Painting and Devotion in Golden Age Iberia: Luis de Morales (University of Wales Press - Studies in Visual Culture) 1786836025, 9781786836021

Table of contents :
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Series editors’ preface
Acknowledgements
Figures
Preface
Badajoz in the 1540s: City of Joy
Badajoz in the 1550s: Iconographical Licence
Badajoz in the 1560s: Meditationon the Life and Death of Christ
Tridentine Badajoz and its Environs: The Model Male Penitent
Both Sides of the Border: The Two Franciscos
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Back Cover

Citation preview

PAINTING AND DEVOTION IN GOLDEN AGE IBERIA

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Studies in Visual Culture Series Editors Margaret Topping Queen’s University, Belfast Rachael Langford Cardiff University Giuliana Pieri Royal Holloway, University of London

EDITORIAL BOARD Mieke Bal University of Amsterdam Paul Cooke University of Leeds Anne Freadman The University of Melbourne María Pilar Rodríguez Universidad de Deusto  Eric thau University of Hawai’i at Manoa

available in series Aimee Israel-Pelletier, Rimbaud’s Impressionist Poetics: Vision and Visuality (2012) Nathalie Aubert (ed.), Proust and the Visual (2013) Susan Harrow (ed.), The Art of the Text: Visuality in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literary and other media (2013)

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Studies in Visual Culture

Painting and Devotion in Golden Age Iberia Luis de Morales

Jean Andrews

University of Wales Press 2020

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© Jean Andrews, 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NS. www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CIP Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78683-602-1 e-ISBN 978-1-78683-603-8 The right of Jean Andrews to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset in Wales by Eira Fenn Gaunt, Cardiff Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Melksham

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Contents

Series editors’ preface vii Acknowledgementsix List of figures xi Prefacexvii

1 Badajoz in the 1540s: City of Joy

1

2 Badajoz in the 1550s: Iconographical Licence

40

3 Badajoz in the 1560s: Meditation on the Life and Death of Christ 

77

4 Tridentine Badajoz and its Environs: The Model Male Penitent 

140

5 Both Sides of the Border: The Two Franciscos

191

Afterword

215

Notes217 Bibliography243 Index259

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Series editors’ preface

Studies in Visual Culture provides a forum for ground-breaking enquiry into visual-cultural production in its social, historical and cultural contexts. The series places particular emphasis on the exchanges, transactions and dis­ placements that link Europe to wider global contexts across the visual-cultural field. The series seeks to promote critical engagement with visual media as ideological and cultural as well as aesthetic constructs, and foregrounds the relationship of visual cultures to other fields and discourses, including cultural history, literary production and criticism, philosophy, gender and sexuality research, journalism and media studies, migration and mobility studies, social sciences, and politics. The Studies in Visual Culture series thus focuses on exploring synergies and key debates between disciplines, concepts and theoretical approaches, and offers an exciting new arena for testing and extending disciplinary, theoretical and conceptual boundaries.

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Acknowledgements

The list of institutions and individuals I must thank for their assistance and kindness over the course of the preparation of this book is long. Institutions: the University of Nottingham for research leave and Santander Universities for funding visits to galleries and churches in Spain and Portugal. All those galleries, large and small, and churches who generously gave permission to reproduce images gratis. Individuals: Leticia Ruiz Gómez for showing me the Prado Morales paintings not on public display; Alexandra Markl at the Drawings and Engravings Collection of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, for letting me look at their Morales (and possible Morales) drawings; Jesús Jiménez González for taking me round the collection at the Museo Catedralico de Badajoz and for sending me away with a pile of useful and hard-to-find books; Verónica Molano Cid and Fr Juan Manuel García Acedo for welcoming me to the parish church of the Assumption in Arroyo de la Luz to see the altarpiece there; Fr José María Muñoz for his kindness regarding the Virgin and Child with the Little Bird in the parish church of St Augustine, Madrid; Mercedes Orantos Sánchez-Rodrigo for allowing me into the church of St Martin, Plasencia to see the altarpiece before it became a visitor site; Daniel Silva for giving me access to the Hispanic Society of America’s Holy Family with the Horoscope of Christ, José Alberto Conderana for context on the Morales Magdalen once kept at the Clerecía building in Salamanca; Teresa Álvarez González for information on the sculptor Pedro de Árbulo; Olivia Fryman for intercession with trustees; Daniel Benito Goerlich for showing me the Morales triptych in the Real Colegio-Seminario de Corpus Christi in Valencia; María Cruz de Carlos Varona for help in sourcing images; and Eddie Langé for instructing me in how Morales worked and Gill Langé for her warm hospitality. I also acknowledge the encouragement and support of Terry O’Reilly, Anne J. Cruz, Laura R. Bass and Jeremy Roe, as well as the friendship of

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Acknowledgements

my colleagues in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at the University of Nottingham.

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Figures

Figure 1 Luis de Morales, The Virgin and Child with the Little Bird, 1546, oil on panel transferred to canvas, 210 x 158 cms, church of St Augustine, Madrid. Figure 2 Raffaello Sanzio, The Madonna with the Goldfinch, 1505–6, oil on panel, 107 x 77 cms, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, inv. 1890, 1447.  30 Figure 3 Juan Correa de Vivar, The Virgin with the Goldfinch, 1548–50, oil on panel, 43 x 36.5 cms, Colegio de Doncellas Nobles, Toledo © Patrimonio Nacional, inv. 00680728. 32 Figure 4 Luis de Morales, The Virgin and Child with St John, c.1545–55, oil on oak panel, 167 x 122 cms, Salamanca cathedral, Salamanca. 34 Figure 5 Luis de Morales, Holy Family with the Horoscope of Christ, c.1554–60, oil on walnut panel, 91 x 67 cms, Hispanic Society of America, New York, inv. A78.40 Figure 6 Luis de Morales, The Presentation in the Temple, c.1562, oil on oak panel, 146.5 x 116 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. P943.

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Figures

Figure 7 Luis de Morales, The Birth of the Virgin, 1562–7, oil on walnut panel, 69.2 x 93.2 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, P7859. Figure 8 Luis de Morales, Virgin Dressed as a Gypsy with the Child Jesus, c.1567, oil on panel, 57 x 41 cms, Fondo Cultural Villar Mir, Madrid. Figure 9 Luis de Morales, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, c.1566, oil on oak panel, 167.5 x 125 cms, Museo de Salamanca, inv. IG 106; photo Manuel Blanco/ AMP digital, Archivo Fotográfico, Museo de Salamanca. Figure 10 Luis de Morales, Juan de Ribera, c.1566, oil on oak panel, 52.3 x 40 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. P947. Figure 11 Luis de Morales, Calvary with Donor, c.1565–75, oil on panel, 235.5 x 156.6 cms, Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia, inv. 445. Figure 12 Luis de Morales, Virgin and Child, c.1565, oil on chestnut panel, 83.7 x 63.7 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. 2656. Figure 13 Luis de Morales, The Virgin and Child with the Distaff, 1566, oil on chestnut panel, 64.5x 45 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. P7864. Figure 14 Luis de Morales, Pietà, c.1560, oil on oak panel, 126 x 98 cms, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, inv. 612.

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Figures

Figure 15 Luis de Morales, Pietà, 1553–4, oil on panel, 114.4 x 84.2 cms, Museo Catedralicio, Badajoz. Figure 16 Anon. Netherlandish, Portable passion polyptich (10 panels), panel no. 10 Pietà (inner central panel), mid-sixteenth century, oil on oak panel, 24.2 x 20.2 cms, Wernher Collection, London, ©The Wernher Foundation Historic England Archive, inv. K011220. Figure 17 After Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Yarnwinder, c.520–30, oil on panel, 62 x 48.8cms, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, inv. NG2270. Figure 18 Luis de Morales, Man of Sorrows, 1566, oil on walnut panel, 60.5 x 44 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. P007867. Figure 19 Luis de Morales, The Man of Sorrows, c.1560, oil on panel, 64.45 x 46.36 cms, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, inv. The Ethel Morrison van Derlip Fund, 62.24. Figure 20 Frei Carlos, Christ, the Good Shepherd, c.1520, oil on panel, 90 x 65 cms, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, inv. 1 Pint; photo Luisa Oliveira/José Paulo Ruas ©Direção-Geral do Património Cultural/Arquivo de Documentação Fotográfica. Figure 21 Nicolás Francés, St Jerome Translating the Gospels, c.1450, tempera on panel, 98 x 59 cms, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, inv. 1013.

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Figure 22 Leonardo da Vinci, St Jerome, c.1480–2, oil and tempera on walnut panel, 102.8 x 73.5 cms, Vatican Museums, Rome, inv. 40337. Figure 23 Cosmè Tura, St Jerome, c.1470, oil and tempera on poplar panel, 101 x 57.2 cms, © The National Gallery, London, inv. NG773. Figure 24 Hieronymus Bosch, St Jerome in Prayer, c.1485, oil on panel, 80.1 x 60.6 cms, Fine Arts Museum, Ghent, inv. 1908-H. Figure 25 Anon., The Penitent St Jerome, mid-sixteenth century, oil on panel, 49 x 34 cms, Museo de Bellas Artes, Cáceres, inv. CE000665. Figure 26 Luis de Morales, The Penitent St Jerome, 1560–3, oil on panel, 65 x 80 cms, predella panel on the altarpiece of the church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Arroyo de la Luz, sculptor Alonso Hipólito, Arroyo de la Luz, Cáceres. Figure 27 Luis de Morales, The Penitent St Jerome, c.1555, oil on panel, 80 x 58 cms, Museo Catedralicio, Badajoz. Figure 28 Francisco de Navarra (with Hans de Bruselas), The Penitent St Jerome, 1555–9, choir stalls, Badajoz cathedral, Badajoz. Figure 29 Pedro de Árbulo, The Penitent St Jerome, 1597, polychromed wood, Museo de la Rioja, Logroño, © Museo de La Rioja, inv. 416.

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Figures

Figure 30 Juan Fernández de Navarrete, The Penitent St Jerome, 1569, oil on canvas, 367 x 261 cms, Escorial Gallery, Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, El Escorial, inv. 10014607, ©Patrimonio Nacional. Figure 31 Luis de Morales, St Jerome in the Wilderness, c.1560–70, oil on panel, 62 x 46.5 cms, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, inv. NGI 1. Figure 32 Diogo de Contreiras (attrib.), St Jerome, St Anthony and St Denis, 1546, oil on panel, 47 x 203 cms (det.), Museu de Évora – Museu Nacional Frei Manuel do Cenáculo, Évora, inv. ME1544; photo José Pessoa, © Direção-Geral do Património Cultural/Arquivo de Documentação Fotográfica. Figure 33 Vicente Juan Masip (Juan de Juanes), The Penitent St Jerome, 1570s, oil on panel, 59 x 44.4 cms, private collection (image courtesy of the Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, inv. DO 2013/13/1, 10/2013–03/2015). Figure 34 Garcia Fernandes, The Penitent St Jerome, c.1530, oil on panel, church of the Real Mosteiro de São Francisco, Évora. Figure 35 Francisco de Castillejo (attrib.), Pietà, 1560s, oil on panel, 83.5 x 67.5 cms, Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba, Córdoba, inv. DO0022P. Figure 36 António Campelo, Christ on the Way to Calvary, 1565–75, oil on chestnut panel, 260 x 144 cms, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, inv. 1184 Pint; photo Luisa Oliveira © Direção-Geral do Património Cultural / Arquivo de Documentação Fotográfica.

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Figures

Figure 37 Luis de Morales, Ecce Homo, c.1565, oil on oak panel, 182 x 94 cms, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, inv. 425 Pint; photo José Pessoa, © DireçãoGeral do Património Cultural/Arquivo de Documentação Fotográfica.

Figure 38 Francisco João, The Taking of Jesus, 1575, oil on panel, c.150 x 70 cms, Franciscan church, Évora; photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016. Figure 39 Francisco João, Christ at the Pillar, 1575, oil on panel, c.150 x 70 cms, Franciscan Church, Évora, photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016. Figure 40 Francisco João, The Crowning with Thorns, 1575, oil on panel, c.100 x 100 cms, Franciscan church, Évora, photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016. Figure 41 Francisco João, Ecce Homo, 1575, oil on panel, c.150 x 70 cms, Franciscan church, Évora, photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016. Figure 42 Francisco João, Christ Carrying the Cross, 1575, oil on panel, c.150 x 70cms, Franciscan church, Évora; photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016. Figure 43 Francisco João, The Descent from the Cross, 1575, oil on panel, c.100 x 150 cms, Franciscan church, Évora, photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016.

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Preface

Luis de Morales is not much known outside Spain though he was possibly the most remarkable, and certainly the most idiosyncratic painter working in Spain before the arrival of the Cretan Doménikos Theotocópoulos in 1577. By then, Morales was well past his peak. The first work of note on Morales in English was a short book by Elizabeth du Gué Trapier, a curator at the Hispanic Society of America which holds three significant works by him, published in 1953.1 It was followed eight years later by the Finnish Ingjald Bäcksbacka’s catalogue raisonné, published in English in 1962.2 In Madrid, at almost the same time, Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño’s monograph on Morales appeared.3 After Gaya Nuño, the next important consideration of Morales came from the pen of Alfonso Rodríguez G. de Ceballos in 1987. His long article in the Spanish art journal Goya on the spiritual milieu of Morales’s work is definitive.4 From the late 1970s, the archival work undertaken by the musicologist Carmelo Solís Rodríguez provided depth and context for Morales’s career.5 Subsequent to this contribution, the next great step forward for Morales has undoubtedly been the Prado exhibition curated by Leticia Ruiz Gómez and shown in Madrid, Bilbao and Barcelona in 2015–16. The exhibition catalogue, published in Spanish and English versions, is now the most important source for Morales, given the wide range of paintings from public and private collections in the exhibition, the number of new attributions, the identification of mistaken attributions and the transfer of paintings, some of them significant, to new ownership since the publication of Bäcksbacka’s catalogue.6 While the exhibition itself attracted a mainly Spanish viewership, the Prado’s decision to publish the catalogue in English is an acknowledgement of the need to provide material on Morales for a non-Spanish-speaking international audience. A further indication of the growing international awareness of the signifi­ cance of Morales’s work can be found in a pre-auction exhibition mounted

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Preface

in the summer of 2018 by Christie’s in London. Sacred Noise showcased a series of pieces for sale within a theme of Christian iconography from the medieval period to the present day. The painting chosen for the cover of the electronic catalogue is none other than a beautifully preserved and signed Morales Ecce Homo. This painting, authenticated recently by Isabel Mateo Gómez, who has done so much to establish the modern Morales canon, had last been seen at a Christie’s auction in Madrid in 2007.7 Morales did not undertake journeys to view work by great painters from Italy or Flanders. There is no definite information as to whom he may have studied with. With the exception of a single portrait of his most important patron, Juan de Ribera, bishop of Badajoz, his entire output is religious in nature. Within that output, he produced several paintings which are almost identical in iconography, only varying in size, support or elaborateness according to the nature of the commission. He does not have any followers of distinction, and he left no testimony, no letters, nothing in his own words to enable historians over the years to get a sense of the man, as distinct from his work. He may have been a deeply religious individual, or he may simply have had an ability to evoke devotion in his manner of representing religious images. In juxtaposition with the Italianate style which developed in Madrid from the 1580s under the influence of Italian painters brought in to work on the Escorial, and their naturalised sons who continued the tradition, Morales’s work, Leonardesque in technique, Flemish in composition, restricted both in narrative and in iconography, seemed hopelessly backward-looking. Many commentators considered his anatomy suspect, not least Trapier, who accuses him of ‘a lack of understanding of the human form’.8 In this respect, neither comparison with the conventionally Italianate Madrid School nor the more idiosyncratic, Italian-trained Doménikos Theotocópoulos, with his elongated, often etiolated figures, helps Morales’s case. However, these images were extremely popular in Morales’s lifetime as devotional aids, both in public and domestic contexts and, then as now, they spoke to the viewer in a way that transcends technique and composition. Two of Morales’s altarpieces, restored and cleaned, are still in situ, in the church of the Assumption in Arroyo de la Luz, near Cáceres, and in the church of St Martin in Plasencia, recently opened to the public. Being able to examine Morales’s sequences of images, in oil on panel, set into the gilded timber xviii

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frames of the original retables, in dialogue with the polychrome statuary, gives a sense of how his narratives impacted on the congregations of these small churches in his own time. It is probably only because these are very small, non-monastic churches in a relatively poor part of Spain that the altarpieces survived, first the impulse to redecorate or expand prevalent in the eighteenth century, and then the consequences of the disestablishment of the Church in the 1830s. The effectiveness of these altarpiece images, particularly the predella paintings which were more accessible to the viewer kneeling behind the altar rail, probably led some individuals to request smaller versions for personal devotion. Thus Morales became a painter with two separate groups of clients: churches requesting narrative sequences for altarpieces, and private individuals with sufficient resources to commission a painting for domestic use. His domestic clièntele focused on a narrow range of images: the Virgin and Child, the Ecce Homo, the Pietà; and Morales produced large and small versions to order, while his altarpiece paintings, inevitably involving more collaboration with his workshop and no small degree of dependence on engravings and established iconography, tended to follow patterns put in place and adhered to by the mixture of indigenous and foreign, mainly Flemish, painters working in Extremadura and western Andalusia in the mid-sixteenth century.9 For all these limiting factors, Morales’s work has a voice and a presence that no other painter working in western Spain in this period can compete with. His very best work, exquisitely finished, has an emotional power that is hard to reduce to explicable factors. His Virgins and Christs are elegant, inward and still; some figures are enigmatic, others are arresting. He poses a problem for viewers today, who may not know what it is that draws them in. In his own time, the explanation was more straightforward, and he became, to an extent, a conduit for the devotional culture of Counter-Reformation Extremadura and Andalusia, if not for the whole of Iberia. For that he was known by subsequent generations as El Divino Morales, the Divine Morales, and it is under this appellation that the Prado chose to present him in the exhibition of 2015/16. For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Morales was not just a quirky painter but one who spent his working life in an odd little place for xix

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which even Spaniards themselves had little time. In the nineteenth century, Badajoz was very much a backwater, and enmity between Spain and Portugal was entrenched at a popular and a political level. The distress on both sides brought about by the conflict surrounding the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy from 1640, with notable battles in Elvas, just across the border from Badajoz, in 1644 and 1649, and another in Montijo, to the east of Badajoz, in 1644, set the tone for the succeeding centuries. The French Hispanist Charles Davillier, writing in the 1860s, observes deep antipathy between Spaniards and Portuguese. Without perhaps fully understanding the nature of the aspersion cast on the Portuguese, he quotes lines from Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: ‘Well doth the Spanish hind the difference know / Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low’ (Canto 1, Stanza XXXIII).10 In fact, Byron’s throwaway line reflects his own ill-informed views on Portuguese resistance to the French invasion of the Peninsula, and the ‘pilgrimage’ to Portugal itself is based on a mere couple of weeks spent in transit in Lisbon in July 1809.11 Davillier, however, lends more substance to his point about the ill will between both nations by citing an unnamed late eighteenthcentury German author who mentions the proliferation of Portuguese border taverns named in honour of those who killed Spaniards, a reaction, in the German traveller’s view, to the disdain with which Spaniards treated the Portuguese. This disdain for the Portuguese, and indeed the poor opinion Spaniards have, to this day, of Badajoz, is summarised by the German botanist Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link. He spent a year in Portugal in 1798–9 in the company of another distinguished botanist, the Count von Hoffmannstegg, and writes very sympathetically on Portugal and its people.12 Highly aware of military matters, given the parlous state of European geopolitics in 1798, Link reports on the attitude of the Spanish military to Badajoz: ‘The Spanish military, however, consider Badajoz as a place of banishment, being itself very dead, distant from other towns, on the frontiers of a nation they hate and despise, and in Summer an unwholesome situation.’13 Link’s travelogue does not concern itself with art or the interiors of churches, but, in his 1845 Handbook, the English traveller Richard Ford does. Sadly, he damns both Morales and his city in the following exercise in faint praise:

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Badajoz, a dull unsocial town, pop. about 11.000, [. . .] distant about 5m from Portugal is an important frontier-place [. . .] The cathedral, which has survived so many sieges, is heavy inside and outside [. . .] the Capilla Santa Ana has some damaged paintings by Luis de Morales, called El Divino, more from his painting subjects of divinity than from any divinity of painting [. . .] He chiefly painted Saviours crowned with thorns and Madonnas dolorosas; he finished highly and was [. . .] defective in his lengthy drawing and often dark and cold in colouring. Meantime in Spain, and still more out of it, every lanky small head of Christ with a brown skin and suffering expression, is ascribed to Morales, just as most old castles are to the Moors. He painted many large pictures also, which, from lying out of the way, are scarcely known.14

Ford also rehearses the old chestnut about an impoverished and elderly Morales meeting Felipe II in Badajoz as the king journeyed to Lisbon to take formal possession of the Portuguese throne: here he was living in 1581, when Philip II, on his way to Lisbon sent for him and said, ‘You are very old, Morales.’ ‘And very poor, sire’, was the reply; when Philip, a true patron of art, gave him an annual pension of 300 ducats, which he enjoyed until his death in 1586.15

The same encounter is mentioned in Davillier’s account of a visit to Badajoz in the late 1860s, accompanied, as in all his Spanish travels, by the painter and illustrator Gustave Doré.16 The story comes from the painter and histori­ ographer Antonio Palomino’s Parnaso Español (1724), the third volume of his Museo Pictórico y Escala Óptica (1715–24), and is told with rather more bathos by Palomino:

Y después de algunos años, pasando el Señor Philip Segundo a tomar posesión del Reino de Portugal en el de 1581, llegó a Badajoz, donde estaba nuestro Morales; el cual fue luego a ponerse a los pies del Rey, y habiéndolo recibido su Majestad con singular agrado, le dijo: ‘Muy viejo estáis, Morales’; a que él respondió: ‘Si, Señor, muy viejo y muy pobre’. Y entonces volvió el Rey a su Tesorero, y le dijo: que en las Arcas Reales de aquella Ciudad le señalasen doscientos ducados para comer. Replicó al punto Morales, y dijo: ‘Señor, y para cenar?’ Volvió el Rey y dijo: ‘Que le señalasen otros ciento’. En que se califica la liberalidad de aquel Gran Rey, y la discreción y donaire de aquel Vasallo.17

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And after a few years, when King Philip II was on his way to take possession of the Kingdom of Portugal in the year of 1581, he came to Badajoz, where our Morales was living. The latter then went to prostrate himself at the king’s feet, and his Majesty, having received him with singular pleasure, said to him: ‘You are very old, Morales’, to which he responded: ‘Yes, my lord, very old and very poor.’ And then the King turned to his Treasurer, and said to him that 200 ducats should be assigned to him from the royal coffers of that City to provide his lunch. Morales swiftly replied, and said ‘My lord, and what about dinner?’ The king turned again and said: ‘Let him be assigned 100 more.’ By which the liberality of that great king and the diplomacy and wit of that vassal can be measured.

There is no eyewitness account of this encounter between Morales and Felipe II, and indeed the king’s pleasure in meeting the old painter is predicated by Palomino on the assumption that Morales worked at the Escorial for Felipe II and that Felipe was pleased with his work. Knowing that he painted only religious subjects and did not produce grand-scale paintings, Palomino reports that Morales provided muchas cosas de su devoción/‘many things for his devotions’ for the king. That Felipe should be presumed to like Morales’s style of devotional imagery makes a lot of sense, since Felipe was extremely devout, especially in his later years. Furthermore, his taste in private devotional imagery was firmly Flemish, as the items on display in his bedroomin the Escorial at the time of his death attest.18 However, like many other suggestions as to where Morales may have worked or travelled and with whom he may have studied, there is no evidence to substantiate this claim. Indeed, given Felipe’s strong preference, in the decoration of the Escorial, for Italian style and craftsmanship and for clear and orthodox narrative in the representation of sacred subjects, it is highly unlikely that he would have been interested in Morales’s work in the 1560s or 1570s, even for private devotional purposes.19 Palomino suggests that by 1581 Morales had not been able to paint for some time, as his hands trembled and his eyesight was failing. Some time after that, he moved to Alcántara where he remained until his death.20 The brief Christie’s note on the Ecce Homo for sale in the summer of 2018 attempts to explain to the modern purchaser why Morales’s highly detailed depictions may have been attractive to the pious sixteenth-century client: xxii

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in an age long before the medium of photography, these incredibly fine details – from the individual handling of the strands of hair, to the light reflected in the sharp thorns and the glistening tears on Christ’s cheeks, the crescent moons on His fingernails, and His expressive eyes engaging directly with the beholder – would have struck and mesmerised the worshipper as though they were standing before Christ Himself. Whilst the twisted, contorted position of the figure highlights the physical suffering of Christ, the body, and particularly, the hands are subtly modelled, emanating a divine luminosity.21

This divine luminosity is much easier to discern today because so many of Morales’s paintings have been cleaned and restored. As a result, they seem less dour, perhaps even less austerely ascetic than may have been the case when scholars like Bäcksbacka, Gaya Nuño and Trapier championed his output. Interestingly, Leticia Ruiz Gómez, citing both Manuela Mena Marqués and the early twentieth-century scholar and curator of the 1917 Morales exhibition at the Prado, Elías Tormo, suggests that in these detailed devotional images Morales may in fact be attempting to reproduce the pious function of poly­ chrome religious statues for his clièntele, but in two dimensions.22 Most of the polychrome statues in any church of the period would have been situated in the nave rather than on the altarpiece and would therefore have been much more accessible to the devout as a stimulus for prayer; and of course many would have had their own small statues in the home. As Ruiz Gómez notes, Morales seemed to have a very good eye for business and operated, in a sense, as an Eastern Orthodox icon painter might have. As such, his devotional works were: Sencillos en su composición, claros para el creyente y repetidos una y mil veces por su eficacia visual; realizados sobre tablas cuyas medidas se adaptaban a los ámbitos privados y a las diferentes posibilidades del mercado. En la mejor tradición del icono bizantino.23 Simple in composition, presenting a clear narrative to the believer and repeated a thousand and one times because of their visual effectiveness; painted on panels adapted in size to suit private spaces and in response to the various possibilities presented by the art market. In the best tradition of the Byzantine icon.

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Businesslike, therefore, with the instincts, perhaps, of an icon painter who knows it is his destiny and his fortune to repeat the same handful of images with limited variation – a future forsaken by Doménikos Theotocópoulos – for his entire career, Morales the craftsman was, even so, touched by something else, and this something turned his two-dimensional polychrome images, at their best, into wonders in their own right. In this book I propose to trace Morales’s trajectory as a painter by looking at a series of significant paintings taken from the different decades of his professional life. The opening chapter explores one of Morales’s earliest pieces, his Virgin and Child with a Little Bird, most likely painted in 1546, in the context of cultural life in and around Badajoz in the 1540s, before the implementation of the decrees of the Council of Trent. The second chapter centres on what is perhaps Morales’s most enigmatic painting, the Hispanic Society of America’s Holy Family (with a Horoscope of Christ), a painting that was produced before the Tridentine strictures on religious imagery, but which nevertheless betrays a religious environment already in the process of change. Chapter III deals with Morales’s best-documented decade, the golden years of the 1560s, the decade when he had the patronage of the discerning and highly orthodox Juan de Ribera, who encouraged an intense and deeply personal piety throughout his diocese. In order to explore how this piety is reflected in and encouraged by Morales’s work in these years, I have con­ centrated on the relationship between his depictions of the Virgin and Child and his portrayals of the very end of Christ’s life, seated and meditating on the instruments of his impending torture, or dead in his mother’s arms. The fourth chapter moves to an examination of how Morales represented St Jerome, noted theologian and Church Father, but perhaps primarily presented in Counter-Reformation Spain as an ideal penitent striking his bare breast with a stone in the desert, a human and mortal model for the devout to imitate. The final chapter looks at Morales’s legacy, such as it is, and recognises that this painter, who spent almost his entire working life only two leagues from the border with Portugal, left more evidence of his influence in the Portuguese court city of Évora than in Spain, where fashions in art moved on much more rapidly than in Portugal.

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I conclude that Morales must be categorised as an Iberian religious painter, blended equally into the traditions on either side of the border. This hybridity was recognised in an exhibition mounted in Badajoz and Lisbon in 2000 as part of the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the birth of Carlos V of Spain. The exhibition, consisting of forty works by Morales, was the first to be held in his own city, and it was given the highly appropriate title of A un lado y otro de la Raya, recognising his importance on one and the other side of the border.24 However, as relations across la Raya did not continue on such an amicable, seamless footing as the seventeenth century wore on, Morales, El Divino, became, in the eyes of historians, a quintessentially Spanish painter, his role in Portuguese religious art overlooked by both sides.

Notes  1

 2  3

 4

 5

 6

 7

Elizabeth du Gué Trapier, Luis de Morales and Leonardesque Influences in Spain (New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1953; also published in Spanish translation as Luis de Morales y las influencias leonardescas en España in Badajoz in 1956). She had published a catalogue of the three Morales paintings in the Hispanic Society collection in 1925, Luis de Morales (New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1925). Ingjald Bäcksbacka, Luis de Morales (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1962). Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, Luis de Morales (Madrid: CSIC/Instituto Diego Velázquez, 1961). Alfonso Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual de Luis de Morales. En el IV Centenario de su Muerte’, Goya, 196 (1987), 194–203. Solís Rodríguez, Carmelo, ‘Luis de Morales: Nuevas Aportaciones Documentales’, Revista de Estudios Extremeños, 33/3 (1977), 571–652; ‘Luis de Morales (continuación)’, Revista de Estudios Extremeños, 36/1 (1978), 49–137; Luis de Morales (Badajoz: Diputación Provincial, 1977); Luis de Morales (Badajoz: Fundación Caja de Badajoz, 1999). Ruiz Gómez, Leticia, El Divino Morales (Madrid: Museo del Prado, 2015); Jean Andrews, ‘Luis de Morales’, Burlington Magazine (January 2016), 67–8. Natasha Shoory, ‘Ecce Homo: The Human and the Divine in Art and Creation’, in Cristian Albu (exhibition curator), Sacred Noise (London: Christie’s International Media, 2018), pp. 137–50; pp. 145–7 and cover illustration; Isabel Mateo Gómez, ‘Nueva Aportación a la Obra de Morales: Cronología, Soportes y Réplicas’, Archivo Español de Arte, LXXXVIII/350 (April–June 2015), 131–40; 133–4.

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Notes

 8  9

10

11 12

13 14

15

16 17

18

19

20

Trapier, Leonardesque Influences, p. 33. Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘Luis de Morales: Divino y Humano’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 17–43; pp. 34–7. Charles Davillier, L’Espagne (Paris: Hachette, 1874), p. 498; Daniel Gelanio Dalgado, Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage to Portugal (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1919), pp. 7, 66–70. Dalgado, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, p. 66. Henry Frederick Link, Travels in Portugal and Through France and Spain, trans. John Hinckley (London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1801). Link, Travels in Portugal, p. 127. Richard Ford, A Handbook for Travellers in Spain, part II (London: John Murray, 1855), pp. 466–9. Ford, A Handbook, p. 469. Felipe’s much-loved fourth wife, Ana de Austria, then pregnant, died in Talavera la Real, a small town to the west of Badajoz on 14 October 1580, of a bout of influenza from which the king himself had recovered. The necessary mourning delayed his journey to Lisbon. He symbolically crossed the border into Elvas on 4 December 1580 and summoned the Portuguese Cortes to the town of Tomar, 140 km north-east of Lisbon, in April 1581, because Lisbon was then in the throes of an influenza epidemic as well. Tomar had been of importance to the running of the Portuguese Empire since the time of Prince Henry the Navigator. See Henry Kamen, Philip II of Spain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), p. 176. Davillier, L’Espagne, p. 498. Palomino de Castro y Velasco and Antonio Acisclo, El Parnaso Español, Pintoresco Laureado, Tomo Tercero con las Vidas de los Eminentes Pintores Españoles (Madrid: Viuda de Juan García Infanzón, 1724), p. 258. The inventory of devotional paintings belonging to Felipe II indicates a pronounced taste for Flemish devotional art and, of course, that of his beloved Titian. See F. J. Sánchez Cantón, ‘Pinturas de deboción’, Inventarios Reales: Bienes Muebles Que Pertenecían a Felipe II, vol. 1, Archivo Documental Español, tomo X (Madrid: Real Academia Española, 1959), pp. 21–31; also the current display in his bedroom in the Escorial. Jonathan Brown, Painting in Spain 1500–1700 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998), p. 67. Felipe’s response to El Greco’s St Maurice and the Theban Legion (1583) is evidence of this strict post-Tridentine orthodoxy. He commissioned and then rejected this painting because El Greco’s narrative was not sufficiently clear and primacy had not been given to the martyrdom of St Maurice. Fernando Marcos Álvarez, ‘Nuevos Apuntes sobre Luis de Morales’, Revista de Estudios Extremeños, LVIII/2, 667–84, cited in Ruiz Gómez, ‘Luis de Morales’, pp. 17–43; p. 17. The usual date given for Morales’s death is 1586, though Marcos Álvarez suggests

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Notes

21 22

23 24

a possibility that he may have been alive a year later at least. See Luis Zolle, ‘Apéndice Documental’, in El Divino Morales, ed. Ruiz Gómez, pp. 227–54; p. 252, doc. 110. Shoory, ‘Ecce Homo’, pp. 144–6. Ruiz Gómez, ‘Luis de Morales’, p. 42; Manuela B. Mena Marqués, ‘Luis de Morales, «El Divino». La piedad del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao’, Boletín de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 5 (2010), 65–108; Elías Tormo, ‘El Divino Morales’, Museum, V/6 (1916–17), 215–32. Ruiz Gómez, ‘Luis de Morales’, p. 35. Solís Rodríguez, Carmelo, Francisco Tejada Vizuete, José Luis Porfírio and Jose Seabra Carvahlo (eds), Luis de Morales: A Un Lado y Otro de la Raya (Badajoz: Museo de la Catedral Metropolitana/Lisbon: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, 2000).

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Figure 1: Luis de Morales, The Virgin and Child with the Little Bird, 1546, oil on panel transferred to canvas, 210 x 158 cms, church of St Augustine, Madrid.

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Badajoz in the 1540s: City of Joy

Morales had settled in Badajoz in 1539, having begun his artistic career in Plasencia in the north of Extremadura, the likely place of his birth.1 His Virgin and Child with a Little Bird, dated 1546 and created for a church in Badajoz, is a remarkable piece, quite different from the work he produced in his mature period (fig. 1). It is light and airy, and reflects a society and a religious culture more open to joy than the austere devotional environment portrayed in his more mature work. It also suggests confidence and cosmopolitanism in the city itself which a critic as eminent as Rodríguez de Ceballos (though, in fairness, focusing specifically on the devotional context for Morales’s output) does not detect. Writing in 1987, he repeats the poor opinion of Badajoz prevalent in the rest of Spain, characterising it as a site of normally unshakeable monotony, noting only three major court events in the years Morales lived there: the entry of the infanta Juana de Austria on her way to marry the Portuguese crown prince, João Manuel, her first cousin, in 1552; a visit by her only son, Sebastião I, in 1576, two years before his death at Ksar el-Kebir, Morocco; and the aforementioned passage of Felipe II in 1580–1 to claim his nephew’s vacant throne. 2 In the context of court life in Madrid and events in other Chapter 1

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major Spanish cities such as Seville or Valencia, Badajoz was indeed a place of minor importance. However, viewed from a Portuguese perspective, it assumes quite a different hue, and perhaps the proper referent and com­ parison for Badajoz ought to be Évora. Under Manuel I (1495–1521) and João III (1521–57), who developed the city and installed their courts there, Évora was one of the most eminent cultural centres in Portugal, becoming an archdiocese in 1540 and acquiring a Jesuit-sponsored university ten years later. Thus the Lisbon-based musicologist Carl Santiago Kastner argued, in 1957, that Badajoz was, even before the Spanish annexation of the Portuguese throne, a site of much commercial, cultural and court transit between the two kingdoms: No hubo reyes, príncipes, princesas casaderas, embajadores, prelados, banqueros, artistas, letrados, mercaderes, artesanos, frailes y monjas que para ir y venir entre España y Portugal no prefiriesen el camino por Badajoz. Debido a la configuración del terreno, a las facilidades de comunicación, proporcionadas por tales condiciones geográficas, y a la cercanía entre centros culturales y eclesiásticos rayanos como Badajoz por un lado, y Elvas y Vila Viçosa por otro, los contactos e intercambios entre éstos fueron mucho más frecuentes, intensos, constantes y fecundos que entre otras ciudades fronterizas de aquende y allende del lindero, relativamente vecinas y casi todas ellas sedes episcopales como Tuy y Braga, Braganza y Zamora, Ciudad Rodrigo y Guarda, Castelo Branco y Coria, Ayamonte y Castro Marim. 3 There were no kings, princes, betrothed princesses, ambassadors, prelates, bankers, artists, lettered men, merchants, artisans, friars and monks who, in order to come and go between Spain and Portugal, did not prefer to take the road through Badajoz. Because of the configuration of the land, of the communication facilities made possible by such a geographical configuration, and the nearness of cultural and ecclesiastical centres along the border such as Badajoz on one side and Elvas and Vila Viçosa on the other, contact and exchange between both of these was much more frequent, intense, constant and fertile than between other pairs of frontier cities, relatively close to one another and almost all episcopal seats, such as Tuy and Braga, Braganza and Zamora, Ciudad Rodrigo and Guarda, Castelo Branco and Coria, Ayamonte and Castro Marim.

In this sense, the most constant and comprehensive system of adminis­ trative links uniting Portugal to the kingdoms of the rest of the peninsula 2

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Badajoz in the 1540s: City of Joy

was rooted in the Church. From the Middle Ages, when the progress of the Christian Reconquest had enabled the religious orders to expand south­ wards, little distinction was made between Portugal and the other Christian kingdoms. Indeed, the major religious orders administered Portugal as part of Spain throughout this period. The seventeenth-century Dominican chronicler, José de Medrano, for example, records the founding of the con­ vent of São Domingos in Évora, una de las ciudades más hermosas y ricas de Portugal/‘one of the most beautiful and richest cities of Portugal’, in 1286 under the province of Spain.4 The Carmelites administered Portugal as part of their province of Hispania from the foundation of their first convent in 1251 in Moura, south of the Alentejo near the frontier with Spain. Their Lisbon convent was founded in 1389, with the support of the Constable of Portugal, Nuno Álvares Pereira, and the Carmelite province of Portugal was created on the basis of these two substantial convents in 1423.5 The Discalced Carmelites, on the other hand, were very much newcomers on the Peninsula. Teresa of Ávila founded the first Discalced Carmelite convent, the female convent of St Joseph in Avila, in 1562.6 The order grew very rapidly after this, with the establishment of male and female foundations throughout Spain and Portugal. Up to 1612, Portugal and Baja Andalucía (the region around Seville) were administered as the province of St Philip. At the General Chapter held in the Castilian town of Pastrana, 80 km east of Madrid, in 1610, there was a motion that the rest of Andalusia should be incorporated into the province of St Philip. However, according to the Portuguese chronicler Belchor de Santa Anna, the Andalusians saw this as a measure to reduce the voting power of the Andalusian foundations and render the Castilian houses dominant on the Peninsula. The matter was put before Pope Paul V, and he decreed in 1612 that the Portuguese should separate from Seville and con­ stitute the province of Portugal with its seat in Lisbon.7 Internal politics apart, this demonstrates that there was really no distinction to be drawn in the everyday observance of Catholicism on either side of the border, or in general in the guidance given on devotional practice. Indeed, Badajoz may have been 5 km from the border with Portugal for most of its modern existence, but it cannot be considered other than a culturally hybrid entity, inasmuch as the flow of people, ideas and trade over the border from one nation to the other took place, as Kastner observed, along its streets. The Portuguese 3

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city of Elvas, 10 km due west, while not as large, even then, as Badajoz, was nonetheless designated the seat of a diocese in 1570 – further evidence of the prosperity and cooperation in the border area in the period before the Restoration.8 In Morales’s time, there was a thriving and relatively informal practice of liturgical theatre in Badajoz, fomented by two of the several notable bishops of the mid-sixteenth century, the humanist Francisco de Navarra, appointed from 1545 to 1556, and Juan de Ribera from 1562 to 1568.9 Both of these churchmen went from Badajoz to more significant bishoprics: Navarra to become archbishop of Valencia (1556–63) and, in Ribera’s case, to be (concurrently) patriarch of Antioch and archbishop of Valencia (1568–1611) and Viceroy of Valencia (1602–4). Navarra and his successor, Cristóbal de Rojas y Sandoval, attended the Council of Trent; Navarra was present at the first convocation in 1545 and Rojas y Sandoval at the second between 1551 and 1552. The latter subsequently held a diocesan synod in Badajoz in 1560 to introduce the reforms of the Council.10 Marcel Bataillon, doyen of early modern French Hispanists, insists, in an article from 1940, that though there was a need to reform liturgical theatre in the mid-sixteenth century, this was not a Counter-Reformation reaction to Protestantism. Rather, liturgical theatre was over­hauled because the Church in Spain had identified aspects of the pageantry which it deemed unacceptable when compared to similar practices elsewhere. Citing the views of the Augustinian theologian and philosopher Martín de Azpilcueta, he notes: Su juicio tiene para nosotros tanto más valor cuanto que antes de enseñar en Salamanca y Coimbra había permanecido largo tiempo en Francia, tanto en París como en Toulouse y Cahors, y podía hacer comparaciones.11 His opinion has much greater value for us inasmuch as, before teaching in Salamanca and Coimbra, he had lived for a long period in France, in Paris and in Toulouse and Cahors, and he was thus able to make comparisons.

In a treatise first published in 1545, the year the Council of Trent opened, Azpilcueta condemns the rambunctiousness and lack of respect for the liturgy in some Corpus Christi pageants: 4

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Badajoz in the 1540s: City of Joy

más se ofende Dios hoy que se sirve en las invenciones profanas y gastos que se sacan el día del Corpus y otros en que se hacen semejantes procesiones. God is today more offended than served by the profane theatrics and expense which are brought out on the day of Corpus Christi and others on which similar processions take place.

He has seen processions enter the church while the liturgy is being conducted, with dancing, singing, laughter and joking, which distracts both clergy and congregation from the seriousness of the festival. As far as he is concerned, in this sense, those Lutherans who got rid of the practice altogether had a point because of las muchas profanidades y gentílicas vaciedades, y aun injuriosas invenciones que en muchas partes en ella se hacen pareciéndoles que más montan sus livianas invenciones, cantos y ruidos a la honra y la gloria del redentor que los graves oficios de la Santa Madre Iglesia.12 the many profanities and gentile idiocies, and even insulting theatrics which in many places are presented in [the Corpus Christi procession], it seeming [to the Lutherans] that their vulgar theatrics, songs and noise are more fully produced for the honour and glory of the Redeemer than the sacred offices of the Holy Mother Church.

Unlike the Lutherans, however, he opines that it would have been sufficient simply to get rid of those abuses and retain what was worthwhile in the processions, shortening them so that they finished by midday at the latest.13 Bataillon records that a series of decrees issued by provincial councils in Valencia, Toledo and Salamanca in 1565 and 1566 seemed to deal with the objections raised by Azpilcueta, without reducing the spectacles to colour­lessness or undue solemnity. These decrees were also, of course, direct responses to the 1551 ruling on the significance of the Eucharist and the didactic function of its associated festivities, that of demonstrating the triumph of Catholic truth over heresy.14 They forbade the Corpus procession from entering the church or interrupting services, but there appears to have 5

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been an insistence that the Corpus Christi and Christmas celebrations in particular should still be infused as far as possible with a sense of joy. Advice was dispensed as to how this might be achieved without providing occasion for sin through vana exultación/‘vain exultation’, not least by the stipulation that the text of any celebration had to be submitted to the bishop at least a month before the festivity.15 The reforming Catholic Church may have found these processions, part of a tradition dating back centuries, vulgar and disrespectful in the 1540s, but in the years before the implementation of the decrees of the Council of Trent they were a key aspect of the life of the Church and performed a significant didactic function for the vast majority of the population which was excluded from church ritual by virtue of being illiterate and unversed in Latin. Ann E. Wiltrout observes that, in Badajoz, the cathedral chapter would have been well aware of the value of liturgical theatre in the vernacular and sees it not as a disruptive element but a means of underpinning existing societal hierarchies: The support of religious drama was a very logical justification for and means of maintaining the status quo. The cathedral chapter in Badajoz included many second sons of aristocratic birth who were well aware of their duty to teach biblical history and dogma and to celebrate them annually for a largely illiterate group of parishioners that counted numerous New Christians in its midst.16

The presence of a large population of New Christians (cristianos nuevos) in Extremadura is an important factor in the consideration of the impact and function of liturgical theatre at the time. These were either conversos, Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity in order to remain on the Peninsula, or moriscos, Muslims who had been faced with the same dilemma. Those Jews who refused to convert to Christianity had been expelled from Spain in 1492 after the annexation of the Muslim kingdom of Granada. Despite the Treaty of Granada, signed in 1491 by Isabel of Castile and Boabdil of Granada, which guaranteed the rights of Muslims in Granada after the capitulation, Muslims’ freedom to practise their religion, wear traditional dress and keep their Arabic names was consistently eroded across the various constituent kingdoms of Spain, and they were gradually given little option 6

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Badajoz in the 1540s: City of Joy

but to convert, or at least appear to convert. An Edict of Expulsion was signed in the kingdom of Castile as early as 1502, requiring all resident Muslims, mudéjares, to convert or leave.17 Many of these marginalised conversos and moriscos found their way, over the course of the sixteenth century, to the sparsely populated province of Extremadura, adding to the existing popu­ lation of cristianos nuevos. In 1570–1, a large influx of moriscos from Granada settled in Extremadura in the wake of the suppression of the Second Uprising of the Alpujarras and their expulsion from the region.18 Life was also difficult for non-Christians in Portugal and there was significant seepage of Portuguese conversos across the border, for example, from the Portuguese province of Beira into the area around Ciudad Rodrigo, just north of Extremadura, despite Portuguese prohibitions on conversos exiting the country.19 Eventually, the visible, non-acculturated community of moriscos was forced to leave Spain, beginning with the expulsion from Valencia, overseen by Juan de Ribera, in 1609.20 Those who remained after the various religious expulsions, acculturated moriscos and, indeed acculturated conversos and their descendants, were regarded with disdain and suspicion in sixteenthand seventeenth-century Spain and Portugal where the fear that crypto-Jews and crypto-Muslims would undermine Church and society was substantial. Even more influential in the long run was the anxiety that those with Muslim or Jewish blood, genuinely orthodox in their Catholic religious practice but who by definition could never be other than New Christians, might be passing themselves off as Old Christians, thus weakening the racial integrity of the Catholic hierarchy, both ecclesiastic and temporal, which never in reality possessed anything of the kind. In Spain, these concerns led to the drawing up of books of genealogies, libros verdes (green books), to ascertain purity of lineage or limpieza de sangre in the minor and major nobility.21 It is interesting then that the most important purveyor of liturgical theatre and pageant scripts in Badajoz in the mid-sixteenth century, Diego Sánchez de Badajoz, was almost certainly himself of converso stock. He worked as a curate in Talavera la Real, then a small town 20 km to the east of Badajoz, at least from 1533, even though his university degree would suggest that he was sufficiently well born and educated to become a member of the Badajoz cathedral chapter. He was also well connected. His works, probably composed between 1525 and 1547, were published in 1554, in an edition sponsored 7

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Golden Age Painting in Iberia: Morales

by the Duke of Feria, two years after his death.22 He is recorded as el Bachiller/ ‘Bachelor’ and probably studied at the University of Salamanca, an important centre for innovation in theatre in Renaissance Spain. It is also possible that he spent time in Évora which counted the court playwright Gil Vicente as one of its denizens.23 However, the cathedral of Badajoz had incorporated a statute of purity of blood requiring all its chapter members to prove that their lineage had no Jewish or Islamic elements in it going back four gener­ ations, a circumstance which may explain Sánchez’s permanence on the geographical margins.24 Even so, this did not prevent his plays from being staged in Badajoz, or his having an easy relationship with the Badajoz clerical establishment.25 Wiltrout observes that his plays abounded in references ‘to the equality of all Christians, Old and New alike’, and it is significant that these statements were, it seems, regarded as perfectly acceptable in liturgical theatre in Badajoz in the 1530s and 1540s.26 In the Farsa de Moysen/‘Moses Farce’, a Corpus Christi play, once St Paul has explained to the Old Testament patriarchs, Moses and Elias, that the bread of the Eucharist is the logical conclusion of their prophecies: este es el pan glorioso en cuyo esfuerço y vitoria caminamos a la gloria [. . .]27 this is the glorious bread by whose effort and victory we are on our way to glory [. . .]

a starving black man (negro) explodes onto the scene: que bene morto re hambre! ¿Ten aquí cane fiambre? ¿Quen dis: “Aquí tene pan”?28 I comes dead of hunger! Has you any meat here? Who say there’s bread here?

8

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Badajoz in the 1540s: City of Joy

He is symbolically given bread to eat and wine to drink. His black skin, state of indigence and otherness, manifest not least in his form of speech, represent his ignorance of Christianity, as does his propensity to belligerence after he has been fed. He is also, within the stage conventions of the time, a comic rather than an ethnic character.29 St Paul has to intervene to stop a fight between this black man, a distressed African slave who may have been a water seller but who has been cheated out of his donkey by a couple of Arabs and then abandoned by his owner, and the indigenous shepherd narrator. It is this narrator who, though accusing the slave of being a liar and thief (¿Que vos de hurtar vivís?/‘so you make a living from thieving?’), confirms his ethnicity.30 In the heat of the tussle, he applies the adjective mandingo to him, a reference to Mandinga, the language and people of Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal, the Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, from which the majority of slaves traded across the Atlantic by Spain and Portugal then came.31 In the 1540s, southern Spain and Portugal had a slave population of the order of 10 per cent of the overall population, made up of Saharan (Moorish or berberisco) slaves, not necessarily black, and black slaves from West Africa. Only those from West Africa were sent to the New World.32 These enslaved people were engaged in all types of agricultural labour in the countryside and performed a wide variety of functions in towns and cities, including working as street vendors. Though this black man is an outsider by virtue of his poor command of Castilian and his evident destitution, the farsa offers a consoling and inclusive message in relation to the slave population of Badajoz. Paul instructs the shepherd and the slave to make peace. His words create no distinction between Badajoz native and native of Africa: ¡Ora, hermanos, amistad! que Dios a negros y blancos, pobres, ricos, sanos, mancos nos tien , y quier hermandad.33 Now, brothers, friendship; for to God belong blacks and whites, the rich, the poor, the healthy, the maimed, and He wants us to be brothers.

9

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After Paul’s peroration, the characters all join in song, and here the black man’s incorporation into the celebration of the Eucharist is made plain. The shepherd exhorts all to celebrate the Eucharist: cantémosle todos juntos/‘let us all sing unto it [the Eucharist] together’, and the black man responds tamben negro canta puntos/‘black man also sing notes.’ They all then sing a villancico followed by a copla to wrap the exposition up.34 In the Farsa de la Iglesia/‘Farce of the Church’, Sánchez de Badajoz pits the three Abrahamic faiths against one another. There are four characters: the shepherd interlocutor, an old woman dressed in mourning representing the synagogue (in other words, Judaism), a beautifully but modestly dressed young woman representing the Catholic Church, and a Moor wearing disguise. In many of the Farsas, not least the aforementioned Farsa de Moysen, Sánchez de Badajoz depicts Old Testament patriarchs as wise prophets laying the ground for the arrival of the Messiah. Though this is uncontroversial, it is interesting that they, and not, for instance, the Fathers of the Church, are chosen as valid authorities on Catholic doctrine. In this Farsa however, the Synagogue represents the institution of Judaism after the dawn of Christianity, still awaiting the advent of the Messiah. In dialogue with her daughter, the Catholic Church, she states: Quel Mexías prometido me a de poner libertada en tierra muy abastada, mas agora no es venido.35 The promised Messiah will set me free in a very fruitful land but he has not yet come.

While, in the end, the Synagogue is shown to be unwilling to convert to Christianity or accept the dominion of the Catholic Church, she is permitted to summarise past glories in her opening speech, before admitting, inevitably, the fall into error and misrule of her religion:36

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Mi valor y gran ymperio tornado está en subjeción, mi honrra en gran vituperio, mis loores en çaherio, mi alegría en gran pasión.37 My worth and great empire is turned to subjection, my honour to great vituperation, my eulogies to humiliations, my joy to great suffering.

Even the shepherd, who immediately categorises her as a traidora/‘traitor’, can see that she was once a great lady: yos digo, según que llora, que deuió de ser gran señora, y agora se vey perdida.38 and I say to you, because of how she weeps, that she must have been a great lady, and now she sees herself lost.

She then lists the patriarchs her faith has witnessed, the same patriarchs who appear regularly in Sánchez de Badajoz’s farsas: Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, all prophets venerated by her daughter, the Catholic Church. However, because me creció la presunción/‘my presumption (pride) grew’, she finds herself now in a state of perdition, buelto mi valor atrás/‘my worth gone backwards (down)’ and this great Abrahamic faith is now valueless in a homogenised Christian universe.39 The Moorish character is presented as an individual Muslim, perhaps because Islam, then as now, did not have formal hierarchical and organisa­ tional structures. Because he is an individual and not the personification of a religion, his speech, like that of the black slave in the Farsa de Moysen, is an approximation of Castilian as spoken by a foreigner, this time one whose 11

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mother tongue is Arabic. He enters suddenly and responds to the Synagogue’s appeal for help (Ayúdame, moro hermano/‘help me, Moorish brother’) as the shepherd tries to push her off the stage. Her appeal establishes initial complicity between Islam and Judaism, the two proscribed Abrahamic faiths, and the Moor tells the shepherd no dexonrrex la perxona/extar moxger veja bona/‘don’t dishonour her person/this woman good old lady.’40 The Moor then moves on to an exchange with the shepherd which covers the usual tropes regarding how Muslim and Christian identity are to be defined in everyday behaviour. He states proudly: Max peca quen bebe bino; yo, paxas, lex, mel, manteca, ¡jura la caxa de Meca! But he sins who drinks wine, me berries, milk, honey, butter, swear by house of Mecca.

The shepherd replies that he eats a buen pernil de toçino/‘a good haunch of bacon’ and the Moor upbraids him with the comment that nunca tal mandar Mahoma/‘Mohammed never order that.’41 The shepherd then asks the Moor if he would like to become a Christian, and he responds with more predictable information on his lifestyle: ¿Yo crixtano, aquí? Al rebex, xer crixtano, nunca querex: moro yunax todo vn mex, noche, come bente bex y caxa quatro mugerex.42 Me Christian, here? the reverse, I never wanted to be a Christian; a Moor and fasting all of a month, at night, eats well you see, and marries four wives.

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But then, convinced that he will burn in hell like Mohammed, categorised here as a false prophet, if he does not convert, the Muslim agrees to be baptised. The Synagogue, on the other hand, is also offered baptism but declares she will hold true to the Talmud and leaves the stage before the celebration of the new convert which ends the play. The closing copla states that ya los libros de Moysen/an cumplido sus figuras/‘Now the books of Moses/ have completed their prophecies’, demonstrating respect for the integrity of Old Testament Judaism and balancing this with joy at the conversion of the Moor. 43 Nothing in this Farsa de la Iglesia could have excited the least suspicion of sympathy on the part of the playwright for Islam or Judaism, and yet, the manner in which the dialogues contain elements of respect for the traditions of both religions conveys a more benign attitude to Islam and Judaism, at least in Extremadura, than the expulsion orders of the Catholic Kings and the oversight of the Inquisition might suggest. In general, Sánchez de Badajoz’s conventional farsas contained a mixture of dance, folksong, speech, and probably improvised repartee, with more of the latter evident in the outdoor performances for Corpus Christi.44 Juan, one of the two shepherds in the Farsa del Santíssimo Sacramento/‘Farse of the Most Blessed Sacrament’, a Corpus Christi play, defines the outdoor genre as follows: Llas danças, bayles y sones, llas músicas muy perhetas, llas cortinas, llas carretas, llas banderas, pauellones, llas carátulas, visiones, llos juegos y personajes, llos momos y los visajes, llos respingos a montones.45 The dances, dancing and rhythms, the very perfect music, the curtains, the carts, the banners, tents, the masks and tableaux, the games and characters,

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the mummers and feints, the mountains of thrills.

