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Home>Exhibitions>Past>2019>Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain

# Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain

October 13, 2019 – February 17, 2020West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 72, 73 

Alonso Berruguete, *The Sacrifice of Isaac*, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. Image © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain); photo by Javier Muñoz and Paz Pastor; CE0271/013

**This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.**

*Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain*****is the first major exhibition held outside Spain to celebrate the art of the most important sculptor active on the Iberian Peninsula during the first half of the 16th century. Berruguete was a revolutionary force in the arts, famed for creating sculptures in painted wood that convey astonishing depths of emotion through their dramatic poses, gestures, and facial expressions. The exhibition presents more than 40 works from across his varied career, including an early painting from his time in Italy as well as a selection of his drawings. The primary focus is on his sculptures, however. A large group of his finest have been lent by the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid. Some are used at the Gallery to recreate a section of one of his elaborate, multi-tiered altarpieces, known as *retablos* in Spanish.

The exhibition is curated by C. D. Dickerson III, curator and head of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

A fully illustrated catalog accompanying the exhibition is the first general book on Berruguete published in English and features essays by Dickerson as well as Manuel Arias Martínez, head of collections and deputy director, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, and Mark McDonald, curator of prints and drawings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The catalog is published by the National Gallery of Art in association with the Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas; Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica/Center for Spain in America, Madrid and New York; and Yale University Press, New Haven and London.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Pedro Berruguete, *The Virgin and Child Enthroned,* c. 1500, oil on panel, Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Museo de San Isidro, Los Orígenes de Madrid. Image: © Photographic Archive, Museo Nacional del Prado

Painted by Alonso Berruguete’s talented father, Pedro, this exquisite scene of the Virgin and Child shows the enduring influence of Flemish painting on the arts of Castile. Berruguete must have started his career in command of a similar style of painting — now called the Hispano-Flemish style.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *Salome*, c. 1514–1517, oil on panel, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence. Image: Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

This is one of only a handful of paintings that survive from Berruguete’s time in Italy. It depicts Salome, who ordered Saint John the Baptist’s beheading. Here she holds his head on a silver platter. Her long fingers, elegant pose, demure gaze, and idealized features are consistent with mannerism, a style of art that was becoming fashionable in Florence during the 1510s. Berruguete was in the vanguard of the movement. Like other mannerist artists, he favored exaggerated forms and complicated poses over the restrained beauty of earlier Renaissance art.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *Saint Matthew Writing the Gospel*, from the *retablo mayor* (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, oil on panel, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Vallodolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain); photo by Javier Muñoz and Paz Pastor; CE0271/003
** ****~~~~ 

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *Relief with Putti*, from the *retablo mayor* (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain); photo by Javier Muñoz and Paz Pastor; CE0271/072

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete,*Saint Benedict Converting the Goth Zalla,* from the *retablo mayor* (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain); photo by Javier Muñoz and Paz Pastor; CE0271/005

This is one of four reliefs from the retablo mayor of San Benito depicting scenes from the life of Saint Benedict. Here Benedict is shown converting a heretic who had been trying to rob a poor farmer. The man falls, terrified, from his horse as he watches Benedict perform a miracle.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Gil de Siloe, *Saint James the Greater*, 1489/1493, alabaster with paint and gilding, Lent by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, 1969, 69.88

Doubtless seen by Berruguete during one of his visits to northern Castile, this exquisite statuette of Saint James the Greater originally decorated Gil de Siloe’s masterwork in alabaster, the tomb of King John II of Castile and Queen Isabella of Portugal in the Carthusian monastery of Miraflores, near Burgos. The complex pattern of angular drapery folds, attention to minute details, and elongated bodily features are characteristic of the late Gothic style brought to Castile during the fifteenth century by northern artists like Gil.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Spanish (Castile), *The Miracle of the Palm Tree on the Flight to Egypt,* c. 1490–1510, painted walnut with gilding, Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1938, 38.184

Painted wood sculpture was the norm in Castile long before Berruguete’s time, as seen in this group executed in a traditional style that reflects the influence of sculpture from northern Europe.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Bartolomé Ordóñez, *The Lamentation of Christ*, c. 1518–1519, walnut, private collection

This moving relief was likely carved in Barcelona around 1519, the year Berruguete visited the city. Executed by Bartolomé Ordóñez, a sculptor who, like Berruguete, was from Castile and had worked in Italy, it reflects the shallow carving style of Donatello, the great Florentine master of the fifteenth century. The relief is a reminder that Berruguete was not the only Spanish artist introducing the lessons of the Italian Renaissance to Spain. Ordóñez’s influence was limited, however, as he died the following year.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *Ecce Homo*, c. 1524, painted wood with gilding and silvering, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain); photo by Javier Muñoz and Paz Pastor; CE0728

