 121–45, and Polanco Melero, Muerte y sociedad, pp. 122–41.
41 All totalled, Polanco arranged for over thirty-two religious institutions throughout the city of Burgos to pray for his soul after his demise. These included all seventeen parishes in Burgos, three additional confraternities, nine convents, a poor house, a jail, and a hospital: Martínez Burgos, ‘La iglesia’, pp. 180–83. J. López Sobrino provides a schematic identifying many of the figures found in the altarpiece: La iglesia de San Nicolás, 91.
42 On the altarpiece of Luis de Acuña: J. Yarza Luaces, Gil Siloe. El retablo de la Concepción en la capilla del Obispo Acuña (Oviedo: Ehga, 2000). On the development of the sculpted altarpiece in Iberia, Kroesen, Staging the Liturgy, especially pp. 110–34. On the altarpiece tradition in Iberia more generally, see both Kroesen’s text and J. Berg Sobré, Behind the Altar Table: The Development of the Painted Retable in Spain, 1350–1500 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1989).
43 The exact date and artist of the altarpiece are unknown, although Julia Ara Gil has speculated that the style is consistent with that of both Gil de Siloe and the Maestro of Covarrubias: ‘Los retablos de talla góticos en el territorio burgalés’, in El arte gótico en el territorio burgalés, ed. by E. J. Rodríguez Pajares & M. I. Bringas López (Burgos: Rico Andrados, S. L., 2006), pp. 207–08. Other sources on this altarpiece include Bertolaza y Esparta, La Iglesia de San Gil, p. 13; Gómez Bárcena, ‘Una escultura’, pp. 369–71; and Gómez Bárcena, ‘El retablo de Nuestra Señora’, pp. 59–92.
44 Like the altarpiece of the Buena Mañana, the altarpiece of the Kings lacks a surviving commission record, but it has been suggested that the altarpiece was either the work of Felipe Vigarny or Gil de Siloe: Fernández Casla, ‘La capilla de los Reyes’, pp. 125–28. On this chapel, see also Bertolaza y Esparta, La Iglesia de San Gil, pp. 66–73.
45 Further examples show the broader nature of this trend. The altarpiece ordered by Mencía de Mendoza (d. 1500) for her family’s chapel in the cathedral (c. 1498–1500) serves as an example of a similar noble commission. The retable commissioned by García de Salamanca in 1510 for the Church of San Lesmes in Burgos indicates that the trend of smaller altarpieces was still the norm among merchants five years after Polanco’s retable was complete. On the Mendoza retable: F. Crosas, ‘Las lecturas de doña Mencía: la iconografía del retablo de Santa Ana de la capilla del Condestable en la Catedral de Burgos’, Scriptura, 13 (1997), 207–16; F. Pereda, ‘Mencía de Mendoza (1500): Mujer del I Condestable de Castilla. El significado del patronazgo femenino en la Castilla del siglo XV’, in Patronos y coleccionistas: Los Condestables de Castilla y el arte (siglos XV–XVII), ed. by B. Alonso et al. (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 2005), pp. 10–119. On the Salamanca altarpiece: I. García Rámila, ‘La capilla de la Cruz o de los Salamanca en la iglesia de San Lesmes’, Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 137 (1955), 217–49; Gómez Bárcena, ‘Escultura gótica de importación’, pp. 279–96; Gómez Bárcena, ‘Revisión de algunos aspectos’, pp. 549–60. L. Jacobs notes that the retable follows the iconography and layout traditional to Castile, although the work was imported from Antwerp: Early Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces, 1380–1550. Medieval Tastes and Mass Marketing (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 239–44.
46 J. Yarza Luaces, La Cartuja de Miraflores: II El Retablo (Madrid: Iberdrola, 2007) and J. Yarza Luaces, ‘El retablo mayor de la Cartuja de Miraflores’, in Actas del Congreso internacional sobre Gil Siloe y la escultura de su época: Burgos 13–16 octubre de 1999, ed. by J. Yarza Luaces & A. C. Ibáñez Pérez (Burgos: Institución Fernán González, 2001), pp. 207–38.
47 Francisco de Colonia also could have viewed it beneficial to have his work parallel that of Gil Siloe, who was renowned for his sculpted retables.