The ‘very perfect music’ which the shepherd Juan recommends so strongly to his fellow shepherd Pablo in all likelihood refers to music made by the cathedral choir, the coplas and villancicos sung at the close of the farsas, as distinct from the solemn beauty of sacred music performed as part of the liturgy. Pablo also makes a distinction between las músicas muy perfectas and the sones, the rhythms to which the farsantes perform their dances. Solís Rodríguez notes that in Trujillo, to the north-east of Badajoz, where such records are available, the Corpus Christi festivities were organised by the Ayuntamiento (town council) which: ordenaba a los oficios gremiales a participar en la procesión así como los músicos y ministriles del concejo: atabales, trompetas, chirimías, la capilla de música y el organista.46 ordered the members of the guilds to take part in the procession along with the musicians and minstrels of the council: kettledrums, trumpets, chirimías (oboes), the chapel (choir) and the organist.

The procession would set off from the church of Santa María la Mayor and stop in the town square: donde sobre un tablado levantado al efecto se representaban los autos sacramentales, loas, farsas, y se bailaban las danzas, previamente contratadas por la ciudad.47 Where on a platform raised for the occasion the autos sacramentales (sacramental plays), loas (dramatic poems), farsas would be put on, and the dances, previously contracted by the city.

In Trujillo in 1530, these dances were commissioned from a painter of the town, Diego de Villalobos, who, on payment of a stipend of six ducats, agreed to create una danza de momos y otra de personajes y otra de canarios y otra de negros/‘a mummers’ dance, another for traditional figures, another in 14

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Canarian style and another in black [African] style’.48 This involvement of a painter in choreography shows the near-absence of demarcation lines between the creative crafts represented by the various guilds engaged in visual and festal culture at the time. It is worth remembering that painting, the senior creative craft, would not be elevated to the status of liberal art in Iberia until nearly a century later. 49 In 1553 Juan López, a weaver, was contracted to choreograph the dances. In addition to dances portraying Noah emerging from the Ark, the Judgement of Paris while still a shepherd, and the defeat of Roderick, the last Visigoth king of Hispania, he created a Jews’ dance and another of women from Béjar in the province of Salamanca, north of Extremadura. He was paid twenty-four ducats and four fanegas (22.5 litre bags) of wheat for these dances and a farsa to be staged in the church on the eve of Corpus Christi.50 While the range of dances confirms the melding of stories from the Bible, classical antiquity and Iberian history present in the theatrical culture of the time, it also demonstrates engagement with a range of ethnic identities on the Peninsula and in the wider Hispanic empire: the inclusion of a dance in the Canarian style, brought to the Peninsula according to the lexicographer Sebastián de Covarrubias (1539–1613) by Spanish settlers; the reference to a typical African dance, presumably a recognition of the presence of a slave population locally; the com­missioning of a dance depicting Jews, probably those once indigenous to Spain and not those of the biblical variety; and the regular presence of Moors’ dances.51 Solís Rodríguez reports that Trujillo seems to have confined the Corpus Christi celebrations, at least officially, to autos sacramentales from 1544, but suspects that dance was still a significant element of the festivities. Indeed, he cites documentation on the Corpus Christi festival in Trujillo in 1547 which attests to the employment of a music and dancing master, Juan de Ordiales, maestro de mostrar a tañer e danzar/’master of teaching the playing (of instruments) and dancing’, for six ducats to train the members of the guilds and others who would be taking part in the festivities. High standards, at any rate, were to be maintained. The cathedral in Badajoz is much more limited in terms of materials rele­ vant to the Corpus Christi festival of this period and Solís Rodríguez could only locate documentation on autos sacramentales and comedias (plays). The city archives contain information on the contracting of a piper (gaitero) 15

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in 1622. His task would be to accompany the eight dancers surrounding the figure of the Blessed Virgin who, up to 1580, had been represented as a maiden on a horse or a mule. However, Felipe II, while in residence between 1580 and 1581, took exception to this tradition and banned it. In 1622, there were also five Portuguese dancers involved in the festivities, accompanying the statue of St Bartholomew.52 Solís Rodríguez observes that this involvement of Portuguese dancers demonstrates La cercanía portuguesa como un determinante de nuestro folklore, que junto al de otras regiones limítrofes, hay que tener en cuenta para una más acertada precisión de nuestra fisonomía popular.53 The proximity of Portugal as a determinant of our folklore, which, together with that of other neighbouring regions, has to be taken into account in achieving a more exact understanding of our popular make-up.

Badajoz in the 1540s, therefore, seems to have enjoyed seamless interaction with its Portuguese neighbours, a relaxed awareness of the Jewish and Moorish heritage of its New Christians, an intimation of the extent of the Empire, to which it contributed so many emigrants and would-be conquistadores, and an appreciation of the role of black slaves, at least when ordinary rules were in abeyance during the celebration of church festivities. There also appears to have been an absence of boundaries between the various creative crafts, with painters such as Trujillo’s Diego de Villalobos being called upon to choreo­ graph festival dances. Another strong link between Badajoz and her Portuguese neighbours was effected via the cathedral. For one thing, it appears that the cathedral did not employ full-time instrumentalists and sometimes contracted players from the nearby Bragança ducal palace at Vila Viçosa, outside Évora. For example, in 1596, chirimía players from Vila Viçosa were employed and two years later an approach was made to João Gomes, a Portuguese bassoonist who happened to be in Badajoz at the time, in the hope that he could replace a dulcian player who was taken ill.54 Indeed, Santiago Kastner is convinced that cross-fertilisation between Badajoz and Vila Viçosa greatly enriched the calibre of music and musicianship at the cathedral during the sixteenth 16

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century, arguing that Portuguese musicians were present in Badajoz long before the union of the two kingdoms.55 He sees the culmination of this interaction in the appointment of Estevam de Brito as kapellmeister in 1597: Al fin y al cabo, es muy significativo que un polifonista, formado en la sólida y harta conservativa escuela eborense, llegó a ser escogido para regir por buen espacio de tiempo los destinos de la capilla catedralicia de Badajoz. Por lo visto, el buen renombre de los contrapuntistas de Évora [. . .] irradió allende fronteras.56 When all is said and done, it is very significant that a polyphonist, trained in the solid and deeply conservative Évora school, came to be chosen to oversee for a considerable period of time the destiny of the cathedral choir of Badajoz. Apparently, the good reputation of the Évora contrapuntalists [. . .] spread beyond the [Portuguese] border.

However, the most significant kapellmeister to work in Badajoz in the mid-sixteenth century was himself a native of that city, Juan Vázquez. He was in post between 1545 and 1551, after which he moved on to the service of Antonio de Zúñiga y Sotomayor, Marqués de Ayamonte and ambassador of Carlos V in Seville. He published three collections of works: Villancicos a Tres y a Cuatro/Villancicos for Three and Four [Voices], printed in Osuna in 1551, the year he left Badajoz; his Mass for the Dead, the Agenda Defunctorum/ Music for the Dead in 1556; and the Recopilación de Sonetos y Villancicos a Cuatro y a Cinco Voces/A Collection of Sonnets and Villancicos for Four and Five Voices in 1560, the latter two produced in Seville.57 Because he spent a significant period of his maturity in Seville and because it is assumed that he was taught by Andalusian masters during his early years as a chorister and then as assistant choirmaster (sochantre) at Badajoz cathedral between 1530 and 1538, he has been identified as a worthy colleague of the great Andalusian composers of the sixteenth century.58 From Badajoz he moved to the cathedral choir in Palencia, between 1539 and 1541. After that he was briefly attached to the chapel choir of the bishop of Toledo, Juan Pardo de Tavera, which the bishop had more or less constituted from the Toledan chapel of the recently deceased learned and music-loving empress Isabel de Portugal, wife of Carlos V. Vázquez may also have performed at the court of the young infantes Felipe, María and Juana at Arévalo Castle. 17

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The musicologist Eleanor Russell suggests that it is ‘reasonable to believe that Vázquez’ first contact with the Sevillian aristocracy and with Sevillian musicians, as well as the king’s chapel, came from his association with Tavera’s court’.59 Solís Rodríguez agrees that his work from the 1530s and 1540s shows similarities with Spanish songbooks (cancioneros castellanos) and therefore considerable exposure to musical culture in Spanish court circles.60 After his return to Badajoz as kapellmeister in 1545, Vázquez is recorded as having undertaken at least one trip to Vila Viçosa, lasting forty days from November 1548, in order to recover from ill health.61 Solís Rodríguez suspects that he may have undertaken several others, not noted in the cathedral chapter records. This would not just be for his physical health, but in order to take advantage of the considerable music library being built up at the palace under the influence of João III of Portugal, brother-in-law to Teodósio I, Duke of Braganza, and the presence of composers and musicians from all over Europe.62 Kastner observes that later in the century, in 1572, the then kapellmeister, Luis de Quiñones is recorded as going to Vila Viçosa and remarks that this was probably common practice for the Badajoz in­ cumbents, given the rich musical culture over the border.63 Indeed, Solís Rodríguez suggests that Vázquez may have packed in his trunk sus villancicos y madrigales, manuscritos aún, pero que ya gozaban de gran notoriedad en España, interpretados por los más eminentes vihuelistas de la época/‘his villancicos and madrigals, still in manuscript, but which already enjoyed great fame in Spain, played by the most eminent vihuelists of the time’, to share them with the composers and musicians at the royal residence.64 Thus, while at Badajoz he was as close to an important centre of musical culture, at the court of João III, as he had been in the chapel of Cardinal Tavera some years previously in Toledo. The synergies between Spanish and Portuguese secular court music and church music apart, there also appears to have been a popular belief in sixteenth-century Spain that the Portuguese as a people had a particular love of and gift for music. An anonymous farsa from the second half of the sixteenth century, La Farsa del Sacramento, Llamada de Los Lenguajes/Farce of the Sacrament, Known as The Languages, collected in the Códice de Autos Viejos, presents a range of ethnic types familiar in theatre on the Peninsula.65 In the opinion of Bruce Wardropper, the farsas in the Códice are not as advanced 18

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(adelantadas) as the earlier plays of Diego Sánchez de Badajoz, the collection constituting rather una obra de transición entre la Edad Media y el Barroco/ ‘a transitional work moving from the medieval to the baroque’.66 Yet it is interest­ing to note that the representation of ethnic types in liturgical theatre continues into the latter half of the century, and that this representation is conveyed, in part, through the use of language. The Farsa del Sacramento’s Portuguese character uses a mélange of Castilian and Portuguese, typical of border-zone communication between two closely related languages, though perhaps the Portuguese identifiers here are exaggerated for comic effect. He defines himself as follows: eu so fidalgo amador, forte, galante, pulido, e un poquitiño cantor.67 I am a gentleman, a lover, strong, gallant, polished, a little bit of a singer.

This is a list of most of the clichés applied to Portuguese characters in the farsas, the only significant one missing being hatred of all Castilians, in those times played for laughs. What is salient here is the emphasis on the Portuguese love of music and the character’s declaration that he is something of a singer. Canonica observes that this trait is not central to the activities of the Portuguese in this farsa but notes that it had to be mentioned, if only in passing, because of its centrality to the established stereotype. The attribution of a love of music to the Portuguese, and by extension to those across the border in the vicinity of Badajoz, appears to be borne out in two of two of Diego Sánchez’s, probably later, farsas: the Farsa del Juego de Cañas/Farce of the Game of Canes and the Dança de los Pecados/Dance of the Sins, both Christmas plays and therefore performed in the cathedral.68 Indeed, the chorus to one of the popular songs, in the Farsa del Juego de Cañas, the Folía, is sung in Portuguese, with the other secular songs in Castilian and the sacred music sung by the cathedral choir in Latin.69 Canonica characterises the structure of the Farsa del Sacramento as a series of variations on a single theme, that of fidelity to Catholic teaching, 19

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not dissimilar to the forms employed by the great composers of the Golden Age, such as Cristóbal de Morales. In Canonica’s view, the bobo, a fool or shepherd whose dramatic function is to ask awkward or disingenuous questions which provide the opportunity for other characters to develop explanations of Catholic doctrine, the didactic raison d’être of these farsas, is the equivalent of the basso continuo line in choral music. Though in Diego Sánchez’s time a large part of the music associated with the farsas was made by non-professional, non-cathedral musicians, using popular genres, this would change as the farsa developed into the auto sacramental. In the hands of the baroque dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–81), a century later, the auto sacramental would become a staged oratorio form, with a clear distinction made between heavenly music, usually following the con­ ventions of church music, and hellish music, usually popular: Siguiendo a San Agustín se distinguen en los autos calderonianos dos tipos de música, la verdadera y la falsa, la divina y la humana. La música profana recibe los ataques de moralistas, y aunque Calderón no es enemigo de la música seglar diferencia la profana de la litúrgica. No faltarán ocasiones en que la música profana actúe de incitación para el pecado y tentación de un personaje, pero a esta música se enfrenta la música divina, el canto de la Gracia.70 Following St Augustine, two types of music, the true and the false, the divine and the human, can be distinguished in Calderón’s autos. Profane music is criticised by the moralists, and even though Calderón is not an enemy of secular music, he does differentiate between profane and liturgical music. There would be no lack of occasions on which profane music acts an incitement to sin and temptation for one of the characters, but this music is opposed by divine music, the song of Grace.

In Badajoz, in the seventeenth century, this distinction between the liturgical and the profane was strictly observed throughout the Corpus Christi festivities. The Badajoz performances constituted la fiesta más lucida y celebrada/‘the most spectacular and best celebrated’ in the region, owing to the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament professed by the town council.71 Here, professional church musicians and farsantes or actors had very different roles, depending on the performances they were involved in:

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En el auto que la Iglesia sacaba en Badajoz los cantores de la Catedral interpretaban «villancicos y chanzonetas alusivas» y los ministriles las tonadas de apoyo, y en las comedias que contrataban los gremios y cofradías los farsantes animaban el segundo entreacto con el alborozo de los bailables y con los acordes de «música ordinaria». 72 In the auto sacramental which the Church put on in Badajoz, the cathedral choristers sang villancicos and allusive chansonettes and the minstrels played the accom­ paniment, and in the plays which the guilds and the confraternities commissioned, the actors enlivened the second entre’acte with joyous dances, accompanied by ‘ordinary music’.

The seventeenth-century iteration of the Corpus Christi festival carried on the traditions established in the sixteenth, with few variations up to 1692.73 At 4.30 a.m. the cathedral bells would toll for Terce and the cathedral chapter, council and congregation would gather in the cathedral for Eucharistic Mass at 5 p.m. The monstrance with the Eucharist would be taken in procession out of the cathedral, escorted by the cathedral chapter and city council, and placed on a high altar constructed for the occasion, underneath the bell tower. The army regiment stationed at Badajoz, the clergy and the civil dignitaries (Audiencia) took their places on the seating erected around the square, the wealthy placed themselves at their windows and in their balconies and the ordinary people filled the square to watch the entertainments which began with a procession of the statues of the patron saints of the guilds. Then groups of dancers would perform shepherds’ dances, ribbon dances and bell (cascabeles) dances, after which the fishermen of the River Guadiana would offer the traditional gift of a fish to Christ in the guise of the sacra­ment. Finally, at 8 a.m., the contracted professional actors would perform an allegor­ ical auto sacramental and a saints’ play, both of which would include singing by the cathedral choristers accompanied by the cathedral minstrels. This would all conclude at about 1 p.m., and then the elaborate and carefully choreographed Corpus Christi procession would begin: Abrían la marcha cuatro tonsurados con blandones encendidos, a continuación, precedidos de los estandartes de sus hermandades y cortejados por danzarines, gaiteros, dulzaineros y tamborileros, desfilaban los santos protectores de los

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gremios a hombros de sus cofrades [. . .] Después, en fila por ambos lados de la calle y con velas en sus manos, caminaban los clérigos extravagantes, los religiosos conventuales —agostinos, franciscanos, dominicos, trinitarios y jesuitas—, el clero diocesano y el catedralicio. Tras éstos, por el centro de la calzada [. . .] iba el Alférez mayor del Consistorio con el pendón de la Ciudad, y unos pasos detrás el Obispo, con capa magna y resguardado por un quitasol de raso pajizo; a sus lados el Deán de la Catedral y el Decano de los Capellanes del Coro [. . .] A la altura del Prelado, en hilera y por ambas orillas, iniciaba su camino la corporación municipal: A mano derecha el Corregidor y a la izquierda el Regidor más antiguo, seguidos del resto de los capitulares según su preeminencia y veteranía en el Concejo.74 The procession was led by four tonsured monks carrying large lit candles, after them, preceded by the banners of their confraternities and accompanied by dancers, pipers, dulzaina (short oboe) players and kettle-drummers, came the statues of the patron saints of the guilds carried on the shoulders of their confraternity members [. . .] Then, in single file on both sides of the street and with candles in their hands, came the extravagantly dressed clergy, the monks and friars – Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, Trinitarians and Jesuits – the diocesan and cathedral clergy. After these, down the centre of the street [. . .] came the Alférez Mayor (chief standard bearer) of the consistory with the city’s flag, and a few steps behind, the bishop, with a large cape and protected by a straw-coloured silk parasol; on either side of him the dean of the cathedral and the dean of the choir chaplains [. . .] Behind the Prelate, in single file and on both sides, came the municipal council: on the right the Corregidor [Magistrate] and on the left the most senior Regidor [judge], followed by the rest of the council members in order of importance and service on the Council.

The festivities would conclude at dusk with another saint’s play. However, in Badajoz at least, there would have been a bullfight on the Monday before the Thursday of Corpus Christi, and the evening before Corpus Christi, a cloak and dagger (de capa y espada) play was performed. All night long the statues for Thursday’s procession would be decorated in the houses of the presidents of the various guilds, with much celebration and merry-making.75 So much for Martín de Azpilcueta’s mid-sixteenth-century expectation that the festivities might be finished by lunchtime on the Thursday and not involve any boisterous behaviour. 22

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Back in the 1540s, when far less money was spent on Corpus Christi and the festival was much less elaborate, Diego Sánchez de Badajoz would take the part of the shepherd or the dominant shepherd in his farsas, with the rest of the Badajoz cast being made up of members of whichever guild sponsored the play.76 In more rural areas, in the absence of a guild structure, the players would often be the clergy and laypeople employed by the Church.77 Diego Sánchez’s shepherds, rendered as more universal interlocutors than shepherd types, lent themselves on occasion to satire, aimed forensically at the clergy.78 In the Farsa del Santíssimo Sacramento, the two shepherds, Juan and Pablo amuse themselves briefly at the expense of the Frayle (friar), who, otherwise, is engaged in explaining Catholic doctrine to them, and by extension to the audience, in accessible language and imagery. When the Blessed Sacrament is exposed in procession, Juan describes how nobody can resist celebrating, neither laity nor clergy: No ay quien no bayle o no cante, llos cregos y llos no cregos, todos quieren herse juegos viendo a Dios estar delante.79 There is nobody who doesn’t dance or sing, the clerics and the laity, everybody wants to play games seeing God in front of them.

Pablo however has a more cynical view of the behaviour of the clergy both at these festivities and in general: Paréçeme a mí, par Diego, que el rey ni el emperador no tienen tanto valor como el más mezquino crego.80 It seems to me, by God, than neither the king nor the emperor has a valour to equal that of the meanest cleric.

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To Juan’s assertion that santos son, juri a San Pego/‘they are saints, I swear by St Peter’, Pablo comes back with this ribald and predicable calumny: Santos sean en tu casa y tú que estés coxo y ciego [. . .] Bendezirte a tu muger y a ti darte vna corona.81 Saints they might be in your house, you who are lame and blind [. . .] Blessing your wife for you and putting crown on yourself.

At this point the Frayle intervenes to remind them that when a priest is carrying out his sacerdotal duties he is the representative of Christ, whatever his moral character: Mas el preste malo o bueno, quiero que sepáis la cuenta, reuestido representa Iesucristo nazareno.82 But the priest, be he good or bad, you have to know how it goes, robed he represents Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

One might say that Sánchez de Badajoz provides a well-calibrated framework within which to air these commonly held views of the hypocrisy of the clergy while very clearly making a distinction between the flesh-and-blood man and the office of the priest. The fact that asides such as this were permitted suggests a certain realism and a relaxed attitude amongst the Badajoz church hierarchy at the time. It also allows for a measured amount of carnivalesque inversion of societal roles and responsibilities.83 24

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The Nativity plays, the Farsa del Juego de Cañas and the Dança de los Pecados may well be Sánchez de Badajoz’s final pieces. Since they were performed indoors, in the cathedral, they lent themselves more easily to detailed stage management. Weber de Kurlat noted that the stage directions in the Farsa del Juego de Cañas and, to a lesser extent, in the Dança de los Pecados are more extensive than anything she had observed in Gil Vicente or any of his contemporaries, and put this down to the medio eclesiástico en que el autor desarrollaba sus actividades/‘ecclesiastical milieu in which the author carried out his work’.84 Wiltrout argues that the detailed directions demonstrate that these farsas were the work of ‘a mature playwright who has mastered the form of the religious drama’.85 While the indoor context in which the plays were produced may certainly have allowed Sánchez de Badajoz more freedom in terms of experimenting with form, the elements introduced in these farsas in fact reflect court entertainment more strongly than religious spectacle. The Farsa del Juego de Cañas, is a remarkable piece for three reasons. The first is the appropriation of the courtly genre of the Juego de Cañas itself, usually a highly choreographed mock equestrian battle in which nobles throw canes rather than spears at one another.86 The second lies in the fact that this piece is, to all practical purposes, an early oratorio with some spoken dialogue and significant elements of orchestrated movement.87 The third outstanding element of the farsa is the way in which dance is incorporated into the performance. While dance was an integral part of religious theatre throughout the Renaissance period in Spain, though perhaps more so in the case of theatre performed outdoors, the use of dance in the Farsa del Juego de Cañas does seem to demonstrate awareness of developments in staged dance. It could be compared, in terms of the structured use of dance if not in relation to the individual dances themselves, to the French Ballet de Cour, sequences of dances performed by nobles for private court festivities.88 In this farsa the narrators, a pastor (shepherd) and a pastora serrana (mountain shepherdess), generally hold hands while dancing and singing a copla or a villancico, in popular mode.89 The coplas and villancicos communicate the message that Mankind will be saved by the child born at Christmas and the dances serve the rather sunny purpose of enlivening the entertainment. 25

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By the same token, the Dança de los Pecados is a proto-ballet with linking dialogue. However, here the employment of dance is closer to the Medieval Danse Macabre tradition, with the seven deadly sins appearing in turn and dancing individually around the figure of Adam in an effort to trip him up. Adam dances in response but falls down repeatedly as he is overcome by sin. At the end, he sees the error of his ways and admits: Ya conozco mi dolencia, duélome de mis herrores.90 I recognise my pain [for what it is] now I suffer for my mistakes.

The pastor, who performs the function of narrator, then banishes the dancers who had given expression to the seven deadly sins: ¡Que huyen los dançadores! ¡O sagrada penitencia! En tornando a lla obidencia, lluego torna el pecador de vencido en vencedor por lla diuina clemencia. ¡Vayan, vayan con sus mañas cabrestos de llos diabros, a baylar a llos estabros con llas brutas alimañas!, que con diuinas entrañas el que se da en pan y vino tiene cuidado contino de morir por sus cabañas.91 Let the dancers flee, Oh sacred penitence! Turning towards obedience, then the sinner changes from defeated into victor by divine clemency.

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Let them go, let them go with their tricks those cattle of the devils, to dance in the stables with the brute animals! for with divine goodness [personality] He who gives Himself in bread and wine takes constant care to die for his flock.

While ordering the dancers to leave the stage, he does not categorise dance as objectionable in itself. In fact, because of the invidious nature of sin and temptation, it may be argued that the combination of speech and dance which is given to each of the deadly sins is a tool which greatly magnifies their fascination. In performance in the cathedral, the work would come across as compact and elegant, with dance integrated into the narrative in a coherent and effective manner. The Farsa del Juego de Cañas represents, as María José Martínez has commented, la cumbre lírico-musical del teatro de Diego Sánchez/‘the lyrical and musical pinnacle of Diego Sánchez’s theatre’. She even cites Jean Louis Fleckniakosca’s description of it as a virtual zarzuela-allégorique/‘allegorical zarzuela’, including, as it does, recitation, psalmody, song, dance, instrumental music with secular forms, the folía and the villancico sung mostly in Spanish and the sacred forms, hymns, biblical verses and the Deo Gratias, in Latin.92 She notes that a clear distinction is made between the performance of the sacred music, entrusted to the cathedral choir, and the secular music, sung by the shepherd and shepherdess protagonists, with assistance from the cathedral choir in mufti on occasion. Diego Sánchez’s stage directions, for example, stipulate that the Deo Gratias at the end is to be polyphonic (canto de órgano) while the Bible verses are to be performed in fauxbourdon, a more complex form of Gregorian or plainchant. Dance is also important to the Farsa del Juego de Cañas as the pastor and the serrana dance, hand in hand, during all of the coplas and villancicos they perform, with the exception of the villancico which accompanies the appearance of Christ at the head of the seven cardinal virtues, for which there is no stage direction indicating dance.93 Martínez argues that the function of dance is therefore twofold in 27

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the work of Diego Sánchez. In the first place, as in the case of the Farsa del Juego de Cañas, it communicates the excitement, joy and jubilation associated with the Nativity. In the second, rhythmic movement is associated with sin and the fall of Man into temptation, no more so than in the Dança de los Pecados which uses what appears to be unstructured dance and physical movement to depict the Seven Deadly Sins attempting to trap Adam in sinful ways until he repents and is saved.94 In sum then, the performing arts in terms of liturgical theatre and sacred music in the city of Badajoz in the 1540s appear not just to have been in rude good health, but aware of and in tune with innovation in court circles in Spain and Portugal. Sánchez de Badajoz and Juan Vázquez are two major figures at work in Badajoz in this period. By virtue of its proximity to the court at Vila Viçosa there also appears to have been significant exposure to trends in France, Italy and Flanders; thus a certain cosmopolitanism can be attributed to cultural life in Badajoz. By the same token, the message of tolerance of all ethnic identities and religious backgrounds embedded in Sánchez de Badajoz’s theatre speaks to a culture of everyday life a long way from the Black Legend of Inquisition Spain. The vibrancy and joy of the Farsa del Juego de Cañas with its blend of song, dance and speech perhaps sums up the atmosphere of joy and optimism which, in contrast to the negative picture of the nineteenth century painted by Ford, pervaded Badajoz at this time. The young Luis de Morales came to live in this city in 1539 and it is no exaggeration to state that some of his early commissions reflect this atmos­ phere of joy and openness, most poignantly perhaps, his Virgen del Pajarito/ Virgin and Child with the Little Bird, executed, as the date on the painting itself indicates, in 1546 (fig. 1). In 1546, according to Solís Rodríguez, Morales was contracted to work on the south door of the cathedral, dedicated to St Blas, the same year as las tablas de la parroquia de la Concepción, una de las cuales, la ‘Virgen del Pajarito’, gozó del fervor popular de los pacenses.95 [. . .] the panels for the parish church of the Conception, one of which, the Virgin and Child with the Little Bird, enjoyed great popularity amongst the inhabitants of Badajoz.

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In the 1540s, Badajoz was liberally supplied with artists and other artisans, including the young poet and painter, Benito Sánchez Galindo who was a fervent admirer of Morales.96 In testimony given at the age of nineteen to a hearing on the contract for the altarpiece for the parish church of Puebla de la Calzada, in which witnesses were called to attest to the relative merits of Morales and the Flemish painter contesting the contract, Estacio de Bruselas, Sánchez Galindo declared that Morales was mejor pintor que el dicho Estacio ansi en el dibuxo como en la pintura porque lo a oydo dezir a otros ofiçiales del mesmo ofiçio/‘a better painter than the said Estacio as much in drawing as in painting because he had heard it said by other practitioners of the same craft’.97 In 1548 the contract had been given to Bruselas by the church authorities but the civil authorities then offered it to Morales who began work on the project and was ultimately vindicated.98 The altarpiece, depicting scenes from the life of Christ, is now lost. The painter, Antonio Ponz recorded the individual paintings from this altarpiece by Morales in his Viajes a España in the 1770s, reporting that the altarpiece itself was, according to the parish priest, in a state of extreme disrepair; Solís Rodríguez assumes that it and the paintings were lost at the beginning of the nineteenth century during the War of Independence.99 The records of the Puebla de Calzada altarpiece court case demonstrate that Morales was already a highly respected figure in the 1540s, with a wide circle of patronage. Those patrons mentioned by his fellow artisans and artists in the documented witness statements include Diego Álvarez de Toledo, prior in Castile of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (the Order of Malta), Gutiérrez de Carvajal, then bishop of Plasencia, the Count of Feria and his extended family.100 As Solís Rodríguez notes, therefore Los años de la ‘Virgen del Pajarito’ y los modestos encargos para la Catedral de Badajoz no son los de un pintor ‘apenas conocido’, sino los de un maestro, cuyo prestigio alcanza ya en esta época, que se creía de aprendizaje o de inicial obertura, una repercusión tan fuerte, que tal vez no sobrepasara en sus largos y activos años posteriores.101 The years of the Virgin and Child with the Little Bird and the modest commissions for Badajoz Cathedral are not those of a ‘barely ksnown’ painter, but those of a master, whose renown already reached in this period, which had been believed

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Figure 2 Raffaello Sanzio, The Madonna with the Goldfinch, 1505–6, oil on panel, 107 x 77 cms, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, inv. 1890, 1447.

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to be a phase of apprenticeship or early works, a status and extension that he would not outdo in his long and active later years.

Though there is no extant documentation on the commissioning of the Virgen del Pajarito, it was identified by Ponz who, by way of relevant detail, recorded that the late eighteenth-century Badajoz of his own times had a population of 3,000, four parishes, four male convents and eight female convents.102 He reports this painting in a church in the parish of La Concepción: De su mano es otro quadro grande en un altar a los pies de esta misma iglesia, cuyo asunto se reduce a Nuestra Señora sentada, y al Niño Dios con un paxarillo atado de un hilo. En este quadro se figura una tablita, que indica el año de 1546, que es quando se hizo: yo mandaría poner en otra el año en que se deshizo, como se puede decir haber sucedido con un infeliz retoque, que es muy reciente.103 By his hand, there is another large painting on an altar at the rear of this same church, the subject of which may be reduced to Our Lady seated, and the Child Jesus with a little bird tied to a string. In this picture, there is a little panel, which indicates the year 1546, which is when it was painted. I would advise putting on another the year in which it was undone, which may be said to have happened at the hands of an unfortunate retouching, which is very recent.

It is worth noting that Isabel Mateo Gómez suggests that the date 1546 on this panel may have been miscopied by a restorer, maybe even the very restorer condemned by Ponz, arguing that it should be 1564. Contrary to Solís Rodríguez, she considers this date and decade more appropriate in terms of the artist’s development.104 The church of the Hospital de la Concepción was deconsecrated and its goods sold under the liberal reforms of 1834. Around 1850, now in the possession of the financier and noted collector, Gaspar de Remisa, the painting was carefully transferred from the original wood panel to canvas by the painter Vicente Poleró who may well have emended the restoration which so annoyed Ponz.105 The painting was donated to the parish church of St Augustine in Madrid in 1939, after the end of the Civil War, in gratitude for the safe return from the conflict of a family member, where today it is lovingly ensconced to the right of the main altar in this mid-twentieth-century church.106 31

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Figure 3 Juan Correa de Vivar, The Virgin with the Goldfinch, 1548–50, oil on panel, 43 x 36.5 cms, Colegio de Doncellas Nobles, Toledo © Patrimonio Nacional, inv. 00680728

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The painting showcases a direction in which Morales’s entire career might have developed had he not become wrapped up in the austere devotional vision fomented by successive bishops of Badajoz in the wake of Tridentine reform. Essentially Italianate in its sweeping lyricism, it presents a tender study of mother and child absorbed in play with a goldfinch which the Virgin holds on a long string.107 Goldfinches were easily domesticated as ‘animate playthings for children’ at the time and are frequently shown in portraits of royal and noble children, for example Agnolo Bronzino’s portrait of Giovanni de’ Medici, painted in Florence around the same time as La Virgen del Pajarito, shows the two-year-old with a goldfinch in his right hand.108 In the Morales painting, the bird makes for much more comfortable viewing as it flies out to the full extent of the string, watched by the child Jesus who is otherwise clutched balletically but in fact rather precariously to his mother’s side. In Renaissance and Baroque Catholic pictorial tradition, the goldfinch held in the hand of the Madonna is accepted as a representation of the sorrow she will endure when Christ is crucified. In the child’s hand, it refers to the Passion. This is because the goldfinch is reputed to nest among thistles and thorns, and this habitat therefore constitutes an allusion to the crown of thorns. Another tale recounts how a goldfinch plucked a thorn from Christ’s crown and ended up with blood around its beak as it injured itself pulling the thorn.109 Trinidad de Antonio cites two examples of this configuration in relation to Morales’s painting: Raphael’s Madonna del Cardellino/Virgin of the Goldfinch (fig. 2) and Juan Correa de Vivar’s Virgen del Jilguero/Virgin of the Goldfinch (fig 3). Raphael’s painting was probably known in Spain through copies, and there is every reason to suggest Morales may have known it; while Correa de Vivar’s was painted after La Virgen del Pajarito for the church of Herrera del Duque outside Badajoz, demonstrating the possible influence of Morales on Correa. The Raphael shows a somewhat insouciant Virgin with a book in her hand and the almost nude figures of the infant Jesus and the infant John the Baptist at her feet. This may be the meeting of the two children after the Holy Family returned from Egypt, as described by the Pseudo-Bonaventure.110 In some ways, this painting has more in common with a slightly later painting by Morales, La Virgen con el Niño y San Juanito/The Virgin with the Infant Jesus and St John (c.1545–55, fig. 4), regarded as one of his most exceptional 33

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Figure 4 Luis de Morales, The Virgin and Child with St John, c.1545–55, oil on oak panel, 167 x 122 cms, Salamanca cathedral, Salamanca.

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paintings.111 Both the Raphael and the Morales demonstrate the love between the infant biblical cousins while the al fresco nature of the Morales painting suggests a journey, possibly even the return from Egypt. In Morales’s iter­ation, a pensive Virgin, seated on a rock against a couple of tree trunks with a red silk cloth hung across them as a kind of backdrop, holds Jesus on her lap as he embraces St John who kneels on the rock beside them. She looks away, lost in her own thoughts. In the Raphael image, the Madonna watches as John holds a goldfinch out to Christ who places his hand over the bird’s red head. John is offering the bird and Christ is accepting it, in keeping with John’s biblical role as the harbinger of Christ’s Passion. In the Correa painting, the naked infant Jesus is standing on his abstracted and prayerful mother’s lap, with the goldfinch gripped in his left hand. A landscape in the top left shows an emaciated St Jerome doing penance before a crucifix in the wilder­ ness, accompanied by a lion and his cardinal’s hat and cloak. Jerome was in fact associated with the goldfinch by means of the Golden Legend because he beat his own breast and made himself bleed in penitence, thus echoing the spilling of Christ’s blood.112 In between the poetic Raphael and the dual narrative of the Holy Family and St Jerome presented by Correa, the Morales Virgin and Child with a Little Bird presents a more relaxed configuration of goldfinch, Madonna and child and one which in many ways harks back to a Virgin and Child by Bartolomé de Cárdenas, known as Bermejo for his red hair, born in Córdoba around 1440 and probably a converso.113 Bermejo painted the central panel of a triptych devoted to the Virgin of Montserrat for the Barcelona-based Italian merchant Francesco della Chiesa in 1470–5 (now in the chapter house of the Cathedral of the Assumption, Acqui Terme).114 While this is a complex image, with a detailed landscape in the background and della Chiesa, as donor, kneeling on the Virgin’s right, the child Jesus on her knee is turned to her left, following the flight of a goldfinch which he holds on a long string.115 Years later, Morales’s image dispenses with all the extraneous fifteenth-century narrative elements: verdure, buildings, secondary actors, crowns and regal finery (for the Virgin), and zooms in on the mother–child relationship and their dual absorption in the airborne little bird. As in the Bermejo, the Virgin is seated outdoors, this time on what appears to be a rock in an arid garden or orchard. Behind her is the trunk of a tree, a 35

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reference to the cross on which her son will die, and there appears to be a curtain slung across behind the tree. The blonde Madonna gazes down, perhaps a little sadly, on her son as she delicately draws back the string on which the goldfinch is flying. The child, held to her hip, gazes away from his mother to follow the bird’s flight. The expression on his face and the open gestures of his hands seem to denote joy, rather than the anticipation of adult suffering, or at least to allow for joy as well as sorrow. The string holding the bird traverses the full width of the painting, from the Virgin’s thumb and fingertips on the left to the bird’s beak on the right, on the way passing through the fingers of the child’s left hand. A sense of dynamism is created as the two human bodies lean to the left while their heads turn to the right to follow the bird’s trajectory in flight. Like the Raphael Madonna and children, they are almost in dance mode and this permits a complementary explanation of the symbolism of the goldfinch in this painting. E. Faye Wilson, in a review of Herbert Friedmann’s study of the symbolism of the goldfinch in European art, argued that the goldfinch was associated in the English-born, French-based John of Garland’s Epithalamium Beate Marie virginis / ‘Epithalamium to the Blessed Virgin Mary’ (1220–1) with the ‘time of grace’ after the coming of Christ and the ending of the wait for salvation.116 In nature, the goldfinch ‘celebrates the day with its song’. The day equates to the ‘time of grace’ after the long night of waiting for the Saviour, and thus ‘the goldfinch, the bringer of light, is the symbol of the dawning of the day of grace.’117 In her view, the goldfinch may be construed as representing the dawn of hope as the Saviour is born in any composition including the Madonna and Child, as long as the bird is ‘in a free standing or flying position’.118 While the bird is not quite free here, it is certainly enjoying its moment of flight. A further possibility remains, if Morales or those who commissioned this painting were familiar with Leonardo da Vinci’s bestiary or the fourteenthcentury Bolognese astrologer, mathematician and physician, Cecco d’Ascoli’s (Francesco Stabili di Simeone) didactic poem known as L’Acerba (from the Latin acervus, stook or heap; first edition 1327). L’Acerba employs animal symbolism in its fourth book to explain matters of faith and doctrine. In this and in Leonardo, the goldfinch is recorded as looking away from an ill person if it thought they were going to die, and looking towards them if they were 36

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going to live. On an allegorical plane, this makes the goldfinch a bellwether able to detect virtue in those who will be saved, and evil in those who will be condemned to Hell.119 In the Virgen del Pajarito, the goldfinch indeed attempts to fly away from Christ, who will die on the Cross. However, this bouncing baby is the embodiment of the virtue which the bird is known to recognise and the bird is tethered to the child’s irreproachably virtuous mother by a thread by which she is slowly reeling it in. Consequently, in its physical attachment to the Virgin and Child, it can be seen as confirming the virtue of the persons of the Holy Family, according to the prognostic powers of the bird as recorded in L’Acerba. One final conundrum, as far as this painting is concerned, is the bird’s head. It does not appear to show the characteristic area of red feathers around the eyes and beak which identifies the European goldfinch both as a species and as the bird on which a speck of Christ’s blood legendarily landed. The goldfinches in the Raphael Madonna del cardellino and the related Solly Madonna (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, c.1502), and also the bird in the Correa de Vivar Virgen del Jilguero, conform to the typology. While the absence of the typical markings might well be a casualty of restoration or damage, or indeed the result of inadvertence, equally it might not. The colouration of this bird might be deliberate in that juvenile goldfinches who have not yet reached breeding maturity do not have red feathers around their beak and eyes but have a plain greyish brown head.120 They do have the typical yellow stripe on their wings and this stripe is clearly evident on the bird in Morales’ painting. In effect, he painted a baby bird, whether by accident or design. If it were by design, then clearly there is an empathy between the child Jesus and the infant bird who is his plaything. If anything, this reinforces the tender­ness, the innocence and the message of joy in this painting, the celebration, as Wilson suggests, of the ‘dawning of the day of grace’. There is no hint of penance, as in the Correa image, no real sense of impending doom, as in the encounter with St John painted later by Morales. The composition seems to foreground play. Even the youthful Virgin, holding the string for her son to admire the bird, in gesture, if not in facial expression, is considerably less sorrowful than Morales’s other iterations, and she is wearing a white gown, denoting purity, rather than the red or pink, foretelling the passion of Christ, that she wears in most of his images of the Virgin and Child. 37

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It is easy to understand why this painting was so popular amongst the denizens of Badajoz. When they came to worship in the church of the Hospital de la Concepción and gazed at it, they would have found it difficult to resist the glow of happiness it exuded, and still exudes in its present home in Madrid. In a border city where the only contemporary public painting and sculpture was religious, it gives an inkling of a relatively relaxed environment that understood the place and purpose of joy in religious art, in religious music and liturgical theatre. The Badajoz of Diego Sánchez seems to have been reasonably tolerant of its converso and slave populations, that of Morales comfortable with its Portuguese neighbours, friends and collaborators, open to influences from around Europe, not too eager to erect barriers between the different crafts and willing to foreground, when appropriate, the sunnier aspects of religious celebration. What might be seen as Morales’s joyful encapsulation of this aspect of the spirit of Badajoz in 1546, in his Virgen del Pajarito, suggests that he might have pursued an alternative artistic trajectory, more expansive perhaps, more willing to experiment, had circumstances been different. That joy is a quality not even remotely associated with Morales’s oeuvre is a pity, and an indication of how much the temper of his times changed as the century wore on. In the following decade, however, he appears to have engaged in at least one pictorial mystery, one which is still an enigma today.

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Figure 5 Luis de Morales, Holy Family with the Horoscope of Christ, c.1554–60, oil on walnut panel, 91 x 67 cms, Hispanic Society of America, New York, inv. A78.

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The Council of Trent held its first session in 1545 and its last in 1563. The reforms decided upon at Trent were gradually imposed in Spain. Cristóbal de Rojas y Sandoval held a diocesan synod in Badajoz in 1560 to introduce the decrees of the Council formally.1 In failing health, the Holy Roman Emperor Carlos V would retire to a newly constructed small palace at the Hieronymite Monastery of Yuste, in the north of Extremadura, in February 1557, leaving his Spanish throne in the hands of his son, Felipe II, who would prove to be far less accommodating on matters of religious orthodoxy than his more cosmopolitan father. The decade of the 1550s therefore found Badajoz in a kind of interregnum, not quite fully under the strictures of Trent but not far off it. Somewhere in this decade and certainly before the appointment of the deeply orthodox Juan de Ribera in 1562, Luis de Morales produced what is possibly his most enigmatic work, a Holy Family, with a mysterious young woman and the horoscope of Christ (fig. 5). There is no extant documentation as to who commissioned it or where it hung but, given the high degree of detail on the panel and the size of the painting, it is unlikely to have been on display in a public place. Chapter 2

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María Cruz de Carlos Varona and Ana González Mozo point to a tradition of visual representation of maternity and birth in Europe in the sixteenth century, citing as example a plate from Jacob Rueff’s De conceptu et generatione hominis/The Conception and Birth of Man, printed in Frankfurt in 1580, which shows a woman giving birth attended by midwives in the foreground with a pair of astrologers at a table by a window gazing at the moon and stars as they plot the child’s horoscope.2 Francesco Saracino explains the emphasis placed on the humanity of Jesus in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and the consequent relevance of the casting of Christ’s horoscope to provide evidence of his humanity, in the context of a debate which would, in modern times, be superseded by an empirical focus on the historical Jesus.3 The horoscope of Christ included in the Morales painting is an exact copy of the horoscope the Italian philosopher, mathematician and polymath Girolamo Cardano included in the first edition of his commentary on Ptolemy in 1554.4 This book was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books published by the Inquisitor Francisco de Valdés in Valladolid in 1559. In deference to the strictures of the Council of Trent, subsequent sixteenth-century editions were published without the horoscope of Christ.5 Saracino argues that the commissioner of this painting must have deliberately sought out the Cardano horoscope. He also allows that Morales himself may have had an interest in astrology, suggesting that this might not be unusual in a painter of the period, given that books on astrology appear in Velázquez’s library.6 In fact, while it is unlikely that this work was executed for Juan de Ribera, Ribera’s own library contained an extensive collection of works on astrology, both ancient and modern, though not Cardano.7 The employment of astrology as a tool of Christian exegesis had been accepted, if not necessarily wholeheartedly, within Catholicism from the thirteenth century.8 In Western Europe, an awareness of the breadth and usefulness of astrology as a scientific tool grew through the accessibility of translations from Arabic into Latin in the twelfth century, notably translations of the ninth century Persian astrologer, Abū Mas’šar’s Great Introduction (to the Art and Science of Astrology), the Kitab al-madkhal ila ilm ahkam al nujum or Liber Introductorii Maioris ad Scientiam Judiciorum astrorum.9 This work was translated into Latin by Johannes Hispalensis (Juan de Sevilla) in 1133, and shortly after by Herman of Carinthia, who also spent time working as 42

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Badajoz in the 1550s: Iconographical Licence

a translator from Arabic in Spain. In this treatise, Abū Mas’šar develops a ‘theocentric conception of astrological history’ in which the emergence of the major religions can be discerned according to significant astrological conjunctions.10 He becomes the first to derive a horoscope for Christ, the founding prophet of Christianity. This horoscope has a predictable ascendant in Virgo: And there rises a child in the first image of that sign (Virgo) [. . .] And this is a beautiful Virgin, full of dignity and grace, with long hair, comely to the eye, splendid in appear­ ance, holding two ears of wheat, she sits upon a throne [. . .] and feeds a baby in a place called Abrie. And certain people call this child Jesus, which in Arabic is Elice.11

Despite severe theological reservations, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many collections of genitures or horoscopes for significant secular and church figures were in circulation, notably the horoscopes of distinguished individuals cast by Girolamo Cardano. Graziella Federici Vescovini argues that, in his 1554 edition of Ptolemy’s Greek Tetrabiblos/Four Books, which contained the horoscope of Christ, astrology is presented as an art, a practical science, an instrument of active knowledge capable of guiding the work of the physician and the astrologer, and therefore able, by its predictive power, to divine at least partially the preordination hidden beneath events in Nature, such as illness and the possibility of cure.12

Cardano’s stated purpose in publishing a geniture of Christ, using the precise hour of Christ’s birth and attributing to Bethlehem the same latitude as Jerusalem, is more convoluted than that of of Abū Mas’šar and his successors. He intended to show that ‘as nature adorned his [Jesus’] birth with an excellent temperament and extraordinary physical beauty, so also the Great and Glorious God adorned his birth with an excellent and admirable constitution in the stars’.13 His defence of his use of astrology lies in an assertion that Christ was not formed as an extraordinary being by the stars but that the stars reflect the will of God in rendering him extraordinary. If that were not the case, he argues, then the Church would not continue to observe his birth at midnight on 25 December nor would a horoscope due merely to the influence of the 43

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stars have been so astonishingly accurate in regard to the actual life of Christ. He is, however, very much aware of the danger he runs in publishing this horoscope, and remarks that though he had formulated Christ’s horoscope over twenty years previously, he had been reluctant to publish it, fearing the censure of the Church.14 Unfortunately, his work arrived at a point at which the Catholic Church had begun to set about restricting the space for debate on theological and philosophical matters in favour of the narrow doctrinal observance decreed by the Council of Trent and enforced by the Holy Office or Inquisition. Cardano himself would fall foul of the Inquisition in Bologna in 1571, accused of denying Divine Providence, most especially by attributing the birth of Christ and the wisdom of Christ to the stars, even though he had expressly defended himself in print on that point.15 On another front, the scientific validity of astrology, up to then seen as symbiotic with astronomy, would be put into question by the formulation of the Galilean universe though not, as yet, terminally undermined. Astrology was blended into the secular art of some Italian city-states and in decoration associated with royal and ducal families on the Peninsula, though, as Dieter Blume observes: only general astrological principles were depicted. Amongst the most widely disseminated was the image of the seven planets with their houses, either in the sequence of the weekday gods or in their cosmological order. Sometimes these are combined with the course of the year through a depiction of the series of the zodiacal signs and the works of the months. Specific constellations or horoscopes are only very rarely found.16

He mentions the cupola paintings over the altar of the old sacristy of the burial chapel of the Medici in the church of San Lorenzo and the horoscope of the Sienese banker, Agostino Chigi, painted by Baltasar Peruzzi c.1511, at the Villa Farnesina Rome, as exceptions.17 This account of the use of astrology in commissioned decorative art in Renaissance Italy, where there was a much greater degree of patronage in each of the main city-states and within that a higher proportion of commissioned secular art, mainly portraiture and mythological paintings, helps to put the inclusion of Cardano’s horoscope in Morales’s modest-sized painting into perspective. 44

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Juan Francisco Esteban Lorente offers an overview of extant Spanish depictions of horoscopes which may be related to the life of Christ. In the century or so either side of the Morales image, these consist of the fifteenthcentury Astrolabe Tapestry from Toledo Cathedral, now in the Museo de Santa Cruz in Toledo; the choir of the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Zaragoza, executed by the master masons Estevan de Obray, Juan de Moreto and Nicolás Lobato between 1545 and 1546; the arch over the main entrance to the church of St María de Viana in Navarre, begun in 1549 by the master mason Juan de Goyaz and completed between 1552 and 1571 by Juan de Ochoa; and a silver cross made for the parish church of Santorcaz in Madrid, by the silversmith Gaspar de Guzmán of Alcalá de Henares in 1577. He notes that the implied message in the Viana arch and the Toledo tapestry is similar to that conveyed in the Morales painting: that there was no inherent contra­ diction between the divine nature of Jesus Christ and his presence on Earth as a human being.18 That the painting support is walnut panel suggests that it was com­ missioned by a wealthy individual or entity, walnut being rarer and more expensive than the usual material employed, oak. Many of Morales’s small and medium-sized paintings were executed on walnut, testimony to his success and popularity.19 Though it is possible that it was part of a sequence, the size of the panel and the fine detail on it indicate that it was not meant to be exhibited in a large space, such as a church, and it may have been destined for a private oratory. The horoscope and the elements representing events around Christ’s birth in the landscape behind the human figures can only be seen up close. Though the horoscope itself is an exact copy of Cardano’s chart, the text in the centre of the chart was extended by Morales, who, it appears, expunged his first attempt at the horoscope and repainted it to include an alternative text in Latin which rephrases the information in Cardano in a less technical manner. In particular, where Cardano simply mentions the ‘Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ’ in his last sentence, having presented the technical details regarding the time of Christ’s birth, the relation­ship between the astrological and ecclesiastical year, and the latitude first, Morales, or whoever advised him, introduces the birth of Christ at the outset and includes specific reference to the Incarnation: ‘This is the configuration of the Heavens beneath which Jesus Christ, God, appeared in 45

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Golden Age Painting in Iberia: Morales

the world made man.’ 20 This new formulation may have been introduced in order to confine the horoscope to recording the date of Christ’s birth and conveying the theological message, that of the Incarnation, more directly than Cardamo, while at the same time leaving the horoscope chart less open to interpretation. Thus Morales and/or whoever collaborated with him on the inclusion of the chart seem to have gone to some lengths to anticipate or avoid the type of charge which might have been levelled on the basis of the Inquisitor, Gaspar de Quiroga’s strictures on horoscopes, issued in 1583. In his Index of Prohibited Books, Quiroga stresses that no horoscope should seek to predict actions which are down to human free will or accidents which might happen, though he will permit astrology which helps farming or shipping and which can give an indication of an individual’s physical and psychological traits.21 The horoscope of Christ was formally proscribed in Inscrutabilis, Pope Sixtus V’s bull of 1586. 22 From then on, as Saracino remarks: Da una parte e dall’altra degli schieramenti dell’Europa Cristiana, l’unica astrologia ammissible fu quella che rinunciava al giudizio dei pianeti; ai teologi-poeti sarà concessa soltano l’ammirazione per ‘gli etterni giri’, innocua e, al tempo stesso, opportuna per lamentare gli inganni del mondo.23 On either side of the religious divide in Christian Europe, the only permissible astrology was that which renounced the wisdom of the planets; theologian-poets would only be allowed to engage in admiration of their ‘eternal revolutions’, an admiration which was innocuous and, at the same time, opportune, because it allowed for lamentation of the deceptions and disappointments of the world.

The skyscape and landscape in the background of the Morales Holy Family does restrict itself to observing the known events in the skies and amongst the population at the time of Christ’s birth. Shepherds are shown with their flock of sheep gathering around a tower, helpfully labelled Turris Ader in red paint. Tom O’Loughlin points out that ‘the significance of this place for the Latin tradition was [. . .] that it was expected to be the place where the Messiah manifested himself’, citing St Jerome’s interpretation of St Luke’s account according to church tradition.24 Rodríguez de Ceballos posits that the deriv­ ation in this painting may be from Erasmus’ Paraphrase on the Gospel of St Luke, with the tower representing Bethlehem, the place of the Messiah’s 46

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birth.25 Saracino, on the other hand, maintains that the Turris Ader may be a reference to Jerusalem, geographically very close to Bethlehem; his point being that Jerusalem would be the site of Christ’s public life.26 In Luke’s narrative of the notification of the shepherds, a staple of every Christmas celebration, the episode is recounted thus: And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the Angel said unto them. Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born today in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying. Glory to God, in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven the shepherds said one to another. Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. (Luke 2:8–15, King James Version)

Morales’s painting duly contains, in the skies to the left of the Turris Ader, a large, dark cloud, out of which appears a tiny angel in a burst of light. The angel is holding a banner which, in other representations, might be expected to contain the legend gloria in excelsis deo/‘glory to God in the highest’, but the banner is too small for any writing to be legible. The darkness of the cloud surrounding the angel may be a simple device to make the angelic apparition more visible above the pale dawn sky and bluish, mountainous landscape below it. Dawn invades the night sky as the shepherds carry out their nocturnal duties, just as the arrival of Christ illuminates the world.27 The darkness and volume of the cloud around the burst of light surrounding the angel, however, seem rather more prominent that might be necessary in comparison with the other night clouds in the top layer of the sky above the dawn. A secondary reading of this might be that it alludes to the darkness 47

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which fell over Jerusalem during the second three of the six hours Jesus spent nailed to the Cross. The Gospel of St Mark provides a detailed chronology for the Crucifixion. Jesus was nailed to the Cross at three in the afternoon and between six and nine in the evening, a matter not noted in the gospel of the supposed eyewitness, John the Evangelist, ‘there was darkness over the whole land’ (Mark 15:33). A comet within the frame of the horoscope would seem to indicate the star reported over Bethlehem in the New Testament. Both this and the presumed solar eclipse during Christ’s agony on the Cross constituted phenomena which early modern astrology and astronomy found difficult to explain. This difficulty was, to some extent, used by theologians as an argument to devalue astrology as a scientific tool while reinforcing the divinely providential nature of Christ’s birth.28 This rather complex and heavily allusive landscape in the background of the painting, then, argues for its use as a stimulus for meditation on the entire life of Christ, from birth to death. In some ways, this painting seems to be made of three layers, the landscape in the background, the three adult figures in the mid-ground and the baby in the foreground. Of these, the baby is the most remarkable feature of the painting. It is clearly un bébé tomado del natural, quizá el más hermoso que pintara Morales/‘a baby taken from life, perhaps the most beautiful Morales ever painted’, and not one of those formulaic but rather inhuman-looking infants taken from engravings common to most Nativity scenes at the time.29 The Virgin is in the act of laying the sleeping child on the white cloth that she has spread across the straw of the manger. While the child is about three times the size a newborn infant might be expected to be, relative to the adult holding him, and there is probably too much definition in the face, his large head and tucked-up knees suggest a very natural pose for a very new baby. Morales’s characteristic layering technique, the sfumato employed by Leonardo da Vinci, renders the skin tones and the whites of the unbound swaddling cloth with delicacy and translucence. As Maite Jover et al. observe: En la pintura del extremeño conviven la delicadeza e indefinición del sfumato de los rostros con el tratamiento de los contornos de los demás elementos. Por ejemplo, en los tejidos, la pintura de los bordes es arrastrada – y no difuminada – hacia las formas cercanas en un intento de unir diferentes planos.

