Sculpture in Spain

Sculpture has always been the most genuinely Spanish of the arts. The Visigoths were attracted to sculpture; and though many of the credited examples they were supposed to have left cannot be accepted, there are a few Visigothic carvings, which bear witness to this predominant expression of character.

Belonging to a later date we find a surprising wealth of carving in wood and stone scattered throughout Spain in the cathedrals, churches, cloisters, and palaces. There is no town in Spain which does not possess some sculptured works.

Spain has given to the world few great sculptors; none of her carvers stand on quite the high level of her most famous painters. Yet, if we except the great names of El Greco, Ribera, Velazquez, and Goya, her sculptors are at least equal in merit with her painters. Damian Forment, Berruguete, Gregorio Hernandez, Juan de Juni, Pedro Millan, Montañés, Alonso Cano, Roldan, Mena, as well as others, are worthy to take a high place in the temple of Spanish art. And a fact of even greater importance: they have impressed upon their work the national character in a far stronger degree than any of the contemporary painters. It is interesting to note that many of these sculptors were also painters; and, in all cases, their carvings are more distinctly Spanish than their paintings. Almost entirely sculpture escaped from the slough of neo-Italian imitation, which did so much to ruin painting in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Spanish sculpture is finely realistic and imaginative. Sometimes fantastic to extravagance in its naturalness, it is always vigorous, romantic, and religious in the highest degree.

How is it, then, that sculpture is the branch of the national art least known beyond the bounds of the country? Rare indeed are the writers who have made a study of Spanish sculpture. A few good articles on the subject have appeared in France and in Germany; in England none. Even in Spain a quite inadequate attention has been given to this most important branch of the national art. There are, it is true, several excellent monographs, such as the works of D. José Gestoso y Perez on Pedro Millan, and that of D. Manuel Serrano y Ortega on Montañés. Then there is the very interesting study by D. José Marti y Monso on the artists of Valladolid. But these writings were limited to one artist, or to the works of one province. Until recently there was no work treating of Spanish sculpture as a whole, except the Diccionario of Cean Bermudez, a book very excellent, but not free from error, and for the most part unimportant in its critical estimates. Like most Spanish writers, Bermudez praises work because it belongs to his own country, rather than because of its true artistic worth. It is well that this indifference is at an end. A critical study of Spanish carvings, entitled La Statuaire Polychrome en Espagne, finely illustrated with beautiful examples of the best carvings in the Peninsula, has now been written by M. Marcel Dieulafoy. The book was published in Paris in 1908. We would take this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging the help we have gained from this excellent work.

But the question remains unanswered why the carvings of Spain have been treated with such a want of interest. To find the answer it will be necessary to consider briefly the circumstances which determined the special character of Spanish sculpture.

Almost without exception statuary was executed for the religious uses of the Catholic Church. Images were needed to increase the pious fervour of the populace; they were used as altar decorations in the churches; often they were carried in the religious processions; and many of them were credited with miracle-working powers. The one thing necessary for a Spanish statue was that it should be an exact imitation of life; the more realistic the illusion the greater was the power of the statue to fulfil the requirements of the Church.