This is Berruguete’s earliest surviving sculpture, which comes from a monastic church near Valladolid, the town in central Castile where the artist moved in 1522. Depicting the bound and tortured Christ as he is presented to jeering crowds on the way to his crucifixion, the figure is likely to have stood on an altar, perhaps as the central figure in a retablo (altarpiece). Berruguete’s treatment of the subject was unconventional in Castile. Instead of following tradition and covering Christ’s body with scourge marks and blood, Berruguete elicits sympathy from the viewer through other means. The cross-legged pose, slender limbs, and unsupported arms create a sense of unbalance that conveys Christ’s helplessness. The solution reflects works of art that Berruguete would have studied in Italy.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *Saint Christopher*, from the *retablo mayor* (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain); photo by Javier Muñoz and Paz Pastor; CE0271/015
 

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *The Sacrifice of Isaac*, from the *retablo mayor* (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain); photo by Javier Muñoz and Paz Pastor; CE0271/013
 
One of Berruguete’s most celebrated sculptures, this group depicts the moment when Abraham is about to sacrifice his son Isaac on God’s orders. As the anguished Abraham looks heavenward in disbelief, his terrified son kneels and awaits his fate. Before Abraham could carry out the act, however, God appeared and offered him a ram to sacrifice instead.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *Saint John the Evangelist*(Calvary group)*,*from the *retablo mayor* (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real, 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain); photo by Javier Muñoz and Paz Pastor; CE0271/051

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *The Virgin Mary*(Calvary group)*,*from the *retablo mayor* (high altarpiece) of San Benito el Real*,* 1526/1533, painted wood with gilding, Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid. © Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid (Spain); photo by Javier Muñoz and Paz Pastor; CE0271/050

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *Man Carrying a Sack*, c. 1508–1510, red chalk, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, Paris, Inv. 2706. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *The Prophet Daniel*(after Michelangelo)*,* c. 1512–1517, red chalk, Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, Colección Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos, 2453

In Rome, Berruguete was granted permission to study Michelangelo’s recently completed ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, as evidenced by this study of the prophet Daniel. It is among the earliest drawings of a single figure from the ceiling. A later inscription on a strip added to the top of the sheet records Berruguete’s name, profession, fame, and visit to Rome.

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete,  *Job or Levi,* after c. 1525, pen and brown ink, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection, 1922.50

Alonso BerrugueteFirst Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
Alonso Berruguete, *Seven Figures and a Design for Architecture*, c. 1540–1555, pen and brown ink and wash with white highlights over black chalk, Beaux-Arts de Paris, EBA 473. © Beaux-Arts de Paris, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. Photo by Legs Armand-Valton
 

**Organization:** The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas, in collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid

**Sponsors:** The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Buffy and William Cafritz Family Fund. Additional funding is provided by The Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art.

**Passes:** Admission is always free and passes are not required

**Attendance:** 99,715

**Catalog:**Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain. By C.D. Dickerson and Mark McDonald. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Dallas: The Meadows Museum, 2019.

**Other venues:** Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, September 20, 2020–January 10, 2021

Web Feature: Berruguete in Process: The *Retablo* of San Benito

The Collection: Spanish Paintings

Press Materials

Gallery TalksAlonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance SpainVarious datesWest Building Rotunda

LecturesIntroduction to the Exhibition—Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance SpainOctober 13 at 2:00West Building Lecture Hall

Watch the lecture here.

                  - Drones in Castile: Filming Berruguete’s Masterpieces
                  -                                     Video, Released:                                    February 17, 2020, (2:22 minutes)                                
                  - Introduction to the Exhibition—Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
                  -                                     Audio, Released:                                    February 11, 2020, (39:16 minutes)                                
                  - Introduction to the Exhibition—Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
                  -                                     Video, Released:                                    February 11, 2020, (39:16 minutes)                                
                  - Berruguete: Curator’s Quick Tour 
                  -                                     Video, Released:                                    November 22, 2019, (2:22 minutes)                                
                  - Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
                  -                                     Video, Released:                                    October 8, 2019, (12:57 minutes)                                
                  - Press Event: Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain
                  -                                     Audio, Released:                                    October 8, 2019, (39:39 minutes)                                

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