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  El uso de este tipo de recursos, unido a un personal tratamiento de la luz, aporta a las escenas representadas un doble efecto de veracidad y finura, características inequívocas de las pinturas de Morales.30 In the work of the Extremenian, the delicacy and lack of definition in the sfumato used in the faces work together with the treatment of the contours of the other elements. For example, the paint on the edges of the fabrics is drawn, not diffused, towards nearby forms in an attempt to unite different planes.   His use of these types of techniques, united to a very personal treatment of light, brings a double effect of realism and fineness, which are indisputable characteristics of the paintings of Morales.

The effect of the translucence of the child’s skin and his swaddling cloth, added to his size, is that he appears to be looming out of the painting, towards the viewer, almost as if the Virgin was about to place him not in the manger but in the arms of the beholder. Saracino notes that this painting could almost be a composition of place from Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, written between 1522 and 1524.31 Familiarity with the Ignatian exercises in the 1550s probably required some ability in Latin if the contemplative was not working with a spiritual adviser with access to a manuscript version, since the first edition in Spanish, the language in which Ignatius wrote them, only appeared in Spain in 1615 while a Latin translation of the Spanish original was published in Rome in 1548.32 The second contemplation for the second week of spiritual exercises requires the contemplative to imagine the journey of Joseph, Mary and their young female servant from Nazareth to Bethlehem with Mary nine months pregnant. They must visualise the cave in which the baby is born. Then, the contemplative should turn to the human figures: ver a Nuestra Señora y a San José y a la ancila, y al niño Jesús después de ser nacido; haciéndome yo un pobrecito y esclavito indigno, mirándolos, contemplándolos, y sirviéndolos en sus necesidades, como se presente me hallase, con todo acatamiento y reverencia posible y después reflectir en mí mismo para sacar algún provecho.33

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Figure 6 Luis de Morales, The Presentation in the Temple, c.1562, oil on oak panel, 146.5 x 116 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. P943.

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seeing Our Lady and St Joseph and the servant girl, and the baby Jesus after being born; making of myself a poor, unworthy little slave, looking at them, contemplating them and serving them in their needs, as if I were present, with all possible reverence and humility, and then reflecting within myself in order to take some benefit from it.

It would, of course, have been unthinkable for the everyday contemplative to accept the child Jesus in their arms, but not for an individual engaged in a mystical trance. Morales, does, however, seem to be offering the viewer the opportunity to flirt with temptation in framing the child as he has, almost thrusting him into the arms of the viewer, in this enigmatic image. While that last point may be mere speculation, the supreme beauty of the child signals that one of the objectives of this painting was to show the baby Jesus as being beautiful in the way that a flesh-and-blood human baby might be considered beautiful. This is some way from the abstract sense in which non-realistic representations of the baby Jesus are valued as beautiful because of what they conventionally represent. Morales himself, for example, reproduces month-old babies with unnaturally small heads and overly developed limbs in his Presentation in the Temple scenes, probably because of the doctrinal requirement to show the child’s facial expression and physical gesture as conscious of his fate and thus physically expressive beyond the capability of a newborn34 (fig. 6). The baby would have been just over a month old when his parents brought him to the temple in Jerusalem, his mother’s period of impurity after giving birth to a male child being, according to the Book of Leviticus (12:2–4), forty-one days. The baby boy would be circumcised after eight days, after which the mother remained in a state of impurity for a further thirty-three days. Thus, the physical proportions of this fortyone-day-old baby would have to be closer to those of a much older child in order to facilitate an appropriate physical responsivity when he is held in the arms of Simeon, who entered the temple and recognised him as the Messiah: ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in Peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

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A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. (Luke, 2:29–32, King James Version).

Simeon’s recognition of the baby as the Messiah is a marker of the arrival of the Messiah in Jerusalem, one which might also justify Saracino’s reading of the Turris Ader as a reference to that city. Unlike the Presentation in the Temple, however, the iconography of the Nativity leaves the painter free to reproduce a beautiful, sleeping baby, as yet under no pressure to react to his fate, with lifelike proportions. In the sixteenth century this topos of the sleeping Jesus was taken as a prefiguring of his deathlike state in the tomb between Crucifixion and Resurrection, and no less so in this image where the baby’s swaddling cloth looks very like a shroud.35 According to Saracino, Cardano’s assertion of the physical beauty of Christ appears to be based on the apocryphal letter of the Roman consul, Publius Lentulus, possibly governor of Judaea before Pontius Pilate, who mistakenly cites the historian Flavius Josephus as his source.36 As translated into English in 1680, Christ is described thus by Publius Lentulus: his hair the colour of a chestnut full ripe [. . .] his forehead very plain and smooth; his face without spot or wrinkle, beautified with a comely red; his nose and mouth so formed as nothing can be reprehended; his beard somewhat thick agreeable, in colour to the hair of his head [. . .] of an innocent look, his eyes grey, clear and quick [. . .] It cannot be remembered that any have seen him laugh, but many have seen him weep [. . .] A man for his singular beauty surpassing the children of men.37

Saracino notes that Cardano’s description of Christ as having freckles must be an error, presumably a misreading of the suggestion that his facial skin had a rosy glow to it, and corroborates this by citing the Virgin’s description of her son’s skin as being without blemish on his entire body, in a vision recorded by St Bridget of Sweden.38 This Aryan Christ’s physical features and his striking seriousness of disposition are all carefully accounted for in the fine detail of the horoscope cast by Cardano, which also heralds Christ as one who would have a notable death and who would remain extraordinarily notable after his death (mortem preclaram et a morte nomen clarissimum).39 52

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If the background and the foreground of this image can be explained by the Cardano horoscope and the biblical context for the birth of Christ, the three figures in the mid-ground are a little more difficult to deal with. The Virgin and St Joseph are in their expected roles, naturally, but the young woman on the Virgin’s left has caused a great deal of speculation amongst commentators. The consensus appears to be that she cannot be either of the midwives, the older and wiser Zelomi or the younger and more excitable Salome, who are mentioned in the apocryphal Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew because she is too young; nor can she be a shepherdess, because it would be unusual for her to appear separated from her fellow shepherds in a Nativity scene, and because her dress is too opulent for a simple shepherd­ess.40 On the question of Salome, it is worth noting that the Apocryphal Gospel of St James, which also relates the episode of the midwives, tells the story of how Salome does not believe that Mary is a virgin after the birth of her son and insists on performing a virginity test on her. After this indignity, the hand she has used to locate the intact hymen withers and is only cured when she repents her disbelief and is invited by Mary to touch the baby. She then touches the edge of his garment and is cured.41 This sense of the curative properties of the otherwise oblivious newborn Jesus may lie behind the seeming protrusion of the baby into the viewer’s space created by this paint­ ing. Thus, while the non-ecstatic contemplative could not consider holding the baby in their arms, they might be justified in attempting to touch the very edge of his loose swaddling cloth, in the manner of Salome. Esteban Lorente argues that the relationships between these three figures and the baby can be assimilated broadly with elements of the horo­scope: San José con Saturno (el planeta de la vejez y la Prudencia), a la Virgen con la Luna (el parto y la Fe), además de con la constelación de Virgo y su estrella Espiga (el ascendente de Jesús), a la doncella con el planeta Venus (la juventud) y a Jesús con el Sol.42 St Joseph with Saturn (the planet of old age and Prudence), the Virgin with the Moon (childbirth and Faith), as well as with the constellation of Virgo and its star, Spica (the ascendant of Jesus), the young woman with the planet Venus (youth) and Jesus with the Sun.

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He suggests that, just as there are obvious compositional alignments between the figures of the Virgin and the Child and between Joseph, the Virgin and the Young Woman in the painting, so also in the horoscope, trigons exist between the Sun and the Moon and between Saturn, Venus and the Ascendant, Spica. According to Cardano, the Sun and Moon trigon signifies protection during childhood, while the Saturn, Venus and Ascendant trigon points to the beauty of Christ’s physical being.43 The enigmatic nature of the content of this painting is one matter. Morales’s ability to veer from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Flemish influence to something more full-blown and Italianate, depending on the size of the painting and the nature of the commission, is another puzzling element, one that does not appear to reflect an expected evolution in style from Flemish to Italianate. For example, the figures of the Virgin and Child in the Virgen del Pajarito, painted a decade earlier, are indisputably Italianate. The 1546 Virgin is more rounded in form, more limpid in gesture than the Virgin in the Holy Family with the Horoscope and the earlier composition has a sense of space and airiness which this rather claustrophobic image distinctly lacks. The figure of the Virgin here is plangent certainly, but stiffer of posture, more akin to the Flemish tradition. Her face is narrower and indeed is not hugely distinguishable from that of the young woman beside her, while Joseph is Morales’s stock figure of a lean old man, shown here with his right hand on his staff. The painter uses the same head, for example, twice in the Presentation in the Temple (fig. 6). In that image, Joseph is seen in the procession, again with his staff, and the same balding head with curly hair and beard is employed to depict Simeon. Beautifully crafted though his head and hands are, Joseph is confined almost to the background in this image by the browns of his attire and the dark tones of his skin and hair. He is placed on the left, and the patch of landscape on his left and above his head is the least interesting in the picture. The apparition to the shepherds takes place between the Virgin and the young woman, and the horoscope, as has been mentioned, sits above the young woman’s head. Joseph is also much more sparsely lit than the Virgin, Jesus and the young woman. Though there is nothing unusual about the placing of an elderly Joseph in a secondary position in Hispanic painting in the sixteenth century, what is unusual is that the young woman should, in contrast, be so prominent.44 54

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It is she who looks out of the painting to draw the viewer in. Of all her accoutrements, it is the basket of eggs which is given the strongest focus. Rodríguez de Ceballos ventured that the basket of eggs might represent both ‘the seed of life and the regeneration of the world which began with the birth of Christ’.45 Esteban Lorente develops a more elaborate reference to the Virgin and the Church, arguing that the eggs represent fertility, as a hen with her chicks so the Church and its adherents, but also, in some contexts, the virgin maternity of Mary. He further suggests that if the Turris Ader is taken to allude to the invocation of Mary as the Tower of Ivory, itself derived from the Song of Solomon: ‘Thy neck is as a tower of ivory’ (7:4, King James Version), this, in turn, invites comparison with the emblem of the kingfisher’s nest. In Andrea Alciato’s Emblemata, his book of emblems published in Latin in 1531 and then in Spanish in 1549, this signifies the birth of abundance through peace. All of this, Esteban Lorente adduces, creates a Marian hiero­ glyphic which refers to the doctrine of the virgin birth and the Pax Cristiana, the eventual supplanting of the Roman Empire, the Pax Romana, dominant at the time of Christ’s birth, by a new Christian era of both spiritual and political power.46 Saracino extends the symbolism of the basket of eggs, agreeing with Rodríguez de Ceballos that it must be a reference to the Resur­ rection, by suggesting that the eggs may be linked to the more traditional gift of a lamb or lambs, the symbol of Christ’s sacrifice, usually brought by the shepherds to the stable.47 This is even though he too recognises that the young woman is not a shepherdess and mentions that a very similar young woman is seen in Morales’s Birth of the Virgin (fig. 7). In that painting, she is holding a basket of fruit, either small apples or quinces, the apples with clear connotations of sin and redemption, and the quinces possibly referring to another of Alciato’s emblems, this time introducing quinces as an appropriate gift for wives, because of their delicate flavour.48 Symbolism apart, Cenalmor Bruquetas suggests that the model for this young woman in the Birth of the Virgin may be Morales’ daughter Catalina, as the figure in the image may be pregnant and Catalina gave birth in 1564, which is probably when this paint­ ing was being prepared.49 She might equally be any other young woman associated in some way with the commissioning or manufacture of the image. What matters, in the end, is not who she is but what she represents more broadly in this painting and in the Holy Family with the Horoscope. 55

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Figure 7 Luis de Morales, The Birth of the Virgin, 1562–7, oil on walnut panel, 69.2 x 93.2 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, P7859.

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In the Holy Family, she is a laywoman in festive or relatively luxurious dress, placed in the image at the same level as the Holy Family and on the same scale, at a time when donors were normally represented kneeling, on a smaller scale relative to the religious figures, soberly dressed and in profile.50 Only on very rare occasions in Spanish painting of the sixteenth century did a lay figure appear as an actor in a religious scene, and the extant examples are of royalty, the first recorded being Juan de Flandes’s The Loaves and the Fishes (1501), and the most striking Juan Pantoja de la Cruz’s pair of paintings made for Margarita de Austria-Estiria, wife of Felipe III, The Birth of Christ and The Birth of the Virgin in 1603.51 Pantoja shows Margarita and members of her family as actors in each image. She appears with her mother and sister in the Birth of the Virgin and with her brothers in the Birth of Christ.52 In Juan de Flandes’s much earlier piece, Isabel of Castile is shown in a complex and multi-temporal narrative of the parable of the loaves and fishes.53 Whether or not there is a coincidental resemblance to anyone living at the time of execution, this young woman’s symbolic significance is of far greater importance. Her head and shoulders are haloed by the biblical narrative and astrological iconography contained in the background landscape of the painting. She herself is placed far closer to the sleeping Jesus than his duncoloured foster father. It is at least reasonable to suggest that she may be an everywoman figure in whom aspects of devotional practice engaged in by the laity in Badajoz in the 1550s are embodied. The most significant movement in devotional practice amongst the laity in Extremadura in these decades was alumbradismo or illuminism. This was a movement in which, exceptionally, women were more prominent than men. It had its beginnings in and around Guadalajara at the beginning of the sixteenth century and evolved, sporadically, in waves over the course of the next century and a half, each iteration less secure in its spiritual foun­dations and more theologically lax that the one before it. In the first wave, the Guadal­ ajaran alumbrados were led by a laywoman of converso descent, Isabel de la Cruz, who became a Franciscan Tertiary and then went to preach in the Guadal­ ajara area around 1512.54 She gathered around her a group of devotees, most of whom were of converso families, some of them priests and scholars, most of them, like herself, literate but not learned. This group is recognised as having been genuinely devout, informed by scripture and Catholic devotional practice. 57

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However, an Edict of Faith was issued against them in 1525 by the Inquisitor General Alonso Manrique and a series of trials held over the next decade, drawing in scholars and courtiers as well as the non-elite alumbrados.55 In the end, only five of the accused were burned at the stake; the rest were sentenced to lenient terms of imprisonment, house arrest or fines.56 From the beginning of the sixteenth century, both the clergy and the laity were very receptive to forms of devotional practice based on meditation on episodes from the life of Christ. When Ignatius of Loyola began his Spiritual Exercises while studying in Paris in 1521, he shared them with a small circle of devout laypeople like himself. He had no idea then that these meditation aids would eventually constitute the core spiritual training for the Society of Jesus, an order which was explicitly not conventual and whose chief mission was to provide education for and be of service to the poor, work which would subsequently be expanded throughout the Hispanic and Lusophone empires.57 The Spiritual Exercises were based on the fifteenth-century August­ inian, Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ, which he himself wrote for the spiritual education of his own novices. The early sixteenth century saw spiritual currents which led most significantly to the development of Protestantism across northern Europe, crystallised in retrospect as the apocryphal nailing of another Augustinian, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses to the door of the Schloss­ kirche or Reformation church in Wittenberg in October 1517.58 Luther’s work, in turn, reflected trends already expressed in the writings of the Dutch humanist, another onetime Augustinian, Desiderius Erasmus, with whom he would enter into scholarly debate between 1525 and 1527 regarding the nature of human free will.59 Bataillon notes that, in Spain, the most relevant of Erasmus’ texts for spiritual practice amongst the first-wave alumbrados was his Enchiridion Militis Christiani/Handbook of the Christian Knight, written in 1504.60 In it, Erasmus sought to counteract what he diagnosed as a ‘sluggish contentment in the outward observance of Christian ritual’ which caused real Christian piety to ‘languish’.61 As far as Erasmus was concerned, belonging to a monastic order did not of itself confer piety; this state could only be achieved by study of the scriptures and concentration on the spiritual being. His view in the Enchiridion was that ‘perfect piety is the attempt to progress away from the invisible [. . .] to invisible things’.62 58

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In Portugal, on the other hand, awareness of the work of Erasmus was confined to a narrow court circle surrounding Cardinal Henrique.63 The Flemish philologist Nicolaus Clenardus (Cleynaerts), one of the first students at the trilingual college, Busleiden, established at the University of Louvain by Erasmus, would spend the years 1534–8 at the royal court in Évora as tutor to the young prince Henrique. Along with the humanist André de Resende, whom he met at Busleiden and who encouraged him to accept the court position, Clenardus’s example and teaching would be influential in bringing about the establishment of the humanist College of Arts in Coimbra in 1547 under the cultured João III.64 Bataillon traces early sixteenth-century interest in Erasmus in Portugal to Martinho de Portugal, son of a bishop of Évora, who would go on to become the only consecrated archbishop of Funchal, a see with formal jurisdiction over suffragan bishoprics throughout the Portuguese Empire.65 However, inventories of Portuguese libraries from the period suggest that readers were primarily interested in Erasmus’ editions of classical and Christian authors, followed by rhetorical treatises, with his moral and devotional works coming a very poor third; so much so that only five copies of the Enchiridion are now extant in Portugal.66 In Spain, the situation regarding the reception of Erasmus was very differ­ ent. Bataillon declares that it became a veritable phenomenon, un ébranlement du sentiment religieux où des milliers de consciences furent intéressés/‘a shock in religious feeling in which thousands of consciences became involved’.67 The question of why Erasmus was apparently so popular in Spain, yet confined to an intellectual elite in Portugal, is a matter which, as Catarina Fouto notes, has yet to be explored.68 This Spanish fervour does not obviate intellectual interest in the work of Erasmus. The first mention of Erasmus in Spain is noted by Bataillon in a letter written by the abbot of the Augustinian Abbey of Santa María in Husillos, north of Palencia, in November 1516 to the reforming Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, instigator both of the humanist university of Alcalá de Henares and the Complutense Polyglot Bible. From the outset, the writings of Erasmus were welcomed and respectfully dissected by some theologians and philosophers, but drew criticism and inquisitorial condemnation from other church figures.69 However, Erasmian views on devotional practice spread well beyond the elite environment of theological discussion and 59

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affected everyday piety in Spain in ways not directly reliant on acquaintance with his writings, so much so that according to Bataillon, Erasmianism provides the one perspective which permette de découvrir la continuité entre l’époque troublée de Charles-Quint, —avec son «luthéranisme larvé»,— et les drames intimes de la contre-réforme/‘reveals the continuity between the troubled era of Charles V, with its “latent Lutheranism” and the intimate dramas of the Counter-Reformation’.70 Synthesised before the age of extensive access to archives, Bataillon’s argument, built on published and available archival historical documents, philosophy, theology, devotional writing, literature and some key Inquisition trial records, is far more nuanced than recent scholars have sometimes been prepared to allow.71 With considerable justification, nonetheless, Antonio Márquez takes issue with Bataillon’s blanket application of illuminism as a movement transcending Catholic and Protestant, Lutheran and Erasmian in Spain in the first half of the sixteenth century. He argues that the Guadalajaran alumbrados, far from representing an amorphous mass movement, were closer to a sect which may have had, as its ultimate goal, the creation of a religious community separate from the Church. Whether or not this is entirely defensible as a position, it should be remembered that as well as awareness of Erasmus and Lutheranism, the Guadalajaran alumbrados were also pro­ foundly influenced by the Franciscan meditational practice of recogimiento or recollection, which had its origins in the late 1480s and which was, to a large extent, fomented by the large number of devotional texts translated into the vernacular under Cardinal Cisneros.72 Many of these devotional texts were designed to be accessible to mujercillas e idiotas, in other words, women (the diminutive implying women of a common sort) and males with little education. However, despite the pejorative context, they were tremendously popular and underpinned the work of Isabel de la Cruz, even if her style of contemplation, defined as dejamiento or abandonment of the self in word­ less contemplation of the Lord, was somewhat different to the practice of recogim­iento, which proposed withdrawal to a quiet place to engage in more structured meditation.73 Erasmianism is a label the Guadalajara alumbrados chose to describe their practice when questioned in the 1530s by the Inquisition. The obvious reason for this is that most of those in that group were of converso origin and they 60

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were doing their utmost to avoid accusations of crypto-Judaism.74 They may also have felt that Erasmianism, despite the controversy over Erasmus’ writing, had some chance of being viewed benignly by the Inquisition even if their actual beliefs were very much in tune with the Lutheran tenet of salvation by faith alone. The trial of María de Cazalla is a case in point. The daughter of an Andalusian merchant with maternal relatives in the service of the count of Palma, she married Lope de Rueda, a Guadalajara merchant and was welcomed into the circle of the Duke of Infantado by his wife, his illegitimate daughter and his daughter-in-law.75 Along with the Marquess of Villena and the Admiral of Castile, Fadrique Enríquez, the Mendozas were protectors of the Guadalajara alumbrados.76 María’s brother, the Franciscan Juan de Cazalla, was for a time the confessor of Cardinal Cisneros. He was indicted by the Inquisition for alumbradismo but died before his case came to trial. Alastair Hamilton suggests that of all the figures associated with the Guadalajara movement, he is the most enigmatic because ‘he was perhaps the closest link not only between the alumbrados and Cardinal Cisneros but also between the followers of Isabel de la Cruz, most of whom were not learned, and the world of learning’.77 María responded successfully to the Edict of 1525 and thus escaped arrest until 1532.78 In her trial it was stated that she was known to approve of Martin Luther and was acquainted with the humanist Juan de Valdés’s Diálogo de Doctrina Christiana/Dialogue of Christian Doctrine, an Erasmian dialogue which incorporated verbatim work by Luther and other reformers.79 Further­ more, at her trial, she permitted the Enchiridion, which had been published in Spanish in Alcalá in 1526, the year after the Edict of Faith, to be presented as her devotional work of choice.80 Her confessor reported: ‘There is not a single word in Erasmus which she does not believe and quote, reaching the point of regarding him as the Gospel and not wishing any other author to be read, preached or translated into Castilian.’81 Courageous under torture, she was found not guilty of Lutheran sympathies and required to make an abjuration de levi, an admission of slight suspicion of heresy, and pay a fine of 100 ducats.82 Though the majority of the names associated with Guadalajaran alum­ bradismo are male, the recognised spiritual leader of the movement was a woman, Isabel de la Cruz and her authority and integrity were never questioned 61

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by her adherents. In the same region and at the same time, two other groups of alumbrados were led by charismatic but rather less ascetic women, Mari Núñez and Francisca Hernández, each of whom in turn played a significant part in denouncing Isabel de la Cruz and her followers to the Inquisition. Perhaps significantly, neither of these women were of converso stock.83 They were, however, confused and out of their depth, if not outright impostors, and took advantage of a context under Cardinal Cisneros in which beatas, religious laywomen who lived devout lives and professed to have visions, were not only routinely endorsed by sections of the clergy but frequently became the subject of public spectacle.84 Needless to say, neither all beatas nor their clerical supporters were sincere in their actions, amongst them Mari Núñez and Francisca Hernández. In any case, public displays of meditation or trance-like states were a long way from the reserved and inward conduct recommended by the Isabel de la Cruz and her followers. María de Cazalla, who had started off as a follower of Mari Núñez and then grown suspicious of her, is the highest-status woman officially recorded in Isabel de la Cruz’s group. Significantly, she was a wife and mother who chose to practise physical austerity in everyday life. So deep was her embrace of fleshly deprivation that she had given up conjugal relations with her husband as a matter of course, but was advised to resume her marital obli­ gations by none other than Isabel de la Cruz.85 At a time when most women, nobles and beatas apart, were casually written off as lesser beings within a society which was ‘patriarchal, anti-semitic and aristocratic’, the protagonism of these women should not be underestimated.86 Indeed, Teresa of Ávila herself would encounter similar societal barriers when undertaking her Carmelite reforms in the later sixteenth century, ‘inheriting problems already faced by the alumbrados’.87 In the 1550s Spain went through a full-blown Lutheranism scare, culmin­ ating in autos-da-fé in Valladolid and Seville which saw people either burnt at the stake in person or in effigy for not recanting their Lutheranism, alleged or real.88 In Seville, 127 people were processed in the autos-da-fé held between 1559 and 1562, with many more having recanted and repented in private.89 Before that, very few people had faced the ultimate sanction for Lutheran beliefs. Stefania Pastore uses archival documentation to demonstrate that the Lutheran heresy identified in Seville, and associated primarily with Juan 62

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Gil (Dr Egidio) and Constantino Ponce de la Fuente (Dr Constantino) both former chaplains to Carlos V, was spread throughout all levels of society. As well as members of religious orders and the aristocracy, the muy principales/ ‘most important’, its adherents were gente de baxo nombre, predicadores clérigos, sacristanes, mugerçitas y ofiçiales/‘people of low birth, preacher priests, sacristans, common women and tradespeople’.90 She maintains that the heresy was neither strictly speaking Erasmian nor Lutheran, nor even exclusively a legacy of the practices of Isabel de la Cruz’s circle of alumbrados, but a peculiarly Spanish confection which had at its core an acceptance of the Lutheran doctrine of salvation by faith alone.91 Pastore notes the testimony and other documentation relating to several ‘extraordinary female figures’, nuns and aristocratic and wealthy laywomen such as Ana de Yllescas, who congregated at the convent of St Isabel and that of St Paula, where Juan Gil was a confessor.92 These women were a long way from the low-class women, the mugerçitas who, unlike the men, are not described by trade or occupation. One of the nuns at the Hieronymite convent of St Paula, Leonor de Cristóbal, described Gil’s message at her trial: Todas las cosas que predicaba les paresçia una ley tan suabe, una vida tan graçiosa que le paresçia a esta declarante que lo demas de darse a travajos y afligirse era cosa demasiada e alguna vez hablando con algunas monjas compañeras dezia quien pudiera tener agora vibas a nuestras antepasadas que tanto travajaron en hazer y guardar estas obras y çirimonias de la horden que tan poco le aprovecharon para su salvaçion.93 Everything he preached seemed to them such a gentle rule, such a beautiful life, that to this witness [it seemed] that the matter of giving oneself over to performing tasks and doing penance was going too far and sometimes talking to her fellow nuns she would say how [wonderful] it would be to have their predecessor sisters, who had put so much work into performing and maintaining these customs and ceremonies of the order which had been of so little use in obtaining their salvation, alive now.

The Jesuit, Gonzalo González, who arrived in Seville in 1554, sums up this aspect of the heresy with a mixture of incredulity and exasperation. He reports that the nuns believe 63

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Que solo la ymagen de Jesu Christo se a de adorar, que no ay mas meritos que los suyos sanctissimos [. . . ] y que teniendo estos no ay necesidad de ninguna penitencia ni satisfacion nuestra. Riense de cilicios, disciplinas, rosarios, llamándolo ypochresia y a qualquiera muestra de confussion [confession] exterior (porque ellos ni aun interior saben que cosa es) pareciéndoles que lo que ellos tratan es puro espiritu y verdad y lo de los catholicos ceremonias y cargas de la ley vieja.94 That only the image of Jesus Christ is to be adored, there are no merits other than his most holy ones [. . .] and having these there is no need for any penitence or satisfaction to be given on our part. They laugh at cilises, scourges, rosaries, calling all that hypocrisy and at any sign of external [to a confessor] confession (because they do not even know what internal [mental] confession is) because it seems to them that what they are dealing with constitutes pure spirit and truth and what Catholics do constitutes ceremonies and obligations of the old law.

This gentle and loving, rather innocent, approach would not be tolerated at face value. Lutheranism would be extirpated in the terrible autos-da-fé of 1559–1562 and in the trials leading up to them. Through private and public recantation, imprisonment, fines, burning at the stake and flight into exile, all vestiges of heresy in Seville and the surrounding area were stamped out. This does not mean that the thirst for purer forms of spiritual practice went away. Instead, in Seville as elsewhere it simply became focused more clearly on approved and orthodox practices. In the area around Badajoz in these years there were numerous con­ venticles, ostensibly of alumbrados, but as Pastore has shown, their practice from the 1550s onwards would have been imbued, at least tacitly, with elements of Lutheranism and Erasmianism. Rodríguez de Ceballos reports conventicles in Badajoz and towns and villages in the surrounding area, such as Fuente de Cantos, Llerena, Fuente del Maestra, Zafra and Fregenal de la Sierra. These were documented by the Dominican Alonso de la Fuente from the 1570s. In Fregenal there were 600 adherents, both male and female, clergy and laypeople, from all walks of life.95 At the time, Fregenal, birthplace of the humanist, theologian and librarian to Felipe II, Benito Arias Montano, had a population of about 8,000 people.96 While the excesses of alumbradismo as practiced by some adherents in Extremadura in the 1570s, and pursued by Fray Alonso de la Fuente for over twenty years through the Inquisition, 64

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reflect poorly on the spiritual climate of the region, this should not be taken as undermining the prevalence of heartfelt, decorous and well-informed piety, nor should it be read as a suggestion that the conventicles were not begun by people inspired by the highest of motives. Fray Alonso himself dates the conventicles to the era of Cristóbal de Rojas y Sandoval, bishop of Badajoz between 1557 and 1562. He identifies these beginnings with the introduction of the Jesuits into the see and the ensayo de arte mágica que llaman los Exercicios/‘the practice of magic which they call the Exercises’.97 Over ten years later, the leader of the most public and egregious form of alumbradismo identified in the 1570s in Extremadura was Hernando Álvarez, a priest who imposed a strict requirement for obedience and secrecy on his group of followers: beatas, widows and clergy alike. He applied a rule not dissimilar to the Sevillian ley tan suabe, requiring his adherents to concentrate only on mental prayer. The female adherents in particular were encouraged to enter into trance states in public, just as their leader did, and some, at least according to the Inquisition reports, engaged in sexual relations with him, having been convinced that it was the will of God. Like the nuns in Seville, whose behaviour was far more innocent, these women believed that they had reached a state of perfection which meant they were incapable of sin. The first arrests took place in 1573, an Edict of Faith was issued in 1574 and the principal alumbrados were sentenced at an auto-da-fé in Llerena in 1579. Hernando Álvarez and other prominent males were unfrocked, required to abjure de levi and pay large fines, and they were sentenced to the galleys. Their leading female adherent, María González, was sentenced to one hundred lashes and three years in gaol.98 Though Fray Alonso, who had many obses­ sions, insisted that the alumbradismo of Extremadura was tantamount to crypto-Judaism and that the majority of adherents were of converso origin, in fact, only a small proportion had Jewish heritage, Hernando Álvarez being one of them.99 As with the Guadalajara circle and the Seville heresy, laywomen were significant players in the extreme form of alumbradismo punished by the Inquisition. Álvarez insisted that those women who joined his group as beatas, and had their hair ritually cropped as nuns did, were far more spiritually advanced than either nuns or married women.100 Unfortunately, what appears to be the sexual exploitation of these women by their male leaders and the 65

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manipulation of their supposed trance states for public spectacle greatly debased any value they might otherwise have accrued by virtue of their pursuit of piety. The sentence of one hundred lashes imposed on María González, even if it was the nearest equivalent that could be wrought on a woman to the daily whipping over a period of years endured by a male prisoner on the galleys, is still a horrendous sentence and indicates a high degree of institutional discomfiture with her conduct, irrespective of any taint of sexual incontinence. In sixteenth-century Spain, there was an extreme reluctance to accord laywomen of any ilk a role within the Church other than that of devout member of the congregation. As Stephen Haliczer notes in relation to punish­ ments handed down to alumbrado women at the Llerena trials: church authorities were very nervous about any open involvement by women in giving religious instruction to the laity. This unease is probably why Spain never really developed groups of laywomen who became involved in teaching and catechising the poor, like the Daughters of Charity in France. An even more direct threat to male control over the Church was constituted by any attempt by women to take over male religious roles like preaching or giving benedictions. One incident occurred at the auto da fe of June 17, 1579 when María Sánchez, one of the leaders of the Extremadura Illuminists, formally blessed the Inquisitors after her sentence was read.101

This horror of extra-conventual female assumption of doctrinal authority is underlined in the Dominican historian, Francisco Ramírez de Solórzano’s account of the intervention of Fray Alonso de la Fuente in Extremadura. In his brief narrative, written in 1624–5, at the height of the alumbrado investi­ gations in Seville, Solórzano suggests that the touch-paper for Fray Alonso’s entire campaign in Extremadura was to be found in the doctrinal insubordin­ ation of one laywoman. He recounts that Fray Alonso was preaching against alumbradismo in his home village of Fuente del Maestre, regally accusing its adherents both of licentiousness and Lutheran heresy: Estaba en el auditorio una mujer aunque alumbrada, ciega, que blasfemando contra la luz revestida de furor diabólico, bajando el predicador del púlpito, se

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levantó y subió a él y en voz alta con osadía increíble, dijo que era más sana la doctrina y más inculpable la vida de los que el predicador había reprendido, que la del reprensor injusto y se obligaba a la evidencia y verdad del testimonio que daba, el cual era del Espíritu Santo que con especialísimo impulso le hizo subir a aquel lugar a testificado. Causó la temeridad de la mujer grande escándolo.102 There was an alumbrado woman, though blind, in the church. Blaspheming against the light and covered in diabolical fury, as the preacher came down from the pulpit, she got up and approached him, and in a loud voice with unbelievable daring, she stated that the doctrine of those the preacher had reprimanded was more correct and their lives freer of sin than [the doctrine and life] of the unjust preacher, and she owed this to the evidence and truth of the testimony she gave, which came from the Holy Spirit, who with a very special impulse had moved her to go up to the pulpit to testify. The temerity of this woman caused a great scandal.

Solórzano continues that the blind woman was taken off to face the Inqui­ sition, whereupon her interrogation revealed the full extent of the abuses of alumbradismo in Extremadura and this impelled Fray Alonso to request permission for a full investigation from the king. It should be no surprise therefore that Fray Alonso de la Fuente should have decided to inculpate Teresa of Ávila, the most prominent and powerful churchwoman of the late sixteenth century. Though this stemmed from his own profound mistrust of anything to do with mysticism, an attitude which led him to question the sincerity of preachers such as Luis de Granada, Juan de Ávila, Morales’s patron, Juan de Ribera, and the Jesuits en masse, his pursuit of Teresa in 1589–90 seems to have been even more irrational than these attacks. He undertook this crusade against Teresa’s writings after having been hauled up before the Inquisition himself in Portugal in 1577 when his move across the border to carry on his vendetta against the Jesuits incurred the wrath of Sebastião I of Portugal and his court. He attempted to convince the Inquisition in Spain that Teresa’s autobiography, composed in 1562 but published after her death in 1588, was imbued with alumbradismo. For once his efforts came to naught and he died shortly after.103 Teresa, on the other hand, was canonised in 1622 and promoted from the early seventeenth century by the Carmelite order as a significant theological figure, irrespective of gender. Portraits of her as a doctor of the Church or a mystical doctor of 67

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the Church were commissioned after her death in an attempt to have her honoured as such by the Papacy, though this status was only awarded formally four centuries later, by Pope Paul VI in 1970.104 Of all the religious reformers operating in the sixteenth century in Spain, she is now, without question, the most renowned and, in terms of legacy, the most influential. All of this leaves the role of laywomen in spiritual life in Badajoz and its environs in the years leading up the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563 in a very interesting, not to say parlous, state. Pastore, in her study of the ‘Spanish heresy’ in Seville has amply demonstrated the porousness of devotional culture in western Andalusia and, one may add, southern Extrem­ adura, to a point where Erasmianism, Lutheranism and alumbradismo become constituent parts of an officially heretical but idiosyncratically Spanish whole. Hamilton and Rodríguez de Ceballos have confirmed the existence of con­ venticles of reform-minded worshippers in and around Badajoz from the late 1550s, at least some of which would, in the 1570s, be associated with a debauched and misguided manifestation of devotional practice and duly censored by the Inquisition. Fray Alonso de la Fuente may have been wrongheaded in many respects, but the Llerena trials of the 1570s would not have condemned so many if there had not been viable, credible evidence of heretical belief and mystical imposture. What is salient amongst the culture of the different waves labelled as alumbradismo, and indeed interest in Erasmus, Lutheranism, the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises and other forms of mental prayer current in Spain in the sixteenth century, is the protagonism of laywomen, despite the particular distaste of the Spanish Church for the idea of laywomen having anything to do with religious education or leader­ ship more broadly. This then brings matters back to the mysterious young woman placed underneath the horoscope of Christ in Morales’s Holy Family. For various valid reasons already rehearsed she cannot be: either of the midwives who attended the Virgin birth, a peasant shepherdess detached from her community, a wealthy sixteenth-century donor. It is unlikely that she is a deliberate portrait of a young woman associated with the Morales family, though such a woman may have been used as a model, nor of a young woman related to the commissioner of the painting. She performs two ostensible functions in this image: she holds a basket of eggs and she looks directly at the viewer. The pristine white eggs are in a finely detailed 68

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woven basket and she appears to point to them, perhaps even draw the viewer’s attention to them. She is placed behind the figure of the Virgin but, unlike Joseph on the Virgin’s other side, her gaze does not connect her to the Virgin and Child. Her veil is made of white silk with red threads through it and below the basket what is probably the same garment becomes beige silk with gold and brown threads through it. Morales rarely used patterned fabric, apart from depictions of the Magi and versions of the Virgin and Child in which she is wearing a hat which seems to be of gypsy origin. Two images of this type were com­missioned by Juan de Ribera in 1567. He was particularly fond of this representation of the Virgin and Child, the Virgin wearing a hat as she travelled on the Flight into Egypt.105 Morales, as was his wont, painted many variants and many copies were also made by lesser hands. In The Virgin Dressed as a Gypsy with the Child Jesus kept in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Virgin’s white sleeves are embroidered, and in another Virgin Dressed as a Gypsy with the Child Jesus, in the possession of the Fondo Cultural Villar Mir, she holds the child in a yellow silk cloth which has blue stripes running through it (fig. 8). The yellow silk of the Fondo Cultural Villar Mir Virgin as a Gypsy is a very similar type of fabric to that draped about the head and neck of this mysterious woman in the Holy Family. If anything, the gypsy garb is a contemporary sixteenth-century resonance applied to the plight of the Virgin and her son in times of persecution, though probably more in the sense of an equation between gypsies and travelling rather than gypsies and persecution. There­fore, the decision to dress the young woman in the Holy Family with the Horoscope in this striped silk fabric may be a way of indicating that she belongs not to the miraculous era of Mary and Joseph, who seem in any case, entirely oblivious of her presence, but to the milieu in which the painting was executed. Underlining this is the fact that the young woman’s gaze suggest that she is conveying a rather deliberate message. If, in an image in which the sleeping Jesus is not yet sentient, the eggs constitute, on the one hand, a sensitive and welcome practical gift to an itinerant post-partum mother and, on the other, a symbolic allusion to rebirth and the Resurrection, the fact that this message is conveyed by a young woman in contemporary dress, without physical interaction with the Holy 69

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Figure 8 Luis de Morales, Virgin Dressed as a Gypsy with the Child Jesus, c.1567, oil on panel, 57 x 41 cms, Fondo Cultural Villar Mir, Madrid.

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Family and positioned beneath the sixteenth-century Cardano horoscope may well allude to the protagonism of laywomen in devotional practice at the time. In other words, this woman, as young and comely as the Virgin, is preaching not praying. She is showing the way to the devout viewer. In this sense, it is possible to see her as an idealisation of lay female piety, perhaps even a symbol of female authority in matters of interpretation. Furthermore, though it would be unsustainable to suggest, in her gentleness and trans­ lucence, a reflection of the Sevillian nuns’ ley tan suabe, that domesticated doctrine of faith without good works or penitence, it is still worth bearing in mind the proximity and currency of the Sevillian heresy to the execution of this painting. The queston whether either the ley tan suabe or the pro­ tagonism of laywomen in devotional practice and reform movements would have constituted an allusion discernible to contemporary observers of the painting is unanswerable. A sense of this young woman as a communicator of Christian piety or wisdom in the 1550s or very early 1560s dovetails neatly with developments later in the century which saw the most significant female figure in the New Testament after the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, become an increasingly more important focus for prayer. While popular throughout the sixteenth century, devotion to the penitent Magdalen, depicted weeping over Christ’s feet after he was taken down from the Cross or as a hair-shirted hermit after the Resurrection, was accelerated by the publication of Pedro Malón de Chaide’s accessible and copiously illustrated Libro de la Conversión de La Magdalena/ Book of the Conversion of the Magdalen in 1588. The intercession of saints on behalf of the contemplative is central to Catholic prayer tradition, unlike the strong focus on the persons of God and the scriptures predominant amongst the alumbrados and Seville heretics, which marked a move away from the behaviour of the ordinary lay Catholic. Like that of most saints, the story of the Magdalen was fleshed out on the basis of tradition and legend. She is mentioned very little in the Gospels in which there is almost nothing to portend the voluptuous, red-haired courtesan of early modern icon­ography. Morales did paint the Magdalen, but not very frequently and usually in scenes from the Bible. Indeed she is depicted in the two surviving signed drawings by Morales: the Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, inv. 506 Des) and the Noli Me Tangere (inv. 507 Des), where 71

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Figure 9 Luis de Morales, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, c.1566, oil on oak panel, 167.5 x 125 cms, Museo de Salamanca, inv. IG 106; photo Manuel Blanco/AMP digital, Archivo Fotográfico, Museo de Salamanca.

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the resurrected Christ instructs the Magdalen not to touch him because he has not yet ascended to Heaven to greet his father, but to go and tell the apostles that he is risen (John 20:17). Paintings of the Magdalen on her own, in prayer and penance after Christ’s final ascension into Heaven, are rare in Morales’s oeuvre, and yet, for devotional purposes, this is the more interesting depiction. One such painting was shown, in a considerably damaged state, in the 1917 Prado Morales exhibition. Then, the painting was kept at the seat of the Salamanca Clerecía (an association of clergy), the Jesuit College of the Holy Spirit, now part of the Pontifical University of Salamanca. Inkjald Bäcksbacka considers the attribution of the Magdalen exhibited in 1917 to Morales to be dubious. He thinks the style ‘somewhat foreign to Morales’, though, of course, he did not see the painting. The parish priest of the church of St Mark in Salamanca (the seat of the Clerecía until the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain in 1767 made the Jesuit College available to them) told him, in 1955, that it had been lost.106 However, Isabel Mateo Gómez believes that the painting was in fact restored in 1991–2 by María Luisa Dubois under the auspices of the Conservation Centre of the Junta de Castilla y León.107 The restored painting, in a private collection, is listed in the Castilla y León restoration catalogue as an anonymous late seventeenth- to early eighteenthcentury work, and the provenance given is the Jesuit College of St Stanislaus of Kostka in Málaga. Though this college opened in 1882, there had been a Jesuit College in Málaga, the College of St Sebastian, from 1572 until the expulsion. Mateo Gómez also mentions a copy of the restored/Clerecía Magdalen, by Morales, in a private collection in Pontevedra, northern Spain.108 The restored/Clerecía painting shows the Magdalen in the wilderness, dressed in a ragged white tunic with one breast minimally exposed, in the sense that the nipple is covered only by her undulating red hair, and pointing sadly to a skull she holds in her left hand. While the majority of images of the penitent Magdalen painted after the Council of Trent in Spain did not show her naked breasts, certain seventeenth-century images by Carreño de Miranda, Maíno and Murillo do.109 Maria Portmann argues that exposure of the Magdalen’s breasts and other parts of her anatomy was permissible since she was not being painted as a seductress but as a penitent, imposing pain on the oncesinful flesh depicted in the image.110 Morales’s other depictions of the Magdalen show her in the context of the lamentation over the dead Christ. 73

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Golden Age Painting in Iberia: Morales

The most arresting version is one of a series of large paintings probably made by Morales in 1566 for the main altar of the parish church of Alconchel, near Badajoz111 (fig. 9). Here, the Magdalen, almost disappearing out of the panel to the viewer’s left, kneels beside the Virgin who holds her dead son in Morales’s typical Pietà configuration (which will be dealt with at greater length in the follow­ing chapter). This Magdalen is facially not unlike the mysterious young woman in the Holy Family with the Horoscope and is dressed in a subdued pink­ish tunic and a green mantle, with the same curly, reddish hair seen in the restored/Clerecía Magdalen. In this image, her tunic comes up to her throat and there is, in fact, no allusion to the former life as a courtesan traditionally ascribed to her. She kneels behind a low rock in the lower left corner, gazing on the dead Christ and weeping. Her sainthood is on a par with that of the Virgin and St John the Evangelist on the Virgin’s right as all three are given identical single ring haloes. The overall composition is rather unsettling, however, because Morales chose to site the stem of the cross and the two ladders leading up to it off-centre to the viewer’s left. Since there is no evidence that the panel was cut down, this must be considered a deliberate effect, making the right-hand ladder seem to weigh portentously over the group around the dead Christ. The Magdalen, a little removed from the Virgin and Christ because she is behind the low rock, is further distanced from the Pietà figures because her right arm falls outside the field of the panel. She is less physically demonstrative than the fully visible John who makes an expansive gesture of grief with both arms and takes up most of the right half of the painting. In contrast, she is modest, elegant and contained in her sorrow. Though she leans towards the figure of Christ and gazes tear­fully upon him, to an extent she appears to be engaged in prayer as well as immediate emotional response to the death of Christ. This suggests her retreat into the wilderness after the Ascension and her value as a model for female piety. Though based on tradition more than biblical evidence, the Magdalen provides the female devout with a feasible role model: a mortal woman who knew Jesus and played a secondary role in his mission, appropriate for a female; and who was forgiven her sins by him and went on to lead an exemplary life of prayer and penitence. This model might be seen as an ideal antidote to female protagonism amongst the alumbrados and the Sevillian 74

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heretics, except that it would not be without its own retrospective ironies, since Mary of Magdala is represented in the Gnostic Gospel of Mary, unearthed in the late nineteenth century, as the most enlightened of Christ’s disciples, neither a second-class follower nor a former prostitute.112 A short poem written under the pseudonym of Luciana de Narvaez and published in the second book of Pedro Espinosa’s Primera Parte de Flores de Poetas Ilustres de España, published in 1605, gives a sense of how women might have looked upon the Magdalen as a subject for contemplation in the late sixteenth century. The poem shows how Mary moved from her former life among the beautiful things of this world to the enrichment of mental prayer as undertaken by devout and ascetic women in the late sixteenth century. Luciana de Narvaez may be the pseudonym of Leonor Chacón de Narváez y Zapata, a well-born woman from Antequera, north of Málaga. From 1580 to at least 1603, when the Primera Parte was first published, there was a thriving group of poets in Antequera, among them three women. Leonor married in 1585 and subsequently emigrated to Costa Rica, after which she did not contribute poetry to the Antequera circle.113 Her poem was probably written some time before the early 1590s and may well have been inspired by Malón de Chaide’s Conversion of the Magdalen: ¿Dónde está el oro, ilustre Madalena, que al cuello de marfil riquezas daua? ¿Dónde de ricas perlas la cadena que el cabello enlazaua? Mas ya el amor ordena lo que él mismo estoruaua, y es que el oro traslade sus despojos al coraçón, las perlas a los ojos.114 Where is the gold, illustrious Magdalen, which bestowed riches on your neck of ivory? Where the chain of rich pearls which entwined about your hair? But love now ordains what once he would disrupt, and gold transfers its plunder to your heart, pearls to your eyes.

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The Magdalen is seen putting away the gold from her neck and the pearls from her hair. Love mutates from human love, in this instance more properly the physical delights which are the stock in trade of the accomplished cour­ tesan but inimical to Christianity, to love of God for which the penitent is prepared to put away the accoutrements of luxury and lasciviousness. Instead, she will embrace the gold of God’s love in her heart, spilling pearlescent tears from her eyes in remorse. This asceticism and shedding of tears while meditating on the suffering endured for the sake of humanity by Christ and his mother would become central to Morales’s output in the years after the appointment of his most important and influential patron, Juan de Ribera.

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Badajoz in the 1560s: Meditation on the Life and Death of Christ

In the 1560s, Morales’s work seems to have taken a significant turn towards the creation of austere and plangent devotional images, under the patronage of Juan de Ribera. While noted in his maturity for doctrinal orthodoxy and personal piety, in his youth Ribera was exposed to much of the ferment surrounding the interest in Lutheranism amongst reform-minded Spaniards. Because of this, there are grounds to suggest that his emphasis on prayer derives, to an extent, from his early reading of texts by those influenced by or associated with Lutheranism. In the 1550s, the vogue for Lutheranism touched all classes in society, including the very highest. Juan de Ribera’s paternal aunt, María Enríquez, Marquise of Villanueva was one of its most prominent proponents, though, when it came to the trials, she and others of the high nobility were scrupu­ lously excluded from the process. Her brother and Ribera’s father, Pedro Enríquez y Afán (Perefán) de Ribera appears to have had some sympathetic dealings with Lutheran-minded clerics. On the advice of Juan Gil (Dr Egidio) and Constantino Ponce de la Fuente (Dr Constantino) he arranged to send his son, Juan, then a theology student at Salamanca, to study in Padua in the company of Agustín Ruiz de Hojeda, who would be condemned for Chapter 3

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Figure 14 Luis de Morales, Pietà, c.1560, oil on oak panel, 126 x 98 cms, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, inv. 612

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Figure 19 Luis de Morales, The Man of Sorrows, c.1560, oil on panel, 64.45 x 46.36 cms, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, inv. The Ethel Morrison van Derlip Fund, 62.24.

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Lutheranism in 1562. At the last minute, Perefán seems to have changed his mind, with Juan already in Seville awaiting departure with his servants and a copy of the exiled humanist, Juan de Valdés’s Cento e Dieci Divine Considerazioni/One Hundred and Ten Divine Considerations, published post­ humously in Basel, in his possession.1 Juan de Valdés had left Spain in 1531 because the publication in 1529 of his Diálogo de Doctrina Christiana/Dialogue of Christian Doctrine had placed him under threat from the Inquisition.2 He eventually settled in Naples, where he found a more congenial environment for his work, and died in 1541. After Dr Constantino’s return from England in 1556, where he had been in the service of Felipe II during his marriage to Mary I, Perefán arranged for him to become tutor to his son Juan, by then resident at his aunt, María Enríquez’s house in Seville; but this too did not come to pass. As Pastore observes, Juan de Ribera’s assertion in his last will and testament that he had nothing to do in his youth with figures such as Constantino, Egidio, Ruiz de Hojeda and Juan de Valdés and all they represented, is scarcely credible. For one thing, his book purchases while still a student at Salamanca, where he began his studies in 1544, suggest wide reading on both sides of the religious divide. For example, he acquired early on the complete works of Erasmus, published in Basel in 1540, but also the English theologian and bishop, John Fisher’s anti-Lutheran tract, Assertiones lutheranae confutatio/ Refutation of Lutheran Assertions, published, after his execution by Henry VIII, in Antwerp in 1537.3 For another thing, his father, viceroy of Catalunya and then Naples, was strongly suspected of sharing his sister’s Protestant sympa­ thies.4 Like the Marquise of Villanueva, Perefán was not pursued by the Inquisition, in all likelihood because wholesale impeachment of the wealthy and well-connected Sevillian aristocracy would have been a step too far. Perefán was also, as it would turn out, extremely well connected in Vatican circles, being a very good friend of Giovanni Angelo Medici, scion of a Milan family much less illustrious than their Florentine namesakes, who would be elected Pope Pius IV in 1559.5 Pius IV was an affable man, an able administrator and a friend of Spain, unlike his predecessor, the Neapolitan noble, Giovanni Pietro Caraffa elected as Paul IV, who believed that Carlos V was, in effect, ‘a heretic and a schismatic who had systematically undermined papal authority’.6 Pius IV was reluctant 80

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Badajoz in the 1560s: Meditation on Christ

to pursue heretics, distrusted the Inquisition and sought as far as possible to resolve the difficult questions facing him through diplomacy, chiefly by recalling and completing the Council of Trent, which had been suspended by Paul IV. Famously, Pius IV declined to excommunicate Elizabeth I of England.7 In the same years, Felipe II, son of the ‘heretic and schismatic’ Carlos V and former brother-in-law of Elizabeth, was overseeing the obliteration of Prot­ estantism in Spain in a manner more to the taste of Paul IV who had with venom extirpated the Italian vein of Lutheran sympathy, embodied in the group known as the Spirituali. In an act of inspired nepotism, Pius IV was to appoint his gifted and ascetic twenty-three-year-old nephew Carlo Borromeo as pronotary apostolic and then cardinal. He would be his uncle’s de facto chief minister. After Juan de Ribera was chosen as patriarch of Antioch in 1568, he and Carlo Borromeo became good friends, not least because Ribera had acquired a glowing reputation as an orator and wordsmith while this was an area in which the cardenal-nepote/cardinal-nephew struggled.8 As far as Rome and this most zealous of Catholic reformers was concerned, Ribera’s orthodoxy was never in dispute. However, his library shows an astonishing breadth of reading matter, indicating that the curiosity of his early years at no point abated. At his death, the library consisted of 1,990 volumes, an enormous collection for the times. His contemporary Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, for instance, a renowned biblio­phile, surrendered all 432 works in his collection in 1574 to appease the wrath of Felipe II.9 Ribera’s library contained manuscripts of the sermons of Juan de Ávila, almost all the published works of Luis de Granada and the complete works of Benito Arias Montano, his near-contemporary and editor of the Plantin polyglot Bible.10 He had material on all the recognised branches of knowledge: mathematics, the natural sciences, architecture and the classical authors, as well as treatises on astrology and, more contentiously, on magic and the occult. As a young and brilliant student he had become firm friends with Juan de Ávila, indicted by the Inquisition in Seville in 1531, and he probably undertook the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in Salamanca.11 Thus the religious sensibility he brought with him to Badajoz was very much a product of the climate of relative tolerance of the 1540s and the 1550s, when it was possible to read reformist views from within and outside Catholic­ism. All that changed in 1559 with the introduction of the Index of Prohibited Books. 81

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Assembled hastily under the aegis of the Inquisitor General, Dominican and archbishop of Seville, Francisco de Valdés, in response to the trials of Lutherans in Valladolid and Seville, and issued with the full blessing of the king, the Index was designed to limit severely the access of laypeople to devotional materials. Perhaps inadvertently, as Henry Kamen notes, it there­ fore ‘came down heavily on some of the best-known spiritual writers of the generation’.12 Francisco de Valdés was determined to ban devotional works either written in the vernacular or translated into it, since these would have a much wider readership than texts in Latin. The Franciscan-influenced Juan de Ávila’s Audi, Filia/Listen, Daughter, the Dominican Luis de Granada’s Libro de Oración/Book of Prayer, which had gone through twenty-three editions since its publication in 1554, the Jesuit and former Duke of Gandía, Francisco de Borja y Aragón’s Obras del Cristiano/Works of the Christian and even Ignacio de Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, which had not yet been formally published in Castilian though it circulated in manuscript, were all listed. This attempted obliteration of devotional works in the vernacular had been undertaken by the Inquisitor General on the advice of his collaborator on the Index, another Dominican, Melchor Cano, and the argument of yet another Dominican, the prior of the convent at Toledo, Diego de Chaves, who posited that no devo­ tional literature in the vernacular should be placed in the hands of laypeople because they could easily be led astray. Though fear of the impact of Prot­ estant­ism on the stability of mid-sixteenth-century Spain was politically justifiable as countries to the north were paralysed by major religious wars, one farcical consequence of the introduction of the Index was the banning of the Castilian translation of the Roman catechism, even though the Latin version circulated freely.13 Moreover, as José Adriano Moreira de Freitas Carvalho points out, the mere listing of a title in the Index in 1559 did not mean that what had been read was then expunged from memory or indeed that laypeople did not continue to read, surreptitiously, banned books that had not been surrendered to the Inquisition.14 When Juan de Ribera arrived in Badajoz, he was quick to commission works of devotional art for his own collection and for public display, promptly identifying Morales as his artist of choice. During his six years as bishop, he preached widely and zealously, in Badajoz itself and in the surrounding towns and villages. According to Rodríguez de Ceballos, the type of devotional 82

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practice he encouraged was very much based on the work of his friend Juan de Ávila, on the Ignatian exercises and the writings of Luis de Granada.15 The Jesuits were invited into the diocese by Ribera’s predecessor, Cristóbal de Rojas y Sandoval while Ribera corresponded regularly with Juan de Ávila and also with Luis de Granada. Indeed, Fray Luis had been a preacher at the recently founded Dominican convent in Badajoz, probably between 1549 and 1551, after which he was dispatched, at the age of forty-six, to Évora by his superiors to be part of a reinvigoration of Portuguese spiritual practice at the express request of João III. There he became a close friend and col­ laborator of Cardinal Henrique and, like the cardinal, undertook frequent journeys from the court at Évora to the capital, Lisbon. The Dominican convent in Lisbon became his chief residence in 1560, and he was interred there after his death on New Year’s Day 1589.16 Fray Luis either knew or knew of Morales, as he was involved in the com­ missioning of the altarpiece for the church of the Dominican convent in Évora which Morales painted in 1565. Morales, two of his sons and some of his workshop assistants resided there for a few months while working on the altarpiece.17 Unfortunately, the altarpiece is no longer in existence, but two of the panels, one depicting the Virgin and Child (MNAA Inv. 384 Pint) and another showing St John the Baptist (MNAA Inv. Pint 385) are kept at the Museum of Évora. While Fray Luis represents a tolerant and worldly-wise facet of Dominican influence in the Peninsula, the other, darker face of Dominican religious politics, let loose in the obsessive Fray Alonso de la Fuente, saw Bishops Ribera and Rojas y Sandoval, the preachers Juan de Ávila and Luis de Granada, and the Jesuit Order tainted with alumbrado heresy during the Llerena trials in the 1570s. Fray Alonso had the temerity to accuse Ribera in 1575, when the prelate was archbishop of a much more powerful diocese than Badajoz: aunque al principio se mostró contrario a los Alumbrados, en muy breve tiempo le convirtieron a su opinión que, fiándose de los mismos Alumbrados, les cometía todo el gobierno de sus Iglesias y les hacía el mismo favor que don Cristóbal de Rojas. Y singularmente a las mujercillas Alumbradas hacía tanto favor y regalos que andaban en pos de él como manada de ovejas tras el pastor. Íbase a la visita de los pueblos y visitaba muchas Alumbradas en sus casas, dándoles limosnas y

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salarios. Particularmente a las más perfectas que se arrebataban y sentían las llagas de Cristo y daban muestras de cosas semejantes las iba a examinar y, aprobando sus efectos y raptos, las canonizaba y hacía regalos muy particulares [. . .] De esta manera se crió el daño que hoy persevera en toda esta tierra, ayudándose los Alumbrados de una profecía que dejó escrita don Juan de Ribera, en la cual pronosticaba a los Alumbrados la persecución que les ha venido.18 though in the beginning he showed himself to be very much against the Alumbrados, in a very short time they brought him over to their views, so that, placing his trust in the very same Alumbrados, he gave over to them completely the running of his churches and he favoured them as don Cristobal de Rojas had done. And especially he favoured and gave gifts to the common Alumbrado women so that they followed him like a flock of sheep after the shepherd. When he paid visits to the towns and villages, he went to see many Alumbrado women in their houses, giving them alms and maintenance. In particular, he went to examine the most perfect who went into violent trances and felt the wounds of Christ and showed signs of similar injuries, and approving these signs and their trances, he declared them holy and gave them very special gifts [. . .] In this way the danger which today is still present in all of this region was created, the Alumbrados availing themselves of a prophecy which Don Juan de Ribera wrote down, in which he predicted the persecution which has now come to them.