48 Further archival research into the Polanco family is necessary in order fully to understand why Polanco’s commission is so distinct from that of his peers. A likely possibility is that, as a relative newcomer to the city of Burgos, Polanco sought to prove his family’s status as members of the elite, merchant culture of Burgos. An alternate possibility is that Polanco’s mercantile presence in Florence would have led him to imitate the elaborate demonstrations of personalized piety made by Florentine merchants in contemporary chapels such as those of the Tornabuoni and Strozzi families at Santa Maria Novella, which he might have encountered since the Spanish mercantile community met at this church beginning in 1490. On the Spanish mercantile community at Santa Maria Novella: B. González Talavera, ‘La comunidad española de la Florencia medicea (1539–1600): principales manifestaciones artísticas’, in Mirando a Clío. El arte español espejo de su historia (Santiago de Compostela: Editorial Universitaria, 2012), p. 1205; R. Lunardi, Arte e storia in Santa Maria Novella (Firenze: Zincografica Fiorentina, 1983), p. 79. Finally, some have suggested that Polanco may have belonged to a converso family, which would have certainly accounted for the family’s need to assert their piety. However, no archival evidence proves this converso link. Robert Maryks’ recent study of Juan Alonso de Polanco, Gonzalo’s grandson by his son Gregorio, shows that Juan Alonso was accused of being a converso while serving as secretary to Ignatius de Loyola. While there is no doubt that this accusation occurred, it is not clear that the accusers had made a careful study of Polanco’s family history prior to making their claim: R. Aleksander Maryks, The Jesuit Order as a Synagogue of the Jews: Jesuits of Jewish Ancestry and Purity-of-Blood Laws in the Early Society of Jesus (Boston: Brill, 2010). Other studies of Juan Alonso de Polanco’s life, such as that by J. W. O’Malley, indicate that the claim that Juan Alonso was a converso has not been substantiated: The First Jesuits (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 10.
49 P. J. Guilbeau, ‘El Paular: Anatomy of a Charterhouse’ (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2012), p. 136. Since the Miraflores retable was constructed during Francisco de Colonia’s youth and apprenticeship with his father, Simón de Colonia, it is possible that Simón arranged for Francisco to study the work more closely. Simón’s established relationship with the monastery would have certainly aided these arrangements, since he constructed a portion of the structure beginning in 1488 (Guilbeau, ‘El Paular’, pp. 134–35).
50 These include Sts Lucy, Laurence, Domingo de Guzmán, Peter Martir, Steven, Barabara, and the Prophet Isaiah. Scholars have not identified all of the saints present: Yarza Luaces, La Cartuja, pp. 76–77.
51 Kroesen, Staging the Liturgy, p. 125, has also noted this similarity between the two altarpieces.
52 Kroesen, Staging the Liturgy, pp. 125, 303–07, 371–72; López Sobrino, La iglesia de San Nicolás, p. 61. In the case of the Miraflores retable, the ring of angels relates to the celebration of the Eucharist and to the work of Ambrosio Montesino, a Franciscan and a member of Isabel’s court who, in a set of verses dedicated to the host, praised the host for its similarities to a ring of angels: Yarza Luaces, La Cartuja de Miraflores, pp. 12–20. There is no reason to believe that Polanco would have been aware of this poem.
53 Germán de Pamplona offers a comprehensive study of the Trinity in medieval Spanish art: Iconografía de la santísima Trinidad en el arte medieval Español (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1970). See p. 166 for an image of the Trinity in a contemporary stained glass window in the parish church of San Esteban, Burgos.
54 I have noted Polanco’s personalized selection of saints above. Kroesen, Staging the Liturgy, p. 315, notes that the Miraflores retable includes several saints (Vincent Ferrer, Thomas Aquinas, Domingo de Guzmán, and others) who have specific connections to the history of Christendom in Spain and therefore would have been of particular interest to the Catholic Kings.
55 This is a reference to her penitence at the house of Simon the Pharisee: Yarza Luaces, La Cartuja, pp. 41–43.
56 For a thorough and recent discussion of this phenomenon, see C. Robinson, Imagining the Passion in a Multiconfessional Castile: The Virgin, Christ, Devotions, and Images in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2013), especially pp. 5–7 and 317–84. Other studies that address this shift include C. Ishikawa, ‘“La Llave de Palo”: Isabel la Católica as Patron of Religious Literature and Painting’, in Isabel la Católica, Queen of Castile: Critical Essays, ed. by D. A. Boruchoff (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp. 103–20; C. Robinson, ‘Preaching to the Converted: Valladolid’s Cristianos nuevos and the Retablo de don Sancho de Rojas’, Speculum, 83 (2008), 112–63; J. Yarza Luaces, Los Reyes Católicos: Paisaje artístico de una monarquía (Madrid: Nera, 1993), pp. 146–47. This new imagery was coupled with the translation and eventual publication of several devotional texts focused on the Passion, which included Juan de Padilla’s Retablo de la Vida de Cristo, Comendador Román’s Coplas de la Pasión con la Resurrección, Diego de San Pedro’s La Pasión Trobada, Pedro Ximenes de Prexano’s Luzero de la Vida Cristiana, and Andrés de Lí’s Tesoro de la Pasión. The most convenient editions of these texts are: Cartuxano, ‘Canticos entresacados de las tres tablas del retablo de la vida de Cristo’, in Colección de obras poéticas españolas dividida en tres partes (London: Carlos Wood, 1843), pp. 1–24; A. de Li, A Scholarly Edition of Andrés de Li’s Thesoro de la Passion (1494), ed. by L. Delbrugge (Boston: Brill, 2011); El Comendador Román, Coplas de la pasión con la resurrección (London: British Museum, 1936); and D. de San Pedro, La pasión trobada, ed. by D. Sherman Severin (Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1973).
57 This discrepancy warrants further consideration in a separate study.