Needless to say, no action was taken against Ribera or Rojas. It would be an obligation for the bishop to visit anyone purporting to show signs of the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, or to claim that they were subject to mystical trances. That fact that Ribera may have elected to treat these women sympathetically, if he thought they were well intentioned, and alleviate their poverty if he found them in difficulty could easily have been misinterpreted or distorted over the decade or so since he made those visits by those report­ ing to Fray Alonso in the 1570s. It would be extraordinary if this were not the case. The real focus of Fray Alonso’s ire is, of course, the mujercillas, the common laywomen daring to aspire to communion with the persons of God. He disapproved too of Ribera’s popularity as a preacher and of the women’s running after him like sheep after a shepherd, a rather sloppy analogy for any priest given the Christological importance of the Good Shepherd. The three works of devotion which Fray Alonso singles out as underpinning what he sees as the mistaken devotional practices of the alumbrados are the 84

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Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, which he considered to be a form of magic, Luis de Granada’s Libro de la Oración y Meditación/Book of Prayer and Meditation and Juan de Ávila’s Audi Filia, all proscribed in 1559. In that year, Luis de Granada had been obliged to make the long journey from Lisbon to Valladolid to defend himself from the charge of heresy implied in the banning of his work. He was met with implacability from Francisco de Valdés and accusations that his work consisted of cosas de contemplación para mujeres de carpinteros/‘meditational material for the wives of carpenters’.19 By 1563, his works, in amended form, were reinstated with the blessing of the Council of Trent.20 In 1576, Fray Alonso denounced Fray Luis to the Portuguese Inquisition and went to the district tribunal at Évora to plead his case before Cardinal Henrique and the provincial of the Dominicans in Portugal, from whom he got very short shrift indeed, ending up accused himself of im­ propriety by the Évora tribunal.21 It is worth noting that the Inquisition in Portugal, established in 1536, functioned rather differently from that in Spain. Where, in Spain, there was often animosity between bishops and the Inquisition, in Portugal, there was usually harmonious collaboration between the two branches of the Church, evidenced here in the fact that the Dominican provincial in Portugal, not an officer of the Inquisition, was given more or less equal status with Cardinal Henrique at the hearing. José Pedro Paiva argues that this way of working ensured that Lutheranism did not make much headway in sixteenth-century Portugal, making an implicit comparison with the trials in Seville in the 1550s.22 There is no doubt that the inclusion of bishops and the provincials of the religious orders in the process led to a more understanding regime, certainly when the careers and reputations of leading theologians and preachers were at stake. Even so, and leaving any exaggerated and false manifestations of spec­ tacular piety aside, it is quite clear that, while based on methodology rooted in the late medieval Devotio Moderna/Modern Devotion as incarnated in Thomas à Kempis’s Imitation of Christ, the atmosphere of intense devotion fomented in and around Badajoz under bishops Rojas y Sandoval and Ribera was informed by the Lutheran and Erasmian focus on scripture. This approach was made accessible, within the bounds of Catholic orthodoxy, in the work of Juan de Ávila, Luis de Granada and Ignacio de Loyola for a contemporary lay audience. This was an audience which deliberately included the semi85

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literate or more likely illiterate ‘wives of carpenters’. This practice can be characterised as showing a preference for mental over oral prayer, the aban­ don­ment of the contemplative to divine will, the veneration of the wounds and passion of Christ and the search for spiritual consolation.23 The early Guadalajara alumbrados described their method as dejamiento, abandonment to the will of God. One of the reasons this group was suspect was their focus on God rather than Christ when meditating, a reluctance to prioritise Christ being seen as an indication of crypto-Judaism. As the only documentation on their beliefs and practices comes from Inquisition transcripts and the Edict of Faith of 1525, itself based on ‘statements or snatches of conversation overheard by hostile witnesses’, it is difficult to judge how accurately this documentation reflects their actual activities.24 The theocentrism of their form of meditation is encapsulated in the twelfth proposition of the edict.25 It also stipulates the total inertia required of the contemplative: Que estando en el dexamiento no avian de obrar porque no pusiesen obstaculo a lo que dios quisiesse obrar y que se desocupassen de todas las cosas criadas e que aun pensar en la humanidad de Xristo estorbaba el dexamiento en Dios e que desechassen todos los pensamientos que se les ofreciessen aunque fuesen buenos porque a solo dios debian buscar e que era merito el trabaxo que en desechar los tales pensamientos se tenia y que estando en aquella quietud por no distraerse tenia por tentación acordarse de dios.26 While in the state of abandonment they were not to do anything to place an obstacle before what God wants to do, and they should ignore all the things in Creation, and even thinking about the humanity of Jesus Christ disturbed abandonment in God, and they should get rid of all the thoughts which occurred to them even if they were good ones because they should only seek God, and the work involved in getting rid of such thoughts was worthwhile, and being in that state of quietude by not distracting themselves remembering God would be a temptation.

The judgement of the Inquisition, appended to the proposition, could not be more definite: esta Proposición es falssa y herronea, y escandalosa y heretica/ ‘this Proposition is false and erroneous, and scandalous and heretical.’27 The most scandalous aspect of this was no doubt the injunction to forget the humanity of Christ in order to concentrate on abandoning oneself to the 86

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contemplation of God, dismissing all thoughts, even if they were good ones, allowing the meditation to take the form of wordless communion. Even if those thoughts were about God, they were still temptations leading the contemplative back to the activities of the conscious mind which should be surrendering its activities. At more or less the same time, the Franciscans were promoting a very similar methodology which was termed recogimiento. As Hamilton observes in relation to the Guadalajara alumbrados: The similarities between the two methods are obvious, and the borders between them are by no means always clear in the proceedings of the alumbrado trials. They were, after all, derived from the same sources and often practised in the same places [. . .] But even if the dejados never appear to have had any objection to the actual practice of recogimiento, they objected strongly to the excesses of certain Franciscans who did practise it. They were shocked by the spectacular trances and ecstasies, some­ times attended by prophecies which drew hundreds of spectators to the Franciscan convents.28

In the wrong hands as susceptible to imposture and debasement as any other form of Christian mystical practice, recogimiento in the sixteenth century is most closely associated with Francisco de Osuna, who resided and preached at the Franciscan Recolectorio (Recollect) in La Salceda in Guadalajara from 1523. His Tercer Abecedario Espiritual/Third Spiritual ABC, published in 1527 and probably written in full awareness of the practice of dejamiento, describes the discipline of meditation as undertaken by himself and his fellow friars at La Salceda.29 He insisted that this practice could, with judicious manage­ ment, be adapted to the lives of ordinary laypeople. Significantly, it involved retreating to a quiet or darkened place twice a day, for an hour at a time. In other words, done properly, it was undertaken in private. On each occasion, the contemplative should prepare themselves with an oral prayer, preferably the Lord’s Prayer, then move to mental contemplation of the life and Passion of Christ. Finally, in the third stage, the seasoned contemplative should be at one with the divine presence, at which point all deliberate thought 87

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Figure 10 Luis de Morales, Juan de Ribera, c.1566, oil on oak panel, 52.3 x 40 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. P947.

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should cease. This final stage of recogimiento is more or less the same as that reported for dejamiento, with the proviso that the contemplative performing recogimiento is meditating quite specifically on the life and passion of Christ, at least in the second stage of mental prayer. The other validating factor is that this form of meditation is taught and led by ordained men of one of the Church’s great orders, not laypeople as in Guadalajara, nor laypeople led by renegade priests as in Llerena later in the century. Osuna’s recommendation provides an explanation which chimes perfectly with the twelfth pronounce­ ment as reported in the Edict of 1525: ‘not to think of anything is more than it sounds. In no manner can it be explained since God, to whom it is directed, is inexplicable: indeed, I tell you that this thinking nothing is to think of Him entirely.’30 Ribera left Valencia for higher things in 1568, as befitted both his brilliance and his social status. He was replaced by Diego de Simancas, a rather different character to the young and engaging Ribera. A lawyer by training and rather rigid in mentality, Simancas had been involved in prosecuting the long and involved heresy case against the ‘impeccably orthodox’ Dominican archbishop of Toledo, Bartolomé de Carranza, who had given extreme unction to the dying Carlos V in 1558.31 Pope Paul IV took action against Carranza after the emperor’s death, demanding that Felipe II have the prelate arrested. The case against Carranza would only conclude seventeen years and three popes later in Rome. The imprisonment, trials, forced abjuration of errors, none of them deemed heretical, and sentence of seclusion in a monastery in Orvieto outside Rome imposed on Carranza, who died not long after the case had been closed, demonstrates the precariousness of the public and private lives of those engaged in church reform in the mid-sixteenth century in Spain.32 Undoubtedly, the prosecution of Carranza was motivated to a large degree by personal animus, and his was certainly the most egregious but not the only such case.33 The conclusion of his trial in 1575 saw the arrival, finally, of Simancas in Badajoz, the see to which he had been nominated in 1569. This conservative and cautious prelate arrived to find the Llerena alumbrado trials in full flow and Ribera’s erstwhile protégé Morales in decline. Morales may nonetheless have left a portrait of Simancas as psychologically astute as his exquisite portrait of a very young Juan de Ribera, now in the Prado (P957), executed in the mid 1560s34 (fig. 10). According to Rodríguez de 89

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Figure 11 Luis de Morales, Calvary with Donor, c.1565–75, oil on panel, 235.5 x 156.6 cms, Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia, inv. 445.

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Ceballos, he is portrayed as a donor, con facciones duras y mirada severa/ ‘with stern features and a severe expression’, in a late Calvary by Morales kept in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Valencia35 (fig.11). It must be admitted that this painting is not one of Morales’s most fluent depictions of the Crucifixion, and no doubt it was heavily or even largely dependent on the collaboration of his studio. The positioning of the kneeling donor is especially awkward. He seems to impinge on the standing John the Evangelist while appearing locked in an impregnable stiffness compared with the relatively flowing lines of the individual biblical characters. Taken as on its own, however, as a portrait of a real person, it may be said that the sternness and severity of Simancas, if indeed it is he, is powerfully conveyed. In Morales’s commercial and painterly heyday, under the immediate patronage of Ribera and probably for a few years after his departure and before Simancas’s arrival, at least until the beginning of the Llerena trials in 1573, the culture of intense devotion in Badajoz was reflected strongly in the type of painting Ribera commissioned from Morales. It was equally evident in his own sermons, the otherwise unimpugnably orthodox preach­ ing which, according to Fray Alonso, had the mujercillas alumbradas running after him like a flock of demented sheep. A noted orator while in Badajoz, the young man, not yet thirty, appointed to the diocese in 1562 had never preached a sermon, nothing unusual for times in which aristocratic young men were plucked from lives of study and installed in sees without much in the way of pastoral experience. He wrote in the margin of the sermon he delivered on Christmas Day 1563 in Badajoz cathedral that it was el primero que prediqué en mi vida/‘the first I ever preached in my life’.36 In general, the sermons he gave as bishop of Badajoz either in Badajoz cathedral or when visiting Seville cathedral were considerably longer than those he preached in churches in the towns and villages of southern Extremadura and western Andalusia. This particular sermon is conventionally peppered with quotations from the Gospel of St Luke, traditional at Christmas, but these quotations are in Latin, since the vernacular could not be tolerated in a Catholic environ­ ment. Each citation from the Bible is elucidated using a range of sources from the Old and New Testament underpinned by theological authorities. In one instance, Ribera expands on the idea that Christmas should bring a message of peace among men by hinting at Jerome’s commentary relating 91

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John the Evangelist’s remarks, in old age in Ephesus, on peace among men to Paul’s advice that his listeners should love their neighbour as they love themselves (in the Fifth Epistle to the Galatians).37 Such nuancing would have been satisfying to the erudite in his audience who would be familiar with his sources while the plain point about peace among men would have been seen as nourishment enough for the uneducated. He would liberally cite the Fathers of the Church and other commentators in his longer sermons. However, here, in his first foray, he made a virtue of directness. Even in this first sermon his rhetorical gift is obvious. He describes Christ’s humanity emotively: Vino, pues [. . .] al mundo Cristo por los hombres. Y así tienen ellos gran razón de festejar esta solemnidad como cosa suya y particular. Y ayuda a acrecentalles la razón las circunstancias que hay en este don y beneficio: la primera, haber venido Dios a hacer esto hecho hombre. Pudiera ser ángel, no lo quiso [. . .]   Lo segundo, que quiso tener flaquezas de hombre. Bien que viniera hecho hombre, pero fuera inmortal, impasible, sin hambre, sin sed, sin frío. No quiso, sino cual hoy nos lo muestra el Evangelio; todo por la salud del hombre.38 Christ, then, came [. . .] into the world for all men. And thus they have great reason to celebrate this solemnity as something very special and very much theirs. And the circumstances of this gift and benefit help to increase their reason: the first, that Christ came to do this made man. He could have been an angel, but he did not want to be one [. . .]   Secondly, he wished to have the weaknesses of men. He could well have come, made man but impervious, without feeling hunger, thirst, cold. He did not want to, rather it was as the Gospel shows us today; all for the welfare of mankind.

The care to be specific in the avoidance of heresy comes when he moves on to quote the description in Luke’s Gospel (2:4–7) of how Joseph went from Nazareth to Bethlehem with the heavily pregnant Mary to pay his taxes and she gave birth while in the city of David. Ribera feels obliged to insist that Jesus was not only Mary’s firstborn son, he was her only child: Dejemos las herejías. Basta que quiere decir parir su único hijo, su primer hijo, sin presuponer segundo, como no lo hubo.39

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Let us leave heresy out of this. It is enough to say that it means she gave birth to her only son, her firstborn son, without any suggestion of a second, since there was none.

The fact that he thought it necessary to make this stern statement is interest­ ing. At the time, there were still some vestiges of the medieval tradition, encapsulated in Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, that Mary’s mother Anne had three husbands, with each of whom she had a daughter Mary, the first being the mother of Jesus and the second and third giving birth between them to several of the apostles, Jesus’ cousins.40 The obvious, practical reason for the evolution of this legend was to deal with the fact that the New Test­ ament mentions Christ’s brothers. For example, Paul in his first Epistle to the Galatians recounts meeting ‘James, the Lord’s brother’ (1:19). Catholicism and Lutheranism alike in the sixteenth century reinforced the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary and argued that the definition of ‘brother’ in the New Testament encompassed cousin and close friend, much as Jerome did in his Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary, written in 383 in order to quash the counter-proposition of Helvidius. The post-Tridentine Church saw no need for the Golden Legend compromise and frowned upon any such represen­tations. Even so, there were visual vestiges about. A depiction of the genealogy of Mary, including Christ and John the Baptist as infants and showing Anne and possibly her three husbands, the Genealogía Temporal de Cristo/Temporal Genealogy of Christ, painted in 1555 or so by the Flemish artist Michiel de Coxcie, found its way into the collection of Felipe II by the late sixteenth century as a depiction of the Holy Family.41 The implication of this, perhaps, is that there was still some seepage, and Ribera was making a statement as a new bishop that nothing but strict orthodoxy would be tolerated even though by all accounts, there was no question of Mary’s perpetual virginity being questioned by anyone associated either with the alumbrados or Lutheranism. Ribera’s next point is to insist on the poverty of Christ: Dios quiso ser pobre y humildemente nació [. . .] Cristo Nuestro Señor, que sin temor de caer, podía elegir lo perfecto, tomó la pobreza42

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Figure 12 Luis de Morales, Virgin and Child, c.1565, oil on chestnut panel, 83.7 x 63.7 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. 2656.

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God wanted to be poor and he was born into humble circumstances [. . .] Christ Our Lord, who, without fear of falling, could have chosen [a life surrounded by] perfection, took poverty.

This aspiration to poverty in the realpolitik of the sixteenth-century temporal Church translates as the monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, especially as practised in the reformed orders. As Fray Alonso’s comments on the squalor of the mujercillas alumbradas attest, real poverty and the carefully choreographed, hygienic poverty within the monastic orders were two different things. Thus, without irony, this aristocrat and prince of the Church can tell his congregation, with the wealthiest and best educated in their restrained finery placed within his eyeline and able to understand the quotations from the Vulgate Bible, that La perfecta vida es la del pobre/‘the perfect life is that of the poor man.’43 Ribera himself can do this because he was notably frugal in his own habits, unassuming in his conduct and careful in the management of the expenses of his diocese.44 Wealthy laypeople who could not neglect their mundane responsibilities might be led by this conventional injunction to lives of regular and sustained prayer and small but telling physical privations. Such prayer would necessitate appropriate devotional images, pieces which could be viewed up close above a priedieu, and this was the market Morales and his studio would exploit to the full. In the 1560s, his methodology was to establish a particular iconography of the Virgin or Christ, and then either he or a member of his studio would produce an image, as it were, to order. Depending on the sum paid for the commission and the size of the room in which the piece was to be displayed, these images could be from 30cms x 20cms to 90cms by 70cms, executed on cheaper or more expensive panels, with the work undertaken by Morales himself or by one of his assistants. A good example of this is the range of Virgin and Child (La Virgen de la Leche) paintings showing the Virgin about to breastfeed her son now kept in major galleries. The Prado has several iterations, the most beautiful of these painted around 1565 on chestnut panel and measuring 83.7cms x 63.7cms (fig. 12).45 Other versions in the Prado include a medium-sized painting (57cms x 40cms) on walnut panel (P944) which belonged to the Royal Collection, and a smaller one (38cms 95

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x 28 cms) on oak panel (P7948) acquired by the Prado in 1983.46 All of these iterations are exquisite and by Morales’s hand, as is the even smaller version on oak panel in the National Gallery in London (NG1229), which measures 28.5cms by 19.6cms. The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon has a version which measures 85cms x 64cms, on canvas affixed to panel, which means that there has been considerable restoration at some point. While there are doubts as to the authenticity of this delicate representation, Bäcksbacka is prepared to argue that it was painted by Morales some time before the superior Prado version of the same dimensions.47 What all these eloquent paintings have in common is Morales’s Leonardesque layering technique (sfumato), which gives them almost photographic clarity when viewed up close, an indispensable trait in private devotional images.48 After commenting, in his inaugural sermon, on the visit of the watchful and alert shepherds to the manger to see the newborn baby, Ribera offers advice on how good Christians should behave so that Christ can be born in them, and what they should do in order to maintain a state of peace with Christ, the Prince of Peace: No puede nacer Cristo en nuestro corazón si nos descuidamos. Huya el cristiano el descuido; porque la semilla de la palabra de Dios no nasciera en el huerto de su alma, si no fuera estando muy bien cultivada. No nace el trigo en la tierra que no está arada; nacen cardos. Es menester que ande el cristiano cuidadoso, si tengo a Dios, si le perdí, si le ofendí. Bien así como el que pretiende la amistad de un príncipe, que nunca piensa sino en cómo contentalle.49 Christ cannot be born in our hearts if we are careless of ourselves. A Christian should flee from carelessness, because the seed of the word of God will not take root in the garden of his soul, if it is not being well cultivated. Wheat does not take root in the land unless it is ploughed; thistles take root. The Christian must be careful, is God with me, have I lost him, have I offended him. Just like one who wishes to have the friendship of a prince, who never thinks about anything other than pleasing him.

His use of basic agricultural common sense and his invocation of the require­ ments, recognisable to all, whatever their social status, of life in a near-feudal society (land must be cultivated, princes appeased) ring true and establish 96

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a connection between faith and the everyday reality of the congregation. Coming to the end of his peroration, he offers one final, succinct sentence on the destiny of the baby Jesus as an adult: Cruz comenzó a traer Cristo desde que nació hasta morir/‘Christ carried his Cross from the day he was born to the day he died.’50 This trope is amply represented by Morales in his paintings of the Virgin and Child with a distaff. Whereas the baby is wholly focused on seeking milk from his mother’s breast in the Virgen de la Leche paintings, in these representations, the child sits on his mother’s lap where, catching sight of her distaff and seeing in it an echo of the Cross, he suddenly realises the fate in store for him, while she looks sorrowfully on. The panel from the altar to St Anne in Badajoz cathedral, now kept at the Prado, La Virgen del Huso/ The Virgin of the Distaff, was painted for Ribera and may be taken as a rather poetic encapsulation of his statement on the life of Christ51 (fig. 13). Ribera further exhorts his flock to imitate Christ by carrying their own crosses through life. Then he asks them to remember to seek Christ out: Tal la debe traer el Cristiano. Luego para que nasca Cristo ni seamos descuidados ni vivamos descansados, antes despertemos. La segunda es que le vamos a buscar. Es menester que no nos contentemos con no hacer el mal que tengo dicho, sino con dar pago en la virtud.52 In this way the Christian should carry his own. Then so that Christ can be born [in us] we should not be careless nor live in a relaxed fashion, rather we should be alert. The second is that we should seek him out. We should not merely be content with not doing the evil I have mentioned, but we should pay with virtue [virtuous acts].

How best to seek Christ out is a matter he addresses in a sermon delivered in Fregenal de la Sierra on 29 April 1565, advising nothing less that the seeking out of quiet places for reflection recommended in Osuna’s Tercer Abecedario: No ha de hallar el remedio el hombre entre la malicia y el bullicio del día. Venga la sosegada noche, y en medio de ese silencio vendrá Dios. No en el torbellino, sino en el silbo delgado. Quien buscare a Dios, búsquele en sosiego.53 Mankind will not find the solution among the malice [business] and tumult of the day. Let the calm night come, and in the middle of this silence, God will come. Not

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Figure 13 Luis de Morales, The Virgin and Child with the Distaff, 1566, oil on chestnut panel, 64.5x 45 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. P7864.

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in a whirlwind but in a slender whistle. Those who seek God out, should seek him in repose.

Thus, Ribera’s shepherding of his flock can be summed up in his emphasis on the poverty of Christ, poverty as the ideal life, with his personal example of how a wealthy and powerful individual could imitate Christ’s poverty in sixteenth-century Badajoz; in his recommendation of private, mental prayer in quiet places, recogimiento, the purest manifestation of late alumbradismo; in his injunction that all should carry their Cross throughout life, just as Christ did, with a rotund recommendation that they should both have faith and behave virtuously if they desire to be saved. Thus, at the conclusion of his first ever sermon and one delivered on Christmas Day, a day of great rejoicing, he ends by reminding his flock that Christ’s birth was merely the first step on the long road to Calvary. This sits in stark contrast to the joy expressed in the closing polyphonic Deo gratias sung by the cathedral choir in Sánchez de Badajoz’s Juego de Cañas, created a couple of decades earlier to celebrate the Nativity, after which the play concludes with these words from the pastor and serrana: Pastor: ¡O gracias a Dios Eterno!: nuestro capitán nacido de vos, Virgen, ha vencido al príncipe del ynfierno. Serrana: ¡Vaya, vaya el montaraz! Gaz, gaz, gaz, gaz, gaz, gaz, gaz; para que no nos empeza quebrada va lla cabeca. ¡O qué valiente solaz!, Gaz, gaz, gaz, gaz, gaz, gaz, gaz.54

Shepherd: Thanks be to God Eternal. Our captain born

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of you, Virgin, has defeated the Prince of the Infernal Realm. Shepherdess: go away, go away, you beast, flee, flee, flee, flee, flee, flee, flee, so you won’t start on us your head is cracked open oh what great glee! Flee, flee, flee, flee, flee, flee, flee.

The work then concludes with the cathedral choir singing the words gaz, gaz, gaz in polyphony. This is not to say that there was no place on Christmas Day 1563 for the jubilation of the Juego de Cañas, but the tone in Badajoz cathedral had clearly changed. The effect of the young reforming prelate sent to minister to the population of Badajoz by a king, Felipe II, determined to renew the Church in Spain from within, was transmitted almost entirely via his preaching and other public activities. His sermons were not published and he was resident in Badajoz for barely five years. These were, however, crucial years for the promulgation of the decisions of the Council of Trent which had concluded in 1563. Ribera proclaimed the Tridentine Decrees in Badajoz in 1564 and held two diocesan synods, in 1565 and then in 1568, to secure their implemen­ tation. In 1564, he presented reform proposals to the Provincial Council at Santiago de Compostela, some of which expanded on Tridentine regulations regarding matters such as avoidance of clerical absenteeism and luxury, and proper respect for the Eucharist.55 In 1568, he also embarked on a wide programme of preaching throughout the diocese, from which 150 autograph sermons survive.56 He made his mark in his first, Christmas Day, sermon, and he left it imprinted across the diocese when he departed, at midnight according to his hagiographers, so as not to witness the tears of the distraught population.57 When he left, the people only had their memories of him but they could continue to read the works of Luis de Granada and Juan de Ávila, and, if they could read Latin or had been taught them, they could perform the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, at least once in their lives, as recommended. Ribera’s 100

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devotion to Fray Luis, who died in Lisbon in 1588, was lifelong, and the respect was mutual though the two men never met. Fray Luis commented that they knew each other con la mente y el espíritu/‘in mind and spirit’.58 The process of beatifying Juan de Ribera began while Fray Luis’s amanuensis was still alive though Ribera was not formally beatified until 1796 and canonised in 1960 by Pope John XXIII. Fray Luis, incidentally, has still not been honoured formally by the Church in this way, though there is no lack of recognition of his saintliness. In his own lifetime, he was described and addressed as the ‘venerable father’, an appellation which at the time did not require papal endorsement. This deposition by the amanuensis describes Ribera’s constant recourse to Fray Luis for advice on spiritual and theological matters: Fue tan devoto y aficionado al padre maestro fray Luis de Granada, que no hacía ni intentaba cosa alguna en esta materia, que primeramente no comunicase al sobredicho fray Luis de Granada [. . .] y el padre fray Luis de Granada era en tanto grado su servidor y capellán, y recibía con tanto gusto y alegría sus cartas, que en el mundo no había otra cosa alguna de que más gustase y a quien con mejor voluntad respondióse, que al sobredicho Siervo de Dios. Y las cosas de ambos eran tan comunes como si hubiesen tenido dos cuerpos y un alma.59 He was so devoted to and so much an admirer of the master, father and friar Luis de Granada, that he never attempted or did anything with regard to spiritual matters, if he had not first consulted the aforesaid Fray Luis de Granada [. . .] and Father Friar Luis de Granada was in such a degree his servant and chaplain, and received his letters with so much pleasure and joy, that there was nothing in the world he enjoyed more, and nobody to whom he would reply with greater good will, than the aforementioned Servant of God. And in spiritual matters they were so alike that it was as if they had two bodies but one soul.

Fray Luis’s Libro de Oración was the most widely published volume in the Spanish Golden Age. After its initial success, Fray Luis recognised that he should dedicate himself to writing as well as to preaching.60 By the time the Libro de Oración was published, in Salamanca in 1554, he had been in Évora for about three years. He would become provincial of the Dominicans in Portugal in 1556, his term of office lasting four years, during which time he refused the see of Braga. The first volume of his Guía de Pecadores/Guide for 101

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Sinners was published in Spanish in Lisbon in 1556, and the second in 1557. He produced the Manual de Diversas Oraciones y Espirituales Ejercicios/Manual of Diverse Prayers and Spiritual Exercises also in 1557, at a time when he was extremely busy with his administrative duties as provincial.61 This little book consisted of extracts from the Guía. He explained in his note al lector/‘to the reader’ that he believed a smaller, more portable book would help the devout to engage more easily in prayer in the midst of their busy lives: Porque la oración es negocio de todos los tiempos y lugares, y conviene que ella sea compañera de nuestra vida, parecióme sería bien recoger aquí algunas oraciones y meditaciones, sacadas por la mayor parte del libro llamado Guía de pecadores, para que sirviese como de unas horas de rezar y de un pequeño manual que se pudiese traer en el seno, para despertar con él nuestra devoción todas las veces que la muchedumbre de los negocios de este siglo resfriase nuestro corazón.62 Because prayer is the business of all times and places, and it is right that it should be our companion throughout life, it seemed to me that it would be good to gather here some prayers and meditations, mainly taken from the book titled the Guide for Sinners, so that it would serve for some hours of prayer and as a small manual which could be carried about, in order to use it to awaken our devotion every time the crowd of business of this world turns our hearts cold.

This consideration for the lives of laypeople who wished to be devout would be the major reason why his fellow Dominicans, Francisco de Valdés and Melchor Cano, overzealously condemned the Libro de Oración, the Guía and the Manual in 1559. 63 That the approval of these works by the Council of Trent in 1563 was then confirmed by the conciliatory and hispanophile Pope Pius IV perhaps puts their horror of Lutheran influence in Spain into perspective.64 Francisco de Valdés’s writ did not apply in Portugal, where the Guía de Pecadores was not banned. Moreover, this original version was widely translated in other countries where there was no question as to its propriety. It appeared in Italian in Venice in 1563–4 without the emendations deemed necessary in Spain.65 It is not simply therefore the case that the Guía once read would not be forgotten by Spaniards, but that copies continued to find their way across the border into Badajoz and the surrounding area during the four years Fray Luis’s writing was under interdiction in Spain. 102

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The emended versions of the Libro de la oración and the Guía de Pecadores were published, respectively in 1566 and 1567 though, as Álvaro Huerga notes, they were, in their first iterations, utterly orthodox.66 Julián de Cos argues that Fray Luis was probably permitted to continue writing even while his works were banned. He also suggests that he was not summoned before the Inquisition in Spain after 1559 because he did not pretend to be a mystic, even though his life and deep spirituality would attest to his having all the attributes of one.67 In his work, Fray Luis concentrated on discussing ascetic or theoretical and practical matters and, importantly, there was no discernible change in his approach to prayer guidance after 1559: antes y después del Índice da mucho peso a lo afectivo y, sobre todo, antes y después del Índice apenas habla explícitamente en sus publicaciones sobre su propia experiencia espiritual.68 Before and after the Index he gives much weight to the affective and, above all, before and after the Index he rarely speaks explicitly in his publications about his own spiritual experience.

Cos suggests that he does this for three reasons: because the spirituality of the reformed Dominicans of the sixteenth century was highly ascetic in nature; because he was writing for all types of listener and knew his work would be read aloud in convent refectories, private houses and churches and therefore made it maximally accessible; and because he understood that the mystical experience of union with God was extremely personal and one individual’s path might not necessarily be an appropriate guide for another.69 Above all, it appears, since he was writing in the vernacular and knew his work would be read aloud to those who could not read, he adapted his message so it could be easily assimilated by uneducated people. Thus, though in his sermons Juan de Ribera is intensely approachable in the way in which he paraphrases the New Testament and explains the implications of his lesson for the souls of his congregation, the experience of the unlettered listening to him is inevitably fragmented because they have to endure pas­ sages of incomprehensible Latin and references to authorities they might recognise but will not be familiar with. Fray Luis, in contrast, uses no Latin, 103

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and when he cites authorities he does so by telling anecdotes, thus bringing his message much closer to the reader and listener. In the 1556 Guía de Pecadores, part one, he cites a tale told by St John Climacus, the sixth-century Syrian monk whose Ladder of Divine Ascent he translated into Spanish as the Escala Espiritual. The tale is a conventional illustration of why Christians should fear death and do everything in life to ensure they do not end up in Hell. However, it seems much less severe when recounted with Fray Luis’s characteristic limpidity and gentleness: Dice él, que en un cierto monesterio de aquellos había un monje descuidado en su manera de vida: el cual, llegando a punto de muerte, fue arrebatado en espíritu: donde vio el rigor y severidad espantosa de este postrer juicio que todos esperamos. Y como después, por especial misericordia y dispensación de Dios, volviese en sí, alcanzado espacio de penitencia, dice este sancto que rogó a todos los religiosos que presentes estábamos, que saliésemos de su celda: y cerrando la puerta a piedra lodo, quedóse dentro hasta el día que murió, que fue por espacio de doce años, sin salir jamás de allí, ni hablar palabra a nadie, ni comer otra cosa todo aquel tiempo sino sólo pan y agua; y asentado en su celda, estaba como atónito, revolviendo en su corazón lo que había visto en aquel arrebatamiento; y tenía tan fijo el pensamiento en ello, que así también tenía el rostro fijo en un lugar, sin volverlo a una parte ni a otra, derramando a la continua muy fervientes lágrimas, las cuales corrían siempre hilo a hilo por sus ojos. Y llegada la hora de su muerte, rompimos la puerta, que estaba, como se dijo, cerrada, y entramos todos los monjes de aquel desierto en su celda, y rogámosle con toda humildad nos dijese alguna palabra de edificación: y no dijo más que sola ésta: «Dígoos la verdad, padres, que si los hombres entendiesen cuán espantoso es este último trance y juicio de la muerte, que no sería posible jamás ofender a Dios».70 He says that in one of those monasteries there was a monk who was careless in his way of living, who, when he got to the point of death, fell into a trance, in which he saw the horrifying rigour and severity of that judgement [after death] which we all await. And how after, by the special mercy and dispensation of God, he came to himself, finding himself with time to do penance, this saint [St John] says that he asked all those religious who were present to leave his cell; and sealing the entrance with stone and mud, he remained inside until the day of his death, which was for a period of twelve years, without ever leaving, nor speaking a word to anyone, nor eating anything in all that time but only bread and water; and sitting

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in his cell, he was like a man astonished, turning over in his heart what he had seen in that vision; and his thought was so fixed on it, that thus he also had his face fixed on one place, not turning it to one side or the other, continuously weeping fervent tears, which ran all the time in lines from his eyes. And when the hour of his death came, we broke open the door which had been, as has been said, blocked up and we, all the monks of that desert, went into his cell, and we asked him in all humility to say a word of edification to us, and all he said was this: ‘I am telling you the truth, fathers, that if mankind understood how horrifying this final trance and judgement of death is, that it would never be possible to offend God.’

The image of lines of tears falling from the penitent monk’s eyes continuously is something picked up frequently in Morales’s images of saints. His later depictions of Jerome doing penance in the desert, such as the painting in the National Gallery of Ireland (fig. 31), or the Clerecía Magdalen, both of whom have crystalline tears on their cheeks, echo the sorrow of the monk described by St John Climacus. Realistically, of course, only the cloistered clergy or those enabled to live lives as anchorites, or indeed some of the alumbrados, were in a position to maintain such extreme penitence and sorrow. The task for most people was to avoid occasions of sin, and here Fray Luis and his Dominican practicality come into their own. Far from simply presenting examples of outstanding saintly individuals, in the Guía, he furnishes the reader or listener with a plethora of practical advice to help them avoid occasions of sin. His Twelve General Remedies Against All Sins are especially interesting in that of the twelve suggestions two are devoted to the use of imagery and reading matter. The third remedy advises that in order to resist temptation, the devout person should imagine Christ on the Cross, poniendo ante los ojos del ánima a Cristo crucificado, con aquella misma figura lastimera que tuvo en la cruz, todo hecho llagas y ríos de sangre, y acordarse que aquel es Dios, y que se puso allí por el pecado, y temblar de hacer cosa que fue parte para traer a Dios en tal estado.71 placing the crucified Christ before the eyes of the soul, in that same piteous figure that was on the Cross, all wounds and rivers of blood; and remembering that that is God, and that he put himself there because of our sins, and trembling before doing anything which was part of putting God in such a condition.

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The description of Christ’s bleeding wounds, conveyed in a mere seven words, is highly effective, but nonetheless the devout would most likely have availed themselves of images of the crucified Christ or Christ after he had been taken down from the Cross to create this picture in the imagination. Morales’s Piedad, in its many iterations, showing the body of the dead Christ in his mother’s arms after he has been removed from the Cross, is unquestion­ ably one of the most powerful renditions of this scene produced during the period. The sixth remedy proposes: lición de buenos y sanctos libros: con la cual se ocupa bien el tiempo, y se alumbra el entendimiento con el conoscimiento de la verdad, y se enciende la voluntad en devoción; y así se hace el hombre más fuerte contra el pecado y más hábil para toda la virtud.72 The reading of good and holy books; with which time is well occupied, and the understanding is enlightened with the knowledge of the truth, and the will towards devotion is excited; and in this way man is made stronger against sin and better prepared in all virtue.

The very use of the verb alumbrar is the sort of thing which drew the wrath of the compilers of the 1559 Index and then caused the indefatigable Fray Alonso de la Fuente to smell a rat in the 1570s. Yet there is and was nothing inherently controversial about Fray Luis’s advice here, or in the other material cited so far, since none of it underwent change for the rewritten edition of 1567. In his ninth remedy, he advises silence and seclusion in preparation for prayer and uses the verb recoger in describing how the devout person should strive to rid himself of the cares of the temporal world before attempting contemplation: el que quiere quitar parte de sus armas al pecado, huya de conversaciones, de compañías no necesarias, y de visitaciones y de complimientos de mundo: porque por experiencia hallará, si esto no hace, cuál vuelve después a su posada, cuán desconsolado y descontento, y cuán llena la cabeza de imágenes y representaciones de cosas, que le dan bien en qué entender, al tiempo que quiere recogerse. 73

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he who wishes to dispossess sin of some of its weapons, let him flee conversation, unnecessary company, and visits to and compliments paid to the [outside] world; because from experience he will find, if he does not do this, how he returns afterwards to his dwelling; how disconsolate and unhappy; and how full his head of images and representations of things, which give him a lot to think about, at the time when he wishes to enter into recollection.

This advice about fleeing from the cares and pleasures of the world is revisited in his recommendations on the reformation of the imagination in his ‘Rules on Living Well’. The imagination, just like the will and the intellect, must be tamed and managed: Es también una potencia muy apetitosa y cobdiciosa de pensar todo cuanto se le pone delante, a manera de los perros golosos que todo lo andan probando y trastornando, y en todo quieren meter el hocico, y aunque a veces los azoten y echen a palos, siempre se vuelven al regosto. Es también una potencia muy libre y muy cerrera, como una bestia salvaje que se anda de otero en otero, sin querer sufrir sueltas, ni cabestro, ni dueño que la gobierne [. . .]   Para lo cual conviene que haya de nuestra parte grande discreción y vigilancia, para examinar cuáles pensamientos debemos admitir y cuáles desechar, para que a los unos recibamos como a amigos y a los otros desechemos como a enemigos.74

It is also a very voracious power and covetous of thinking everything put in front of it, like those greedy dogs who go around trying and upsetting everything, and who want to stick their snouts into everything, and even though sometimes they are whipped and beaten away, they always come back to have some more. It is also a very free and very untamed power like a wild beast which goes from one mountain top to another, without wanting to be tethered, or dominated by a herd leader or owner.   For this reason it is necessary that there should be great discretion and vigilance on our part, in order to examine which thoughts we should admit and which throw away, so that we receive some of them as friends and we throw away the others like enemies.

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literature and meditation on the wounds and suffering of Christ, must be rooted in sound hygiene of the imagination. One way of ensuring that the imagination is channelled in the correct manner is by providing sufficient images, whether in painting or sculpture, to enable the devout to base their envisioning of aspects of the life of Christ on orthodox interpretations. Preachers and writers such as Ribera and Fray Luis are so graphic and copious in their sermons and written guidance that it might seem that physical images were unnecessary. Yet, bearing in mind Fray Luis’s strictures on con­trolling the imagination, there is a role for approved physical icon­ ography, that of keeping individual fantasy within acceptable boundaries. This would be particularly apposite in the case of the Spiritual Exercises which, although they outline a very detailed and gradual set of steps for each visualisation, permit a great deal of freedom to the contemplative when it comes to the composition of that image. This is not to say that there was anything other than a symbiotic relationship between devotional literature and religious art at the time, nor does it suggest the primacy of one over the other. As far as Morales’s output is concerned, one very good example of this symbiosis, though there is no extant documentation to prove a direct link, is noted, with qualifications, by Trapier. In her view, the relationship, remarked upon by Paul Guinard, between Morales’s Piedad/Pietà (the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando iteration, fig. 14), and Fray Luis’ description of the descent from the cross in the Libro de la oración, is close but not absolutely literal.75 Portmann notes this coincidence and a similar description of Christ’s body, taken down from the Cross, in Fray Luis’ Compendio de Doctrina Espiritual/Compendium of Spiritual Doctrine, neatly illustrating the fact that preachers inevitably repeated themselves in sermons from one liturgical year to another and in devotional literature published over a long period of time.76 Morales did the same, and he and his studio produced several versions of the Piedad of varying sizes and quality through­ out the 1560s and early 1570s. The description by Fray Luis which seems to be so close to Morales’s depiction is given as follows in the Libro de la oración: Pues cuando la Virgen lo tuvo en sus brazos, ¿qué lengua podrá explicar lo que sintió? «Oh ángeles de paz, llorad con esta sagrada Virgen, llorad cielos, llorad

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estrellas del cielo; todas las criaturas del mundo acompañad el llanto de María». Abrázase la madre con el cuerpo despedazado; apriétalo fuertemente en sus pechos – para esto solo le quedaban fuerzas –, mete su cara entre las espinas de la sagrada cabeza, júntase rostro con rostro; tíñese la cara de la Madre con la sangre del Hijo, y riégase la del Hijo con las lágrimas de la Madre.   ¡Oh dulce Madre! ¿Es ese por ventura vuestro dulcísimo hijo? ¿Es ese el que concebistes con tanta gloria, y paristes con tanta alegría? Pues, ¿qué se hicieron vuestros gozos pasados? ¿Dónde se fueron vuestras alegrías antiguas? ¿Dónde está aquel espejo de hermosura, en quien vos os mirábades? Ya no os aprovecha mirarle a la cara, porque sus ojos han perdido la luz. Y no os aprovecha darle voces y hablarle, porque sus orejas han perdido el oir. Ya no se menea la lengua que hablaba las maravillas del cielo. Ya están quebrados los ojos que con su vista alegraban al mundo.77 Then when the Virgin had him in her arms, which tongue could explain what she was feeling? ‘Oh angels of peace, weep with this holy Virgin, heavens weep, weep you stars in the sky; all the creatures of the world join in the lament of the Virgin’. The mother embraces his shattered body; she holds it close to her breast (she only has strength left to do this), she places her face between the thorns on the holy head, she puts her face cheek to cheek with his; the Virgin’s face is stained with her Son’s blood, and his face is washed with his mother’s tears.   Oh sweet Mother! Is this man by any chance your sweet son? Is this the son you conceived in so much glory and brought into this world with so much joy? If so, what has happened to your former delight? Where did your past joys go? Where is that mirror of beauty in which you could see yourself? There is no point in your looking at his face now; because his eyes have lost their light. There is no point in your calling him and speaking to him because his ears have lost their hearing. The tongue which spoke of the marvels of heaven no longer moves. Those eyes whose gaze were the joy of the world are now destroyed.

Clearly such emotive rhetoric and such beautifully balanced sentences would have had a tremendous effect when read aloud. Interestingly, Huerga notes an echo from the visionary Dominican, Girolamo Savonarola’s, Trattato dell’amore di Gesù Cristo/Treatise on the Love of Jesus Christ, published in Florence in 1492, in the exhortation to the angels to weep with the Virgin. In Savonarola, this is the plea:

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Figure 15 Luis de Morales, Pietà, 1553–4, oil on panel, 114.4 x 84.2 cms, Museo Catedralicio, Badajoz.

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O angeli, o spiriti beati, piangente con lei, se così dir lice; piangete cielo; piangete stelle; pianga ogni pianeta e ogni creatura con Maria.78 O angels, O blessed spirits, weeping with her, if it may be put this way; stars, weep, skies weep; let every planet and every creature weep with Mary.

Fray Luis seems to pay no heed to the fact that Savonarola was excommuni­ cated, then executed by the Church, preferring to absorb what is beneficial from his writings, by means, in this instance, of a reference which was probably not all that oblique to other learned clerics of the period. In fact, he appended a translation of Fra Girolamo’s letter of advice to the erudite Ferraran noble­ woman Maddalena Pico della Mirandola, written before she took her vows as a Poor Clare (Clarisse), to the second book (first volume) of the 1556 Lisbon Guía.79 This speaks volumes for his own attitude of tolerance and his sense of perspective, his willingness to take creatively from others. He also included the text in the 1559 Antwerp edition.80 Savonarola’s letter was one of four appendices to the second book of the Guía, and two of the other three were at least equally risky. The ten rules from Juan de Ávila’s Audi, Filia appeared in this volume before the full text was published separately, and, more signifi­ cantly, a translation of the Sermon on the Mount into Spanish, along with a selection of other texts from the New Testament appeared in the volume, without authorial attribution.81 The translations, though the author is not acknowledged, were done by none other than Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Dr Constantino. As Huerga observes, the learned would not need to be told who the author was and the unlettered would not be concerned to know it.82 In a book published before the Index of 1559, this points to the fluidity of theological debate and exchange in the first half of the sixteenth century, whatever the efforts of the Inquisition to put a stop to it. Fray Luis, as Manuel López Muñoz remarks, was not merely a great preacher, he was also a great wordsmith: una de las cumbres de la literatura española de los llamados siglos de oro, uno de los prosistas en los que se basará el ulterior desarrollo de nuestra lengua artística y uno de los teóricos más influyentes del XVI en lo que a Retórica toca. 83

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one of the great figures of Spanish literature of the so-called Golden Age, one of the prose writers on whom the subsequent development of our literary language would be formed, and one of the most influential theorists of the sixteenth century in the matter of Rhetoric.

In effect, this venerable Dominican who had such a gift for word painting and empathy was also uno de los principales tratadistas de la Retórica eclesiástica Postridentina/‘one of the foremost theorists of ecclesiastical Rhetoric of the Post-Tridentine era’.84 It should be no surprise, therefore, that Morales, the foremost painter of the mid-sixteenth century in Spain, should find Fray Luis’ evocation of the corpse of Christ, whether recommended by the individual commissioning the first of his Piedades or not, congenial, and as a consequence be persuaded to depict the dead body in the most un­ compromising fashion. Morales’s earliest known large-scale Piedad was painted in 1553–4 for Badajoz cathedral (fig. 15). It shows the Virgin holding the body of the dead Christ in the foreground, with a vaguely Middle Eastern cityscape set against mountains and clouds on the Virgin’s right and, on her left, a classical or Renaissance building with a flight of stairs standing on rock arches. Beneath these arches there is a pair of older men in conversation, presumably apostles, and an arid landscape of bare mountains can be seen behind the rock arches.85 The landscape makes for a rather busy composition, and it does not feature in any of his later iterations of this theme. Morales reprised this iconography in 1562 for the then bishop of Badajoz, Cristóbal de Rojas y Sandoval, who donated the painting to the Jesuit College of Santa Catalina in Córdoba on his departure from Badajoz to take up his new post as bishop of Córdoba. In this image, now kept at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Morales created a much cleaner composition, focusing solely on the Virgin and her son, with the stem of the Cross in the background86 (fig. 14). This would be the template for the 1560s. The earliest of the many intimate, close-up renditions of the Piedad he produced in this decade probably dates from 1563, and is a large painting, 90cms x 66 cms, showing Christ’s head and upper torso held against his mother’s chest.87 It is now kept in the parish church of St Peter and St Paul in Polán, near Toledo. What is most striking is Morales’s willingness, in all his Piedades, early or late, 112

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large or small, to represent the head of Christ as that of a dead person, not one who is asleep, as is common in the Italian iconography of the Pietà and even in the hyper-realistic hands of Rogier van der Weyden. Van der Weyden’s lacrimose and beautifully preserved Descent from the Cross, now at the Prado (P02825), was painted before 1443 for the Chapel of Our Lady Outside the Walls in Leuven. It was in the Royal Collection at the Escorial from 1566 and much prized by Felipe II.88 This Christ, though pale and pitiful, appears to be asleep or in a faint rather than dead. The fact that Morales’s head of Christ is very much that of a cadaver is what links his painting most closely to Fray Luis’s rhetorical evocation of the dead Christ in his mother’s arms, and is evidence of the fearless engagement with the realities of Christ’s suffering encouraged in the devotional literature so avidly consumed in the diocese of Badajoz in the time of Juan de Ribera. Interestingly, it seems that Ribera’s father, Perefán, may have possessed a portable oratory (oratorio portatil) consisting of ten panels, each about 26 x 20 cms, depicting scenes from the passion of Christ, now in the Wernher Collection (Ranger’s House, London). This oratory, made by an unknown sixteenth-century Flemish artist in oil on oak panel, bears the arms of the Enríquez de Ribera family.89 The panel depicting the body of the dead Christ in his mother’s arms is strikingly similar to Morales’s Piedades in its close-in focus on the torso of the dead Christ held across his mother’s lap while she gazes down at his bloodied head (fig. 16). The tenderness and sorrow in the Virgin’s gaze is of a piece with the mood struck by Morales. The skin on the face of this Christ has greyish tinges and only the whites of his almost closed eyes can be seen behind long and elegant eyelashes. These two details, the blueish skin and the whites of the eyes, reflecting a belief that the eyeballs roll upwards at the point of death, are not as pronounced as they would become in Morales’s hands but they are enough to underline the fact that the figure lying in Mary’s lap is a very much a cadaver. The dimensions of these panels are roughly similar to those of the very small Morales Virgin and Child in the National Gallery, London. They are designed for private devotion and contemplation from close up in small spaces and sometimes improvised circumstances. Unlike his friend and admirer, Fray Luis de Granada, Juan de Ávila, the other great preacher of the era, attracted the attention of the Inquisition 113

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Figure 16 Anon. Netherlandish, Portable passion polyptich (10 panels), panel no. 10 Pietà (inner central panel), mid-sixteenth century, oil on oak panel, 24.2 x 20.2 cms, Wernher Collection, London, © The Wernher Foundation Historic England Archive, inv. K011220.

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on more than one occasion.90 Pastore suggests that he was not as completely without taint of Lutheran sympathies as he managed successfully to claim.91 Juan de Ávila was known as the apostle of Andalusia, having arrived in Seville in 1526 after completing his studies at Salamanca and Alcalá. He was from the outset a renowned preacher. He preached in churches and in public squares, ‘to congregations so numerous that other priests found themselves addressing empty churches’.92 Throughout all this public adulation he lived very modestly and refused all forms of payment for his services. During these early years in Seville, he spent a good deal of his time in Écija, residing in the house of Tello de Aguilar, the regidor (mayor or chief law officer) of the town and his wife, Leonor de Inestrosa.93 His teaching centred on the importance of studying both the Bible and the works of the Church Fathers as a means of understanding the faith, and the role of meditation as a path towards spiritual enlightenment. As well as preaching in public, he also convened meetings in private houses where he would give instruction in a more con­genial atmosphere, allowing for interaction from the laity. He also led these groups in prayer. Needless to say, the groups included women. Naturally, such autonomy vested in the laity and such respect accorded to laywomen aroused the suspicions of the Church and the jealously of some of those priests whose churches remained empty. Juan de Ávila was indicted by the Inquisition in the autumn of 1531, imprisoned the following year and more or less exonerated in July 1533.94 The judgement found against him: haber proferido en sus sermones y fuera de ellos algunas proposiciones que no parecieron bien sonantes y de ello nació algún escándalo y murmuración.95 to have put forward in his sermons and on other occasions some propositions which did not seem well-sounding, and out of this some scandal and rumour was born.

He was ordered to moderate his language and make sure he returned to clarify statements made in those places where he had preached most often, such as the city of Écija, and the towns of Alcalá de Guadaira and Lebrija. 96 Fray Luis reports that he was also required to preach at the church of San 115

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Salvador in Seville but when he appeared in the pulpit, trumpets sounded, arranged by his friends and supporters to welcome him back.97 The various individual depositions against Juan de Ávila do not appear to add up to more than a series of misunderstandings. While points of doctrine and morality were raised, the most substantial charges appear to relate to more practical matters: his willingness to treat laywomen as worthy members of his prayer communities, an accusation that he ran secret prayer groups in which those present were encouraged not to use prayers but to meditate silently in a dark room, and a reported assertion that the state of matrimony was superior to that of virginity, especially in laypeople. Against all of these charges, he defended himself subtly and ably. It is undeniable that his methodology, especially his openness to the laity, was germane both to Protestantism, as it was developing in the early part of the sixteenth century, and to alumbradismo, and this is why the Inquisition took the accusations against him so seriously in the early 1530s. While in prison, he began work on the book which Fray Alonso de la Fuente cited as one of the major influences on the Extremadura alumbrados, his Audi Filia. It was finally published in 1556, though Fray Luis had been encouraging him to publish it from as early as 1539.98 Like Fray Luis, Juan de Ávila’s emphasis, in both Audi Filia and his other works, was on ‘ascetic preparation rather than on mystical union with God’. In tandem with his friend and admirer, he considered mystical union to be a very private matter and a gift bestowed on very few.99 Audi Filia was published in 1556 with a dedication to his long-time friend and supporter, Luis de Puertocarrero, Count of Palma, penned in 1548. In the dedication, Juan de Ávila explains what he means the book to achieve: El intento del libro es dar algunas enseñanzas y reglas cristianas, para que las personas que comienzan a servir a Dios, por su gracia sepan efectuar su deseo. Y estas reglas quise más que fuesen seguras que altas, porque, según la soberbia de nuestro tiempo, desto me pareció haber más necesidad. Dánse primero algunos avisos, con que nos defendamos de nuestros especiales enemigos, y después gástase lo demás en dar camino para ejercitarnos en el conocimiento de nuestra miseria y poquedad y en el conocimiento de nuestro bien y remedio, que está en Jesucristo. Las cuales dos cosas son las que en esta vida más provechosa y seguramente podemos pensar.100

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The intention of the book is to provide some instruction and Christian rules, so that those people who are beginning to serve God, by his grace may come to know how to fulfil his will. And these rules I wished to be more practicable than abstract, because, given the pride of our times, of this I thought there was greater need. First advice is given, by means of which we can defend ourselves from our special enemies, and then the rest is devoted to showing a path through which we can learn to understand our own miserable and wretched state and understand what is for our good and the remedying [of these ills], which is in Jesus Christ. Both of these things are what we can, in this life, most providentially and practically think.

Juan de Ávila’s stated aims appear modest and uncontroversial. However, the 1556 edition was published in Alcalá de Henares at the instigation of Luis Gutiérrez, a devotee of his, without his formal permission.101 It was one of many manuscript copies then circulating while he was holding off publication, despite all the encouragement he received, in order to assess how the Tridentine decrees on justification, agreed in January 1547, would be implemented.102 Having been admonished by the Inquisition thirty years earlier for statements which might have been interpreted as heretical, he knew he would have to be very careful to be seen to adhere very clearly to the post-Tridentine position on the importance of good works and penance as part of the justification for admission to heaven, as opposed to the Lutheran position that Mankind could be saved by faith alone.103 An inveterate letter-writer, and particularly attentive to the doubts and worries of his female flock, Juan knew that some of his explanations might easily be taken out of context, as they had been at the Inquisition trial in Seville in the 1530s. For example, in a letter to Leonor de Inestrosa, his hostess in Écija, he appears to offer an argument which dispenses with the need for good works, but not necessarily penance: Sépalo, señora, si no lo sabe, que la confianza y consuelo de los cristianos que se desean salvar no ha de estar puesta en sus proprias fuerzas ni obras solas, mas en la gracia que nos es dada en las de Jesucristo, que por su infinita bondad las quiso comunicar con todos los que con fe y penitencia se subjetaran a El [. . .] Porque el negocio de salvarse los hombres más es gracia de Dios por Jesucristo nuestro Señor que fuerza y valor de nuestros trabajos proprios. Y más quiere Dios ser glorificado de salvar por gracia que de pagar lo que debe.104

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Know, my lady, if you do not know it already, that the confidence and consolation of those Christians who wish to save themselves should not be placed in their own abilities or works alone, but rather in the grace which is given to us by those of Jesus Christ, who by his infinite bounty wished to share them with all those who in faith and penitence subjected themselves to him [. . .] Because the business of men saving themselves is more to do with the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ than the power and worth of our own doings. And God wants to be glorified more for saving through grace than for paying what he owes.

In the brief and, in the eyes of many of Juan de Ávila’s supporters, highly unsatisfactory biography a reluctant and debilitated Fray Luis produced at the very end of his own life in 1588 in Lisbon, Fray Luis explains that Leonor de Inestrosa was a woman who had great scruples of conscience and doubted the Lord’s love for her.105 This puts into perspective Juan de Ávila’s lengthy letter encouraging and consoling this woman whose cuerpo pasa trabajos/ ‘whose body is suffering’ and whose soul is llena de desconsuelos, los cuales le nacen de parecerle que está contraria a Dios por no servirle como desea/ ‘full of unhappiness, born of her sense that she is displeasing God by not serving him as he would wish’.106 As a friend and her spiritual adviser, he understandably goes to great pains to convince her to believe that she will be saved, no matter how much she doubts God’s love or the efficacy of her own good works, penitence and devout practice. With this in mind, there seems to be nothing overtly heretical in his letter. However, taken out of context, he might be seen to be promoting the Lutheran version of justifi­ cation. In this vein, Rady Roldán-Figueroa argues that the 1556 version of Audi, Filia ‘simply does not reflect the teachings on justification that were adopted during the first period of the Council of Trent’ and asserts that, throughout his life, Juan de Ávila did not significantly change his views on justification by faith.107 At best, perhaps, Juan’s position on justification is a question of nuancing rather than outright Lutheranism. In his letters to his flock, how he phrases the matter of salvation by faith is entirely dependent on the particular question posed by each of his correspondents. He was on delicate ground and knew it; therefore it is understandable that he was reluctant to publish Audi, Filia until he was certain that the Tridentine decrees of 1547 had been well embedded in church practice.108 118

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The 1556 edition was promptly banned. He had been right to be wary of the Inquisition whose assessors did indeed identify elements in his presen­tation of justification and the function of divine grace which they saw as being dangerously akin to a Lutheran or Erasmian reading of St Paul’s teaching on grace.109 The text was approved, with strictures as to emendations and expansions on Lutheranism, baptism and penance, in 1565 but would only appear formally in print five years after Juan de Ávila’s death, in 1574.110 The extent to which the text may have been altered in those intervening years by Juan’s disciples to ensure its conformity to Counter-Reformation theology remains to be determined.111 However, if the alumbrados of Extremadura were reading Audi, Filia in the 1560s, they were either using the proscribed 1556 print edition or manuscript copies. Audi, Filia was written initially at the request of Sancha Carillo, a young and sickly noblewoman who wished to devote herself to a life of prayer without entering a religious order. She died in 1537 in Écija at the tender age of twenty-four.112 Juan de Ávila had been introduced to her in the spring of 1527 by her elder brother, a priest, who was one of his disciples.113 It is probable that manuscript copies of the first version of Audi, Filia were circulating in her immediate milieu even before her death, and certainly by 1539.114 This work began life as a brief manual for the female devout at a time when ‘anxious practitioners of mental prayer’ wished to be free of any taint of imposture or heresy.115 For that reason, it is very much a pastoral rather than a scholarly work, as Juan himself attested in his 1548 dedi­cation, concerned with the consolation and guidance of laywomen such as Sancha.116 Inspired in Psalm 45:11: ‘Hearken , O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house’ (King James Version)/ Audi filia et vide et inclina aurem tuam et obliviscere populum tuum et domum patris tui (Vulgate 44:11), from intimate begin­nings, it spread around the ever-expanding circle of laywomen who turned to Juan de Ávila for spiritual guidance. Over the years he enlarged it, mainly to ensure that it would be as accessible to those who had no contact with him as to those who were his disciples. It addresses the spiritual needs of women worried not so much about delicate theological questions such as justification by faith alone but about whether the already virtuous, prayerful and austere lives they were 119

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leading would prove sufficient for their salvation, as in the case of his friend and hostess, Leonor de Inestrosa. Juan de Ávila’s advice to his followers is always practical. In a letter to a young, unmarried woman, distressed because she felt that God had turned his back on her, he is paternal and kindly. This, the famous dark night of the soul as described by John of the Cross, is a phase frequently experienced also by the devout who are not mystics.117 However, Juan de Ávila did not seek to encourage mysticism or imposture of any sort in his disciples and therefore he does his best to persuade the young woman to experience this as the treatment of a loving parent rather than an absent God: Y estános bien muchas veces el pensar que no somos amados o no tan amados; porque es tan grande nuestra locura, que está mejor aprisionada con desabrimientos y tristeza, desmayos, angustias, que nos parezcan semejanza de infierno, que no andar sueltos con la libertad y regocijos que suelen traer los regalados de Dios, el cual, como buen padre, esconde el amor que tiene a sus hijos, porque no se hagan flojos y falsamente seguros, mas tengan siempre un poco de recelo, con que no se descuiden y pierdan el regalo y herencia que en el cielo les tiene guardado. Y aunque Él sabe cuán trabajo es para ellos sentir de Él que no está sabroso y cuántas tentaciones se les levantan cuando Él parece que vuelve la cara, con todo esto quiere que pasen por estas angustias; y viéndolos y amándolos, disimula el amor que les tiene y enséñales lo que, aunque les duele, los tiene seguros.118 And it is good for us often to think that we are not loved or not as much loved; because our madness is so great that it is much better imprisoned by feelings of depression and sadness, fainting fits, anguish, which may seem to us to be the very image of Hell, rather than going around unrestrained in the freedom and joy which those on whom God bestows gifts usually display, he who, like a good father, hides the love he has for his children, so that they do not become weak or feel falsely secure, but are always somewhat cautious, with the effect that they do not become careless and lose the gift and inheritance that he has in store for them in heaven. And even though he knows how painful it is for them to feel that there is no pleasant response coming from him and how many temptations arise when it seems that he has turned his face away, by means of all of this he wishes them to undergo this suffering; and seeing them and loving them, he hides the love he has for them and shows them what, even though it causes them pain, will keep them safe.

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The physical travails, depression, fainting fits, physical and mental pain that these women underwent were often severe and it is clear that Juan de Ávila wishes to enable them to rationalise these sufferings in a positive and practical way. He wrote to some of his flock in order to help them through more concrete problems. His response to a woman either mourning her dead son, or possibly missing a son from whom she has been separated, is full of common sense and compassion: Acuérdese de los trabajos de la Virgen nuestra Señora, que en el solo trago de la pasión de su Hijo, y en aquella tan penosa vista cuando le vio llevar a justiciar con tan pesado madero a cuestas, tan desemejado que apenas le conocía, pasó más pena que todas las madres con el no ver a sus hijos. Mire cuántos tormentos sentiría la que vio delante sus ojos pasar al que más que a sí misma amaba. ¿Qué sentiría cuando en sus brazos tuvo muerto y tan maltratado al que conocía ser hijo de Dios y suyo? Y después de subido a los cielos, estuvo muchos años ausente de Él, con mucha más pena que las otras madres, porque más que todas amaba a su Hijo bendicto. Pues si nos preciamos de ser servidores de nuestra Señora, ¿por qué no le acompañaremos en sus trabajos? Si alzamos nuestros ojos a la mirar cómo estaba al lado de la cruz de nuestro Señor, mirémosla con corazones atribulados, conforme al que ella tenía. 119 Remember the suffering of Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, who in the single episode of her Son’s passion, and in that very painful sight when she saw him taken to his place of execution with such a heavy weight of wood on his shoulders, so disfigured that she barely recognised him, underwent more pain than all other mothers who cannot see their children. Think about how much torment she who saw the one she loved more than her own self pass in front of her would have endured. What would she feel when she had in her arms the one she knew to be the son of God and her own son dead and so badly treated? And after he was resurrected and ascended into heaven, she was separated from him for many years, suffer­ing much more sorrow than other mothers, because she loved her blessed Son more than all of those mothers. For if we prize being servants of our Lady, why do we not accompany her in her sorrows? If we raise our eyes to see her as she was beside the Cross of our Lord, we will look upon her with troubled hearts, just as hers was.

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At the same time, he insists that pain and suffering, mental and physical, are part of life in this world and only by enduring suffering on this Earth will the faithful be worthy of paradise. His advice to this lady is that she must realise she has not yet suffered enough pain and sorrow to warrant admission to the reward in Heaven that awaits her: Ninguno de cuantos allá están pasó aquí sin mayores trabajos que vuestra merced tiene; y si algunos los pasaron menores, en purgatorio los pasaron más recios sin comparación. Porque ha ordenado nuestro Señor que ninguno goce de sus gozos si no tuviere aquí parte en sus penas.120 None amongst all those who are there [in Heaven] spent their time here without greater suffering than your honoured self has [to endure]; and if some had less, in Purgatory they had suffering incomparably more severe. Because our Lord has ordained that none should taste his joys if he has not taken upon himself here [on Earth] some of his sorrows.

This loving but equally demanding advice puts the devotional practice described in Audi, Filia into perspective. It must be understood as being carried out in a context of willing acceptance of the incidental suffering incurred throughout one’s life and the doing of voluntary penance in addition, in order to be worthy of salvation. Like his letters, Audi, Filia was written for lettered women with sufficient education to be able to grasp his arguments and methodology swiftly, while he preached the same messages more simply and with much more extended descriptions of events from the New Testament in his sermons.121 In a sermon on the Solitude of Mary (¿A quién te compararé, hija de Síon?/‘To whom shall I compare you, daughter of Zion?’) Juan gives a long and detailed description of the descent from the Cross. Once the nails have been taken out of Christ’s body and with the body itself sustained by Nicodemus, he turns his lens on the actions and suffering of the Virgin: Levántase la Virgen para tomar a Jesucristo en sus brazos; con el dolor no podía reposar; ni descansar en pie, ni descansar asentada: —«Dádmelo acá!» —«¡Oh Señora, que no sabéis lo que pedís! Mirá que no descansaréis con eso, antes se doblará vuestro dolor». Toman el cuerpo y pónenselo en sus faldas. Toma San Juan

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la cabeza, y la Madalena los pies; comienzan todos a llorar tan reciamente, por una parte de ver aquel bendito cuerpo tan atormentado, por otra parte de ver las lástimas que la sacratísima Virgen hacía. ¡Oh gran dolor! ¿A quien te compararé?   Comienza la Virgen de allegalle las manos a la cabeza y topaba con las espinas que le habían quedado hincadas al quitar de la corona; todos los cabellos llenos de sangre. No hacía sino rodear aquel cuerpo; no se hartaba de mirallo; por otra parte desfallecía del gran dolor. Toma las manos, velas hechas pedazos; pone los ojos en el rostro de su Hijo, abre aquella boca y comienza de hablar; quebraba el corazón que la oía: «¿Qué es aquesto Señor? ¡Hijo mío, Dios mío y consuelo mío!, ¿cómo me has dejado, sabiendo que tanto te amaba? ¿Para qué me has guardado para tanto dolor? ¿Este es el cuerpo que yo tan tiernamente trataba y envolvía?»122 The Virgin gets up to take Jesus Christ in her arms; she cannot be still with her sorrow; she can neither rest standing up, nor sitting down: ‘Give it to me here’, ‘Oh, Lady, you do not know what you ask for! You will not rest with this, rather it will double your sorrow.’ They take the body and place it on her lap. St John takes the head, and the Magdalen the feet; they all begin to weep so severely, on the one hand at seeing that blessed body so battered, on the other at seeing the pitiful actions the Virgin was performing. Oh, great sorrow! To whom can I compare you?   The Virgin began to run her hands around his head and she felt the thorns which had remained stuck in him after the crown was taken off; all his hair covered in blood. All she did was go over the body, she did not tire of looking at it; otherwise she was almost fainting because of her great sorrow. She takes his hands, sees them cut to shreds; she turns her gaze to her Son’s face, opens her mouth and begins to speak; the heart that heard her was breaking: ‘What is this Lord? Oh my Son, my God and my consolation. Why have you left me, knowing how much I loved you? Why have you given me over to so much sorrow? Is this the body I cared for and wrapped up so tenderly?’

Just as Fray Luis and Juan de Ribera did, following as it were in his foot­steps, Juan de Ávila paints a very detailed picture, both pictorially and emotionally, of the descent from the cross and the body of Christ cradled in his mother’s arms, the Piedad. Facing a general audience of lettered and unlettered listeners, he takes great care to ensure that the image is arresting but decorous, communicating the weight of the Virgin’s sorrow in this sermon by recreating the scene for his congregation. On the other hand, when writing to the educated mother sorrowing over her son’s absence, he taps 123

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almost exclusively into her emotions and asks her to use them as a way of entering into those of the Virgin. The readership of Audi, Filia is expected to be able to paint these scenes for themselves, it is the same expectation as that placed on the practitioners of the Spiritual Exercises. However, just as Fray Luis, in the Guía de Pecadores, took great care to ensure that the autonomous lay contemplative understood the proper use of the imagination and the senses for devotional purposes, Juan de Ávila concerns himself with the same matters in Audi, Filia. In the Palabra segunda, Que es ver y que cosa hemos de ver/‘Second word, What is seeing and what should we see’, Juan de Ávila explains: ¿De dónde pensáis que vino la causa de la perdición al mundo? Por cierto, no de más que de una vista desordenada. Miró Eva al árbol vedado, diole gana de comer de su fruto, porque le parecía hermoso, comió y hizo comer a su marido y la comida fue muerte para ellos y cuantos de ellos vinieron. No es cordura mirar lo que no es lícito desear, [. . .] tan livianos somos que, tras los ojos, se nos va el corazón. Pongamos, pues, un velo entre nosotros y toda criatura, no hincando los ojos del todo en ella; por ocupallos allí, no perdamos la vista del Criador, quiero decir, nuestras devotas consideraciones que de Dios teníamos. Where do you think the cause of the perdition of the world came from? For certain, from nothing more than an unmodulated gaze. Eve looked at the forbidden tree, she wished to eat one of its fruits, because it seemed to her beautiful, she ate and made her husband eat and that food was death to them and to all who descended from them. It is not sensible to look at what it is not permitted to desire [. . .] we are so lustful that, through our eyes, our hearts will escape. Let us, therefore, place a veil between ourselves and all creatures, not fixing our eyes completely on them; in occupying our eyes there [looking at them] we would lose sight of our Creator, that is to say, our devotional matters which relate to God.123

He goes on to explain that the soul also has its eyes, or its internal vision, la vista: ojos tenéis que es vuestro entendimiento, que para ver a Dios os fue dado. No lo hincháis de polvo de tierra y de honras, ni lo atapéis con gruesos humores de pensamientos de cuerpo, mas sacudido de estas poquedades, que ocupan la vista, tened vuestro entendimiento claro, para emplearlo en aquel que os le dio y que os le pide para haceros bienaventurados en él.124

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you have eyes and these are your understanding, it [la vista/your soul’s vision] was given to you so that you could see God. Do not bloat it with the dust of the earth and with honours, do not cover it with the heavy humours of bodily thought, but with these small things which take up your sight shaken off, keep your under­ standing clear, in order to use it for what it was given to you to do and what he [the Lord] requires of you so that you will be fortunate in him.

Nevertheless, the imagination or understanding requires some assistance in approaching the persons of God in prayer and here Juan is prepared to sanction the careful employment of appropriate devotional imagery. He was rather particular about the use of images and devotional aids and, in this respect, very much in tune with the recommendations of the Council of Trent, issued in 1563, on religious imagery. As Alison Weber has explained, he was in favour of the use of rosaries, crucifixes and images of the Virgin and St John, especially for the benefit of the unlettered, but wary of elaborately dressed statuary and paintings where the artist had deviated from an orthodox or catechistic norm.125 Here, he recommends images of the stations of the Cross, probably similar to those in the Flemish portable oratorio which belonged to Juan de Ribera’s family: Y para esto sirve mucho tener algunas imágenes de los pasos de la pasión, bien proporcionadas, en las cuales miréis muchas veces, para que después, sin mucha pena, las podáis vos sola imaginar. Y no sólo habéis de evitar este trabajo de la cabeza y sienes, y pecho, en el imaginar, mas aun en el pensar. Porque algunos piensan con tantos movimientos y trabajos que caen en daños de cuerpo y grandes sequedades del ánima.126 And for this it is very useful to have some images of the stations of the Cross, well executed, at which you can look many times, in order that then, without too much trouble, you can imagine them on your own. And you will not only avoid this troubling of your head and brain, and breast, in the business of imagining, but also [in that of ] of thinking. Because some people move their bodies so much and trouble themselves so much while thinking that they cause themselves physical harm and great droughts of the soul.

His mission is to ensure that his followers, male and female, avoid hysteria and exaggeration in their practice. If they have an appropriate and sober 125

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image to hand, they will be less likely to become overwrought as they struggle to achieve a mental image of the episode from Christ’s passion they wish to contemplate. Needless to say, neither he nor Fray Luis, with all their recom­ mendations of moderation and their care in steering their flocks away from the perils of mysticism, could control how their work was used by those less adept than themselves, such as the questionable clerics indicted, with their followers, in the Llerena alumbrado trials in the 1570s. Interestingly, Diego de Simancas, the bishop of Badajoz during the Llerena trials, who may not actually have known Morales personally, had rather strong opinions on the nature of sacred images. In 1552, in his Institutiones Catholicae/ Catholic Institutes he insisted that sacred images should be an object of veneration and adoration in themselves, without this constituting a risk of idolatry.127 This work, a legal handbook for inquisitors, was revised and reissued in 1569 in Alcalá de Henares and then in 1575 in Rome, the year before he came to Badajoz.128 Such a position puts him very much at odds with the opinions expressed in Audi, Filia and Juan de Ávila’s general reticence regard­ ing the use of images as devotional aids. It perhaps provides a sense of the change in atmosphere which occurred in the diocese in Morales’s later years. The function of the devotional images produced by Morales in the 1560s and 1570s is thus evident. The great difference between the religious images he produced as the 1560s progressed and those he made in the 1550s lies not so much in the religious subject matter, which was constant, but in the fact that he was commissioned more and more to produce smaller versions of a select range of images and that these images became more and more simplified, focusing more closely on the figures of Christ and his mother, with fewer and fewer extraneous elements. The progression from the Piedad he executed for Badajoz cathedral in 1553–4 and those he made in the following decade provides a good illustration of this point.129 Meanwhile, his work on altarpieces, for which he had several major commissions throughout the 1560s, continued, understandably, in a more conventional vein. These were paintings to be viewed from afar and were large-scale projects, involving the collaboration of his studio and considerable reliance on engravings. Furthermore, they had to carry a weight of biblical narrative with which the images painted for private devotion were not encumbered. The contrast between this work and his small devotional pieces is the same as that between 126

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the public sermons preached by Fray Luis and Juan de Ávila to the masses and their devotional manuals for a mostly educated elite. The question Juan de Ávila posed in his sermon on the Solitude of Mary, ¿Este es el cuerpo que yo tan tiernamente trataba y envolvía?/‘Is this the body I cared for and wrapped up so tenderly?’, is illustrated by Morales in the trajectory that may be traced between his versions of the Virgin and Child (Virgen de la Leche) and his depictions of the Piedad. In the same manner, Juan de Ribera’s statement in his first sermon, preached on Christmas Day 1563 in Badajoz, that Cruz comenzó a traer Cristo desde que nació hasta morir/‘Christ carried his cross from the day he was born to the day he died’, can be discerned in the relationship between Morales’s representations of the Virgin and Child with a distaff (La Virgen con la Rueca/La Virgen del Huso) and the images he created of the Man of Sorrows (Cristo, Varón de Dolores). The first trajectory explores the humanity of Christ, from the oblivious new­ born infant attempting to suckle at his mother’s breast, to the ravaged body of the torture victim placed in his mother’s arms after his death by crucifixion. The second reflects the divinity of Christ, in the baby aware of the significance of the Cross as he looks at his mother’s spindle, and the man already scourged and crowned with thorns, seated in deep thought by his Cross, awaiting the final phase of his agony. By common consent, La Virgen de la Leche/Virgin and Child, c.1565 (fig. 12) is the most highly finished and beautiful of Morales’s versions of the Virgin about to feed her son. This particular image was probably a commission for a wealthy private individual, given the dimensions of the painting, the care Morales clearly took over it and the use of expensive chestnut as support.130 The Virgin’s face is very similar to the face of the Virgin in the 1546 Virgin and Child with the Little Bird (fig. 1) while the baby, though clearly slightly older, is strongly reminiscent of the exquisite newborn in the Holy Family with the Horoscope of Christ (fig. 5). The baby’s head is thrown back at such an angle that one wonders why his mother is not supporting it. Perilous though it may be, the posture is graceful and has the advantage of showing in profile a delicate little button nose and a pair of full lips. The baby’s finely-lashed eyelids are closed as he focuses on raising his mother’s transparent veil with his left hand while seeking out her nipple through the flash in her dress with his right. A conventional metaphor for the succour the Virgin can provide to 127

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the struggling, stumbling faithful this certainly is, but first and foremost it conveys the extreme vulnerability of Jesus as a human baby, feeling rather than seeing his way towards his next meal. In a realistic and rather joyful human touch, the baby’s legs are kicking from the knee, almost cycling, as he struggles to reach his goal, an element which would reinforce the vulnerability of Christ for the contemplative. The Virgin herself is suffused with sorrow, her almost closed eyelids hiding her eyes from the viewer as she gazes down on her wriggling son. Through her transparent veil, her left ear can be seen in anatomical detail. It seems rather unusual, but finds its echo in the baby’s right ear, also conveyed in great detail, set against dark blond curly hair which is exactly the same as his mother’s. This shared hair colour and texture demonstrates that they are mother and son, and the prominence given to their ears in profile would suggest to the contemplative that they are there to listen, to hear the prayers of the devout. The whole is bathed in a golden light against a dark background which creates an intense sense of intimacy. The Virgin, seated on what may be a simple wooden bench, exudes an air of stillness which offsets her baby’s fidgeting as he grapples for sustenance from her breast. Though she holds his back and bottom very securely in her well-positioned hands, rather like the baby in the Holy Family with the Horoscope, this infant’s head does seem as if it is projecting out of the painting towards the viewer. In which case, the lack of maternal support beneath the child’s head is explicable, in the sense that there might be a tacit invitation to the viewer to stretch out their own hand to make sure the baby is safe. Commissioned, as has already been mentioned, by Cristóbal de Rojas y Sandoval, and then donated by him to the Jesuit College in Cordoba as he took up his appointment as bishop of that diocese, the Piedad/Pietà, c.1560 (fig. 14) sits at the apex of the considerable number of different renditions of this composition effected by Morales, his studio and imitators over the years.131 In this depiction, the body of Jesus taken down from the cross has been placed in the Virgin’s arms. She appears to be kneeling behind him, with the base of the vertical bar of the cross behind her back. The colour and wood grain of the cross are not unlike the wood of the bench on which she sits, about to feed her son, in La Virgen de la Leche, a nod towards the adult Christ’s fate as the oblivious baby prepares to drink. Fray Luis’s description 128

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of Christ in his mother’s arms, typical of evocations of the descent from the cross in pulpits up and down the land, is very close to this rendition by Morales.132 The Virgin’s kneeling posture may be taken as a signal of humility, but also, on a practical level, it is the only way she can feasibly sustain the dead weight of her son’s body, a man who, in life, was altogether taller and heavier than she is. Here, at the end his life, the same two large and strong hands which held his back and bottom as a baby are now placed on his chest and ribs, with the fingers and thumbs spread out as wide as possible to stabilise the body which seems, in the image, as in Fray Luis’s words, almost too heavy for her to bear. This is made obvious in the indentation of her thumbs into Christ’s flesh and the way the flesh seems to be pushed up by them, as if the thumbs alone were taking the strain. The loose swaddling around the baby’s bottom is now the loose loin cloth covering Christ’s genitals; his head is thrown back at the same dangerous angle as the baby’s in La Virgen de la Leche but it is now resting on his shoulder in the unnatural pose only produced in a cadaver or when an individual’s neck is broken. His left ear can be seen between his cheek and shoulder, evidence, perhaps, that he is still listening to the devout, though his mother’s head, as befits an older and widowed woman, is completely covered by her head veil and maphorion or wimple. Christ’s eyes are not closed, but slightly open, to show the whites of his eyes. The once rounded, pink-cheeked face is now gaunt and grey, the rosy lips blue-black and the forehead which was so gently domed and shining in that baby is now dripping with blood from the holes made by the thorns. The Virgin has placed her cheek next to his and her tears are mingling with the still wet blood on his face. Blood drips from the wound in his right side and from his two hands. His left hand curls in his lap and seems almost to form a shallow chalice, symbolic of the Eucharist. She is only focused on his face, looking down, just as she did when this man was a babe in her arms. Like the Virgen de la Leche, this is an intimate portrait of loving mother and beloved son. Her sorrow is manifest in both compositions while his physical state is communicated in infancy and then in death. Christ’s back is turned to the viewer as a baby, and he is dead as an adult. Insofar as the Son of God may be deemed to be a passive presence, he is passive here with most of the emotional import of the two images communicated in the body and gestures of the Virgin. 129

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Figure 17 After Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Yarnwinder, c.520–30, oil on panel, 62 x 48.8 cms, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, inv. NG2270

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Badajoz in the 1560s: Meditation on Christ

Morales painted several exquisite versions of the Virgin and Child with a distaff, including a luminous version kept at the Royal Palace in Madrid (Inv. 10010104) and a slightly larger panel in the possession of the Hispanic Society of America. This version, La Virgen del Huso/The Virgin and Child with the Distaff (and spindle), 1566 (fig. 13), was painted for Ribera, and in it the child looks away from his sorrow-struck mother to embrace the fate symbolised by the semblance of the Cross visible in the distaff, an otherwise mundane, domestic object representative of good housewifery. Trapier noted the striking similarity with Leonardo’s Madonna del fusi/The Madonna of the Yarnwinder, sketched by him in 1501 and disseminated in paintings by several of his followers (fig. 17). She argues that Morales may have had some knowledge of copies of this image executed by Fernando Yáñez de Almedina in Valencia, a theory backed up by subsequent scholarship which shows that there were at least three copies of this image in the Valencia area in the early 1550s.133 As Rodríguez de Ceballos intimates, this does not mean that Morales went to Valencia or actually saw these images, but he must have known or been told something about them. He demonstrates that the scriptural basis for this Morales scene is oblique, neither reported in the Bible nor the apocryphal gospels.134 It may instead be traced in Psalm 40:7–8 (Vulgate), verses 6–7 (King James Version): ‘Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. / Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.’ This text is glossed by Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews, making clear the intimation of Christ’s future sacrifice (Hebrews 10:7–10, King James): ‘Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. […] / By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ This is the knowledge the child Jesus becomes aware of in this composition. Rodríguez de Ceballos cites a letter from the Carmelite abbot in Florence, Fra Pietro da Novellara, to the cultured and wealthy Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, written in 1501, in which he explains that the Virgin in Leonardo’s image is desperate to keep the child on her lap and away from embracing the fate she knows is unavoidable.135 Fra Pietro was, at the time, acting on behalf of the Marchesa in her endeavour to acquire a painting by Leonardo.136 As Martin Kemp explains: 131

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The Virgin in the Madonna of the Yarnwinder was about to spin flax, but the child is holding the yarnwinder and grips it firmly in anticipation that his mother will try to take it back. Leonardo’s characterisation of emotion, of il concetto dell’anima, implies the potential for continuing reaction – what he would have called a ‘continuous quantity’ in mathematical terms. It is accomplished by a painting technique in which the ‘signs’ of the face are left understated.137

The playfulness of the Leonardo cartoon and the various versions of it in paintings by his followers, for example the version by Giacomo Salaì in a private collection in New York, is not transferred into Morales’s depiction of the theme.138 His Virgin’s face is suffused in sorrow, with tears on her cheeks, and the child is clearly aware of the significance of the cross. Rodríguez de Ceballos suggests that the prophecy of Simeon on seeing the child Jesus at the temple (Luke 2:25–36, King James Version), in which he addresses the Virgin, lies behind this darker representation of the scene: And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;   (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

The gesture the Virgin makes with her left hand, her palm facing the child, her fingers spread, does not look like the protective hand of a mother attempt­ ing to ensure her baby does not fall off her lap. If anything, her hand seems to jerk back as if she has had a sudden jolt of pain or a shock. The tears on her cheeks and her sorrowful face, eyes almost closed as she gazes on the child in her lap, confirm that this is the moment when she has realised the true import of Simeon’s prophecy, the sword that will pierce her own heart. The baby is nothing like as realistic as those Morales painted in the Virgen de la Leche (fig. 12) or the Holy Family with the Horoscope (fig. 5). Instead, he has returned to a more formulaic representation of the figure of the infant Jesus. The baby’s head is too small and reflects the proportions of an adult’s head. He has the developed musculature of an adult on his torso, abdomen and upper arms, thighs and knees, but the podgy hands, forearms and feet 132

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of a baby. This is to offer a foreshadowing of the adult body that will be hung on the full-size Cross. The little feet move about just like those of the baby in the Virgen de la Leche but otherwise the position of the baby on his mother’s lap, reclining into the crook of her right arm, seems insecure. It looks as if his naked form is going to slide off her silk mantle at any moment, especially as she has started back in shock and may not be able to react quickly enough to save him. He, meanwhile, holds the spindle on his lap with his left hand while reaching up with his right to hold the distaff under the top horizontal bar, his gaze trained on the intersection with the horizontal bar. Mary is seated on the same wooden bench, probably an indication of the cross, as in the Virgen de la Leche, and the background is dark, with the light focused fully on the two human figures. She is dressed as she was in the Virgen de la Leche with the exception that the flashes in her dress which would allow breastfeeding are no longer present, an indication that the child is somewhat older. In the Hispanic Society of America version, the child is standing on his mother’s lap and his nether regions are swathed in a loose white cloth, whereas the version in the Royal Palace in Madrid conforms to the more usual iconography of this painting, with the child seated. In all three iterations, mother and child share the same curly, dark-blond hair. The light thrown on them intensifies the delicacy of this moment of realisation on both their parts. This is the point at which the Virgin must surrender her baby to his divine fate. Thus the figure perched precariously on her lap is part baby, part full-grown man, no longer helpless and dependent on his mother, as in the Virgen de la Leche. As in the Virgen de la Leche, their ears are prominently visible on a diagonal from top right to bottom left, extending an invitation to prayer to the con­ templative. In this way, the painting fulfils the devotional function for which it was commissioned. The Prado version was originally part of a side-altar dedicated to St Anne in Badajoz cathedral, commissioned by Juan de Ribera. The side-chapel setting provided a suitably intimate space for the devout to kneel before it and engage in private prayer.139 This image is especially focused on the contemplation of the Passion, in that both the Virgin and Child are looking forward, knowing what is to come. This painting was accompanied on the side-altar by a similar-sized image of a seated Christ, in three-quarter format, his head resting on his hand, contemplating the rigours he was to 133

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Figure 18 Luis de Morales, Man of Sorrows, 1566, oil on walnut panel, 60.5 x 44 cms, Prado Museum, Madrid, inv. P007867.

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undergo in a brief period of respite between his scourging and setting out for Calvary (fig. 18). This painting is now in the Prado (P7867). Significantly, this relationship between the Virgin and Child with the Distaff and Christ as Man of Sorrows is one established or endorsed by Ribera himself during his tenure at Badajoz. The Prado Cristo, Varón de Dolores/The Man of Sorrows, c.1560 (fig. 18), painted in 1566, shows the crown of thorns biting into Christ’s forehead, with one particularly nasty-looking one digging deep into the flesh above the centre of his right eye. Christ’s left ear is visible behind the fingers of the hand on which his cheek and chin are rested. His downcast eyes are almost closed, bearing testimony to the pain he is experiencing from the scourging and the thorns. His beard and hair, artfully curled in ringlets, are arranged around his neck and shoulders, while an eggshell blue robe partly envelops his shoulders and his lap. This blue was used for depictions of Christ by Sebastiano del Piombo, an artist who famously blended Venetian use of colour with Roman grandeur in anatomy and architecture. In Morales’s hands, the fabric gives off a luxurious sheen, pointing to Christ’s divine nature, even as he sits subdued in what is effectively a torture chamber.140 Apart from the drops of blood on his forehead and a single trickle coming down over his right shoulder, Christ’s body is spotless, the skin tones luminous and the musculature delicately modelled. Only the puckered skin around his index and second fingers as they support his forehead, and the tired, half-closed eyes, betray his human fragility at this point. This image is a close-up reprise of the full-length Man of Sorrows now at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, a painting of more or less the same intimate dimensions (fig. 19). Both are probably based on woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer: the frontispiece from his series, The Small Passion (1510) which shows Christ seated with his head in his right hand, Melancholy (1524) and the frontispiece from The Large Passion (1511) which shows a seated Christ crowned with thorns and with his legs crossed.141 Dürer’s allegorical engraving Melencholia (1514) may also have been influential in modelling the figure, though the subject matter is far from religious. The biblical source for the image comes from the Book of Isaiah, describing the servant of God who will spread the word (Isaiah 53:3–5, King James Version):

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He is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him: he was despised, and we esteemed him not.   Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.   But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed.

This text is and was extremely familiar to Christians as it has been used since time immemorial in Good Friday services.142 In the Prado and Minneapolis images, Christ has tears in his eyes. These are not only tears of physical pain. They allude to the remorse the contemplative should experience for the transgressions and iniquities they have committed in life, and evince evidence of Christ’s awareness of and participation in the workaday griefs and sorrows of mankind. The composition depicts both the humanity and the divinity of the suffering Christ. This Minneapolis painting finds Christ seated on a carved and moulded plinth, with the head of his Cross, resting on the transverse bar, to his right and a column, probably the one to which he was earlier tied to be scourged, set further back on his left. His limbs are plaited across his torso and abdomen, his left leg crossed over his right knee, his right forearm resting on his left thigh, the elbow of his left arm on the right forearm and his head resting in the palm of his left hand. His face, with almost closed eyes, is turned to the right, where the cross sits, as his shoulders, in conventional portrait pose, turn towards the pillar. This may be an indication that, his body having under­gone the scourging, his mind has now turned to the Crucifixion which awaits him. This pose puts Christ at a distance from the viewer, he is folded in on himself, the core of his body, abdomen and torso sealed off so that the contemplative cannot consider reaching out to him, as they might have reached out to the baby Jesus in Virgen de la Leche or the Holy Family with the Horoscope. In this painting the devout are obliged to keep their distance while in contrast, the Prado Man of Sorrows, painted for Ribera, seems to be more accessible. The limbs are still plaited and his legs crossed, but the figure appears to lean out of the painting towards the contemplative, an impression perhaps produced by the fact that the entire painting is taken up by the figure of Christ and there 136

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are no other narrative elements present. A sliver of Christ’s eyeballs is visible which may give the viewer a sense of under­standing better what he is thinking at this point in his Passion. However, this Christ is also very much absorbed in his suffering and there is no sense that physical intrusion from the spectator is invited. In both the Prado and the Minneapolis images, however, the listen­ ing ear of Christ, his left ear, is prominent, an indication surely that the only response required is that of prayer, to which he will listen. The full-length Minneapolis image shows the tools of a carpenter at his feet. This time they belong not to him but to the carpenter who made the cross on which he will hang: a hammer, an awl, three nails. These, along with the cross and the pillar, are some of the medieval Arma Christi, the Weapons or Instruments of Christ which represent his Passion.143 The awl, the hammer and the nails are laid out on the floor on Christ’s right, the same side as the cross. On his left, the pillar side, there is a bundle of wands on the floor. Logically, this should be the scourge, not always represented as a whip, used to flagellate him, and indeed the bundle does seem to have a little blood on it. However, the bruising on Christ’s right arm and shoulder would seem to suggest the marks of a longer, more conventional whip. The nails, too, are interesting because each one is a different size, though only two sizes were needed, one long one for the feet nailed together at the base of the cross, and two shorter ones for the hands. While the three different sizes create an aesthetically pleasing tableau, perhaps the import of these three sizes might either be that the carpenter/executioner had not made up his mind which would be the best sizes to use or that he simply did not have two nails of the same size, either of which adds a touch of mundanity to the image and gives the contemplative an avenue for exploration. Both paintings are very delicate. Apart from the realistic depiction of the thorns biting into Christ’s flesh, they contain very little blood. Christ is luminous and, contrary to Isaiah who prophesies ‘he hath no form nor comeliness’ (53:2, King James Version), extremely beautiful, even at this stage of his passion. The luminosity echoes that deployed in the Virgin with the Distaff. This is Christ, baby and man, as the divine son of God, wiser than humanity and untouchable. Even so, he is represented weeping tears of remorse for the sins of humanity, showing, as his mother does in the Piedad, how penitence should best be undertaken. 137

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Golden Age Painting in Iberia: Morales

These images of the infancy and death of Christ, and of the suffering his mother endured in anticipation of his agony and afterwards are very much part of a prayer environment in and around Badajoz which encouraged the devout to concentrate on Christ and his mother as subjects for contemplation. This environment was consonant with the exclusive focus on establishing a relationship with God central to the first wave, Guadalajara alumbrados; consonant with the emphasis on the scriptures and communion with God or the persons of God central to Lutheranism; consonant with the Franciscan practice of recogimiento which requires the pious individual to withdraw from everyday life to meditate on the passion and death of Christ. These three seemingly distinct threads appear to be interwoven in the spiritual writing of the sixteenth century available in Spain, up to the introduction of the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559. Fray Luis de Granada alone, with his incorporation of the excommunicated Catholic visionary Savonarola and the Lutheran-friendly Juan de Ávila into his 1556 Guía de Pecadores, his position as a theological liberal within an order, the Dominicans, so prominent in the implementation of the Spanish Inquisition, and his importance as a senior administrator of that order in Portugal, sums up the fluidity of pre-Tridentine religious practice on the Peninsula. The final matter here is the protagonism of laywomen in devotional practice and devotional innovation in the sixteenth century and the efforts made by preachers such as Fray Luis and Juan de Ávila to support and encourage these women, whether erudite or unlettered. Morales’s depictions of the sufferings of the Virgin in the 1560s seem especially tailored to the prayer needs of such women, while his gentle and passive adult Christ also appears to belong to a devotional culture which steers the devout of both genders towards contemplation of the more reflective aspects of Christ’s passion and sacrifice. The implementation of the strictures of the Council of Trent, coupled with the severe controls on devotional texts imposed independently by the Inquisition in Spain, but not in pre-Philippine Portugal where there was very little encroachment of Lutheranism, may be said to have brought about a shift in devotional practice and the use of iconography in the long term. Greater emphasis was placed on the communion of saints. As well as devotion to the Blessed Virgin, a constant in Catholicism, the pious Catholic would be encouraged to pray more frequently to recognised Catholic saints, those 138

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who were martyred for the sake of Christianity or who lived ascetic and exemplary lives. The idea was that mere mortals needed to be shown the way by other mere mortals like themselves. In Morales’s repertoire, the alternative female role model to the Virgin was the Magdalen, though he did not paint her very frequently. A biblical figure, Christ’s contemporary and, according to church tradition in the sixteenth century, a reformed prostitute, she may not have appealed to Morales’s male clientèle, clerical or lay, while the female devout were, in all likelihood, more than satisfied with representations of the sorrows of the Virgin. A historical figure such as the fourth-century theologian, Jerome offered a different kind of opportunity and a model for the male devout to emulate. Jerome was a theologian and one of the founders of monasticism, but he was not a mystic. His acquaintance with Christ comes through the exercise of prayer and penitence, and the gift of faith. As the strictures of the Council of Trent took hold, a figure such as Jerome, theologically uncontroversial and a known combatant of early heresy, constituted an ideal penitent and an example to be emulated.

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Figure 31 Luis de Morales, St Jerome in the Wilderness, c.1560–70, oil on panel, 62 x 46.5 cms, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, inv. NGI 1.

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Tridentine Badajoz and its Environs: The Model Male Penitent

Representations of Jerome undergoing extreme penitence in the wilderness became the dominant mode in the late sixteenth century in the Peninsula. Morales produced a very small number of paintings of Jerome, most of which were probably made between 1555 and 1565.1 Jerome is the only non-biblical saint Morales painted with any degree of frequency, an indication of the growing importance of devotion to Jerome as the strictures of the Council of Trent filtered through to Badajoz. The other important factor to bear in mind in terms of the proliferation of images of Jerome in Spain is that the Hieronymite Order, established in Spain and Portugal since 1373 as an enclosed male monastic order, following the Rule of St Benedict and in imitation of the practice of St Jerome over the course of his long life in a monastery in Syria, was the only Iberian-founded order extant on the Peninsula in the early modern period. The recommendation regarding the intercession of saints was finalised in the report of the twenty-fifth and final session of the Council, held in December 1563, in the section dealing with the appropriate use of relics and devotional images. Bishops were directed to

Chapter 4

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especially instruct the faithful diligently concerning the intercession and invocation of saints; the honour [paid] to relics; and the legitimate use of images: teaching them, that the saints, who reign together with Christ, offer up their own prayers to God for men; that it is good and useful to invoke them in a spirit of supplication, and to have recourse to their prayers.2

What is interesting in Morales’ depictions of Jerome, which, as with all his work, followed the same template in each of his iterations, is the emotional intensity he applies to the saint as an elderly man. His depictions make almost no allusion to Jerome’s significance as a Church Father or the spiritual father of the Hieronymite Order. They are stripped back to concentrate on Jerome’s remorse for, almost consternation at, his sins. This plangency in Morales’s portraits of Jerome derives clearly from the Flemish tradition, an aesthetic which, in the 1550s and 1560s, found much more sympathy in Portugal where there was a much stronger adherence to the Flemish style in religious painting than in Spain. This is an influence which the Portuguese architect, artist and theorist Francisco de Hollanda battled against from a very early age. The second book of Hollanda’s Da Pintura Antiga/On Ancient Painting contains a series of four dialogues on painting. The dialogues arise out of friendships Hollanda made and conversations he had during a two-year residence in Rome between 1538 and 1540, when he was himself barely out of his teens.3 Hollanda’s interlocutors are Michelangelo Buonarroti, who appears in three of them, and other notable figures such as the learned Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa of Pescara.4 He completed the text in 1548 in Lisbon but it was not published in Portuguese until the late nineteenth century. Though it had been translated into Spanish in 1563 by another Portuguese painter, Manuel Denis who had been brought up in Spain, the Castilian version did not appear in print until 1921.5 As the Portuguese original and the apparently selective Spanish translation, of which no original survives, were in circulation in manuscript, it would not be outrageous to suggest that Morales was familiar with the dialogues, in one or other language.6 Da Pintura Antiga predates the first edition of Giorgio Vasari’s Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori/Lives of the Most Excellent Painters by two years and is the most signifi­ cant treatise on art produced at this time in Spain or Portugal. Its dialogue 142

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form would not be surpassed until the Florentine native and Madrid resident, Vicente Carducho produced his Arte de la Pintura in 1633, almost a century later. One of the more interesting passages, not included in the Spanish translation, concerns Hollanda’s reporting of Michelangelo’s opinion of Flemish painting. Vittoria Colonna, who is lauded by Hollanda for her piety in widowhood, asks Michelangelo for his opinion on Flemish painting. By this she must mean religious painting since she considers it more suitable for devotional purposes than Italian art: A pintura de Frandes, respondeu devagar o pintor, satisfará, Senhora, geralmente a qualquer devoto, mais que nenhuma de Italia, que lhe nunca fará chorar uma só lagrima, e a de Frandes muitas; isto nāo polo vigor e bondade d’aquela pintura, mas pola bondade d’aquele tal devoto. A molheres parecerá bem, principalmente ás muito velhas, ou as muito moças, e assi mesmo a frades e a freiras, e a alguns fidalgos desmusicos da verdadeira harmonia. Pintam em Frandes propriamente pera enganar a vista exterior, ou cousas que vos alegrem ou de que não posses dizer mal, assi como santos e profetas. O seu pintar vora trapos, maçonerias, verduras de campos, sombras d’arvores, e rios e pontes, a que chaman paisagens, e muitas feguras para ca e muitas para acola; e tudo isto, inda que pareça bem a alguns olhos, na verdade é feito sem razão nem arte, sem symetria, nem proporção, sem advertencia d’escolher nem despejo, e finalmente sem nenhuma sustancia nem nervo; e comtudo noutra parte se pinto pior que em Frandes. Nem digo tanto mal da framenga pintura porque seja toda má, mas porque quer fazer tanta cousa bem (cada uma das quaes só bastava por mui grande) que não faz nenhuma bem.7 ‘Flemish painting’, the painter responded slowly, ‘Lady, will generally satisfy any devout person, much more than any Italian painting, which will never make them shed a single tear, and Flemish painting will make them shed many; this not because of the vigour and good quality of that painting, but because of the goodness of the devout person. It will seem good to women, chiefly the most elderly, or the youngest, and also to monks and nuns, and some nobles who are tone deaf when it comes to true harmony. In Flanders, they paint really to deceive the external eye, either things which make you happy or things of which you cannot speak ill, such as saints and prophets. Their painting is all fabric, masonry, plants in the fields, the shadows cast by trees, and rivers and bridges, which they call landscapes, and many figures over here and over there; and all of this, even though it may look

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good in some eyes, in truth is made without reason and without art, without symmetry, nor proportion, without taking care over what to include and what to omit, and finally without either substance or strength; so that overall there is nowhere where they paint worse than in Flanders. I do not speak so ill of Flemish painting because it is all bad, but because it wants to do so many things well (any one of which would be sufficient on its own however large) that it does none well.

The contrast between the efficacy of Flemish painting for devotional purposes and the failure of Italian painting to elicit an emotional response in the viewer is one which may be illustrated in the contrast between Leonardo’s Madonna del Fusi and Morales’s Virgen del Huso, as discussed in the previous chapter. The Morales shows a weeping Virgin who will provoke tears in the con­ templative. The versions of the Leonardo sketch will, on the other hand, be admired for their grace, serenity and execution. What Morales in his maturity does not do is pack his devotional images with superfluous elements of landscape or figures but his plangency is directly related to this quality in Flemish painting identified by Michelangelo and recounted by Hollanda. Hollanda made it his life’s mission to overhaul Portuguese painting and bring it closer to the Italian style. In doing so, he was working against what had up to then been a royal policy of encouraging Flemish painters and Flemish style in Portuguese religious art.8 Religious painting, apart from the decoration of royal palaces, was the dominant source of income for painters in Iberia, unlike in Italy where not only were painters better paid, as Michelangelo notes in the dialogues, but there was a much more even distribution between sacred and profane art.9 Vittoria Colonna describes painting as a virtual encyclopaedia of all of human history and natural history, and the achievements of outstanding individuals in the temporal and spiritual spheres, concluding that painting helps to ennoble whatever it may repre­ sent.10 In Portugal, up to and beyond the time of Hollanda’s visit to Rome, the policies of Manuel I and his successor João III had ensured that hundreds of paintings were imported from Flanders, and Flemish painters were en­ couraged to come and work in Portugal, so that Flemish style was always predominant over Italian.11 Two of the most influential and successful painters working in Portugal in the early decades of the sixteenth century were Flemish natives, known in Portugal as Francisco Henriques and Frei Carlos. Henriques, 144

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who lived in Portugal from about 1500 until his death in 1518, created the altarpiece in the church of the Franciscan convent in Évora between 1508 and 1511, and Frei Carlos, the majority of whose work was executed in the 1520s and 1530s, had a thriving workshop in the Hieronymite monastery outside Évora.12 The style of these Flemish-Portuguese painters operating in Évora is significant in terms of the artistic currents flowing into Morales’s workshop in Badajoz. Isabel Mateo Gómez suggests that Portuguese painting must have been one of the strongest influences on his work, though she is more inclined to prioritise the painterly milieu of Toledo, a city with which the family of Juan de Ribera had significant associations, and the work of Juan Correa de Vivar quien sobre un sustrato flamenco heredado de Borgoña, comenzaba a introducir en sus obras un rafaelismo con cierto ‘cadencia’ manierista, y la utilización del grabado, tanto flamenco como italiano para sus composiciones.13 who on a Flemish base inherited from Burgundy, began to introduce into his work a Raphaelism with a certain Mannerist ‘cadence’, and the use of prints, both Flemish and Italian, for his compositions.

She allows, however, that Francisco de Hollanda’s father, António, in all likelihood and as his surname suggests, Flemish-born like Henriques and Frei Carlos, may also have been a contributor to Morales’s range of influences. António worked at the courts of Manuel I and João III of Portugal and was called to Toledo by Manuel’s sister, Isabel, to paint portraits of herself and her husband, the newly elected Holy Roman Emperor, Karl I (Carlos V) in 1529.14 He would carry out many commissions for the empress Isabel de Portugal, one of which was a portrait of herself and her two-year-old son, Felipe, a lo divino/‘in divine style’, as Virgin and Child. She appeared as the Virgin Mary dressed as a gypsy, a composition which Morales repeated on several occasions. Portraits a lo divino were common at the time in Portugal and Flanders but not in Spain and the a lo divino fashion is distinct from the inclusion of contemporary figures in scenes from the Bible, such as the inclusion of Margarita de Austria-Estiria and her family in nativity scenes, 145

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mentioned in chapter II.15 Mateo Gómez believes that Morales may have made a copy of António de Hollanda’s now lost a lo divino portrait of the empress, that the Morales copy was sold at Christie’s in 2005 and is now in a private collection in Madrid. 16 Felipe Pereda further suggests that Morales may have been influenced by or had some contact with Francisco de Hollanda, noting that two versions of the Virgin dressed as a gypsy appear in Hollanda’s remarkable De aetatibus mundi imagines/Images from the Ages of the World.17 This would be significant, not least because Hollanda’s De aetatibus mundi imagines contains some astonishingly modern, even modernist, imagery. The work is a collection of 154 plates, some in colour, describing the creation of the world and the history of the world. It is structured around a series of verses from the Vulgate Bible and was published in Latin in Lisbon in 1573, towards the end of Hollanda’s life. It fell into obscurity and was believed lost, more or less until 1955 when an unattributed volume in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid was formally assigned to Hollanda by Francisco Cordeiro Blanco.18 The illustrations for the Creation of the World which make up the first part of this book are amongst the most remarkable to emerge from the sixteenth century, in style and concept far closer to William Blake than any contemporary engraving.19 Such work seems utterly incongruous within the career of a humanist and artist renowned for his interest in classical antiquity, yet Hollanda was engaged on the final version of Da Pintura Antiga at the same time as these images, which he completed in 1545. Needless to say, he probably felt obliged to take the prudent course of publishing this collection in Latin since the Inquisition, both in Spain and in Portugal, would be far less likely to sanction it if it were not presented in the vernacular.20 Morales may have read and appreciated Da pintura antiga though he would have been unlikely to have seen a finished version of De aetatibus mundi. He may well have copied António de Hollanda’s a lo divino portrait of Isabel of Portugal, though there is no telling how he may have had news of or access to it. The painter he became in Badajoz in the 1560s, under the patronage of Juan de Ribera, tends much more towards the overtly emotive Flemish style, so disliked by Michelangelo in Francisco de Hollanda’s account, and by Hollanda himself. However, Hollanda’s endeavour to move the focus of Portuguese style more towards the Italian mode was doomed as far as 146

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religious painting was concerned. In the fervent devotional atmosphere in Portugal in the mid-sixteenth century, those commissioning devotional images, religious and lay, would inevitably be more conservative in their tastes, more interested in the functionality than the aesthetics of the image. The most relevant painter working in Portugal on devotional imagery, as far as Morales’s intimate paintings are concerned, is the Hieronymite Frei Carlos. Solís Rodríguez believes that Morales must have studied in Évora after, as Mateo Gómez suggests, an initial period of training in Castile, in which case he would have been exposed to some of Frei Carlos’s compositions.21 Most of the work produced by Frei Carlos and his studio was made for the decoration of the monastery at which he professed in 1517, Santa Maria do Espinheiro, just outside the court city of Évora.22 To Michelangelo, these paintings would be instantly recognisable as Flemish, in their inclusion of detailed and ornate fabrics, carpets, furniture, and in the background land­ scapes and profusion of figures. Yet Frei Carlos’s palette is darker and warmer, adapted to the tastes of Portugal and the availability of pigments, and the religious sensibility on display is more severe and more intensely prayerful than in comparable Flemish painting. His Virgem do Leite/Virgin and Child (c.1518–25), which is signed, is kept at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon (Inv. 1180 Pint). It is an obvious precursor for Morales’s Virgen de la Leche, not least in the playful pedalling of the child’s feet. His Bom Pastor/ Christ, the Good Shepherd, also painted for the monastery, is a medium-sized image, with the superfluity of marquetry, marble pillars and stone balustrade, damasked panel and background landscape which would have incurred Michelangelo’s disapproval (fig. 20). Christ is shown in full-length, standing with his back to a damasked panel between two arches which give onto the landscape. He is dressed in a brown mantle with an embroidered border, the brown reminiscent of the Franciscan habit, holding in his arms a placid, adult sheep. The face of Christ, however, decries all the splendour surrounding him. While this is not the resurrected Christ and there are no marks on his hands, his face is emaciated and expresses great pain, more akin to depictions of the crucified Christ. This reflects what Fernando Marías may have indicated in his reference to the asperezas lusitanas/ ‘Portuguese asperity’ in Morales’s range of influences.23 The iconography identifies Christ as the good shepherd, prepared to lay down his life for his sheep (John 10:11–17, King James Version) 147

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Figure 20 Frei Carlos, Christ the Good Shepherd, c.1520, oil on panel, 90 x 65 cms, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, inv. 1 Pint; photo Luisa Oliveira/José Paulo Ruas © Direção-Geral do Património Cultural/Arquivo de Documentação Fotográfica.

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and also points to the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:4–6, King James Version) in which the good shepherd will go out into the wilderness to rescue his lost sheep. As is often the case, the rescued animal seems oblivious of its recent travails and is pristine clean, while the rescuing human is worn out and weary. Hyper-realism nonetheless is not reality. The cleanness of the sheep is necessary for the visual balance of the composition, picking up the highlights on Christ’s face and arms. More importantly, since the sheep evokes in the eye of any contemporary viewer the Lamb of God, in other words, Christ’s impending sacrifice, its cleanness represents the purity of the divine Son of God. Morales’s depiction of the type of emotional intensity contained in the expression of Frei Carlos’s Christ the Good Shepherd is at its most poignant and powerful in his representations of saints in penitence, most importantly Jerome. The penitence Jerome undertook during time in the desert of Chalcis or Quinnasrin in northern Syria was extreme. In a letter to his friend, the Roman matron and saint, Eustochium, who, with her mother Paula, was a disciple of his, he describes his penitential practice. As reported in The Golden Legend, which had much wider currency albeit in Latin than Jerome’s letters, also in Latin, the letter reads as follows: My misshapen limbs shuddered in their sackcloth, my squalid skin had taken on the blackness of an Ethiopian’s flesh. Tears all day, groans all day – and if, resist it as I might, sleep overwhelmed me, my fleshless bones, hardly holding together, scraped against the bare ground. I say nothing about food or drink: even the sick have cold water to drink, and to have some cooked food was like a sinful indulgence. All the company I had was scorpions and wild beasts, yet at times I felt myself surrounded by clusters of pretty girls, and the fires of lust were lighted in my frozen body and moribund flesh. So it was that I wept continually and starved the rebellious flesh for weeks at a time. Often I joined day to night and did not stop beating my breast until the Lord restored my peace of mind. I even dreaded my cell, haunted as it was with my thoughts. Angry and stern with myself, I plunged alone, deeper and deeper, into the wasteland; and as the Lord is my witness, from time to time and after many tears I seemed to be in the midst of throngs of angels.24

Even the Golden Legend allows that he only engaged in this form of severe physical deprivation for ‘weeks at a time’ and, as he lived a long and extremely 149

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Figure 21 Nicolás Francés, St Jerome Translating the Gospels, c.1450, tempera on panel, 98 x 59 cms, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, inv. 1013.

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productive life, he must have moderated his bouts of mortification of the flesh in a fairly sensible manner. Nevertheless, it is the projection of Jerome as extreme, emaciated penitent in the wilderness which is dominant in the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries in Spain and Portugal, with the more usual depiction of Jerome in his study, dressed in anachronistic cardinal’s robes and surrounded by books and scrolls, relegated to a secondary place. Mateo Gómez et al. state that the image of the penitent Jerome made its initial appearance in Italian renderings from the very beginning of the fifteenth century, achieving prominence in the Tuscan Hieronymite monas­ teries.25 In these images, Jerome was depicted with his stone beating his breast and with donors. Friedmann suggests that the penitent Jerome, though not frequently represented in Spain until the sixteenth century, achieved very wide currency there in the seventeenth century, in contrast to practice in Italy and northern Europe.26 He characterises the typology of the theme of Jerome in the Wilderness as follows: the saint kneeling in prayer before a crucifix, beating his chest with a stone; the saint sitting in the landscape reading the scriptures; the saint simply sitting in the desolate solitude (sometimes not so desolate), quietly meditating. Many of these compositions include the episode of Jerome removing a thorn from the lion’s foot; Jerome listening to the trumpet of the angel announcing the Last Judgement; and, more rarely, Jerome being harassed by disputatious heretics or by demons (as in a painting by the Spanish artist Francisco de Herrera the Elder in Rouen); or being tempted by visions of alluring nymphs (as in Francesco Zurbarán’s painting in Guadalupe).27

The standard medieval representation of Jerome as scholar seated at work in his study and surrounded by his monastic brethren is encapsulated by the Burgundian emigré, Nicolás Francés, active in León between 1434 and his death in 1468.28 His St Jerome Translating the Gospels (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) shows a bearded, white-haired, tonsured Jerome in the Hieronymite habit, seated at a raised desk, his quill in his right hand as he notes his translation, his left pointing at a Bible in Greek or one of the other original languages, propped up on a second volume (fig. 21). A similar image, from the altarpiece of the monastery of La Mejorada (now in the National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid), painted around 1465 by Jorge 151

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Figure 22 Leonardo da Vinci, St Jerome, c.1480–2, oil and tempera on walnut panel, 102.8 x 73.5 cms, Vatican Museums, Rome, inv. 40337.

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Inglés, an Englishman adept in Flemish style, depicts a Jerome who is about ten times the size of the other monks in his elegant study, the small size of the miniature monks in proportion to the figure of Jerome symbolic of their intellectual and spiritual worth in relation to his.29 In the Francés painting, there are three young monks seated on stools facing Jerome. Monks and master are poring over Scripture while a fourth young monk in the bottom left of the image pulls a thorn out of a lion’s paw. This version of Jerome and the lion is reasonably consistent with the account given in the Golden Legend, in which the lion comes to the monastery when Jerome is an old man and has to pull himself up off his bed in the morning using a rope hanging from the ceiling: One day toward evening, when he was seated with the brethren to hear the sacred lessons read, a lion suddenly limped into the monastery. The other monks fled at the sight of the beast, but Jerome greeted him as a guest. The lion showed him his wounded foot, and Jerome called the brothers and ordered them to wash the animal’s feet and to dress the wound carefully. When they set about doing this, they found that the paw had been scratched and torn by thorns. They did what was necessary, and the lion recovered, lost all his wildness, and lived among the monks as a house pet.30

At this point, according to the Golden Legend, Jerome’s bouts of penitence in the desert were long behind him. After a mere four years there he had moved to Bethlehem and ‘offered himself to live, like a domestic animal, at the Lord’s crib’.31 At this stage, he began to read again, gathered a community about him, and, the Legend attests, spent the next fifty-five years and six months toiling ‘at the translation of the Scriptures’.32 Depiction of Jerome as a penitent elderly man in the desert, accompanied by the lion, does not accord with the Legend but, as evidenced in two iconic representations of Jerome, by Leonardo and the singular Hieronymus Bosch, it became the dominant narrative by the end of the fifteenth century in Italy and Flanders. Leonardo da Vinci’s St Jerome is probably the most enigmatic of his paintings in that almost nothing is known about it (fig. 22). It was presumably painted around 1482 but it remains unfinished and there is no information as to who commissioned it or where it might have been destined for. Kemp 153

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Figure 23 Cosmè Tura, St Jerome, c.1470, oil and tempera on poplar panel, 101 x 57.2 cms, © The National Gallery, London, inv. NG773.

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suggests it was abandoned because of Leonardo’s move from Florence to enter the service of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.33 The first mention of it came at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the inventory of the Swiss painter, Angelika Kauffman and it was acquired by Pope Pius IX for the Vatican Collection in 1856.34 While there can be no suggestion that this image was in any way a direct influence on painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, what can be asserted is that Leonardo’s stripped back version of Jerome in prayer focuses on the essence of Jerome’s mission in the desert, that of doing extreme physical penitence. Leonardo shows a bald, cleanshaven elderly man, naked apart from an artfully draped light mantle, kneeling on his left knee with his right arm out wide ready to strike his breast with the stone. A sketched-in lion lies opposite Jerome in the bottom right fore­ ground and there is a wooden cross in the upper right just outside a sketchedin basilica. The image contains none of the attributes indicating Jerome’s scholarship usually included in images of him in penitence, no cardinal’s hat (galero) or cloak (tabarro), no books, ink or pens. The inclusion of the lion, though the lion is not part of Jerome’s penitence narrative, may either be a nod to convention or a reflection of Leonardo’s sense that a wild beast was a most appropriate companion for Jerome in the wilderness. His depiction of Jerome’s emaciated body is a model of anatomical rectitude, to the extent that the defined musculature is really that of a younger and more vigorous man. Later on, in the seventeenth century, Jusepe de Ribera, trained in Valencia and working in Naples, would depict the ageing bodies of anchorite saints such as Paul the Hermit much more realistically, as in the two versions kept at the Prado (P01115, 1635-1640 and P01075, 1640), both originally in the Royal Collection. The expression of anguish the face of Leonardo’s Jerome is intense and haunting, and contrasts with the vigour of his body. His expression is made more acute because, although he does appear to be looking up towards the cross on his left and his face therefore shown in profile, his lips and chin are fully visible and the expression on his parted lips underlines the anguished gaze in his abstracted eyes. Unlike the Madonna of the Yarnwinder, the ‘“signs” of the face’ which Kemp notes as being under­ stated in the Virgin and Child image, are clearly stated and emotive.35 Whether in the finished painting the definition of Jerome’s facial bone structure and soft tissue features might have been toned down is a good question. 155

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Leonardo’s unfinished painting displays some similarities with the Ferraran Cosmè Tura’s St Jerome, a painting which may have been the central panel in an altarpiece (fig. 23). Tura’s composition presents Jerome in the fore­ground, naked apart from a brownish mantle draped strategically over his shoulders and nether regions, kneeling on his right knee, his right arm extended, the stone with which he is about to beat his already bloodied breast in his hand. The limbs and torso depict a toned and athletic body but the head is that of a much older, white-haired, bearded man. The expression on his rugged and lined face is intense as he concentrates his gaze on the crucified Christ. In the original panel, the crucifix was suspended on Jerome’s upper right, but this part of the image is now kept at the Pinacoteca de Brera in Milan.36 In this section of the panel, the figure of Christ seems almost suspended in the air, so faint is the trace of the very narrow cross beneath him. Thus far, the image is strikingly similar to Leonardo’s. However, Tura’s Jerome is in posses­sion of more accoutrements. His beard and the hair around his large tonsure are elaborately dressed and there is a solid gold halo over his head. At his feet are his galero and a couple of books. His breast-beating gesture takes place outdoors, under a tree with a bent trunk. The tree trunk effectively divides the background landscape into two contrasting vistas. There is a steep, mountainous landscape on Jerome’s right. On his left, there is fenced-in pasture land with grazing sheep, on which a donor can be seen kneeling in front of Francis of Assisi, who is himself kneeling with his arms outstretched to receive the stigmata. In addition to this, Jerome is accompanied, it appears, not only by the ubiquitous lion but also by an owl and a wall-creeper, both birds lodged in the tree, the owl on his left, the wall-creeper on his right. Friedmann argues that this owl, depicted clutching a frog in its claws, is a symbol of prophetic wisdom and not, as was more conventional, a symbol of heresy, while the captured frog stands for its antithesis, worldliness.37 As the wall-creeper does not feature in mainstream Christian iconography, Friedmann is obliged to put forward two possibilities. The first is that the red in the bird’s breast feathers may allude to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and Jerome’s own blood, shed in penitence. The second, more recondite reading, is that this bird which nests in nooks and crannies, and was reputed in the early modern period to have a particular liking for graveyards and the exposed bones of the deceased, may be taken symbolise 156

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the Resurrection because it lays eggs and raises its young in the skulls of the dead.38 Tura’s iconographically complex St Jerome is surpassed by the idio­ syncratic, Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch’s St Jerome painted about fifteen years later (fig. 24). Bosch’s canvas is loaded with creatures, with vegetation and with some of Jerome’s standard accoutrements, such as the cardinal’s red hat and cloak, and a single closed book. In this painting, Jerome has turned his back on these scholarly attributes and lies prostrate across what seems to be a cleft in a large rock, a pose Wendy Ruppel considers unique in Bosch’s oeuvre.39 This Jerome is emaciated, the figure modelled in the Flemish style with slender musculature. Jerome wears a tonsure which leaves only a narrow ring of close-cropped hair around his head. He is clean-shaven and perhaps in early middle age, certainly not elderly. He has a cross with a polychromed figure of Christ balanced on his forearms and his eyes are closed in prayer as he contemplates the crucifixion. The white of Christ’s loincloth picks up the immaculate white of the sleeveless shift worn by Jerome himself, one of several parallels with Christ blended into the image. While the white must be taken as an indication of the virginity the Church ascribed both to Jerome and to Christ, Jerome himself never claimed it. Even in the Golden Legend, his own words on the matter in a letter to Pammachius are quoted: ‘I hold virginity as high as heaven – not that I have it.’40 He is accompanied by a pint-sized lion on his left and on his right, on the branches of a felled and hollow tree trunk, there are an owl and a woodpecker. On this occasion, the owl may be taken to represent heresy while the woodpecker stands for the pursuit of doctrinal truth. The birds in the healthy tree in the top left of the painting and the fox sleeping snugly in his burrow on the bottom left, Ruppel argues, can be related to a passage from Luke in which Christ replies to a man who wishes to follow him: ‘Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head’ (9:58, King James Version). The same passage appears in Matthew 8:20. Her point is that Bosch’s Jerome is depicted in imitatio Christi and that his apparent inability even to find a comfortable place on which to lie as he contemplates the Cross is of itself an emulation of the life of Christ. Ruppel goes further, however, and suggests that Jerome’s attempt to find shelter in the narrow cleft in the rock demonstrates his desire to take refuge 157

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Figure 24 Hieronymus Bosch, St Jerome in Prayer, c.1485, oil on panel, 80.1 x 60.6 cms, Fine Arts Museum, Ghent, inv. 1908-H.

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in the body of Christ, with the cleft in the rock serving as a visual metaphor for the wound in Christ’s side.41 She cites a passage from the Epistola de vita et passione domini nostri/Letter on the Life and Passion of Our Lord, a medieval devotional manual current in the Low Countries: Oh, beloved brother, what is sweeter, what is more untroubled, what is more agreeable to God, what is more beneficial for the simple dove than to shelter itself faithfully in the cleft of the rock? This is, in the wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In which delightful wounds the Lord, your bridegroom, who is worthy of love, allows you daily to take refuge, to delight and to rest.42

Normally, Jerome’s chastisement of his own flesh with the stone is to be read as his attempt to inflict on his own body a wound similar to that in Christ’s side. Though the stone is present on the ground beneath Bosch’s Jerome, his hands are joined in prayer above the Cross and there is no evident blood on his breast. It seems as if the image of Jerome seeking shelter in the wound of Christ has superseded, in this instance, the metaphor of his striking his own breast in an effort emulate Christ. A century on, an anonymous sixteenth-century painting of Jerome, kept at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Cáceres and listed as being by a follower of Morales, provides a very good sense of what art patrons in Extremadura, secular and religious, were looking for in depictions of the penitent Jerome (fig. 25). Its lineage can be traced back to the approach of the Ferraran Tura and the Dutch Bosch, in that it shows a penitent Jerome in a wilderness, surrounded by accoutrements, an elaborate landscape and elements of narrative. All of these are no doubt evidence of the use of engravings by the painter. The model for Jerome in this instance was probably taken from a copy or engraving of the Dutch painter, Joachim Patinir’s many versions of Jerome in penitence, most of these produced in the first part of the fifteenth century. The central panel of a triptych he painted in 1512–15 for a German church and now kept in the Metropolitan Museum in New York shows a figure very similar in pose and garb to the one in the Cáceres image (36.14a-c). The identification of this Cáceres painter as a follower of Morales is more an indication of how close Morales’ narrative altarpiece paintings were to the Flemish aesthetic than a comment on his close-up portraits of Jerome. 159

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Figure 25 Anon., The Penitent St Jerome, mid-sixteenth century, oil on panel, 49 x 34 cms, Museo de Bellas Artes, Cáceres, inv. CE000665.

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The Cáceres Jerome appears in the foreground, conventionally kneeling and with his right arm outstretched, his hand holding the stone and his breast already bloodied. He is wearing a dark habit, possibly with rosary beads hanging at his waist. The habit is open at his chest and it reveals his undershirt, also open, baring his flesh to receive the blows from the stone. His pointed beard, grey hair and haloed head are reminiscent of Tura while the landscape, showing what may be Jerome’s monastery, a seascape, verdant mountains, a river with swans in it and a passing monk is closer to the Flemish tradition, if not to the uniqueness of Bosch. The figure of Christ is lifelike on an erect cross standing on a rock just in front of Jerome. Jerome’s red cloak is thrown around the rock and his galero leans at its foot. The lion lies behind Jerome, an expression of anguish on his face to outdo that on Jerome’s. Friedmann notes that it was not unusual to find Jerome’s emotional state reflected or indeed intensified in the expression of his devoted leonine companion.43 Here the painter also provides the lion’s back story, as he is depicted in the upper left of the composition in the mountains, looking rather fierce, though it is difficult to tell if this is because his paw is stuck in thorns or if he is actually killing something. On the evidence of this painting, it may be said that taste in Extremadura in the sixteenth century required a Jerome more decorously attired than Tura or Leonardo’s, and one whose sojourn in the wilderness was fleshed out with narrative and recognisable accoutrements. In this context, the predella panel of St Jerome for the altarpiece of the church of San Martín in Plasencia, a commission which brought Morales back to the city in which his career began, is instructive.44 The sculptor Francisco Rodríguez was employed in 1557 to provide the polychrome statuary and frame, and Morales was brought on board some time later, in the early 1560s, as chief painter.45 His panels were completed between 1565 and 1570. In the Jerome panel, long attributed to Morales, a luxuriantly white-bearded Jerome is shown in full cardinal’s garb, with cloak and hat, writing in his study, sur­ rounded by books and with a crucifix on the desk in front of him. A window on the left shows another Jerome in the background, clad in a loincloth and kneeling in penitence against an elaborate, Flemish-style landscape with his monastery behind him in a valley surrounded by forest and mountains. The background scene of the semi-naked Jerome doing penitence would only 161

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Figure 26 Luis de Morales, The Penitent St Jerome, 1560–3, oil on panel, 65 x 80 cms, predella panel on the altarpiece of the church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Arroyo de la Luz, sculptor Alonso Hipólito, Arroyo de la Luz, Cáceres.

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have been seen by those celebrating Mass or cleaning, leaving a predominant impression of the saint as Father of the Church, luxuriantly attired, in his study. This image of Jerome on the bottom left of the altarpiece provides a counterpoint to a painting of St Augustine of Hippo, on the other side, both Fathers of the Church, both considered founders of monastic life. In 1994, before the restoration of the altarpiece, Jesús Manuel López Martín expressed discomfiture with the execution of some of the panels, accusing Morales of hiding his gifts through overdependence on engravings and the work of studio assistants. 46 After the restoration, it has become possible to distinguish more clearly between the work of Morales and his studio and that of other, lesser figures. Ruiz Gómez is, as a result, inclined to attribute the Jerome panel and the other three in the predella to two Flemish artists working in Plasencia at the time, known as Juan Flores and Jorge de la Rúa.47 The preference of the Flemish artists for a sumptuously garbed Jerome in his study, with the penitent Jerome relegated to the background, may be rooted in the interaction between this image and that of St Augustine, Jerome’s learned contemporary, in episcopal mitre and cope on the other side of the predella. Morales’s four authenticated panels for San Martín were completed after the altarpiece for the church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Arroyo de la Luz, 18 km to the west of Cáceres, which was inaugurated on 29 May 1563.48 In this larger altarpiece, Jerome features again on the predella, but this time the narrative on the predella makes explicit Jerome’s imitation of Christ through penitence49 (fig. 26). On one side of the central system of the altar­ piece, John the Baptist points to a tiny lamb, indicating the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Next to it is a panel showing Christ tied to the column. The Ecce Homo comes on the other side of the central system, and, beside it, the final predella painting shows the elderly Jerome in penitence. This is the only panel out of a total of sixteen, not counting the four Old Testament prophets in medallions on top of the third tier of the altarpiece, which does not tell the story of the conception, life, death and resurrection of Christ. The predella does contain polychrome statues of the four early Fathers of the Church, Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory the Great and Jerome, in the channels between the paintings, though these are not easy to see from the nave of the church. The statue of Jerome by Alonso Hipólito, a native of Plasencia, represents 163

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Figure 27 Luis de Morales, The Penitent St Jerome, c.1555, oil on panel, 80 x 58 cms, Museo Catedralicio, Badajoz.

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him as a vigorous younger man, in cloak and galero, with an open book in his hand and a lion tucked in behind him.50 The only argument that can be adduced for the presence of the penitent Jerome as the only non-biblical figure in the series of paintings is that it completes the painterly narrative by demonstrating to the devout what their response ought to be to the suffering of Christ and his mother. Jerome’s head and torso are shown, covered only by a light, bluish mantle knotted over his left shoulder. He gathers this up with his left hand, leaving his chest fully exposed to the blows of the stone in his right. Elderly and bald, with a long, carefully curled beard and hair artfully arranged at the back and sides, he is pictured before the mouth of a cave with a lifelike Christ on a cross mounted on a rock in front of him. The Christ figure is painted for visibility against the light sky in the landscape behind the cave-mouth and his humanity is emphasised by the fact the skin tones on his body are the same as Jerome’s. The red cardinal’s cloak is draped on the rock beside the Cross, a nod towards Jerome’s life as a scholar which Morales would excise from his other represen­ tations. Though it might be the case that Morales felt constrained by the small size of the predella panel to reduce his image of Jerome to a close-up of the absolute essentials of his penitence: a cave, a crucifix with a life-like polychrome Christ, a cloak, a stone, a barely-there shift and a glimpse of wilderness, he employed very similar iconography in a painting for the more intimate space of the then Capilla del Sagrario/‘Chapel of the Eucharist or Tabernacle’ in Badajoz cathedral, possibly a decade earlier51 (fig. 27). Solís Rodríguez is of the view that the evolution of Morales’s representations of Jerome was deliberate: [un] proceso de simplificación progresiva recorrido por el autor, en su afán de desembarazarse de cualquier anécdota ambiental, para centrar la atención del devoto fiel en este tema tan caro a la espiritualidad de la época.52 [a] process of progressive simplification undertaken by the artist, in his desire to get rid of any situational anecdotes, in order to focus the attention of the faithful devout on this theme which was so dear to the spirituality of the period.

If anything, the Badajoz image zooms in even closer and shows a slightly younger, though still haggard and bald, Jerome with brown hair and a brown 165

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Figure 28 Francisco de Navarra (with Hans de Bruselas), The Penitent St Jerome, 1555–9, choir stalls, Badajoz cathedral, Badajoz.

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beard, the bluish shift knotted over his left shoulder and, this time, a plain wooden Cross with no Christ figure on his right. He does not wield the stone and there is no blood on his chest. Instead his hands are folded over a skull and his eyes are gazing up and away from the Cross, lost in contemplation. There is a very similar Jerome carved into one of the seats in the choir stalls in the cathedral (fig. 28). The carved Jerome is shown full-length and in profile, stripped to the waist and kneeling before a bare wooden Cross like that in the painting, striking his breast with the stone, with the head of his faithful lion at his feet. The choir stalls were made between 1555 and 1559 under the direction of Jerónimo de Valencia, who had previously been employed in Jerez de la Frontera and who saw off competition from sculptors native to Badajoz to obtain the commission. It is likely that he was aided by the Flemish sculptor known as Hans de Bruselas, who worked in Badajoz during the second half of the sixteenth century, often in collaboration with Valencia and Morales himself.53 It is no surprise, then, that the sculptor of the choir stalls figure of Jerome should appear to share sources and aesthetic with Morales, whose own painting of Jerome for the cathedral may have been produced as early as the mid-1550s though Solís Rodríguez dates it as late as 1570.54 These austere renderings of Jerome in penitence were more striking and more effective in sculpture, especially polychromed, life-size or larger pieces which would be more plainly visible in a church setting. Spanish Hieronymite monasteries invested widely in such images. The carved altarpiece of the Monasterio de La Estrella in San Asensio, Logroño, for example, contains a striking image of a polychromed Jerome kneeling in penitence55 (fig. 29). It was made by Pedro de Árbulo in 1597–8 and is now kept at the Museo de La Rioja in Logroño.56 This Jerome is bald with a luxuriant curly brown beard which places him more towards middle age. His brown habit is pulled down below his waist leaving his torso completely bare. He holds a skull in his left hand and a similar-sized and very sizeable stone in his right, ready to strike his breast. The lion is crouched at his feet and his galero and red cloak are hung on a tree behind him. Other Hieronymite monastery churches with main altarpieces showing Jerome in penitence, either in painting or sculpture, include those of St Jerome in Granada, the Buenavista and Santiponce monasteries in Seville and the Cotalba monastery in Valencia.57 The most important and wealthiest Hieronymite monastery in Spain, Felipe II’s 167

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Figure 29 Pedro de Árbulo, The Penitent St Jerome, 1597, polychromed wood, Museo de la Rioja, Logroño, © Museo de La Rioja, inv. 416.

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foundation at El Escorial, boasts a painting with very similar iconography by Juan Fernández de Navarrete, himself a native of Logroño58 (fig. 30). A deaf mute whose promise as a painter was identified by Fray Vicente de Santo Domingo at the Monastery of la Estrella, Navarrete produced a luxuriant image of Jerome in penitence for the sacristy at the Escorial.59 The historian of the Hieronymite order, Fray José de Sigüenza observed of it that he had never seen a landscape by a Flemish painter that was more detailed or more highly finished.60 Rosemarie Mulcahy, with Sigüenza in mind, suggests that the dominant influence, both compositionally and in terms of ‘the intense religious feeling’ emanating from Jerome, is Flemish and indeed the image provides ample visual context for Jerome’s penitence.61 The lion is drinking from a stream in the left foreground, and Jerome’s hat, cloak and one of his books are placed on a rock on the right. The complex landscape shows the craggy woods in which Jerome has secluded himself, behind those a sixteenth-century monastery complex, and behind that a mountain range not unlike the cerro in which the Escorial itself is sited. On the plain behind Jerome the lion can be see chasing after the dishonest caravaneers who had kidnapped the monastery’s ass.62 Jerome, white-bearded, elderly and bald, his white habit down around his hips, a skull in his left hand and a stone in his right, kneels in front of a crucifix which is propped up against a tree. On the ground in front of him there is a scourge. In apparel and physical gesture, this Jerome is close to the polychrome figure in the Estrella monastery altar­ piece, down to the placing of the lion and cross on one side and the hat and cloak on the other. Unlike the agonised polychrome figure, however, he seems unusually serene for a man about to chastise himself. This image was completed in 1569, the year in which Navarrete was given licence by Felipe to return to Logroño. During his two-year stay at his mother’s house, he made this painting and three others for the sacristy of the Escorial.63 The icono­ graphic similarity between this image and the carved figure in the Estrella monastery church cannot be coincidental. As with the consonance between Morales’s painting of Jerome and the carved choir-stall figure in Badajoz cathedral, it demonstrates the symbiosis which existed between religious painting, carving and sculpture at the time. His Venetian training notwithstanding, Navarrete’s image of Jerome in penitence is rooted, as Sigüenza intimated, in the Flemish tradition, and not 169

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Figure 30 Juan Fernández de Navarrete, The Penitent St Jerome, 1569, oil on canvas, 367 x 261 cms, Escorial Gallery, Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, El Escorial, inv. 10014607, ©Patrimonio Nacional.

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just in terms of the execution of complex landscapes. It is worth mentioning the painting of Jerome in penitence kept at the Museo de La Rioja and attrib­ uted to Navarrete. According to Mateo Gómez et al., this painting may have been created by Navarrete in 1566, a fact which might explain its relative lack of polish.64 However, Mulcahy has very severe reservations and argues that the painting was executed by Fray Vicente de Santo Domingo, Navarrete’s first master, and she characterises the work as Flemish Romanist, i.e. similar in style to the work of contemporary Flemish painters who had been to Rome .65 This is very interesting, of course, because although with a different model and arrangement of Jerome’s attributes, the Estrella painting fore­ grounds the same emotional intensity and degree of physical austerity as Navarrete’s Escorial painting. That a painter beloved of Felipe II for his Venetian style and one working at the heart of the Hieronymite establishment should adhere, in matters of devotional expressiveness, to the Flemish mode is significant. Felipe, for instance, had an image of St Christopher by Patinir in his private quarters at the Escorial, now in the Escorial Gallery, and the Royal Collection held one of Patinir’s depictions of Jerome in a hut in the wilderness tending his lion, painted in 1516–17, now in the Prado (P01614).66 Although far from the exalted circle of Navarrete, Morales may well have contributed at least one painting of Jerome in penitence to the Hieronymite collection. While there is no absolute proof, Solís Rodríguez believes that a painting was made in Morales’s workshop for the female Hieronymite convent of St Onophrius in Badajoz in which his youngest daughter, Mariana, was a nun.67 On the other hand, there is very little definite information on the commissioning of the two best-preserved paintings of Jerome by Morales, the version in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin and the one in the collection of the Marqués de Miraflores. The images were probably painted close to the years in which Navarrete was at work on his versions in Logroño in the late 1560s or early 1570s. It is also just about possible that they were created in the 1540s, since, as Ruiz Gómez observes citing Solís Rodríguez, there is at least one record of a Morales commission for an image of Jerome in the 1540s.68 In relation to Morales’s evolving depuration of the figure of Jerome, however, while the Miraflores image is very similar to the Badajoz cathedral image though in better condition, the Dublin iteration offers some significant variants (fig. 31). 171

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Since Ruiz Gómez notes the existence of a copy of the Dublin image, by Morales’ workshop, now kept at the Royal Palace at Ríofrío (Patrimonio Nacional, 100061492), it must be assumed that this iteration was not simply an aberration.69 At first glance, the Dublin Jerome might be Bosch’s prostrate penitent righted and set in a more conventional cave. The framing of the figure is reduced to a bare minimum, he is seen in front of the mouth of a cave with just a tiny inverted triangle of sky in the upper left-hand corner to account for the source of light falling on him. The harshness and austerity of the depiction is underlined by the absence, conventional in Morales, of any of Jerome’s traditional accoutrements: no galero, cloak, books, lion, monastic habit, not even the stone and bleeding breast. His hands, longfingered, delicate, elegantly shaded and typical of Morales, are folded over a gap-toothed skull, the memento mori, and the exposure of his arms and chest is emphasised by the lines of the makeshift-looking bluish-white cloth gathered and draped from both shoulders and knotted over his left shoulder. Though there are fine wisps of white hair growing out of his head, he appears from any distance to be completely bald and utterly exposed, like the Bosch figure. Though he does sport a beard which comes down to his throat, it is so fine and wispy as to be difficult for the eye to discern. The face is the most emaciated of all Morales’s Jeromes and also the most extreme, in that this weeping penitent seems to be on the verge of his own death, not merely abstracted like the other Jeromes, rapt in dolorous contemplation of the crucified Christ. In this respect, it is worth noting that the title given by Solís Rodríguez to the Badajoz Jerome in a 1999 exhibition held at the cathedral was the Expiración de San Jerónimo/Death of St Jerome. This title intimates that these images should not be seen so much as Jerome in penitence in the desert, but rather Jerome on his deathbed, engaged, perhaps meta­ phorically, in penitence. The shift then becomes a shroud and the emaciation a symptom of impending death, with the Dublin Jerome the most extreme iteration of this death trance. Though only his head, neck and upper torso are visible, the Dublin Jerome appears to be kneeling against a sawn-off tree trunk on which a wooden crucifix is fixed. Unlike the Miraflores version, this crucifix is adorned with a small and beautifully-crafted metal figure of Christ, probably bronze.70 Herein lies the paradox, and possibly the most interesting aspect of the image. The 172

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figure of Christ on the Cross is painted in very warm tones, unlike the cold hues of Jerome’s flesh and shift. His skin, beard and hair echo the warm golden browns of the wood of the Cross on which he hangs. This Christ is much more than a reproduction of a bronze figure. He has more life and vitality in him than Jerome, though strictly speaking he is the one who is close to the point of death, not the emaciated and elderly penitent, unless Jerome is also at the point of his own death in old age. Christ has the wellbuilt and muscular body of a healthy man in his thirties, his pose on the Cross is elegant and balletic, with a single pyramid-headed nail driven into his feet just above where the toes begin. The balletic aspect of his pose is emphasised by the fact that his right foot is actually turned in beneath his left and the nail must pass therefore through the side of his foot, in parallel with the sole. His hands are pinned equidistantly at either side of the Cross but from the shoulders down his body inclines to his left, the side on which Jerome is kneeling. His hips and knees appear to move beyond the limits of the vertical beam of the Cross, and his bent knees align with the tip of Jerome’s nose. Jerome’s face and body are, of course, turned towards the crucifix, but his brown eyes have rolled up into his head, indicating a state of contemplation. Christ’s head is thrust forward over his chest and his eyes appear closed or almost closed, but his left ear, as in the depictions of the Man of Sorrows, is prominent. He appears to be listening carefully, in spite of his agony, to the oration of Jerome. By implication, since his visible ear is facing the viewer, he is listening also to the rogation of the pious individual using the image as a devotional aid. In this composition, the fact that the bronze figure of Christ is more life­ like than the human presence of Jerome underlines the humanity and accessibility of Christ to the devout Christian soul. Jerome is the consummate penitent, physically subjecting his body to starvation, cold and neglect in pursuit of atonement for his own sins or perhaps an elderly man on the verge of death and focused only on his salvation in Christ. This is not a representation of a mystical trance. As has been noted earlier, Luis de Granada or Teresa of Avila were notably circumspect about their own mystical experiences. Fray Luis, for example, never mentions his own prayer life and offers cautious advice and achievable targets to the conscientious Christian soul. At the begin­ning of the second book of the Guía de Pecadores he boils 173

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it down to this simple strategy: the good Christian should follow the counsel of King David and guardarse del mal y hacer bien/‘protect himself from evil and do good’.71 Central to this is the practice of penitence. In ‘Contra los que dilatan la penitencia contra la muerte’/‘Against those who delay penitence until death’ in the 1556 Guía, Fray Luis mentions the writings of three of the Latin Fathers of the Church, Augustine, Ambrose and Gregory, on the importance of the constant practice of penitence. He explains that those who, having lived sinful and self-indulgent lives, expect true penitence to come to them at the hour of their death are grievously mistaken: Poderoso es Dios para inspirar verdadera penitencia cuando él quisiere; mas, cuán pocas veces acaesca en esta hora y cuán pocos en ella hagan verdadera penitencia, pregúntalo a sant Augustín, a sant Ambrosio, a sant Gregorio, y finalmente a todos los sanctos, y verás cuán escrupulosamente hablan en esto, y entenderás cuán gran locura sea tener tú por segura la nevegación de un golfo de quien tan sabios marineros hablan con gran temor. Oficio es el bien morir, que conviene aprenderse toda la vida: porque en la hora de la muerte hay tanto que hacer en morir, que apenas hay espacio para aprender a bien morir.72 God is powerful in inspiring true penitence when he wishes; but ask St Augustine, St Ambrose, St Gregory and finally all the saints, how rarely this occurs at that hour [of death], and how few in that hour do true penance, and you will see how scrupulously they speak about this, and you will see what great madness it would be for you to think that you could safely navigate a gulf of which such experienced seamen speak with great fear. Dying well is a craft, which one should spend all one’s life learning; because at the hour of death there is so much to do in the act of dying, that there is hardly space in which to learn how to die well.

The final line of Fray Luis’ argument might almost be taken as a description of the attitude of the Dublin Jerome, if he is on the point of death. Not looking at the figure on the crucifix, he meditates on Christ’s sacrifice, a moment he has prepared for throughout his life through the exercise of penance. There is nothing extraneous in the image to distract the viewer from Jerome’s attitude of prayer, thus conveying the serious message about lifelong prepar­ation for death contained in Fray Luis’s advice to his readers. 174

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While Jerome wrote as cogently as anyone on the need for penitence, in sixteenth-century devotional practice his role as ideal penitent overrode his status as theologian. Thus, even his sixteenth-century Hieronymite biog­ rapher, Fray José de Sigüenza, in an unsigned and undated occasional sonnet, presents Jerome as more penitent than scholar, even if the final tercet redresses some sense of equilibrium: En ásperas montañas encerrado, sufre de bestias fieras el bramido, por no ser con aquel dulce sonido de sirenas mundanas engañado. Tiene el suelo con lágrimas regado, con dura piedra el pecho malherido, porque el rebelde cuerpo así vencido por sola la razón vaya guiado. Eterno Dios que tanto te esmeraste, que el bien que a muchos sanctos repartiste, en solo san Jerónimo encerraste. ¡Oh, gran varón, que en duda nos pusiste, si fue más la doctrina que enseñaste que no la sancta vida que hiciste!73 In harsh mountains enclosed, he suffers of wild beasts the howling, so as not to be by that sweet sound of the worldly sirens deceived. He has covered the ground with tears, with a hard stone his chest badly wounded, so that his rebellious body thus overcome by righteousness alone may be guided. Eternal God who strove so much, the good you distributed to so many saints, in Jerome alone you enclosed. Oh great man! You make us doubt whether, the doctrine you taught or the holy life you led was greater.

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The two quatrains paint a conventional picture of Jerome in the wilderness, resisting the blandishments of the sirens sent to tempt him in the first, beating his breast bloody with the stone in the second. As Ignacio García Aguilar argues, Sigüenza’s interpretation of Jerome’s achievement, both here and in his 1595 Vida de San Jerónimo, demonstrates that he has the spiritual virility to overcome the desires of his body, la razón/’reason or rectitude’ being the guide to which his mortified flesh will submit.74 The tercets offset this account of his penitence with, in the first, an address to God lauding Jerome’s holiness as greater than that of other saints, presumably those not as famed as he for their penitential exploits; and in the second, an exhortation directed to Jerome in which the speaker cannot decide whether his doctrinal teaching or his holy life is of greater importance. Sigüenza’s ‘Encomio a San Jerónimo’/‘Encomium to St Jerome’, a 160-line romance or ballad written in the less formal redondilla form, concentrates almost entirely on Jerome’s sanctity. The events related in it are all present in his Vida de San Jerónimo.75 Stanza nine encapsulates the reason why Jerome is sometimes depicted, as in the Dublin Morales and in Bosch, wearing white: la blanca vestidura guardastes con puridad, porque fe y virginidad fueron en vos sin costura.76 And the white apparel you kept in purity, because faith and virginity were seamless in you.

The myth of Jerome’s virginity is thus pragmatically entrenched, in poetry and biography, by a late sixteenth-century scholar who knew perfectly well that Jerome himself claimed no such distinction. Further on, Sigüenza addresses the question of Jerome’s breast-beating in the wilderness, the most consistent attitude struck by the saint in contemporary depictions of his penance:

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Allí os asentáis de plano el guijarro al pecho junto, ¿quién supiera el contrapunto deste vuestro canto llano? Suénale a Dios la canción, con suave melodía, cuando suenan a porfía la piedra y el corazón. ¿Qué pretendéis en el hecho? ¿No veis, padre, cuál estáis parece que porfiáis a lanzalla dentro el pecho? Puesto en el desierto Dios, piedras le ofreció Satán; Él no las quiso hacer pan, pues no la hagáis carne vos. Agora salgo de calma, que el pensamiento os he visto: figúraos la piedra a Cristo, queréis ponerla en el alma.77 There you settle down the stone next to your breast, who would know the counterpoint of your plainchant? God hears the song as a gentle melody, when the stone and the heart sound in repetition. What do you wish to achieve in the act? Do you not see, father, as you are it looks like you will keep going until you have sunk it [the stone] into your chest? When God was in the desert, Satan offered him stones; He did not wish to turn them into bread, so do not turn it into flesh yourself. Now I am calmer because I have seen your intention: you consider the stone to be Christ, and you want to insert it into your soul.

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The noise of the stone beating on Jerome’s breastbone is likened to musical counterpoint sounding in God’s ears. There is an emphasis here on the appropriateness of such music, this suave melodía/‘soft melody’, and it contrasts with the lascivious music of the sirens described in the first quatrain of the sonnet to Jerome. This description is followed by a rather humorous reference to the instance in which the devil offers stones to Christ when he did penance in the desert and asks him to turn them into bread (Luke 4:3–4). The speaker enjoins Jerome not to overdo his breast beating so that the stone ends up blending with his macerated flesh. At that point however, the speaker has a burst of enlightenment and understands that Jerome’s purpose is not merely physical suffering, that the stone actually stands for Christ and what he is doing is opening up his breast in order to place his God within his soul. It is an ingenious solution and one that, coincidentally, makes sense of one aspect at least of Leonardo’s unfinished Jerome. In this image, there appears to be a rather large dark patch, not quite a hole, on the right side of Jerome’s sternum. Who knows how this painting would have evolved if Leonardo had finished it. What is certain is that he places the dark patch on the right, not the side in which the anatomical heart is housed. It could be argued that the big dark patch, at least at this stage in the evolution of the painting, serves, as Sigüenza would have it over a century later, as the gateway to Jerome’s immortal soul. In somewhat less dramatic fashion, this opening of his breast to allow his Saviour to enter his soul may be equated to his own explanation, as repeated in the Golden Legend, that he ‘did not stop beating my breast until the Lord restored my peace of mind’.78 Thus, in painting, poetry and indeed hagiography, Jerome’s rather prosaic account of the Lord ‘restoring his peace of mind’ after periods of self-inflicted sleeplessness and hardship leading to delirium and hallucination in the desert becomes more melodramatic: the ecstatic penitent’s attempt to excavate a path through his own flesh through which the Lord may access his soul. It must be borne in mind that the practice of penitence as envisaged by such as Ignacio de Loyola was far from the lurid, dramatic scenarios repre­ sented in painting and sculpture. It entailed a significant element of comfort and even joy. The communion between the soul and Christ during the pursuit of penitence is very gently described in Ignacio de Loyola’s Reglas para 178

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en alguna manera sentir las mociones/Rules for Feeling, in Some Manner, the Emotions, appended to the Ejercicios Espirituales. In the third regla, on spiritual consolation, he states: Llamo consolación, cuando en el ánima se causa alguna moción interior, con la cual viene la ánima a inflamarse en amor de su Criador y Señor; y también, cuando ninguna cosa criada sobre la haz de la tierra, puede amar en sí, sino en el Criador de todas ellas. Asimismo, cuando lanza lágrimas motivas a amor de su Señor, ahora sea por el dolor de sus pecados, o de la pasión de Cristo nuestro Señor, o de otras cosas derechamente ordenadas en su servicio y alabanza. Finalmente, llamo consolación todo aumento de esperanza, fe y caridad, y toda leticia interna, que llama y atrae a las cosas celestiales y a la propia salud de su ánima, aquietándola y pacificándola en su Criador y Señor.79 I call it consolation when in the soul some interior emotion is caused by which the soul comes to be inflamed with love for its Creator and Lord; and also, when no thing created on the surface of the Earth can be loved for itself but in it the Creator of all. In the same way, when it [the soul] sheds tears because of love for its Lord, whether because of sorrow for its sins, or the Passion of Christ Our Lord, or other things closely linked to his service and honour. Finally, I call consolation every increase in hope, faith and charity, and all internal rejoicing, which calls and draws the soul to heavenly matters and the proper health of the soul, calming and pacifying it in its Creator and Lord.

In Morales’s Dublin image of a suffering Jerome, one might argue that the peace and calm to be found in the Creator and Lord is actually shown in the serenity of the Christ figure on the Cross. Thus, the comfort the viewer of the painting, if not Jerome himself, derives may lie in contemplation of the crucified figure. A forerunner for this relationship may be identified in a painting of Jerome produced by Diogo de Contreiras (or attributed to him) for the altarpiece of the church of the female Benedictine convent of São Bento de Cástris, in Évora, in 1546 (fig. 32). The image constitutes the left-hand element of a continuous triptych, probably the predella, depicting Jerome, St Anthony of Padua (or Lisbon) and St Denis.80 In it, Jerome’s head is shown in very close proximity to the figure of Christ on the Cross, though, as is always the case in representations of saintly contemplation, he is not looking directly at the 179

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Figure 32 Diogo de Contreiras (attrib.), St Jerome, St Anthony and St Denis, 1546, oil on panel, 47 x 203 cms (det.), Museu de Évora – Museu Nacional Frei Manuel do Cenáculo, Évora, inv. ME1544; photo José Pessoa, © Direção-Geral do Património Cultural/ Arquivo de Documentação Fotográfica.

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figure of Christ but more generally towards the heavens. This elderly, whitebearded and balding figure is surrounded by his conventional accoutrements. He holds a large stone in his right hand, against his breast, and an open book in his left, his galero and cloak are prominent in the background, and he is wearing a white shift round his waist and tied on one shoulder. What is highly unusual in this image is the figure of Christ, placed at Jerome’s eye level. This Christ is very much alive on the Cross. His eyes are wide open and his facial features are far from the idealised and rather bland nobility usually ascribed to Christ. He seems to be an individual rather than a type, with his full lips, craggy chin, cropped hair, stubble instead of a beard and an expression on his face which is woebegone, even downtrodden, far from the expected projection of heroic acceptance. If anything, it is Jerome who seems much more of a type and this Christ, because he is depicted as a run-of-the-mill man, becomes immensely more approachable. Similar interactions between more or less sentient Christ figures on the Cross and emaciated and emotionally wrought Jeromes kneeling before them are present in Iberian painting of this period from Évora in the west to Valencia in the east. The balance in the relationship is almost always subtle, as, for example, in Vicente Juan Masip’s The Penitent St Jerome, painted probably in the 1570s and now in a Spanish private collection81 (fig. 33). Masip, also known as Juan de Juanes, was the pre-eminent Valencian painter of the second half of the sixteenth century and his Jerome, shown kneeling before a crucifix in the wilderness, is very close to the stripped-down icon­ ography used by Morales.82 Jerome is represented in right-hand profile, kneeling in front of a rocky outcrop, with a church and monastery at the top of a wooded hill behind him in the upper left-hand corner. Stripped to the waist and garbed, like Morales’s Jerome, in a pale shift which seems anchored on his left shoulder, his right hand holds a large stone ready to strike his breast while he leans his left elbow on a pile of books placed on the rock on which the crucifix, with a lifelike figure of Christ, is erected. Jerome is balding, bearded and elderly and the addition of a skull on one side of the crucifix balances the presence of Jerome’s scholarly tomes on the other. Though his upward gaze is not directed at the Christ figure slumped on the Cross, the fingers of his open left hand almost touch the legs of the Christ figure. Jerome himself is very clearly imploring Christ, either to forgive his sins or hear his 181

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Figure 33 Vicente Juan Masip (Juan de Juanes), The Penitent St Jerome, 1570s, oil on panel, 59 x 44.4 cms, private collection (image courtesy of the Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, inv. DO 2013/13/1, 10/2013–03/2015).

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prayer, but the Christ figure appears to be very close to death and incapable of communication with the penitent old man. Indeed, there is more colour in Jerome’s weather-beaten cheeks that on the, presumably, polychromed Christ. Masip’s depiction of Jerome’s penitence is more realistic than Morales’s Dublin iteration or that of Contreiras, in that the figure of Christ is patently a carving in comparison to Jerome who is a flesh-and-blood man. Masip’s other painting of Jerome, for the cathedral in Palma de Mallorca, is larger and less intimate. The Palma Jerome kneels farther away from the cross, with the lion in the bottom left corner and his cardinal’s cloak draped on a rock to his right. He is recognisably the same noble-headed, curly-haired, curly-bearded elderly ascete in both paintings; however, unlike Morales’s emaciated figures, Masip’s Jerome is depicted with well-defined, Italianate musculature. For an emaciated, elderly Jerome in a similar composition, it is necessary to return to Évora and the penitent Jerome on the predella of the altar to the Virgin and Child on the transept of the church of the Royal Monastery of St Francis (fig. 34). This small altarpiece was painted around 1530 and has been attributed to the Lisbon-based Garcia Fernandes who was active between 1514 and 1565. It consists of a central statue of the Virgin and Child of later origin, as both figures are dressed in fine vestments and kept behind glass, with two panels depicting archangels, one on either side of the statue, and on the predella two hermit saints, Jerome on the left and perhaps St Antony Abbot on the right. The left-hand large panel, showing the archangel Michael in judgement over the souls of two deceased Franciscans placed on his scales was the subject of some controversy in the early seventeenth century. This was because the terrified Franciscans in the image are assailed by the much larger and highly sinuous form of a nude female demon or siren at whom Michael brandishes his sword. A century after it was made, this depiction so offended churchgoers and friars alike that the painting was altered in 1626 to hide the indecorousness of the siren’s formosura dissoluta/‘dissolute beauty’ from the eyes of the devout.83 No doubt she was meant to recall the sirens sent to tempt Jerome in the desert, but such a justification held little sway amid the claustrophobia of religious censorship in early seventeenth-century Portugal, where each and every painting, no matter what the content, had to be approved by the Inquisition.84 The demon in all her tempting beauty 183

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Figure 34 Garcia Fernandes, The Penitent St Jerome, c.1530, oil on panel, church of the Real Mosteiro de São Francisco, Évora.

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was restored in 1940 for a major exhibition on Portuguese fifteenth- and sixteenth-century art, Os Primitivos Portugueses (1450–1550).85 The figure of Jerome in the predella is executed very much in the LusoFlemish style so deeply embedded in painting associated both with Lisbon and with the court city of Évora. The work is highly finished, in the same style Morales used for his intimate devotional paintings. Jerome, though elderly, is smooth-skinned and smooth-faced but his limbs and torso are emaciated. The composition shows him in the wilderness, stone in hand, kneeling before Christ on the cross with rocks and trees behind the crucifix and his red cloak placed across a rock behind the crucifix. While this aged, balding and white-bearded figure, wearing a dark robe anchored on his left shoulder and stripped to the waist, holds a stone in his right hand, in his left he has a set of beads, perhaps a rudimentary decade of the rosary plus a Pater Noster, and around his neck can be seen the weighted ends of a scourge. The marks of the whip are visible on his right upper arm. The figure of Christ has very nearly expired on the Cross, and this Jerome, unusually, looks down rather than towards the heavens. There is no suggestion of a relationship between them: one is nearly unconscious and the other con­ centrating on his own sinfulness, since he is looking down not up. Christ is not offering comfort either to Jerome or the viewer and Jerome appears more enmeshed in his own shortcomings than in the suffering of Christ. The image does not project the intimacy of the relationship Contreiras and later Morales establish between Jerome. This in itself is interesting because it provides a point of departure for the development of Jerome as an ideal penitent in communication with Christ over the ensuing decades. It does seem therefore that the Luso-Flemish approach was deemed generally to be more effective in Iberia for the purposes of devotional painting. To echo the views of Vittoria Colonna in the presence of Francisco de Hollanda, it elicited a stronger and more emotional response from the devout person.86 The eye is not distracted by the well-defined musculature and balletic grace of the adult figures, as, for example, in Tura’s monumental Jerome. Instead, the emaciation and self-inflicted injuries suffered by elderly, weather-beaten penitents force the devout individual to concentrate wholly on contrition and penitence, and empathise with the discomfort and deprivations of the suffering saints and the crucified Christ. The most extreme example of 185

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this effect is surely Morales’s Dublin Jerome, a representation of the saint so drastic that the mortal man appears to be a living corpse while the dying deity exudes warm flesh-and-blood humanity. Jerome’s suffering body demonstrates the depth of the penitence all good Christians should practise, and Christ’s glowing, warm-toned body indicates the reward to be found, ultimately, in the love of God. One might take issue here with Elizabeth du Gué Trapier’s observation, already mentioned, of the ‘ineptitudes so evident in the draughtsmanship of Morales’, which she characterises as ‘anatomically distressing’ to the eye, rather than a deliberate strategy, in the manner of El Greco’s use of elongation employed to endow ‘his saints and Virgins, his sorrowful Christs, with a mystic­ ism of special intensity’.87 She does not allude to the Dublin Jerome. If she had, she might well have placed it in the highest category of ‘anatomical distress’. Yet, if one leaves aside Morales’s sins of omission against anatomical accuracy and looks more towards the conversations he creates between the soul of an individual, such as Jerome, who is presented as a penitent but not a mystic, and Christ, there is plenty of justification for the view that his work best represents the exchange between the soul and God aspired to by the reader of devotional literature, lay and religious, in sixteenth-century Spain and Portugal. This loving conversation between the soul and God is explained by Juan de Ribera in a sermon delivered in Badajoz in 1566 on the Feast of Corpus Christi. Citing John 6:56–7 (King James Version): ‘He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him. / As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.’ Ribera offers a conventional gloss on this: La cosa que más unida está con el hombre es el manjar, porque se viene a hacer una cosa con el hombre. Ámanos Dios tanto, que no se contenta con menos que con dársenos en manjar [. . .]   Y por eso se hizo Dios hombre, porque el amor procura coniuncción.88 The thing which is most united to man is eating, because something is done with man. God loves us so much, that he is happy with nothing less than giving himself to us as food [. . .]   And for this reason God became man, because love brings about conjunction.

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This commentary, appropriately for the midsummer celebration of the Eucharist, emphasises the love of God for mankind and the symbolic union of the devout soul with God through the act of taking communion. This is the spirit of the joyful Corpus Christi pageants produced by Diego Sánchez in the 1530s and 1540s, and it finds its reflection in the loving, warm-toned Christ, the original Eucharist, present on the Cross beside the agonising Jerome in the Dublin representation. Thus, while it would be easy to view Morales’s entire output as a sombre response to a dark devotional world of foreboding and sensory deprivation, it must be remembered that he began his career in an atmosphere of some joy, developed it in an era of spiritual fluidity and only towards his mature years dedicated all his efforts to serving the more austere aspects of contemplative practice. Even in the Dublin Jerome, possibly his most harrowing depiction of penance and deep prayer, he is capable of inserting radiance and a sliver of joy. The other rather unusual quality which his adult figures of Christ, such as the Man of Sorrows, and his abstracted penitent Jeromes share is a gentleness and passivity communicated both in their slender, fine-boned forms and in their reserved and inward facial expressions. This is a special element in Morales’s portraits of the penitent Jerome which cannot, for instance, be identified in the masculine and muscular figures by Leonardo, Tura, Navarrete and Masip already cited. While it is possible to argue that the prostrate Jerome in Bosch’s highly idiosyncratic tableau is not dissimilar to the Dublin Jerome in that both emaciated heads could almost be hermaphroditic, the Bosch image serves an altogether different purpose from those of Morales, being more of an essay on aspects of Catholic orthodoxy than a call to penitence. In this sense, it may be possible to suggest that the prayer world generated in Morales’s images is one in which an effort is made to draw as little dis­ tinction as possible between the physical bodies of males and females. There is no real distinction to be drawn, for example, between the proportions of the Virgin’s body, compared to those of Christ, in the Piedades. The only real difference, apart from the fact that he is dead, is that her body is clothed and his is not. The size of her hands relative to his attests to this. If this lack of distinction between male and female bodies and attitudes of passivity and inwardness depicted in their facial expressions is deliberate, rather than the effect of ineptitude, then the reason for it must be that these figures of Christ, 187

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the Virgin and the penitent Jerome are projecting the souls or at least the inner spiritual life of each of these for the guidance of the devout. This sense of gentle exchange between the contemplative and God is encapsulated in the petition Fray Luis wrote asking for the special love of Our Lord, included in his Guía de Pecadores. His description of the eyes of the contemplative and those of Christ or God is relevant to the way in which Morales uses the gaze to communicate prayerfulness or meditation in his work: dame Señor, esos ojos con que te mire: conviene saber, ojos de paloma sencillos, ojos castos y vergonzosos, ojos humildes y amorosos, ojos devotos y llorosos, ojos atentos y discretos para entender tu voluntad y cumplirla para que mirándote yo con estos ojos, sea de ti mirado con aquellos ojos con que miraste a sant Pedro, cuando le heciste llorar su pecado, con aquellos ojos con que miraste al hijo pródigo, cuando le saliste a recebir y le diste beso de paz.89 give me Lord, these eyes with which to look at you: that is, the simple eyes of a dove, chaste and bashful eyes, humble and loving eyes, devout and tearful eyes, alert and discreet eyes which can understand and fulfil your will so that I, looking at you with these eyes, may be looked upon by you with those eyes with which you looked upon Saint Peter, when you made him weep for his sin, with those eyes with which you looked upon the prodigal son, when you came out to welcome him and gave him the kiss of peace.

These are the abstracted eyes of Morales’s Jerome, the inward gaze of the Virgin in the Piedades and Christ as Man of Sorrows. The message in this prayer by Fray Luis is that God is loving and forgiving, if the devout person knows how to approach God in an appropriate way. In his depictions of Jerome, the adult Christ and the Virgin, Morales provides a pictorial insight into this gentle and loving relationship between the soul of the pious and prayerful individual and their responsive and caring God. This is not a vin­ dictive or cruel Catholicism; even in the harshest portrayals there is always a core of love in the composition. Perhaps this, above anything else, is why Morales, whether he was personally devout or not, became known as El Divino.

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Both Sides of the Border: The Two Franciscos

Morales was not the begetter of a dynasty of followers, and his legacy, tenuous though it is, seems to have evolved in very different directions in Spain and Portugal. He had a prosperous workshop for a long time in Badajoz but it produced no painters of note. Two of his sons, Hernando and Jerónimo, trained as artists in his workshop, as did his daughter Catalina’s husband, Pedro Sánchez de Vera.1 Towards the very end of his career, it was Sánchez who helped him to complete altarpieces for chapels in the monastery of St Benedict of the Military Order of Calatrava, in Alcántara, after he moved there in 1582.2 Of his two painter sons, Hernando may have been the more successful, assisting him, for instance, on the Calvary with Donor painted for the female Augustinian convent in Valencia3 (fig. 11). Neither his sons nor his son-in-law achieved anything approaching Morales’s success and indi­viduality. Morales did not have any significant followers in Spain after his death even though the religiosity of the post-Tridentine period, if anything, became even more pronounced under Felipe III. Taste in Spain had moved on, largely owing to the ascendancy in Spanish court circles of Italian style and technical mastery in the final decades of the sixteenth century and Felipe II’s determination to embrace Italianate style Chapter 5

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as a means of signalling his empire’s modernity, international reach and wealth. Ironically, Morales himself was not without Italianate tastes. Bedevilled as historians of Morales’s work have been, up to comparatively recently, by attempts to ascertain or speculate which masters he may have studied with and how he might have acquired his highly finished sfumato style, perhaps the more interesting question, now that there appears to be consensus that he barely travelled at all beyond the bounds of Extremadura and the Alentejo, is why he believed such a style to be appropriate. Trapier points out that ‘his art recalls that of a miniaturist; his brush stroke is rarely visible, his paint close in consistency’ while suggesting that he was happy to take pattern from ‘the diluted art of pupils and followers of Leonardo’.4 She is somewhat harsh, as has been observed earlier, on Morales’ draughtsmanship, and she considers his work undemonstrative. She believes he followed, in his largescale Piedad formulation, the model of Giovanni Bellini (Pietà, c.1465–70, Pinacoteca de Brera, Milan, Inv. 228) as regards his disposition of the heads and torsos of the Virgin and Christ, but argues that he arranges his figures much more rigidly, without sufficient emotional interaction between them: ‘The Virgin’s face is not realistically tinted with blood, nor does she bury her face in a non-existent crown of thorns, dramatic as such a gesture would have been, and the crystal tears remain on her own cheeks.’5 However, a counter-argument may be made that Morales, a century later and under the aegis of Juan de Ribera, is representing, in the Virgin’s attitude, the kind of prayerful­ness and stillness which the viewer might reasonably expect to emulate. They could do this by situating themselves, in Ignatian fashion, in her stead, metaphorically and quietly holding the body of the dead Christ. For this, the sfumato technique is indispensable, because it enables the contemplative to place themselves very close to the image without losing focus on the figures while the inherent poetry of a Bellini or a Leonardo allows the artist imitating their style to adapt a visual language gentle enough to simulate, in the manner suggested by Fray Luis, a nurturing and prayerful atmosphere. Part of this gracefulness is the sweetness of expression Trapier identifies as a common element in Morales’s Virgin and Child paint­ ings and those of Italian sources.6 Her reservations notwithstanding, she did put her finger on the point which divides viewers of Morales’s work: his 190

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obviation of expansive physical gesture. It separates those who discern a logic in his contained poses from those who see them as backward, inept or both. One painter clearly impelled to correct Morales’s technical shortcomings in this department was Francisco de Castillejo, or possibly a member of his workshop. Castillejo is recorded as having been involved, with fellow Sevillian painter Luis Fernández, in producing paintings for the main altar of the church of the Royal Hieronymite Monastery in Granada in the final decades of the sixteenth century.7 Work on the main altarpiece for this church, because it brought together so many painters from around Andalusia, is seen as the starting point for the development of the Sevillian and Granadine schools of painting which flourished in the seventeenth century. Sometimes confused with the Piedad by Morales presented to the Jesuit Colegio de Santa Catalina in Córdoba by Cristóbal de Rojas y Sandoval in 1562, the Castillejo artist produced a thematically very similar painting in Morales’s golden decade of 1560–708 (fig. 14). Given the enormous resemblance between this image and the Colegio de Santa Catalina Piedad, it seems unquestionable that the painter created this version in response to Morales (fig. 35). The Castillejo Piedad seems to have been produced by a painter who looked at Morales’s image and decided to impose a more Italianate choreog­ raphy on the figures. While the iconic Italian version of this composition is certainly Michelangelo’s marble Pietà in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome (1498–9), representations of this fluid and expansive formulation were widely avail­ able in Italian engravings, such as that made in 1547 by the Bolognese, Giulio Bonasone (Pietà under the Cross of Golgotha, Metropolitan Museum, New York, Inv. 59.595.3). The Castillejo artist quite clearly decided, or was encouraged by whoever commissioned the image, to take Morales’s com­ position, copying the dress if not the exact facial figures, the wood of the Cross and the rocks behind it, the dark background and the high finish, and inject it with greater fluidity. Where Morales presents the figures in close-up, with Christ’s legs disappearing off the bottom right corner of the panel below the knee, the Castillejo artist opens up the image, showing the full extent of Christ’s body and a considerable portion of the ground beneath the large flat rock he and his mother are balanced on. The artist includes a skull, a couple of limb bones and what may be part of a pelvic bone, to reinforce 191

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Figure 35 Francisco de Castillejo (attrib.), Pietà, 1560s, oil on panel,

83.5 x 67.5 cms, Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba, Córdoba, inv. DO0022P.

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that this is Golgotha, the ‘place of a skull’ (Matthew 27:33; Mark 15:22, King James Version). Where Morales shows a cadaver, with the head at an unnatural angle, held in a sitting position by his mother, the Castillejo artist shows the dead Christ stretched out diagonally across his mother’s lap, his right arm anchored on her bent right knee. She holds his head in her right hand so that the neck is extended in a lifelike posture, although the blue grey on his lips and around his nostrils indicates that he is deceased. She appears to be semi-squatting, with her right knee bent and her left knee in a wide kneeling position. Her head and shoulders lean over the body of her son, creating symmetry and a much more fluid dynamic. As the two human figures are positioned to the (viewer’s) left of the Cross, the two small rocks on the right of the Cross in the background, also present in Morales, are highlighted much more clearly, to balance the figures. Tonally, the image is warmer, the attitudes of the two figures are more balletic. The Virgin’s cheeks show the same ‘crystal tears’ as in Morales but her head and that of her son do not meet, there is a head’s width between them. His forehead shows the wounds of the crown of thorns and his body has trickles of blood from the thorns; the spear thrust in his side and the nail holes in his hands (and feet) are present, just as in Morales. His mother’s left hand holds his chest with the end of his loin cloth, her right holds his hair so there is no skin-to-skin contact between them, while in Morales both of the Virgin’s hands are spread wide on her son’s naked torso. The use of the cloth to hold the body of Christ is more decorous, it appears less effortful and it is in keeping with the lighter touch of the Castillejo artist. At first glance, this painting looks like the pinnacle of what Morales might have achieved had he pushed himself a little further in the Italianate direction. It is no wonder that the image was purchased as a Morales in 1917 by the then Museo Provincial in Córdoba.9 It seems as if the intensity of the mother– son relationship projected in the best of Morales’s Piedades has had the tight formation into which he sculpted it opened out, allowing the figures to blossom into the dignified, mournful pas-de-deux of death it was always meant to be. The artist is both a competent anatomist (with the exception, perhaps of the Virgin’s left hand) and lighting engineer, but he does not fully express the message of the painting, which is to convey the suffering of the Virgin. The choreography simply does not achieve this end. Firstly, the Virgin 193

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is not looking directly at her son’s body, she is abstracted instead in her sorrow. This emotional distance between mother and son is of a piece with the insertion of the loin cloth between her hand and his torso, rendering the relationship colder. In the Morales Piedad, the Virgin is gazing at the lifeless head of her son and making a tremendous effort to hold the cadaver in a sitting position. This extreme physical effort, combined with the proximity of her head to his and the focus of her gaze on her son, takes the emotional intensity of this painting into a different realm from that of the Castillejo artist. The compact stillness of the figures in Morales’s disposition seems to be a significant contributory factor in this. Perhaps the contemplative needed the near-claustrophobia of Morales’s zoom lens to be able to concentrate repeatedly on the sorrow of the Virgin but would have been distracted by the relative remoteness of mother and son in the Castillejo artist’s version. This reformulation of the Morales recipe for the Piedad did not spawn imitators or repeat commissions, possibly because 1560–70 was Morales’s golden decade and patrons, lay or religious, did not want to seek out an imitator if they could prevail upon the master. It may also be because the disposition of the figures did not seem stern enough or because this artist was offered opportunities which led him in another direction. There is no way of telling, especially since even the attribution of this painting is doubtful at best. Yet, this single painting, out of the many produced in Extremadura and Andalusia by much lesser artists in imitation of Morales’s style and subject matter, indicates why his work left no lasting legacy in Spain. The impetus in the Castillejo Piedad moves in a pronounced Italianate direction in terms of choreography and the creation of tableaux vivants with greater fluidity and vibrancy. In 1560–70, this type of expression amongst indigenous painters was very much in its infancy, but it would develop into the glory that was the Spanish seventeenth century in painting. The Portuguese seventeenth century, on the other hand, did not move as quickly or as smoothly in the same direction. With the exception of the extraordinary António Campelo, Portuguese art retained its focus on the Luso-Flemish style well into the late sixteenth century; this despite the best efforts of Francisco de Hollanda. Like Hollanda, Campelo was Italian-trained, spending time in Rome in the early 1550s, and active in Lisbon afterwards, up until 1570. Unfortunately, very little of his work has survived and what 194

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has survived is damaged. His Christ on the Way to Calvary, part of a series for the Hieronymite Monastery in Belém, Lisbon, has been hailed by writers on Portuguese art down through the centuries as an obra prodigiosa/‘a work of genius’ 10 (fig. 36). It shows a complex scene of Christ on his knees, carrying the cross, surrounded by onlookers and soldiers. The figures are rounded and muscular in the Roman style, the palette is tawny and golden, yet the composition is at the same time mournful and expressive. Despite this plangency, Campelo’s work was not in tune with mid-sixteenth-century Portuguese taste. As Vítor Serrão notes: a sua arte refrescada e caprichosa não podia gerar senão um sentimento de restrição, visível na carência de encargos públicos (salvo o dos Jerónimos) e na posição de apagamento face aos pintores que aderiam a essa ‘arte senza tempo’, a esse gosto tridentino por uma pintura pedagógica, ‘fora do tempo’, mais consentânea com a ideologia portuguesa da Contra-Reforma militante.11 his fresh and capricious painting would elicit nothing more than an urge to limit it, visible in the lack of institutional commissions (apart from that of the Hieronymites) and in his lack of success in comparison to those painters who adhered to that arte senza tempo [timeless art], to that Tridentine taste for didactic painting, ‘out of time’, but consistent with the Portuguese ideology of a militant Counter-Reformation.

It was, however, that very taste for didactic, timeless painting which provided a more receptive environment for successors of Morales on the other side of the border. Serrão cites Diogo Teixeira, resident in Lisbon and active from 1565 until not long before his death in 1612, as the antithesis of Campelo: Com dificuldade encontraremos na pintura portuguesa dos mesmos anos paralelo ideológico e artístico para Campelo [. . .] De facto, o grosso da ‘pintura oficial’ regeu-se por pressupostos da Contra-Maniera tridentina, como bem se verifica nas composições de um Diogo Teixeira, que na sua «Adoração de Pastores» do retábulo da Igreja da Misericórdia de Alcochete [. . .] se inspirou com toda a nitidez na citada «Adoração» de Campelo em Torres Novas, ainda que sem mostras de qualquer espírito de rebelião ou de infringir as normas compositivas, antes como um tranquilo e decoroso tradutor de um modelo iconográfico que apreciou apenas na sua estrutura formal.12

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Figure 36 António Campelo, Christ on the Way to Calvary, 1565–75, oil on chestnut panel, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, inv. 1184 Pint; photo Luisa Oliveira © Direção-Geral do Património Cultural / Arquivo de Documentação Fotográfica.

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It would be difficult to find in Portuguese painting of the same years an ideological and artistic parallel for Campelo [. . .] In effect, the majority of ‘official painting’ was dominated by the prerequisites of Tridentine anti-Mannerism, as can be easily seen in the work of a painter such as Diogo Teixeira, who, in his ‘Adoration of the Shepherds’ for the Church of the Santa Misericórdia in Alcochete took inspiration rather precisely from Campelo’s already mentioned ‘Adoration’ in Torres Novas, though he did so without any traces of a spirit of rebellion or attempts to challenge the prevailing norms, operating rather as the calm and decorous translator of an iconographic model of which he only comprehended the formal structure.

Campelo’s Adoration of the Shepherds (1570–80), now in the chapel of the former male Franciscan convent of St Anthony in Torres Novas, was a commission for a noble family and used for private devotion.13 Teixeira’s formed part of a major commission for the main altarpiece for the newly constructed church of the Santa Misericórdia charitable foundation in Alcochete, and it was completed between 1586 and 1588. This church is now the Museu Municipal in Alcochete.14 Though Campelo may well have fulfilled the function of master to Teixeira in this instance, the difference in level between the two commissions indicates how reluctant the Church in Portugal was, in the 1580s, to see in contemporary Italianate style a possible vehicle for the communication of religious messages. It can be no surprise therefore, that Morales’s most significant follower is to be found, not in Spain, but in Évora. There, as in Alcochete, the hybrid style which had evolved since the late fifteenth century via Frei Carlos and the other naturalised Flemings working in Portugal was still very much in demand. The exchange of influence and commissions for paintings and sculpture over and back across the border between Lower (Baja) Extremadura and Portugal was constant in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As Román Hernández Nieves points out: «Las relaciones artísticas con nuestro vecino Portugal» han merecido tradicionalmente escasa atención y, sin embargo, se produjeron en todas las manifestaciones del arte [. . .] el trasiego de artista a través de la frontera fue un hecho innegable, especialmente en los períodos de buenas relaciones políticas entre ambos países.15

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Figure 37 Luis de Morales, Ecce Homo, c.1565, oil on oak panel, 182 x 94 cms, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, inv. 425 Pint; photo José Pessoa, © Direção-Geral do Património Cultural/Arquivo de Documentação Fotográfica.

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‘Artistic exchange with our neighbour Portugal’ has traditionally merited very little attention and, even so, it took place in every form of art [. . .] the transit of artists across the border was an undeniable fact, especially in periods of good political relations between the two countries.

Morales worked in Évora, on the altarpiece for the male Dominican convent, from 1564 to 1566. This altarpiece, now lost, was very highly regarded in his own time and subsequently. Several of his works were listed in the inventory of the recently deceased fifth Duke of Bragança, Teodósio I, in 1565.16 Morales was accompanied in Évora by his two sons and some members of his work­ shop. While in residence, they produced a number of other works, one of which may be his Ecce Homo now in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon17 (fig. 37). In 1576–8, with much greater collaboration from members of his workshop, Morales created the altarpiece for the cathedral in Elvas (now the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption). The altarpiece was replaced as part of a major programme of renovation undertaken by Bishop Lourenço de Lencastre in the second half of the eighteenth century, and the panels, which are not well preserved, may now be seen in the Museu de Arte Sacra in Elvas.18 In 1585, when he was in failing health, his assistants did most of the work on the panels Morales was contracted to paint for the side altar to the Virgin of Mount Carmel in Portalegre cathedral, where they hang to this day.19 Serrão lists some Portuguese painters who may be in some manner indebted to Morales in aspects of their own work. He cites Diogo Teixeira, rather more warmly than in his earlier comments. He mentions Simão Rodrígues, Italian-trained and also based in Lisbon, who did some of the panels for the main altarpiece in Portalegre cathedral and whose paintings for the altarpiece of the Dominican church in Elvas, painted around 1595, show some elements of commonality with Morales’s aesthetic. Francisco Flores, who is documented between 1543 and 1594, is also included. He worked on a side altar for the cathedral of Portalegre, dedicated to Our Lord of the Passion, at the same time as Morales. In Serrão’s opinion, Flores’s inferior talent still serves the purpose of demonstrating the depth of Morales’s influence in Portugal, showing

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Figure 38 Francisco João, The Taking of Jesus, 1575, oil on panel, c.150 x 70 cms, Franciscan church, Évora; photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016.

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dentro de su pobre dibujo, una clara dependencia de los repertorios de Luis de Morales, gloria de la pintura manierista peninsular, demostrando el extraordinario impacto de su estilo, incluso cuando es imitado por epígonos sin vigor.20 in his poor drawing, a clear dependence on the repertoire of Luis de Morales, the glory of peninsular Mannerist painting, demonstrating the extraordinary impact of his style, even when it is imitated by followers lacking in technique or talent.

The most important Portuguese disciple of Morales, however, is Francisco João (c.1539–95), who worked all his life in Évora, though he only outlived his Spanish master by a matter of a decade. There is ample evidence of Morales’s influence in the altarpiece João painted for the church of the male Augustinian convent of Our Lady of Grace (Nossa Senhora da Graça) in Évora in 1575. This convent was developed in the early sixteenth century under the protection of the Count of Vimioso, Francisco de Portugal, and his wife, Joana de Vilhena. The church was finished in 1540 by the royal architect Miguel de Arruda in collaboration with the French sculptor Nicolas Chantereine, and was the first church created in the Renaissance or Mannerist style in Évora.21 Subsequently, it was popularly known as the Igreja dos Meninos da Graça (Church of the Children of Grace) in reference to the four Roman Atlantes placed two on either side of the top of the main façade. As far as locals are concerned, these Atlas figures, attributed to Chantereine, represent Portugal’s expansion around the world but also the first four Christian martyrs in Évora. João’s commission from the Augustinians suggests the esteem in which he was held in the city, particularly given the involvement of the Duke of Bragança’s architect, Pero Vaz Pereira in alterations made to the church in 1592. The panels from João’s altarpiece now hang in the transept of the Franciscan church in Évora, on the south wall, not far from the once notorious Garcia Fernandes side-altar containing the restored, lascivious female demon, the souls of two Franciscans and the archangel Michael (fig. 34). While there is plenty of evidence to show that João was a prosperous man, a property and slave owner in Évora, there is little documentation on his commissions and no information on his training.22 The six panels he painted for Nossa Senhora da Graça, for which there is no extant documentation, were 201

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Figure 39 Francisco João, Christ at the Pillar, 1575, oil on panel, c.150 x 70 cms, Franciscan Church, Évora, photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016.

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attributed to João by Túlio Espanca in 1955.23 The six panels represent, in Gospel narrative order, The Taking of Jesus, Christ at the Pillar, The Crowning with Thorns, Ecce Homo, Christ Carrying the Cross and the Descent from the Cross24 (Figs 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43). They are currently displayed within a late seventeenth-century gilded arch on the south wall of the transept of the Franciscan church, and not necessarily in the configuration in which they were originally hung. The Crowning, square in shape, has been placed on top, then come four oblong panels of the same dimensions, the Taking of Jesus on the left and Christ Carrying the Cross on the right, and below them Christ at the Pillar beside the Ecce Homo, with the Descent, which is the largest panel, at the bottom. There is no available evidence as to how these panels were displayed in the original altarpiece. As Helena Pinheiro de Melo notes, there are coincidences between some of João’s output and that of Morales which are more concrete than general similarities in terms of their having a common aesthetic and devotional mood. She is convinced, for instance, that there are compositional similarities between some of Morales’s panels in the altarpiece in Arroyo de la Luz and work by João.25 This would suggest that João’s familiarity with Morales’s work was considerable and might even intimate that he made a trip to see the Arroyo altarpiece, completed between 1560 and 1563, or simply, given Morales’s propensity to repeat his iconography, that similar paintings were on view in his workshop during his residence in Évora. She pays particular attention to the position of Christ’s hands in three of the Nossa Senhora da Graça panels: Acresce ainda o detalhe interessante da posição bastante invulgar das mãos amarrados de Cristo, repetida em três das pinturas do núcleo de S. Francisco e utilizada por Morales nos seus Ecce Homo, nomeadamente no do Museu de Arte Antiga de Lisboa.26 There is also the interesting detail of the rather unusual position of the bound hands of Christ, repeated in three of the paintings from the Church of St Francis group and used by Morales in his Ecce Homo paintings, namely in the Ecce Homo in the Museu de Arte Antiga in Lisbon.

The three João paintings are Christ at the Pillar, the Crowning with Thorns and the Ecce Homo (Figs. 39, 40, 41). The Morales Ecce Homo is believed to have 203

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Figure 40 Francisco João, The Crowning with Thorns, 1575, oil on panel, c.100 x 100 cms, Franciscan church, Évora, photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016.

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been painted for the chapter of the male Dominican convent in Évora at the same time as the altarpiece for the convent church27 (fig. 37). Thus João would probably have had ample opportunity to study this painting and consider imitating the placement of Christ’s hands. More than compositional detail however, it is Morales’s ability to represent episodes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin in a manner which appeared decorous to the Portuguese Inquisition but also served the inestimable function of inspiring a devotional response in the viewer which seems to have struck João most forcibly. Never in the same rank as Morales as an artist, nonetheless in this series of paintings he attempts to recreate, in his depiction of Christ, the same contained elegance and resignation as Morales achieves in the (presumed Dominican convent) Ecce Homo. This same gentle resig­nation is evident in the Minneapolis Man of Sorrows, which, unlike the Nossa Senhora da Graça altarpiece, was probably painted for private devotion (fig. 19). In João’s sequence, the restrained comportment of Christ is emphasised by the exaggerated movement, facial expressions, gestures and colourful costuming of the array of soldiers, torturers, helpers and disciples disposed around him at the various stages of his via crucis from Gethsemane to Gol­ gotha. This expressive exuberance is, according to Melo, not seen in any of João’s other works and the Nossa Senhora da Graça panels are the only series which explora uma diversidade de posições e expressões das figuras bastante teatrais, desenvolvendo rostos deformados, com maxilares salientes, os olhos quase fora de órbita e narinas muito abertas que conferem às figuras um ar africano, inexistente nas restantes pinturas. As roupas dos soldados, nomeadamente ao nível das suas meias, são igualmente originais no seio das obras estudadas.28 explores a range of rather theatrical positions and expressions in the figures, showing deformed faces, with prominent jawbones, eyes almost popping out of their orbits and very open nostrils which give the figures an almost African air, not seen in his other paintings. The soldiers’ clothes, especially their stockings, are equally original in terms of the works [of João] studied.

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Figure 41 Francisco João, Ecce Homo, 1575, oil on panel, c.150 x 70 cms, Franciscan church, Évora, photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016.

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She is probably referring in particular to the two torturers wielding thick rods in the Crowning with Thorns, one of whom is garbed in eye-catching long yellow stockings, and the torturers lashing Christ with multi-thonged whips in Christ at the Pillar, one of whom is resplendent in bright red stockings (figs. 39, 40). The second torturer in the Crowning with Thorns is dressed as a Roman soldier, minus his helmet, the second individual in Christ at the Pillar is costumed in generic early sixteenth-century paned trunk hose with kneehigh stockings. All four torturers and all the other Roman soldiers depicted in the panels, including the man holding a spear in the Ecce Homo (fig. 41), are in early middle age, with swarthy complexions, wide cheekbones and full lips. If anything, they look more like contemporary representations of Moors rather than sub-Saharan Africans. If they are taken as such, then João’s implication becomes clearer. Historically, these Moorish soldiers serving in the Roman army stationed in Judaea represent the hostility of the Roman Empire to Christianity, both in Christ’s lifetime and up to the reign of Constantine the Great at the beginning of the fourth century. For a contemporary sixteenth-century viewership, they stand for the geopolitical forces of military Islam, politically embodied in the Ottoman Empire. A couple of years after the completion of these panels, tensions over Ottoman influence in Morocco and its impact on the Portuguese Empire would lead to the ruinous debacle of the battle of Oued al-Makhazin, near the town of Ksar el-Kebir, and the death without issue of the young king, Sebastião I. Sebastião, who was obsessed with the idea of conquering Morocco for Christianity, spent significant periods of time in Évora in the years between his accession to the throne in 1568 at the age of fourteen and his death in 1578. 29 It is difficult, however, to argue that these figures might also invoke a Muslim menace lurking within Portuguese society. Muslims had, in their vast majority, been expelled in 1496–7 under Manuel I, though exceptions were made at the time for certain individuals to remain without the obligation to convert to Catholicism.30 This unconverted population was tiny and gradually disappeared. Very few Muslims became converts or mouriscos in order to remain in Portugal and there were only rare cases of individuals brought before the Portuguese Inquisition accused of practising Islam in secret. At the Évora Inquisition tribunal, for example, out of almost 9,000 people 207

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Figure 42 Francisco João, Christ Carrying the Cross, 1575, oil on panel, c.150 x 70cms, Franciscan church, Évora; photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016.

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processed between 1540 and 1668, only 93 were examined for practising Islam covertly.31 All the same, a law was passed in 1563 obliging all foreign Muslims visiting Lisbon to wear distinctive insignia in order to prevent their mingling with the mourisco population, even though only thirty-seven mourisco taxpayers were recorded in Lisbon in 1565 out of a total of over 15,000.32 João’s Roman soldiers and torturers are exotically attired in the context of sober dress in late sixteenth-century Portugal. They provide a strong contrast with the northern European features and skin colour of the named biblical characters: the disciples in the Taking, Simon of Cyrene in Christ Carrying the Cross and the figure of Pilate pointing to Christ in the Ecce Homo (figs. 38, 42, 41). The grey-bearded Pilate is dressed in early sixteenth-century Flemish winter attire, with a fur collar on his long yellow-caped tabard and elaborate but thick boots. The disciples in the Taking, a white-haired and balding Peter cutting off the soldier’s ear, and a dark-red-haired and younger Judas clutching his bag of silver pieces, are all, in contrast, wearing conventional biblical loose shifts with mantles. Judas is significantly in the same yellow as Pilate while Peter wears a more sombre dark grey tunic with a white mantle. Simon of Cyrene (modern-day Shahhat in Libya), who was forced as he left the city to help Jesus carry his burden, is depicted as an older, grey-haired and prosperous man in Christ Carrying the Cross (Mark 15:21). He is dressed in red tunic and green mantle, but more warmly than the disciples, as befits a person setting out on a journey. In the Descent from the Cross, two of the six figures are presented in early sixteenth-century dress (fig. 43). The central group in the foreground is made up of the body of Jesus lying in his mother’s lap, with his torso supported by John the Evangelist. Mary Magdalen is very formally garbed in an elaborately decorated but subdued pink sixteenth-century gown with her red hair dressed fashionably. However, her attire is partly covered by a biblical mantle, indica­ tive of her in-between status, part courtesan, part follower of Christ. There are two male figures in the background, conversing. One of them, though younger and black-bearded, is clothed in a red velvet hat and long yellow tabard similar to those of Pilate, while the other is bald with a white mantle over his head and what appears to be a plain red, biblical tunic, similar in colour to that of Simon of Cyrene, beneath it. It is possible that this second 209

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Figure 43 Francisco João, The Descent from the Cross, 1575, oil on panel, c.100 x 150 cms, Franciscan church, Évora, photo © ISF-Manuel Ribeiro 2016.

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man, who is looking at the group gathered around the dead Christ, is Joseph of Arimathea, who went to Pilate and asked for Christ’s corpse and then paid for its entombment. This would mean that the man in the yellow tabard, with his back turned to the mourning group is a representative of Pilate, con­ ducting the negotiation with Joseph. The other possibility is that the whitemantled man is Nicodemus. However, Nicodemus only appeared after the body had been taken away by Joseph and he brought myrrh and aloes with which to embalm the body (John 19:39). João thus maintains clear lines of distinction between the various factions in the story of Calvary through his use of costume, physical type and facial characteristics with the figures representing Roman rule or even vaguely associated with Roman society, for example, Mary Magdalen and Pilate, in Flemish garb, and the Virgin, the disciples and other helpers of Christ in biblical robes. The central figure of Christ, however, is depicted in a manner which distinguishes him instantly from both Roman and biblical factions. Where he is clothed, in the Crowning, the Taking and Christ Carrying the Cross, he seems rather detached from the action (figs. 40, 38, 42). The fact that he is garbed in what looks like a loose version of a monastic habit, a muddy beige in hue, underscores his estrangement from the activity around him. In the instances when he is shown almost naked before the Crucifixion, in Christ at the Pillar and the Ecce Homo with only a white loincloth round his hips, the rounded, muscular bodies, and elaborate, colourful outfits of his torment­ ors provide an even sharper contrast with his tall and slender form, and docile attitude (figs. 41, 39). In the Descent from the Cross, the countenances of the Virgin and John, actually rather similar in feature, display extreme sorrow, each weeping with their faces, in profile, turned from the deadweight figure they are both sustaining (fig. 43). They are on the left of the image. On the bottom right, Mary Magdalen kneels to kiss Christ’s left hand, in a gesture which echoes her washing of his feet and maintains a suitable distance between her involvement with Christ and that of his mother and John, the ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’ (John 19:26). Christ is laid across his mother’s lap and held under the arms by John, who does not use a winding sheet to screen his hands from his master’s flesh. Mary Magdalen too holds Christ’s arm in her bare hands as she kisses it. Even this absence of the formality of a fabric barrier between the hands of his disciples and the 211

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Golden Age Painting in Iberia: Morales

mortified flesh of the dead Christ adds to the docility of the figure in João’s rendition, making the pity of his suffering and death even more immediate to the original contemplative audience in the Church of Nossa Senhora da Graça. One might argue therefore that in this one instance, a significant instance in that it constitutes a major altarpiece commission for a prominent church in Évora, João, whether instructed or encouraged by the commissioner of the altarpiece or on his own initiative, has produced a version of the passion and death of Christ with an unusual degree of political nuance. Christ is more of a commoner, more of a victim than in any of Morales’s representations, and he is surrounded by a motley crew of politically inflected torturers and politicians who appear to be much more than just local colour copied from Flemish engravings. To place this in context, the Évora Augustinians, in whose church this altarpiece hung, seem to have been capable of presiding over a rather complex mélange of politics, learning and theology in the late sixteenth century. One significant manifestation of this is the career of Publia Hortênsia de Castro. Educated in Greek and Latin, a writer of poetry and conductor of theological disputations in Latin, none of which, sadly, was published in her own time, Hortênsia was one of the most celebrated learned women in Portugal. Born in Vila Viçosa, she spent her adult life in Évora but did not move habitually in court circles as she was not of the nobility. Nonetheless, she was known to the learned Infanta Maria, Duchess of Viseu, who was patron to other notable learned women such as Luisa Sigea and Joana Vaz, and formed part of a nucleus of educated women writing in Portugal at the time.33 Of high repute for her brains and beauty in her youth, Hortênsia is reported to have read a theological argument before Filipe I (of Portugal) and, like Morales, was granted a pension by him.34 In 1581, at the age of thirty and unmarried, she entered the Augustinian convent of Santa Mónica in Évora. This institution was known from 1671 as the Convent of the Menino Jesus, owing to the miraculous properties of a statue of the Child Jesus in the church. Sebastião I is believed to have visited the church to pray before this image on the eve of his departure for battle in Morocco.35 Hortênsia died in 1595 and was interred in the male Augustinian convent of the Nossa Senhora da Graça, a signal honour. 212

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This respect for Hortênsia’s achievements in her lifetime and for her legacy in death shows that the Augustinian presence in Évora, in the male and the female convents, was supportive of learning, including female learning, to an absolute degree. The Nossa Senhora da Graça church building itself, a monument to Renaissance and Humanist influences, further attests to this. At the same time, the political nuancing in Francisco João’s altarpiece paintings on the passion and death of Christ demonstrates worldly wisdom on the part of the Augustinian friars who were prepared to display such vibrant images in their church. Even so, in sixteenth-century Portugal, human­ ism and politics did not exist outside the purview of theology, however enlightened the Augustinian community or however aware of Portugal’s strategic and missionary interest in North Africa, and in this sequence of images, the theological import is very much rooted in the humanity of Christ. The extreme docility of the Christ figure in João’s narrative may be directly related to the Augustinian emphasis on the sublime humility of Christ. Unlike the Morales Ecce Homo, which shows Christ on his own, elegantly poised and ethereally absorbed in contemplation, João’s Christ is constantly defiled and harassed by grotesque and venal human beings, even at the moment of his being taken down from the Cross (fig. 43). This is not to say that Morales could not produce Ecce Homo images depicting the mockery of Christ by tormentors in Flemish sixteenth-century garb, he did on at least two occasions, but João’s Christ seems far more pitiful than in any of Morales’s iterations.36 According to Joseph McInerney, the central message of the life of Christ in the teachings of Augustine is one of humility. He cites Augustine’s exhortation, ‘Pull in your horns, O man, and reduce yourself to the humble Christ, or you may stretch yourself so far that you burst.’37 Furthermore, as Matthew Drever notes, ‘Augustine is careful not to glorify the suffering of Christ as an end in itself.’38 He mentions Augustine’s particular concern about how violent images, such as those portraying the Crucifixion and death of Christ, might have an inappropriate effect on the viewer, leading to voyeuristic pleasure in the depiction of suffering rather than meditation on the sacrifice of Christ.39 This too must be a consideration in Francisco João’s depiction of a passive and not very bloody Christ. His Christ remains above the fray though assailed by sinfulness from all sides and consequently runs less risk of leading susceptible observers into occasions of sin. 213

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Golden Age Painting in Iberia: Morales

Francisco João was a clever craftsman, a devout and dextrous individual sensitive to the theological and political currents of the day as he carried out his commission for Nossa Senhora da Graça in the mid-1570s. Though he may appear to echo the work of Luis de Morales in his modelling of Christ and ancillary biblical figures in his religious tableaux, in fact, on the evidence of his altarpiece for Nossa Senhora da Graça, his aesthetic is of a far differ­ent temper, much more attuned to politics and less focused on representing exquisite states of contemplation than the master from across the border. João cannot be considered a follower of Morales, any more than Francisco de Castillejo (or Castillejo’s workshop). Both artists moved away from Morales, albeit in different directions, each attempting to open out Morales’s hermetic contemplative world. The Castillejo artist tried to shift Morales’s choreography of the Piedad in the direction of the expansiveness of late Italian Renaissance style. João experienced a need to draw Morales’s iconography more towards the political realities of the 1570s in Portugal. The irony in this is that while there is no evidence to suggest that Morales had a particularly strong faith, João is reputed to have been a pious Catholic, yet he is the one pulling away from a purely devotional context. It is worth remembering, of course, that João’s altarpiece was made for public display and therefore naturally con­ tained more extensive narrative content, as did Morales’s own altarpieces. However, the political implications in João’s altarpiece do mark a break with his supposed master’s more restrained practice, just as the Castillejo artist’s opening out of the austere Piedad iconography does. In the end, both artists’ efforts only conspire to demonstrate just how extraordinary Morales’s own artistic voice was and how unrepeatable.

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Afterword

This journey through Morales’s life and times: the atmosphere of joy and tolerance in Badajoz in the 1540s, the limited leeway for theological experi­ mentation in the 1550s, his golden years in the 1560s on both sides of the raya/border as a painter of altarpieces and intimate devotional paint­ings, and the respect in which he was held, both in the Portuguese court city of Évora and the magnanimous heart of Felipe II who bestowed on him a pension in old age, chronicles the long and successful career of a remark­ able artist. Yet neither in his sons nor any of his pupils and helpers did he leave a demonstrable or transferable legacy. No more than Doménikos Theotocópoulos, a devout man, who superseded him in Spain as a painter of devotional art, his work proved both idiosyncratic and un­repeatable. Perhaps that very sensitive and assiduous champion of his work, Carmelo Solís Rodríguez, writing in 1977, a time when Morales was often disparaged, sums it up best: [. . .] en el bosque animado de nuestra pintura del XVI, emerge Morales como un árbol exótico, por cuyo tronco reptasen savias dispares, que hacen de él un ser solitario – por ecléctico – dentro del panorama artístico hispano.40

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Golden Age Painting in Iberia: Morales

[. . .] in the busy forest of our painting in the sixteenth century, Morales emerges like an exotic tree, from the trunk of which disparate juices are oozing, which make him a solitary being – because he is eclectic – in the Hispanic artistic panorama.

His oeuvre is better known, conserved and appreciated now, but the man remains the same enigmatic individual and his work continues to polarise opinion. Those prepared to see beauty and intent in the way he painted and those who cannot forgive him his technical shortcomings remain probably as far apart as ever. It seems to me, however, that the votes in favour are now very definitely in the majority.

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Notes

1 Badajoz in the 1540s  1  2  3

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 7  8  9

10 11 12 13

Ruiz Gómez, ‘Divino y Humano’, pp. 18; Zolle, ‘Apéndice Documental’, p. 227, doc. 2. Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, pp. 194–5. Carl Santiago Kastner, ‘La Música en la Catedral de Badajoz (años 1520–1603)’, Anuario Musical, 12 (1957), 123–46; 123. Fray Manuel Joseph de Medrano, Historia de la Provincia de España de la Orden de Predicadores, Tomo Segundo (Madrid: Herederos de Antonio González de Reyes: 1727), pp. 628–31; p. 629. Fr Joseph Perreira de Santa Anna, Chronica dos Carmelitas da Antiga, e Regular Observancia Nestes Reynos de Portugal, Algarves e Seus Dominios, tomo primeiro (Lisbon: Heredeiros de Antonio Pedrozo Galram, 1745), ‘Aos que lerem’, n.p. Fr Belchor de Santa Anna, Chronica de Carmelitas Descalços Particular do Reino de Portugal e Provincia, tomo I (Lisbon: Henrique Valente de Olivera, 1657), pp. 27–33. Santa Anna, Carmelitas Descalços, pp. 501–2. Since 2013, Badajoz and Elvas have operated as a united city under EU trade rules. Francisco Javier Grande Queijigo, ‘El Espectáculo Evangelizador: El Desarrollo del Teatro Extremeño Paralitúrgico’, Cauriensia, X (2015), 163–96; 177; Marcel Bataillon, ‘Ensayo de Explicación del “auto sacramental”’, Bulletin Hispanique, XLII (1940), 193–212; Varia Lección de Clásicos Españoles (Madrid: Gredos, 1964), pp. 183–205; pp. 192–3; Ignacio Arellano and J. Enrique Duarte, El Auto Sacramental (Madrid: Laberinto, 2003), p. 100. Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, pp. 195–6. Bataillon, ‘Ensayo de Explicación’, 190. Bataillon, ‘Ensayo de Explicación’, 190. Bataillon, ‘Ensayo de Explicación’, 191.

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 217

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Notes

14

15

16

17

18 19

20

21

22

23

24 25 26 27

Bruce W. Wardropper, Introducción al Teatro Religioso del Siglo de Oro (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1953), pp. 3–35. Bataillon, ‘Ensayo de Explicación’, 193–5; see Jesús Menéndez Peláez, ‘Teatro e Iglesia en el Siglo XIVL de la Reforma Católica a la Contrareforma del Concilio de Trento’, Criticón, 94–5 (2005), 49–67; 52–6, for an account of post-Tridentine changes to liturgical theatre. Ann E. Wiltrout, A Patron and a Playwright in Renaissance Spain: The House of Feria and Diego Sánchez de Badajoz (London: Tamesis, 1987), p. 17. Trevor J. Dadson, Tolerance and Coexistence in Early Modern Spain (London: Tamesis, 2014), pp. 15–16. Dadson, Tolerance and Coexistence, pp. 22–3. Pilar Huerga Criado, in En la Raya de Portugal: Solidaridad y Tensiones en la Comunidad Judeoconversa (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1994), pp. 32–5, notes little evidence of the migration of Portuguese conversos to Extremadura before 1620 (pp. 38–9). On mobility between Spain and Portugal, see Maria José P. Ferro Tavares, ‘Mobilidade e Alteridade: Quadros do Quotidiano dos Cristãos Novos Sefarditas’, in José Alberto R. Silva Tavim, Maria Filomena Lopes de Barros and Lúcia Liba Mucznik (eds), In the Iberian Peninsula and Beyond: A History of Jews and Muslims (15th–17th Centuries), vol. 1 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015) pp. 24–62; pp. 25–39, 51–7. James S. Amelang, Historias Paralelas: Judeoconversos y Moriscos en la España Moderna (Madrid: Akal, 2011), p. 81. Christina H. Lee, The Anxiety of Sameness in Early Modern Spain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015), pp. 12–13. Miguel Ángel Pérez Priego, ‘Introducción’, in Diego Sánchez de Badajoz, Farsas (Madrid: Cátedra, 1985), pp. 13–72; pp. 20, 15–16; Recopilación en Metro del Bachiller Diego Sánchez de Badajoz (Seville: Juan Canalla, 1554). Frida Weber de Kurlat, ‘Sobre el Portuguesismo de Diego Sánchez de Badajoz: El Portugués Hablado en Farsas Españolas del Siglo XVI’, Filología, 13 (1968–9), 349–59; ‘Acerca del Portuguesismo de Diego Sánchez de Badajoz: Portugueses en Farsas Españolas del Siglo XVI’, in A. David Kossoff and José Amor y Vázquez (eds), Homenaje a William L. Fichter: Estudios sobre el Teatro Antiguo Hispánico y Otros Ensayos (Madrid: Castalia, 1971), pp. 785–800. Wiltrout, A Patron and a Playwright, pp. 70–2. Pérez Priego, ‘Introducción’, p. 15. Wiltrout, A Patron and a Playwright, p. 71. Diego Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, ed. Frida Weber de Kurlat (Buenos Aires: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, 1968), pp. 416–17.

218

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 218

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Notes

28 29

30 31 32

33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

46

47 48

49

50 51

Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 417. Françoise Cazal, Dramaturgia y Reescritura en el Teatro de Diego Sánchez de Badajoz (Toulouse: Anejos de Criticón, 13/Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2001), p. 39. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 417. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 419. William D. Philips Jr., Slavery in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), pp. 22–6. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 419. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, pp. 420–1. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 465. Cazal, Dramaturgia y Reescritura, p. 185. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 464. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 464. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 464. Cazal, Dramaturgia y Reescritura, p. 188; Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 466. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 466. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 467. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 468. Pérez Priego, ‘Introducción’, pp. 57–63. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 356; Arellano and Enrique Duarte, El Auto Sacramental, p. 94; Cazal, Dramaturgia y Reescritura, pp. 84–5. Carmelo Solís Rodríguez, ‘Músicas y Danzas de las Fiestas del Corpus’, Alminar: Revista Mensual de la Cultura de la Institución Pedro de Valencia, 45 (1983), 16–18; 17. In the following century, the chirimía would have a special association with the divine in the work of Calderón. See Arellano and Enrique Duarte, El Auto Sacramental, p. 85. Solís Rodríguez, ‘Músicas y Danzas’, 17. Solís Rodríguez, ‘Músicas y Danzas’, 17. Solís Rodríguez believes the danza de canarios is a representation of the yellow birds, de animales (p. 18), but it is more likely that this dance is a theatrical and court form for dance with mixed-gender couples. See María José Ruiz Mayordomo, ‘El Canario: Una de las Danzas Más Populares del XVI al XVII’, MusicaAntigua.com at http://www.musicaantigua.com/ el-canario-una-de-las-danzas-mas-populares-del-xvi-al-xviii/ (5/4/2017) Jeremy Lawrance, ‘Carducho and the Spanish Literary Baroque’, in Jean Andrews, Jeremy Roe and Oliver Noble Wood (eds), On Art and Painting: Vicente Carducho and Baroque Spain (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2016), pp. 19–70; pp. 27–32. Solís Rodríguez, ‘Músicas y Danzas’, 17. Ruiz Mayordomo, ‘El Canario’; Solís Rodríguez, ‘Músicas y Danzas’, 18.

219

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Notes

52 53 54 55 56 57

58

59

60

61 62 63 64 65 66

67 68 69

70 71

72 73 74 75 76 77

Solís Rodríguez, ‘Músicas y Danzas’, 18. Solís Rodríguez, ‘Músicas y Danzas’, 18 Kastner, ‘La Música en la Catedral de Badajoz’, p. 21. Kastner, ‘La Música en la Catedral de Badajoz’, p. 20. Kastner, ‘La Música en la Catedral de Badajoz’, p. 9. Kastner, ‘La Música en la Catedral de Badajoz’, pp. 4–5; Robert Stevenson, Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961), pp. 328–9. Carmelo Solís Rodríguez, ‘Juan Vázquez en la Catedral de Badajoz’, Revista de Estudios Extremeños, 30/1 (1974), 127–51; 139–40, and revised in Juan Vázquez, Patrimonio Musical Extremeño, nuestramusica.unex.es (5/6/2017). Eleanor Russell, ‘Villancicos and other secular polyphonic music of Juan Vásquez’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Southern California, 1970), 60–1. Solís Rodríguez, ‘Juan Vázquez’, 143 and Juan Vázquez; Russell, ‘Villancicos’, pp. 60–1. Solís Rodríguez, ‘Juan Vázquez’, 141–2 and Juan Vázquez. Russell, ‘Villancicos’, pp. 61–2. Kastner, ‘La Música en la Catedral de Badajoz’, p. 7. Solís Rodríguez, ‘Juan Vázquez’, p. 142 and Juan Vázquez. Arellano and Enrique Duarte, El Auto Sacramental, pp. 97–9. Wardropper, Teatro Religioso, p. 204; Elvezio Canonica, ‘Del Pecado Plurilingüe a la Absolución Monolingüe’, Criticón, 66–7 (1996), 369–82; 370. Canonica, ‘Del Pecado Plurilingüe’, 375. Wiltrout, A Patron and a Playwright, pp. 73, 155. María José Martínez, , ‘Música y Baile en las Farsas de Diego Sánchez de Badajoz’, in Música y Literatura en la España de la Edad Media y del Renacimiento, ed. Virginie Dumanoir (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2003), pp. 77–92; pp. 84, 90; Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, pp. 517–20. Arellano and Enrique Duarte, El Auto Sacramental, p. 85. Fernando Marcos Álvarez, Teatros y Vida Teatral en Badajoz, 1601–1700: Estudio y Documentos (Madrid: Tamesis, 1997), p. 93. Marcos Álvarez, Teatros y Vida Teatral, p. 57. Marcos Álvarez, Teatros y Vida Teatral, pp. 93–8. Marcos Álvarez, Teatros y Vida Teatral, pp. 93–4. Marcos Álvarez, Teatros y Vida Teatral, pp. 94–5. Wiltrout, A Patron and a Playwright, p. 117 Jean-Louis Fleckniakoska, La Formation de l’‹auto› religieux en Espagne avant Calderón (1550–1635) (Montpellier: Paul Déhan, 1961), p. 84.

220

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Notes

 78   79   80   81   82   83

  84

  85   86

  87

  88

  89   90   91   92

  93   94   95   96

  97   98

  99

100

Wardropper, Teatro Religioso, pp. 175, 178. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 361. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 361. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 362; Cazal, Dramaturgia y Reescritura, p. 90. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 362; Wardropper, Teatro Religioso, p. 181. See Teofilo F. Ruiz, A King Travels: Festive Traditions in Late Medieval and Modern Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), pp. 247ff., for a discussion of how the anarchy of the medieval carnival became gradually codified into formal and highly regulated Corpus Christi festivals in early modern Spain. Frida Weber de Kurlat, ‘Gil Vicente y Diego Sánchez de Badajoz. A propósito del Auto da sebila Casandra y de la Farsa del juego de cañas’, Filología, 9 (1963), 144–7; 147. Wiltrout, A Patron and a Playwright, p. 156. See Ruiz, A King Travels, pp. 218–20, for a sense of the place of the Juego de Cañas in court festivals. See Alberto del Río, ‘The Villancico in the Works of Early Castilian Playwrights (with a Note on the Function and Performance of the Musical Parts)’ in Tess Knighton and Álvaro Torrente (eds), Devotional Music in the Iberian World, 1450–1800: The Villancico and Related Genres (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 77–98; pp. 88–90. Martin Banham (ed.), The Cambridge History of Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 712–13. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, pp. 513–28. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 535. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 535. Martínez, ‘Música y Baile’, pp. 84–5; Henri Collet, Le Mysticisme musical espagnol au XVIe siècle (Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan, 1913), p. 141. Martínez, ‘Música y Baile’, pp. 88–9; Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 523. Cazal, Dramaturgia y Reescritura, p. 344. Solís Rodríguez, ‘Juan Vázquez’, p. 144. Carmelo Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales (Badajoz: Diputación Provincial, 1977), pp. 8–9. Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales (1977), pp. 13, 59–60. Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales (1977), pp. 15–18; Antonio Joaquín Santos Márquez, ‘Testimonio del Vínculo entre Dos Pintores: Luis de Vargas y Estacio de Bruselas’, Norba-Arte, XXXVI (2006), pp. 245–9; p. 247. Antonio Ponz, Viaje a España, tomo VIII (Madrid: Joaquin Ibarra: 1778), p. 156; Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales (1977), pp. 17–18, 26. Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales (1977), pp. 11–12; Ruiz Gómez, ‘Divino y Humano’, p. 24.

221

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Notes

101 102 103 104

105

106 107 108

109

110

111

112

113

114 115

116

117 118 119

120

Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales (1977), p. 14. Ponz, Viaje a España, pp. 157–8. Ponz, Viaje a España, p. 162. Isabel Mateo Gómez, ‘Nueva Aportación a la Obra de Morales: Cronología, Soportes y Réplicas’, Archivo Español de Arte, LXXXVIII/350 (April–June 2015), 131–40; 131. Bäcksbacka, Luis de Morales, p, 149; Trinidad de Antonio, ‘La Virgen del Pajarito’ in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 76–8; p. 78. Antonio, ‘La Virgen del Pajarito’, p. 78. Antonio, ‘La Virgen del Pajarito’, p. 76. Herbert Friedmann, The Symbolic Goldfinch, Its History and Significance in European Art (New York: Pantheon, 1946), pp. 1–2; Agnolo Bronzino, Giovanni de’ Medici (1545), Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Ivano Motaruolo, ‘El Jilguero en la Pintura’, in Renzo Esuperanzi, El Jilguero: Variedades, Cría, Mutaciones, Híbridos (Barcelona: Hispano Europea, 2009), pp. 10–17; p. 10. Pseudo-Bonaventure, Meditations on the Life of Christ, trans. Isa Ragusa, ed. Isa Ragusa and Rosalie B. Green (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961). Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘La Virgen con el Niño y San Juanito’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 79–81. Jocobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, trans. William Granger Ryan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), p. 599; Herbert Friedmann, A Bestiary for Saint Jerome: Animal Symbolism in European Religious Art (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980), p. 220; Hope B. Werness, The Continuum Encyclopaedia of Animal Symbolism (New York: Continuum, 2006), p. 198. Joan Molina i Figueras, ‘Bartolomé Bermejo: An Itinerant Virtuoso Painter’ in Letizia Treves (ed.), Bartolomé Bermejo: Master of the Spanish Renaissance (London: National Gallery, 2019), pp. 40–63; pp. 43–4. Molina i Figueras, ‘Bartolomé Bermejo’, p. 50. Judith Berg Sobré, “Bartolomé Bermejo and the Painting Busines in the Crown of Aragon’, in Alberto Velasco and Francesc Fité (eds), Late Gothic Painting in the Crown of Aragon and the Hispanic Kingdoms (Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. 137–72; pp. 160–3. E. Faye Wilson, ‘The Symbolic Goldfinch, Its History and Significance in European Devotional Art by Herbert Friedmann’, Speculum, 23/1 (January 1948), 121–5; Friedmann, The Symbolic Goldfinch, pp. 7–36. Wilson, ‘The Symbolic Goldfinch’, 124. Wilson, ‘The Symbolic Goldfinch’, 124. Simona Cohen, Animals as Disguised Symbols in Renaissance Art (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 26–8. Esuperanzi, El Jilguero, p. 27.

222

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Notes

2 Badajoz in the 1540s  1  2

 3

 4

 5  6  7

 8  9

10 11 12 13

14 15

16 17

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 195–6. María Cruz de Carlos Varona and Ana González Mozo, ‘Sagrada Familia’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 82–5; p. 84. Francesco Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales e l’Oroscopo de Gesù’, Gregorianum, 91/2 (2010), 300–25. Carlos Varona and González Mozo, ‘Sagrada Familia’, p. 85; Girolamo Cardano, In Claudii Ptolemaei Pelusiensis de Astrorum Iudicijs (Basle: Henrichus Petri, 1554), p. 164. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 318. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 318. Juan Francisco Esteban Llorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana de Jesucristo, por Luis de Morales’, Homenaje a Don Antonio Durán Gudiol (Huesca: Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses, 1995), pp. 253–66; p. 265, n. 12. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 307–9. Dieter Blume, ‘Picturing the Stars: Astrological Imagery in the Latin West, 1100–1550’, in Brendan Dooley (ed.), A Companion to Astrology in the Renaissance (Leiden: Brill, 2014), pp. 333–98; pp. 335, 338; Graziella Federici Vescovini, ‘The Theological Debate’, in Dooley (ed.), A Companion to Astrology, pp. 99–140; p. 104; Abū Mas’šar, Liber Introductorii Maioris ad Scientiam Judiciorum Astrorum, ed. Richard Lemay (Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale: 1995). Federici Vescovini, ‘The Theological Debate’, p. 107. Quoted in Federici Vescovini, ‘The Theological Debate’, p. 109. Federici Vescovini, ‘The Theological Debate’, p. 137. Federici Vescovini, ‘The Theological Debate’, pp. 137–8; Cardano, In Claudii, p. 163; Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, p. 321. Esteban Llorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana’, p. 256. Federici Vescovini, ‘The Theological Debate’, p. 136; Ugo Baldini, ‘L’edizione dei documenti relativi a Cardano negli archivi del Sant’Ufficio e dell’Indice: risultati e problemi’, in Marialuisa Baldi and Guido Canziani (eds), Cardano e la Tradizione dei Saperi (Milan: Francoangeli, 2003), pp. 457–515; p. 495. Blume, ‘Picturing the Stars’, p. 398. Blume, ‘Picturing the Stars’, pp. 380–2, 398; Blume, ‘Astrologia Come Scienza Politica – Il Cielo Notturno della Sagrestia Vecchia di San Lorenzo’, in Philippe Morel , L’Art de la Renaissance entre science et magie (Paris: Somogy, 2006), pp. 149–64; Juan Francisco Esteban Lorente, ‘El Horóscopo de Agostino Chigi en la Farnesina de Roma’, Ars & Renovatio, 2 (2014), 3–19.

223

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Notes

18

19

20

21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28

29 30 31 32

33

34

35 36

37

38

39

Juan Francisco Esteban Lorente, ‘Horóscopos Artísticos de Cristo en el Románico y el Renacimiento’, Boletín del Museo e Instituto «Camón Aznar», XCIX (2007), 103–65. Maite Jover, Laura Alba, María Dolores Gayo and Jaime García-Máiquez, ‘El Taller del Pintor: Procedimientos Artísticos en el Obrador de Luis de Morales’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 213–25; pp. 213–14. Carlos Varona and González Mozo, ‘Sagrada Familia’, p. 82; Francesco Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 321; Esteban Lorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana’, pp. 254, 265. Esteban Llorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana’, p. 264. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 319. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 320. Tom O’Loughlin, Adomnan and the Holy Places: The Perceptions of an Insular Monk on the Locations of the Biblical Drama (London: T&T Clark, 2007), p. 70. Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 200. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 304, n. 13. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 304 and n. 12. Esteban Lorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana’, p. 262; Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 305–6. Carlos Varona and González Moxa, ‘Sagrada Familia’, p. 82. Jover et al, ‘El Taller del Pintor’, p. 225. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 303. Cándido de Dalmases SJ, ‘Los Textos Castellanos de los Ejercicios’, in Dalmases (ed.), Ignacio de Loyola: Ejercicios Espirituales (Santander: Sal Terrae, 1985), pp. 18–24. Horacio Bojorje SJ (ed.), San Ignacio de Loyola: Ejercicios Espirituales (Buenos Aires and Mexico City: Lumen, 2003), p. 80. Morales, The Presentation in the Temple, c. 1562–7 (Eichenzell, Kulturstiftung des Hauses Hessen, Museum Schloss Fasanerie, inv. FAS B 349); Elena Cenalmor Bruquetas, ‘El Nacimiento de la Virgen, La Visitación, La Presentación en el Templo’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 60–4; María Cruz de Carlos Varona, ‘La Purificación de la Virgen o La Presentación en el Templo’, in Ruiz Gómez , El Divino Morales, pp. 73–5. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 315. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 323 ; Cora E. Lutz, ‘The Letter of Lentulus Describing Christ’, The Yale University Library Gazette, 50/2 (1975), 91–7. Publius Lentulus, The Letter of Publius Lentulus to the Senate of Rome Concerning Jesus Christ. (London: Francis Smith, 1680), n.p. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 323, n. 65; Esteban Llorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana’, p. 260. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 323.

224

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Notes

40

41

42 43 44

45 46

47 48 49 50

51 52

53

54

55

56 57

Esteban Lorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana’, p. 262; Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 303–4; Carlos Varona and González Mozo, ‘Sagrada Familia’, p. 84; J. K. Elliott (ed. and trans.), The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, in The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 84–99; pp. 93–4 (Pseudo-Matthew 13). J. K. Elliott (ed. and trans), The Protevangelium of James, in Elliott , The Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 48–67; pp. 64–5 (Protevangelium of James, 19 and 20). Esteban Lorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana’, p. 260. Esteban Lorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana’, p. 260. Jean Andrews, ‘St. Joseph as Loving father in Seventeenth-Century Hispanic Devotional Painting: Josefa de Óbidos and Diego Quispe Tito’, in Michael Marten and Katja Neumann (eds), Saints and Cultural Trans-/Mission (Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2013), pp. 143–57. Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 200. Esteban Lorente, ‘La Naturaleza Humana’, p. 263; Gordon L. Heath, ‘The Church Fathers and the Roman Empire’, in Stanley E. Porter and Cynthia Long Westfall (eds), Empire in the New Testament (Hamilton, Ontario: McMaster Divinity College Press/ Wipf and Stock, 2011), pp. 259–82. Saracino, ‘Luis de Morales’, 316. Cenalmor Bruquetas, ‘El Nacimiento de la Virgen’, p. 61. Cenalmor Bruquetas, ‘El Nacimiento de la Virgen’, p. 61. María Antonia Raquejo Grado, ‘El Donante en la Pintura Española del Siglo XVI’, Goya, 164–5 (1981), 76–87; 80. Raquejo Grado, ‘El Donante en la Pintura Española’, 80. Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, Nacimiento de la Virgen, Prado Museum, P1038; Nacimiento de Cristo, Prado Museum, P1039. Felipe Pereda, ‘Isabel I, Señora de los Moriscos: Figuración como Historia Profética en una Tabla de Juan de Flandes’, in Víctor Mínguez , Visiones de la Monarquía Hispánica (Castellón de la Plana: Universitat Jaume I, 2007), pp. 261–82; Juan de Flandes with Michael Sittow, Multiplicación de los Panes y los Peces (1501), Palacio Real, Madrid. Antonio Márquez, Los Alumbrados: Origenes y Filosofía 1525–1559 (Madrid: Taurus, 1972), pp. 142–3. Alastair Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism in Sixteenth-century Spain: The Alumbrados (Cambridge: James Clarke and Co, 1992), pp. 27–9. Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 30. Thomas Banchoff and José Casanova, ‘Introduction’, in Thomas Banchoff and José Casanova (eds), The Jesuits and Globalisation: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Challenges (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2016), pp. 1–26; p. 6.

225

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Notes

58

59

Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet (London: The Bodley Head, 2016), pp. 77–104. Clarence H. Miller, ‘Introduction’, in Miller (ed.) and Miller and Peter Macardle (trans.), Erasmus and Luther: The Battle over Free Will (Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 2012), pp. ix–xxvii.

Marcel Bataillon, Érasme et l’Espagne (Geneva: Droz, 1998), pp. 179–242. Miller, ‘Introduction’, p. xii. 62 Miller, ‘Introduction’, p. xii. 63 Catarina Barceló Fouto, ‘Diogo de Teive’s Institutio Sebastiani Primi and the Reception of Erasmus’ Works in Portugal’, in Maria Berbara and Karl A. E. Enenkel (eds), Portuguese Humanism and the Republic of Letters (Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 129–48 ; pp. 142–3. 64 Joseph Klucas, ‘Nicolaus Clenardus: A Pioneer of the New Learning in Renaissance Portugal’, Luso-Brazilian Review, 29/2 (1992), 87–98 ; 87, 90–1. 65 Marcel Bataillon, ‘Érasme et la Cour de Portugal’, in Études sur le Portugal au Temps de l’Humanisme (Coimbra: University of Coimbra, 1952), pp. 49–99. 66 Fouto, ‘Diogo de Teive’s Institutio Sebastiani Primi’ pp. 140–1. 67 Bataillon, ‘Érasme et la Cour’, p. 97. 68 Fouto, ‘Diogo de Teive’s Institutio Sebastiani Primi’, p. 141. 69 Marcel Bataillon, Érasme et l’Espagne, pp. 1–2, 11–47; Alastair Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 77–80. 70 Bataillon, Érasme et l’Espagne, p. v. 71 Jean-Claude Margolin, Préface, in Bataillon, Érasme et l’Espagne, pp. vii–xxii; p. xxi–xxii; Márquez, Los Alumbrados, pp. 151–7. 72 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 13. 73 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 16. 74 Alastair Hamilton, ‘The Alumbrados: Dejamiento and its Practitioners’, in Hilaire Kallendorf (ed.), A New Companion to Hispanic Mysticism (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 103–26; p. 121. 75 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 27. 76 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 22. 77 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 46. 78 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 28. 79 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 41. 80 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 79. 81 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 87. 82 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, pp. 87–8. 83 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, pp. 52–3, 80.  84 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 20. 60 61

226

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 226

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Notes

Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 34. Márquez, Los Alumbrados, p. 157.  87 Márquez, Los Alumbrados, p. 157.  88 Clive Griffin, Journeymen Printers, Heresy and the Inquisition in Sixteenth-Century Spain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 5.  85  86

Stefania Pastore, Un’Eresia Spagnola: Spiritualità Conversa, Alumbradismo e Inquisizione (1449–1559) (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2004), p. 235.  90 Pastore, Un’Eresia Spagnola, p. 235.  91 Pastore, Un’Eresia Spagnola, p. 254.  92 Pastore, Un’Eresia Spagnola, p. 238–42.  93 Pastore, Un’Eresia Spagnola, p. 241.  94 Pastore, Un’Eresia Spagnola, p. 243.  95 Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 198; Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, pp. 118–21.  96 https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fregenal_de_la_Sierra (7/8/2017).  97 Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 196.  98 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 120.  99 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 121. 100 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, pp. 118–19. 101 Stephen Haliczer, Between Exaltation and Infamy: Female Mystics in the Golden Age of Spain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). pp. 51–2. 102 Antonio Larios Ramos, ‘Los Dominicos y la Inquisición en Sevilla durante la Modernidad’, Revista de Humanidades, 27 (2006), 91–112; 108. 103 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 122. 104 Jean Andrews, ‘Josefa em Óbidos: Mistress of the Cascais Santa Teresa Series’, in Adrienne L. Martín and María Cristina Quintero (eds), Perspectives on Early Modern Women in Iberia and the Americas (New York: Escribana Books, 2015), pp. 400–21; p. 409. 105 Carmen García-Frías Checa, ‘Virgen del Sombrero o Virgen Vestida de Gitana con el Niño’, in Ruiz Gómez , El Divino Morales, pp. 103–5; Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘La Virgen Vestida de Gitana’, in Ruiz Gómez , El Divino Morales, pp. 186–7. 106 Bäcksbacka, Luis de Morales, p. 194; José Alberto Conderana of the University of Salamanca informed me that it had been lost at some point before or during or the upheavals of the 1930s. 107 Isabel Mateo Gómez, ‘Nueva Aportación’, pp. 136–9; María Luisa Barrero, Marco Antonio Garcés, José Javier Fernández, Antonio de Meer, Carmen Pérez de Andrés and Julio David Pizarro, Castilla y León Restaura 1984–1995 (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 1995), pp. 72–3.  89

227

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 227

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Notes

108

Isabel Mateo Gómez, ‘Nueva Aportación’, pp. 136–9.

109

Maria Portmann, L’Image du corps dans l’art espagnol aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Autour du «Libro segundo» de Juan de Arfe y Villafañe (1585) (Bern and Berlin: Peter Lang, 2014), pp. 104–23.

110

Portmann, L’image du corps, p. 104.

111

Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘37 El Calvario, 38 Lamentación ante Cristo, 39 La Resurección’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 153–9.

112

Karen L. King, ‘Early Christianity and the Gospel of Mary’, in Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 2003), pp. 3–12.

113

Juan Javier Moreau Cueto, ‘Nuevas propuestas sobre doña Cristobalina Fernández de Alarcón, e Hipólita y Luciana de Narváez’, AnMal Electrónica, 29 (2010).

114

Pedro Espinosa, Primera Parte de Flores de Poetas Ilustres de España, ed. Inoria Pepe Sarto and José-María Reyes Cano (Madrid: Cátedra, 2006), p. 714.

3 Badajoz in the 1560s  1

Pastore, Un’Eresia Spagnola, p. 231.

 2

Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 40.

 3

Miguel Navarro Sorní, ‘La Cultura del Patriarca Juan de Ribera a través de su Biblioteca’, Studia Philologica Valentina, 15/12 (2013), 221–44; 224.

 4

Pastore, Un’Eresia Spagnola, p. 231–2; Benjamin Ehlers, Juan de Ribera and Religious Reform in Valencia, 1568–1614 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), p. 6.

 5

Ramón Robres Lluch, ‘Estudio Preliminar’, in Ramón Robres Lluch (ed.), San Juan de Ribera, Sermones, I (Valencia: Ediciones Corpus Christi/Edicep, 1987) pp. 3–111; p. 15.

 6

Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 168–70.

 7

Leopold Ranke, History of the Popes, Their Church and State in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, trans. Walter Keating Kelly (New York: William H. Colyer, 1847), pp. 84–91.

 8

Robres Lluch, ‘Estudio Preliminar’, pp. 10–11.

 9

Miguel Navarro Sorní, ‘En Torno a la Biblioteca de San Juan de Ribera’, pp. 13–31; pp. 23–4.

228

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 228

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Notes

10

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 196.

11

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 196.

12

Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, fourth edn (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2014), pp. 127–8.

13

Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition, p. 128.

14

José Adriano Moreira de Freitas Carvalho, Gertrudes de Helfta e Espanha (Oporto: Centro de Literatura da Universidade do Porto, 1981), p. 81.

15

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 196–7.

16

Urbano Alonso del Campo, Vida y Obra de Fray Luis de Granada (Salamanca: Editorial San Esteban, 2005), pp. 86–92; Julián de Cos, ‘La Espiritualidad Naturalista de Fray Luis de Granada. La Contemplación de la Naturaleza en la Introducción del Símbolo de la Fe’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Salamanca, Colegio de San Esteban, 2009), available in modified form as La Espiritualidad de Fray Luis de Granada (2014) at https://www.dominicos.org/media/uploads/recursos/libros/la_espiritualidad_de_ fray_Luís_de_granada._julián_de_cos.pdf (16/8/2017), p. 10.

17

Vítor Serrão, ‘Cat. 23. Ecce Homo’, in Ruiz Gómez , El Divino Morales, pp. 126–9; p. 126; Serrão, ‘Caminhos Lusitanos do Divino Morales, a Actividade do Pintor em Évora, Elvas e Portalegre, 1564–1585’, in Solís Rodríguez et al. (eds), A Un Lado y Otro de la Raya, pp. 67–102.

18

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 197.

19

Alonso del Campo, Vida y Obra, p. 105–7.

20

Alonso del Campo, Vida y Obra, p. 111.

21

Alonso del Campo, Vida y Obra, p. 110.

22

José Pedro Paiva, ‘Os Bispos e a Inquisição Portuguesa’, Lusitania Sacra, 15 (2003),

23

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 198.

24

Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, pp. 27–8.

25

Hamilton, ‘The Alumbrados’, p. 104.

26

Márquez, Los Alumbrados, p. 276.

27

Márquez, Los Alumbrados, p. 276.

28

Hamilton, ‘The Alumbrados’, p. 108.

29

Peter Tyler, The Return to the Mystical: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Teresa of Avila and the

43–76; 73–6.

Christian Mystical Tradition (London: Continuum, 2011), p. 112. 30

Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 15; Francisco de Osuna, Tercer Abecedario Espiritual, ed. Melquiades Andrés Martín (Madrid: Editorial Católica, 1972), p. 597.

31

Duffy, Saints and Sinners, p. 169.

32

Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition, pp. 210–11.

229

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 229

15-May-20 11:43:39 AM

Notes

33

34

35

36

37 38 39 40 41

42 43 44 45

46

47

48

49 50 51

52 53

54 55

Henry Kamen, Spain 1469–1714: A Society of Conflict, fourth edn (London: Routledge, 2014), p. 175. Jaime García-Máiquez, ‘San Juan de Ribera/San Juan Bautista’, in Ruiz Gómez, El Divino Morales, pp. 200–5. Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 198; Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘Calvario con Donante’ in Ruiz Gómez , El Divino Morales, pp. 209–11. Robres Lluch, ‘Estudio Preliminar’, p. 36; Juan de Ribera, ‘Sermon 15, Badajoz, 25th December, 1563’, in Robres Lluch , San Juan de Ribera, Sermones, I, pp. 193–204; p. 193. Ribera, Sermones, I, p. 202. Ribera, Sermones, I, p. 194. Ribera, Sermones, I, p. 195. Voragine, The Golden Legend, p. 536. Jean Andrews, ‘Carducho’s Late Holy Families and Decorum’, in Andrews, Roe and Noble Wood (eds), On Art and Painting, pp. 183–204; pp. 190–3. Ribera, Sermones, I, p. 196. Ribera, Sermones, I, p. 196. Ehlers, Juan de Ribera and Religious Reform, p. 5. Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘La Virgen de la Leche’, in Ruiz Gómez , El Divino Morales, pp. 96–8. Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘14 La Virgen de la Leche; 15 La Virgen de la Leche’, in Ruiz Gómez , El Divino Morales, pp. 93–5. José Alberto Seabra Carvalho, ‘Virgem e o Menino, Luís de Morales’, in As Grandes Colecções: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisboa, ed. José Luís Gordo Porfírio (Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1999) p. 185; Bäcksbacka, Luís de Morales, p. 96. Elizabeth du Gué Trapier is particularly struck by the similarities between Morales’s Virgin and Child and an early sixteenth-century Italian marble bas-relief of the Virgin and Child in the chapel of Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa in Badajoz cathedral (Leonardesque Influences, pp. 27–8). Ribera, Sermones, I, p. 203. Ribera, Sermones, I, p. 203. Alfonso Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘La Virgen del Huso’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 109–11. Ribera, Sermones, I, p. 203 Ribera, ‘Sermon 136’, in Robres Lluch (ed.), Sermones, III (Valencia: Ediciones Corpus Christi/Edicep, 1992), pp. 58–62; Robres Lluch, ‘Nota Preliminar’, p. 53. Sánchez de Badajoz, Recopilación, p. 528. Ehlers, Juan de Ribera and Religious Reform, p. 4.

230

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 230

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Notes

56 57 58 59

60 61

62 63 64 65

66

67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77

78 79

80

81

Robres Lluch, ‘Esquema Biográfico’, in Robres Lluch , Sermones, I, n.p. Ehlers, Juan de Ribera and Religious Reform, p. 5. Alonso del Campo, Vida y Obra de Fray Luis, p. 119. Robres Lluch, ‘Nota Preliminar’, p. 8; Ramón Robres Lluch and José Ramón Ortola, La Monja de Lisboa: Epistolario Inédito entre Fr Luis de Granada y el Patriarca Ribera (Castellón de la Plana: Sociedad Castellonense de Cultura, 1948)/[Madrid: CSIC, 1947]), p. 13. Alonso del Campo, Vida y Obra de Fray Luis, pp. 239, 266. Nicasio Martín Ramos, Cristo, Sacramento de Dios en Fray Luis de Granada (Salamanca: San Esteban, 2005), pp. 25–6. Alonso del Campo, Vida y Obra de Fray Luis, p. 111. Martín Ramos, Cristo, Sacramento, p. 27–8. Alonso del Campo, Vida y Obra de Fray Luis, p. 345. Álvaro Huerga, ‘Nota Crítica’, in Herminio Paz Castaño (ed.), Guía de Pecadores (Texto Primitivo), in Fray Luis de Granada, Obras Completas, vol. II (Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 1994), pp. 433–43; p. 433. Álvaro Huerga, ‘Fray Luis de Granada entre Mística, Alumbrados e Inquisición’, Angelicum, 65/4 (1988), 540–64. Cos, ‘La Espiritualidad de Fray Luis’, p. 17. Cos, ‘La Espiritualidad de Fray Luis’, p. 18. Cos, ‘La Espiritualidad de Fray Luis’, pp. 30–1. Granada, Guía de Pecadores, p. 24. Granada, Guía de Pecadores, p. 93. Granada, Guía de Pecadores, p. 94. Granada, Guía de Pecadores, p. 95. Granada, Guía de Pecadores, pp. 109–10. Trapier, Leonardesque Influences, p. 33. Portmann, L’image du corps, pp. 59–61. Luis de Granada, Libro de la Oración y Meditación, Fray Luis de Granada, Obras Completas, vol. 1, ed. Álvaro Huerga (Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 1994), p. 101. Granada, Libro de la Oración, p. 101, n. 160. Huerga, ‘Nota Crítica’ (Guía), pp. 441–2; Granada, Guía de Pecadores, pp. 197–205; Tamar Herzig, Savonarola’s Women: Visions and Reform in Renaissance Italy (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2008), pp. 68, 227. Rady Roldán-Figueroa, The Ascetic Spirituality of Juan de Avila (1449–1569) (Leiden: Brill, 2010), p. 60. Granada, Guía de Pecadores, pp. 172–5.

231

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 231

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Notes

Huerga, ‘Nota Crítica’ (Guía), p. 442; Granada, Guía de Pecadores, pp. 176–94. Manuel López Muñoz, Fray Luis de Granada y la Retórica (Almería: Universidad de Almería, 2000), p. 12.  84 López Muñoz, Fray Luis de Granada, p. 13.  85 Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘La Piedad/La Estigmatización de San Francisco’, in Ruiz Gómez, El Divino Morales, pp. 172–6.  86 Pilar Silva Maroto, ‘La Piedad’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 169–71.  87 Manuela B. Mena Marqués, ‘La Piedad/ La Piedad/ La Piedad/ Tríptico de la Piedad San Juan y Santa María Magdalena’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 160–8; p. 161.  88 Lorne Campbell, ‘El Descendimiento de la Cruz’, in Campbell (ed.), Rogier van der Weyden y los Reinos Peninsulares (Madrid: Museo del Prado, 2015), pp. 74–81.  89 Gabriele Finaldi, ‘Portable Passion Polyptych’, in Finaldi , The Image of Christ (London: National Gallery/Yale University Press, 2000), pp. 144–9; p. 144.  90 Luis Sala Balust, Introducción Biográfica, in Balust, Obras Completas del Beato Maestro Juan de Ávila, Tomo I: Epistolario, Escritos Menores (Madrid: Editorial Católica, 1952), pp. 1–221; pp. 31–6.  91 Pastore, Un’Eresia Spagnola, p. 231.  92 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 97.  93 Sala Balust, Introducción Biográfica, p. 66.  94 Sala Balust, Introducción Biográfica, pp. 70–80.  95 Sala Balust, Introducción Biográfica, p. 80.  96 Sala Balust, Introducción Biográfica, p. 80.  97 Sala Balust, Introducción Biográfica, p. 80.  98 Sala Balust, Introducción Biográfica, p. 148.  99 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 101. 100 Juan de Ávila, Audi Filia (1556), in Obras Completas, I, ed. Luis Sala Balust and Francisco Martín Hernández (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 2000), pp. 377–532; p. 407. 101 Juan de Ávila, Avisos y reglas christianas para los que dessean seruir a Dios aprouechando en el camino espiritual (Alcalá de Henares: J. de Brocar, 1556); Joan Frances Gormley, ‘Introduction to John of Avila, His Life and Works’, in John of Avila, Audi Filia – Listen, Oh Daughter, in Gormley (trans. and intro.) (New York: Paulist Press, 2006), pp. 1–23; p. 22; Roldán-Figueroa, The Ascetic Spirituality, pp. 59–60. 102 Sala Balust, Introducción Biográfica, pp. 149–150. 103 Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, p. 100. 104 Ávila, Obras completas, I, carta 44, pp. 490–500; p. 493; see also Hamilton, Heresy and Mysticism, who quotes another passage from this letter (Obras Completas, I, p. 494).  82   83

232

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Notes

105

Ávila, Obras completas, I, carta 44, p. 490.

106

Ávila, Obras completas, I, carta 44, p. 490.

107

Roldán-Figueroa, The Ascetic Spirituality, pp. 99, 101.

108

Luis Sala Balust and Francisco Martín Hernández, ‘Estudio Biográfico’, Juan de Ávila, Obras Completas, I, pp. 5–320; pp. 174–85.

109

Gormley, ‘Introduction’, pp. 25–6.

110

Juan de Ávila, Libro spiritual que trata de los males lenguajes del mundo, carne y demonio, y de los remedios contra ellos (Toledo: Juan de Ayala, 1574).

111

Roldán-Figueroa, The Ascetic Spirituality, p. 61.

112

Sala Balust, Introducción Biográfica, pp. 101–2.

113

Gomley, ‘Introduction’, p. 11.

114

Gormley, ‘Introduction’, p. 22.

115

Roldán-Figueroa, The Ascetic Spirituality, p. 98.

116

Gormley, ‘Introduction’, p. 20.

117

Juan de la Cruz, Noche Oscura, in Silverio de Santa Teresa (ed.), Obras de San Juan de la Cruz (Burgos: El Monte Carmelo, 1931), pp. 321–41.

118

Ávila, Obras Completas, I, carta 41, pp. 479–483; p. 481.

119

Ávila, Obras Completas, I, carta 88, pp. 640–1; p. 640.

120

Ávila, Obras completas, I, carta 88, p. 641.

121

Alison Webber, ‘“When Heaven Hovered Close to Earth”: Images and Miracles in Early Modern Spain’, in Emily Michelson, Scott K. Taylor and Mary Noll Venables (eds), A Linking of Heaven and Earth: Studies in Religious and Cultural History in Honour of Carlos M. N. Eire (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 15–23; p. 18.

122

Luis Sala Balust (ed.), Obras Completas del Santo Maestro Juan de Ávila, III (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1970), p. 128; Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘El Mundo Espiritual’, 200.

123

Ávila, Audi, Filia, p. 439; see also Jean Andrews, ‘La representación del duelo de la madre de Dios en la obra del Divino Luis de Morales’, in Sílvia Canalda and Cristina Fontcuberta (eds), Imatge, devoció i identitat a l’epoca moderna (Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), pp. 67–78.

124

Ávila, Audi, Filia, p. 440.

125

Weber, ‘When Heaven Hovered’, pp. 19–20.

126

Ávila, Audi, Filia, p. 462.

127

Felipe Pereda, ‘Luis de Morales, Pintor Divino’, in Ruiz Gómez , El Divino Morales, pp. 45–57; p. 48; Diego de Simancas, Institutiones Catholicae quibus ardine ac brevitate diseritur quicquid ad praecauendas & exturpandas haereses necessarium est (Valladolid: Aegidij de Colomies, 1552).

233

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 233

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Notes

128

Kimberley Lynn, ‘Institutiones Catholicae, Catholic Institutes’ in David Thomas and John Chesworth (eds), Christian–Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, vol. 6: Western Europe (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014) pp. 235–42; p. 237.

129

Pereda, ‘Luis de Morales’, pp. 47–9.

130

Ruiz Gómez, ‘Cat. 16. La Virgen de la Leche’, p. 96.

131

Maroto, ‘Cat. 44, La Piedad’, p. 169; Pereda, ‘Luis de Morales’, p. 47.

132

Trapier, Leonardesque Influences, p. 33.

133

Trapier, Leonardesque Influences, pp. 28–32; Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘Cat. 20, La Virgen del Huso’, p. 109.

134

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘La Virgen del Huso’, p. 109.

135

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘La Virgen del Huso’, p. 109.

136

Martin Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 206–7.

137

Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci, p. 218.

138

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘La Virgen del Huso’, p. 110.

139

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘La Virgen del Huso’, p. 109.

140

Pereda, ‘Luis de Morales’, pp. 51, 55–7; also Piers Baker-Bates, ‘Sebastiano del Piombo’s Úbeda Pietà: Between Italy and Spain’, in David R. Marshall (ed.), Art, Site and Spectacle: Studies in Early Modern Visual Culture (Melbourne: Fine Arts Network, Melbourne Art Journal, 9/10, 2007), 34–43.

141

Alfonso Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘Cat. 23, Cristo, Varón de Dolores’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 118–19; p. 118, and ‘Cat. 24, Cristo, Varón de Dolores’, pp. 120–2; p. 120.

142

Rodríguez Gutiérrez de Ceballos, ‘Cat. 23, Cristo’, p. 11

4 Tridentine Baajoz and its Environs  1

 2

 3

 4

Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘San Jerónimo Penitente’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 177–9; p. 177. J. Waterworth (ed. and trans), The Canons and Decrees of the Sacred and Oecumenical Council of Trent (London: Dolman, 1848), pp. 233–4. David Hemsoll, ‘Introduction’, in Francisco de Holanda: Dialogues with Michelangelo, trans. Charles Holroyd (London: Pallas Athene, 2006), pp. 7–24; p. 7. Joaquim de Vasconcellos (ed.), Francisco de Holanda, Quatro Dialogos da Pintura Antiga (Oporto: Renascença Portuguesa/Joaquim de Vasconcellos: 1896).

234

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Notes

 5

Elías Tormo, ‘Pocas Palabras sobre la Edición’, in Manuel Denis (trans.), De la Pintura Antigua por Francisco de Holanda (Madrid: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 1921), pp. vii–xiii; p. vii.

  6

Pereda, ‘Luis de Morales’, p. 55.

  7

Hollanda, Quatro Dialogos, p. 11.

  8

Joaquim Oliveira Caetano, ‘Francisco de Hollanda (1517–1584): The Fascination of Rome and the Times in Portugal’, in Francisco de Hollanda: On Antique Painting, trans. Alice Sedgwick, ed Helmut Wohl (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 2013), pp. 7–44; pp. 7–25.

  9

Hollanda, Quatro Dialogos, p. 37.

10

Hollanda, Quatro Dialogos, pp. 16–17.

11

Pedro Dias, ‘Manueline Art’, in Dias (ed.), The Manueline: Portuguese Art during the Great Discoveries (Lisbon: Museum with No Frontiers, 2002), p. 52; Caetano, ‘Francisco de Hollanda’, pp. 8–9.

12

Mathias Weniger, ‘Pintura Portuguesa dos Séculos XV e XVI’, in Gordo Porfírio, As Grandes Colecções, pp. 124–7; pp. 124–5.

13

Isabel Mateo Gómez, ‘Flandes, Portugal y Toledo y la Obra de Luis de Morales’, Archivo Español de Arte, LXXX/317 (2007), 7–24; 8–9.

14

Mateo Gómez, ‘Flandes, Portugal y Toledo’, 14–15, 21.

15

Mateo Gómez, ‘Flandes, Portugal y Toledo’, 19–22.

16

Mateo Gómez, ‘Flandes, Portugal y Toledo’, 19.

17

Pereda, ‘Luis de Morales’, 55; Francisco de Hollanda, De aetatibus mundi imagines, ed. Jorge Segurado (Lisbon: Academia Nacional de Belas-Artes, 1983), ff. 78, 80.

18

Sylvie Deswarte, ‘Les De Aetatibus Mundi Imagines de Francisco de Holanda’, Monuments et Mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot, 66/1 (1983), 17–190; 184–5.

19

Deswarte, ‘Les De Aetatibus Mundi’, 67–8.

20

Deswarte, ‘Les De Aetatibus Mundi’, 100.

21

Carmelo Solís Rodríguez, ‘Biografía Artística’, in Solís Rodríguez et al. (eds), A Un Lado y Otro, , pp. 23–66; p. 28.

22

S. Valadas, R. Freire, A. Cardoso, J. Mirão, P. Vandenabeele, J. O. Caetano and A. Candeias, ‘New Insight on the Underdrawing of 16th-Century Flemish-Portuguese Easel Paintings by Combined Surface Analysis and Microanalytical Techniques’, Micron, 85 (2016), 15–25; 16–17.

23

Fernando Marías, Luis de Morales, ‘El divino’, Cuadernos de Arte Español, Historia, 16/68 (1992), 26.

235

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 235

15-May-20 11:43:39 AM

Notes

24

Voragine, Golden Legend, p. 599.

25

Isabel Mateo Gómez, Amelia López-Yarto Elizalde and José María Prados García, ‘Iconografía de San Jerónimo en los Monasterios Españoles’, in El arte de la orden jerónima: Historia y Mecenazgo (Madrid: Iberdrola, 1999), pp. 83–94; p. 88.

26

Friedmann, A Bestiary for St Jerome, p. 94.

27

Friedmann, A Bestiary for St Jerome, p. 48. The painting in the Musée de Beaux-Arts in Rouen, signed and dated 1636, is now identified as representing the temptation of the Old Testament figure, Job (Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Benito Navarrete Prieto, ‘Sobre Herrera «el Viejo»’, Archivo Español de Arte, LXIX/276 (October– December 1996), 365–87; Deborah L. Roldán, ‘Francisco de Herrera the Elder, The Temptation of Job’, in Gary L. Tinterow and Geneviève Lacambre (eds), Manet/ Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003), pp. 429–30). The Zurbarán is his extraordinary Temptation of St Jerome (1639) at the Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe.

28

Silva Maroto, Pilar, ‘Francés, Nicolás’, Enciclopedia Museo del Prado, https://www. museodelprado.es/aprende/enciclopedia/voz/frances-nicolas/7cc0df93-6d18-42779d48-9ca30aa53752 (9/11/17).

29

Mateo Gómez et al., ‘Iconografía de San Jerónimo’, pp. 84–5.

30

Voragine, Golden Legend, p. 599.

31

Voragine, Golden Legend, p. 599.

32

Voragine, Golden Legend, p. 599.

33

Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci, pp. 55–7; p. 57.

34

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/it/collezioni/musei/la-pinacoteca/ sala-ix---secolo-xv-xvi/leonardo-da-vinci--s--girolamo.html (9/11/17).

35

Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci, p. 218.

36

Friedmann, A Bestiary for St Jerome, pp. 173–88; p. 173.

37

Friedmann, A Bestiary for St Jerome, pp. 176–82.

38

Friedmann, A Bestiary for St Jerome, pp. 182–4.

39

Wendy Ruppel, ‘Salvation Through Imitation: The Meaning of Bosch’s St Jerome in the Wilderness’, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, 18/1–2 (1988), 4–12; 7–8.

40

Voragine, Golden Legend, p. 599.

41

Ruppel, ‘Salvation Through Imitation’, 9–10.

42

Ruppel, ‘Salvation Through Imitation’, 10.

43

Friedmann, A Bestiary for St Jerome, p. 176.

236

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 236

15-May-20 11:43:40 AM

Notes

44

Ruiz Gómez, ‘Luis de Morales’, p. 18.

45

Jesús Manuel López Martín, ‘Las tablas de Luis de Morales en el retablo de la Iglesia de San Martín de Plasencia (Cáceres)’, Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, série VII: Historia del Arte, VII (1994), 57–71; 57–8, 61.

46

López Martín, ‘Las tablas de Luis de Morales’, 71.

47

Ruiz Gómez, ‘Luis de Morales’, p. 31; I am grateful to Mercedes Orantos SánchezRodrigo, delegada de Patrimonio Cultural (curator for the diocese of Plasencia), for showing me the altarpiece in August 2014, before San Martín was open to the public. She told me that the restoration took place in the 1990s, and commented on the fact that the two main panels in the top tier, an Adoration of the Shepherds on the left and a Holy Family with the Magi on the right, were not by Morales.

48

Ciriaco Fuentes Baquero, Arroyo de la Luz: Iglesia de la Asunción y los Morales (Sanjurjo, León: Edilesa, 1993), p. 16.

49

Fuentes Baquero, Arroyo de la Luz, pp. 25–6.

50

Fuentes Baquero, Arroyo de la Luz, pp. 8, 12–13.

51

Carmelo Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales (1999), pp. 158–9.

52

Carmelo Solís Rodríguez, ‘Expiración de San Jerónimo’, in Carmelo Solís Rodríguez and Francisco Tejada Vizuete (eds), Diócesis y Catedral Pacense: de los Orígenes Medievales al Siglo XVI (Badajoz: Museo y Archivo Catedralicios, 1999), p. 26.

53

Carmelo Solís Rodríguez, Los Órganos de la Catedral de Badajoz, Catedral Metropolitana de Badajoz, Cuadernos de Historia de Arte, 1 (Badajoz: Museo Catedralicio, n.d.), pp. 5–6.

54

Solís Rodríguez, ‘Expiración’, p. 26; Ruiz Gómez, ‘San Jerónimo Penitente’, p. 177.

55

Mateo Gómez et al, ‘Iconografía de San Jerónimo’, pp. 88–9; Mateo Gómez et al. ‘La Rioja: Monasterio de la Estrella’, in ‘Los Monasterios’, El Arte de la Orden Jerónima, pp. 95–314; pp. 165–76; p. 173.

56

Julián Ruiz-Navarro Pérez, ‘La Escultura del Renacimiento y Manierismo en La Rioja’, in Begoña Arrúe Ugarte, Historia de Arte en la Rioja: El Siglo XVI, pp. 195–278; pp. 254–7.

57

Mateo Gómez et al., ‘Iconografía de San Jerónimo’, p. 89.

58

Mateo Gómez et al., ‘Los Monasterios’, p. 197.

59

Carmen García Frías Checa, Navarrete el Mudo: Nuestro Apeles Español en El Escorial (Madrid: El Viso, 2017), p. 4.

60

Cited in García Frías Checa, Navarrete el Mudo, p. 10.

61

Rosemarie Mulcahy, Philip II of Spain, Patron of the Arts (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004), pp. 141–3.

62

Voragine, The Golden Legend, pp. 600–1.

237

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 237

15-May-20 11:43:40 AM

Notes

63 64 65 66

67

68 69 70 71 72 73

74 75

76 77 78 79 80

81

82

83

84 85 86 87 88

89

Carmen García Frías Checa, Navarrete el Mudo, p. 10. Mateo Gómez et al., ‘La Rioja: Monasterio de la Estrella’, pp. 174–6. Mulcahy, Philip II, p. 143. Silva Maroto, Pilar, ‘Paisaje con San Jerónimo’, in Alejandro Vergara (ed.), Patinir. Estudios y catálogo crítico (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007), pp. 292–303. Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales (1999), p. 164; Ruiz Gómez, ‘San Jerónimo Penitente’, p. 177. Ruiz Gómez, ‘San Jerónimo Penitente’, p. 177. Ruiz Gómez, ‘San Jerónimo Penitente’, p. 178. Ruiz Gómez, ‘San Jerónimo Penitente’, p. 177. Granada, Guía de Pecadores, p. 77. Granada, Guía de Pecadores, p. 59. Ignacio García Aguilar (ed.), Poesía Castellana: Benito Arias Montano, Fray José de Sigüenza (Huelva: Universidad de Huelva, 2014), p. 283. García Aguilar, Poesía Castellana, p. 283. García Aguilar, ‘Encomio a San Jerónimo’, in García Aguilar (ed.), Poesía Castellana, pp. 237–40; p. 240. García Aguilar, ‘Encomio a San Jerónimo’, p. 237. García Aguilar, ‘Encomio a San Jerónimo’, p. 238. Voragine, The Golden Legend, p. 599. Loyola, San Ignacio de, Ejercicios Espirituales, p. 164. http://www.matriznet.dgpc.pt/MatrizNet/Objectos/ObjectosConsultar. aspx?IdReg=13575 h t t p : / / w w w. l a t r i b u n a d e t o l e d o. e s / n o t i c i a / Z F 6 7 2 6 D 4 4 - C 0 A 4 - C 7 4 8 5987EDB6A3A7D0CA/20140220/coleccion/garciamontañes/aumenta/san/jeronimo/ juan/juanes (27/2/2018). Isabel Mateo Gómez, ‘San Jerónimo: Juan de Juanes’, paper delivered at the Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, 19 February 2014. Vitor Serrão, A Trans-Memória das Imagens: Estudos Iconológicos de Pintura Portuguesa (Chamusca: Edições Cosmos, 2007), pp. 133–5. Serrão, A Trans-Memória, p. 119. Serrão, A Trans-Memória, p. 135. Hollanda, Quatro Dialogos, p. 11. Du Gué Trapier, Leonardesque Influences, p. 33. Ribera, Sermones, IV, ed. Ramón Robres Lluch (Valencia: Edicep, 1994), Sermón 223, p. 133. Granada, Guía de Pecadores, pp. 307–8.

238

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 238

15-May-20 11:43:40 AM

Notes

5 Both Sides of the Border Ruiz Gómez, ‘Luis de Morales’, p. 21.

 1

  2

Ruiz Gómez, ‘Luis de Morales’ p. 34. 

  3

‘Luis de Morales, Calvario’ (Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia), http://www. museobellasartesvalencia.gva.es/pintura-espanola-del-siglo-de-oro/-/asset_publisher/ zCV9FBp6ScA0/content/calvar-1;jsessionid=9736431ED8DC637D078F2B9D13D88F81. node1 (28/2/2018); Ruiz Gómez, ‘Calvario con donante’, pp. 209–10.

  4

Du Gué Trapier, Leonardesque Influences, p.19.

  5

Du Gué Trapier, Leonardesque Influences, p. 33.

  6

Du Gué Trapier, Leonardesque Influences, pp. 27–8.

  7

Mateo Gómez et al., ‘Los Monasterios’, pp. 150–1.

  8

Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba, Piedad, Ficha Completa, http://www. juntadeandalucia.es/cultura/WEBDomus/fichaCompleta.do?ninv=DO0022P&volver =busquedaSimple&k=Francisco%20de%20Castillejo&lng=es (12/3.2018); Silva Maroto, ‘44 La Piedad’, p. 169.

  9

Bäcksbacka, Luis de Morales, p. 201 Vítor Serrão, ‘O pintor António Campelo e o triunfo do manierismo no Portugal de 1550 a 1580’, Mare Liberum, 3 (1990–5), 309–19; 316, http://www.cidehusdigital. uevora.pt/mare_liberum/volume-3/ o-pintor-antonio-capelo-e-o-triunfo-domaneirismo-no-portugal-de-1550-a-1580/#page-1 (13/3/2018). Serrão, ‘‘O pintor António Campelo’, 319. Serrão, ‘‘O pintor António Campelo’, 318. Serrão, ‘‘O pintor António Campelo’, 319, fig. 15. Igreja da Misericórdia de Alcochete, Patrimonio Cultural, http://www. patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/pt/patrimonio/patrimonio-imovel/pesquisa-do-patrimonio/ classificado-ou-em-vias-de-classificacao/geral/view/74210 (14/3/2018). Román Hernández Nieves, ‘Centros artísticos de escultura y pintura en la Baja Extremadura (siglos XVI–XVIII)’, Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Series VII, Historia del Arte, 3 (1990) 87–12, 104–5; see also Helena Pinheiro de Melo, ‘O Pintor Francisco João (Act. 1563–1595): Materiais e Técnicas na Pintura de Cavalete em Évora na Segunda Metade do Século XVI’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, 2012), 48–9. Vítor Serrão, ‘Ecce homo’, in Ruiz Gómez , El Divino Morales, pp. 126–9; p. 129. Serrão, ‘Ecce homo’, pp. 126–8. Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Assunçao, Antiga Catedral de Elvas, Patrimonio Cultural,

10

11 12 13 14

15

16 17 18

http://www.patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/pt/patrimonio/patrimonio-imovel/pesquisa-

239

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 239

15-May-20 11:43:40 AM

Notes

do-patrimonio/classificado-ou-em-vias-de-classificacao/geral/view/71194/ (14/3/ 2018). 19

Serrão, ‘Ecce homo’, pp. 128–9.

20

Serrão, ‘Ecce homo’, p. 129.

21

Igreja Nossa Senhora da Graça, Évora, Patrimonio Cultural, http://www. patrimoniocultural. gov.pt/pt/patrimonio/patrimonio-imovel/pesquisa-do-patrimonio/ classificado-ou-em-vias-de-classificacao/geral/view/71380 (4/4/2018).

22

Melo, ‘O Pintor Francisco João’, pp. 143–5.

23

Melo, ‘O Pintor Francisco João’, p. 148; Túlio Espanca, ‘A Obra do Pintor Francisco João’, Cadernos de História e de Arte Eborense, 18 (1958), 3–20.

24

Melo, ‘O Pintor Francisco João’, p. 148.

25

Melo, ‘O Pintor Francisco João’, pp. 160–2.

26

Melo, ‘O Pintor Francisco João’, p. 160.

27

Serrão, ‘Ecce Homo’, p. 126.

28

Melo, ‘O Pintor Francisco João’, p. 531.

29

Álvaro Cardoso Gomes, Alzira Lobo de Arruda Campos and Eliane de Alcântara Teixeira, ‘O Sebastianismo: Uma Reflexão Histórica e Literaria do Mito’, Lumen et Virtus, V/10 (2014), 72–94; 79.

30

François Soyer, The Persecution of the Jews and Muslims of Portugal (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 244–52.

31

Soyer, The Persecution, p. 252.

32

Soyer, The Persecution, p. 253.

33

Sofia Frade, ‘Hic sita Figea est: satis hoc: Luisa Sigea and the Role of D. Maria, Infanta of Portugal, in Female Scholarship’, in Rosie Wiles and Edith Hall (eds), Women Classical Scholars: Unsealing the Fountain from the Renaissance to Jacqueline de Romilly (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 48–60; p. 59.

34

C. R. Boxer, João de Barros: Portuguese Humanist and Historian of Asia (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 1981), p. 18; Jane Stevenson, Women Latin Poets: Language, Gender and Authority from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 217.

35

Miriam Raquel Barbeiro Pombinho, ‘Redescoberta do Convento de Santa Mónica de Évora – Proposta de Salvaguarda e Valorização do Património Conventual Agostinho’ (unpublished MA thesis: University of Évora, 2014), 40–1, https://dspace. uevora.pt/rdpc/bitstream/10174/12152/1/Dissertação%20corrigida.pdf (5/4/2018).

36

Leticia Ruiz Gómez, ‘Cristo Presentado al Pueblo’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 146–7.

240

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 240

15-May-20 11:43:40 AM

Notes

37

38

39 40

Joseph McInerney, The Greatness of Humility: St Augustine on Moral Excellence (Cambridge: James Clarke and Co, 2017), p. 108. Matthew Drever, ‘Images of Suffering in Augustine and Luther’, Dialog, 51/1 (2010), 71–82; 73. Drever, ‘Images of Suffering’, 76. Solís Rodríguez, Luis de Morales (1977), p. 5.

241

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 241

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Tormo, Elías, ‘Pocas Palabras sobre la Edición’, in Manuel Denis (trans), De la Pintura Antigua por Francisco de Holanda (Madrid: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 1921), pp. vii–xiii. Trapier, Elizabeth du Gué, Luis de Morales (New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1925). Trapier, Elizabeth du Gué, Luis de Morales and Leonardesque Influences in Spain (New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1953). Tyler, Peter, The Return to the Mystical: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Teresa of Avila and the Christian Mystical Tradition (London: Continuum, 2011). Valadas, S., R. Freire, A. Cardoso, J. Mirão, P. Vandenabeele, J. O. Caetano and A. Candeias, ‘New Insight on the Underdrawing of 16th-Century FlemishPortuguese Easel Paintings by Combined Surface Analysis and Micro­ analytical Techniques’, Micron, 85 (2016), 15–25. Vasconcellos, Joaquim de (ed.), Francisco de Holanda, Quatro Dialogos da Pintura Antiga (Oporto: Renascença Portuguesa/Joaquim de Vasconcellos: 1896). Vergara, Alejandro (ed.), Patinir. Estudios y catálogo crítico (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007. Voragine, Jacobus de, The Golden Legend, trans. William Granger Ryan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012). Wardropper, Bruce W., Introducción al Teatro Religioso del Siglo de Oro (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1953). Webber, Alison, ‘“When Heaven Hovered Close to Earth”: Images and Miracles in Early Modern Spain’, in Emily Michelson, Scott K. Taylor and Mary Noll Venables (eds), A Linking of Heaven and Earth: Studies in Religious and Cultural History in Honour of Carlos M. N. Eire (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), pp. 15–23. Weber de Kurlat, Frida, ‘Gil Vicente y Diego Sánchez de Badajoz. A propósito del Auto da sebila Casandra y de la Farsa del juego de cañas’, Filología, 9 (1963), 144–7. Weber de Kurlat, Frida, ‘Sobre el Portuguesismo de Diego Sánchez de Badajoz: El Portugués Hablado en Farsas Españolas del Siglo XVI’, Filología, 13 (1968–9), 349–59. Weber, de Kurlat, Frida, ‘Acerca del Portuguesismo de Diego Sánchez de Badajoz: Portugueses en Farsas Españolas del Siglo XVI’, in A. David Kossoff and José Amor y Vázquez (eds), Homenaje a William L. Fichter: Estudios sobre el Teatro Antiguo Hispánico y Otros Ensayos (Madrid: Castalia, 1971), pp. 785–800. 257

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Bibliography

Weniger, Mathias, ‘Pintura Portuguesa dos Séculos XV e XVI’, in Gordo Porfírio, As Grandes Colecções, 124–7. Werness, Hope B., The Continuum Encyclopaedia of Animal Symbolism (New York: Continuum, 2006). Wilson, E. Faye, ‘The Symbolic Goldfinch, Its History and Significance in European Devotional Art by Herbert Friedmann’, Speculum, 23/1 (January 1948), 121–5. Wiltrout, Ann E., A Patron and a Playwright in Renaissance Spain: The House of Feria and Diego Sánchez de Badajoz (London: Tamesis, 1987). Zolle, Luis, ‘Apéndice Documental’, in Ruiz Gómez (ed.), El Divino Morales, pp. 227–54.

Websites Fregenal de la Sierra https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fregenal_de_la_Sierra (7/8/2017) Igreja da Misericórdia de Alcochete, Patrimonio Cultural http://www. patrimoniocultural. gov.pt/pt/patrimonio/patrimonio-imovel/pesquisado-patrimonio/classificado-ou-em-vias-de-classificacao/geral/view/74210 (14/3/2018) Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Assunçao, Antiga Catedral de Elvas, Patrimonio Cultural, http://www.patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/pt/patrimonio/patrimonioimovel/pesquisa-do-patrimonio/classificado-ou-em-vias-de-classificacao/ geral/view/71194/ (14/3/2018) Igreja Nossa Senhora da Graça, Évora, Patrimonio Cultural: http://www. patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/pt/patrimonio/patrimonio-imovel/pesquisa-dopatrimonio/classificado-ou-em-vias-de-classificacao/geral/view/71380 (4/4/2018)

258

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Index

Aguilar, Tello de, regidor of Écija 115 Alciato, Andrea, humanist 55 Alumbradismo (iluminism)/alumbrados 57–8, 60–71, 74, 84, 86, 87, 89, 91, 95, 99, 105–6, 116, 119, 138 Álvarez, Hernando, Estremadura alumbrado 65 Álvarez de Toledo, Diego, Prior of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in Castile 29 Ana de Austria, Queen of Spain xxvi, n.15 Árbulo, Pedro 167–8 Penitent St Jerome, The/San Jerónimo Penitente 167–8 Arias Montano, Benito, humanist 64, 81 Arruda, Miguel de, architect 201 Ascoli, Cecco d’ (Francesco degli Stabili) poet 36–7 Augustine, St., theologian 20, 213 Azpilcueta, Martín de, theologian 4–5, 22 Beata 62, 65 Bellini, Giovanni, painter 190

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 259

Berberisco 9 Bermejo, Bartolomé, painter 35 Blake, William, poet and artist 146 Boabdil, King of Granada 6 Bonasone, Giulio, engraver 191 Borja y Aragón, Francisco de, devotional writer 82 Borromeo, Carlo, Cardinal 81 Bosch, Hieronymus 153, 157–9, 161, 171, 187 St Jerome in Prayer 157–9, 171, 172, 176, 187 Bridget of Sweden, St 52 Brito, Estevam de, musician 17 Bronzino, Agnolo, painter 33 Bruselas, Estacio de, painter 29 Bruselas, Hans de, sculptor 166–7 Buonarroti, Michelangelo, painter 142–4, 146, 147, 191 Byron, George Gordon Lord, poet xx Calderón de la Barca, Pedro, playwright 20 Campelo, António 194–7 Christ on the Way to Calvary 195–6

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Index

Cano, Melchor, Inquisitor 82, 102 Cardano, Girolamo, astrologer 42–8, 52–4, 71 Carducho, Vicente, art theorist and painter 143 Carillo, Sancha, follower of Juan de Ávila 119 Carlos V (Karl I), Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain xxv, 17, 41, 59–60, 63, 80, 81, 89, 145 Carlos, Frei 144–5, 147, 197 Christ the Good Shepherd/Bom Pastor 147–9 Carranza, Bartolomé de, Archbishop of Toledo 89 Carreño de Miranda, Juan, painter 73 Carvajal, Gutiérrez de, Bishop of Plasencia 29 Castillejo, Francisco de 191–4, 214 Pietà (Castillejo or studio) 191–4 Castro, Publia Hortênsia de, classicist 212–3 Cazalla, Juan de, Franciscan, brother of María de Cazalla 61 Cazalla, María de, Guadalajara alumbrada 61–6 Chantereine, Nicolas, architect 201 Chaves, Diego de, Dominican 82 Chiesa, Francesco della, merchant 35 Chigi, Agostino, banker 44 Cisneros, Francisco Jiménez de, Cardinal 59, 60, 61, 62 Clenardus, Nicolaus (Cleynaerts), philologist 59 Colonna, Vittoria, Marchesa di Pescara 142–4, 185

Contreiras, Diogo de 179–81,183, 185 St Jerome, St Anthony and St Denis 179–81 Converso 6, 38, 57, 60, 62, 65 Correa de Vivar, Juan 32–5, 37 Virgin with the Goldfinch/ Virgen del Jilguero 32–5, 145 Council of Trent 4, 6, 41,42, 44, 68, 73, 81, 85, 100, 102, 118, 125, 138, 139, 141–2 Coxcie, Michiel de, painter 93 Cristiano nuevo 6–8 Cristóbal, Leonor de, Hieronymite nun 63 Cruz, Isabel de la, leader of the Guadalajara alumbrados 57, 60–3 Davillier, Charles, French Hispanist and travel writer xx–xxi Dejamiento 60, 86, 87, 89 Denis, Manuel, painter 142 Doré, Gustave, illustrator xxi Dürer, Albrecht, painter 135 Elizabeth I, Queen of England 81 Enríquez, Fadrique, Admiral of Castile 61 Enríquez, María, Marquesa de Villanueva 77, 80 Erasmianism 58–63, 68, 85, 119 Erasmus, Desiderius, humanist 46, 58, 80 Este, Isabella d’, Marchesa di Mantova 131 Farsa del Sacramento (Anonymous) 18–20

260

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 260

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Index

Felipe II (Filipe I), King of Spain, King of Portugal xxi–xxii, 1, 16, 17, 41, 64, 80, 81, 82, 89, 93, 100, 113, 145, 167, 169, 171, 189, 212, 214 Felipe III, King of Spain 57, 189 Feria, Count of (Pedro Fernández de Córdoba y Figueroa) 29 Feria, Duke of (Gómez Suárez de Figueroa y Córdoba) 8 Fernandes, Garcia 183–5, 201 Penitent St Jerome, The/São Jerônimo em Penitência 183–5, 201 Fernández, Luis, painter 191 Fisher, John, Cardinal 80 Flandes, Juan de, painter 57 Flores, Francisco, painter 199–201 Flores, Juan, painter 163 Ford, Richard, English travel writer xx Francés, Nicolás 150, 151, 153 St Jerome Translating the Gospels 150–1, 153 Fuente, Alonso de la, Dominican 64–8, 83–5, 89, 95, 106, 116

Guzmán, Gaspar de, silversmith 45 Henrique, Cardinal 59, 83, 85 Henrique, Prince (Infante de Portugal) 59 Henriques, Francisco, painter 144–5 Herman of Carinthia, translator 42 Hernández, Francisca, Guadalajara alumbrada 62 Hipólito, Alonso, sculptor 163–4 Hispalensis, Johannes (Juan de Sevilla), translator 42 Hoffmannstegg, Count von, botanist xx Hollanda, António de, painter 145, 146 Hollanda, Francisco de, painter and art theorist 142–6, 185, 194 Hurtado de Mendoza y Pacheco, Diego, diplomat 81

Gil, Juan (Dr. Egidio), theologian 63, 77, 80 Gomes, João, musician 16 González, Gonzalo, Jesuit 63 González, María, Extremadura alumbrada 65–6 Goyaz, Juan de, master mason 45 Granada, Luis de, devotional writer 67, 81, 82, 83, 84–5, 100–13, 115–16, 117, 123–4, 126, 127, 128–129, 138, 173–4, 188, 190 Gutiérrez, Luis, follower of Juan de Ávila 117

Inestrosa, Leonor de, wife of the regidor of Écija, follower of Juan de Ávila 115, 117–18, 120 Infantado, Duke of (Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y Luna) 61 Inglés, Jorge, painter 151–53 Inquisition (Portugal) 67, 85, 138, 146, 183, 207–9 Inquisition (Rome), Holy Office 44, 81 Inquisition (Spain) 60–5, 77, 80, 85, 86, 103, 115, 117, 119, 138, 146 Isabel de Portugal, Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Spain 17, 145 Isabel of Castile, Isabel la Católica 6, 13, 57 Jerome, St, theologian xxiv, 35, 46, 91, 105, 139, 141–2, 149–88

261

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Index

João III, King of Portugal 1, 18, 59, 83, 144, 145 João Manuel, Infante de Portugal 1 João, Francisco Christ at the Pillar/Cristo Atado à Coluna 200–12 Christ Carrying the Cross/Cristo com a Cruz as Costas 201–12 Crowning with Thorns, The/ Coroação de Jesus com uma coroa de espinhos 201–12 Descent from the Cross, The/ Descida da Cruz 201–13 Ecce Homo 200–12 Taking of Jesus, The/Prisão de Jesus 201–12 John XXIII, Pope (Angelo Roncalli) 101 John Climacus, St 104–5 Juan de Ávila, preacher and devotional writer 67, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 100, 111, 113–26, 127, 138 Juana de Austria, Infanta de España 1, 17 Kauffman, Angelika, painter 155 Kempis, Thomas à, theologian 58, 85 Lentulus, Publius, Roman consul 52 Limpieza de sangre 7–8 Link, Johann Heinrich Friedrich, German travel writer xx Lobato, Nicolás, master mason 45 López, Juan, weaver 15 Loyola, Ignatius of/Ignacio de Loyola, devotional writer 49, 58, 82, 85, 178–9 Luther, Martin, theologian 58, 61

Lutheranism 5, 61, 62–4, 66, 68, 77– 82, 85, 102, 115, 118, 138 Magdala, Mary of (Mary Magdalen) 71–6, 105, 138, 209, 211 Maíno, Juan Bautista, painter 73 Malón de Chaide, Pedro, devotional writer 71, 75 Manrique, Alonso, Inquisitor 58 Manuel I, King of Portugal 2, 144, 145, 207 Margarita de Austria-Estiria, Queen of Spain 57, 145 Maria, Infanta, Duchess of Viseu 212 Mary I, Queen of England 80 Mas’šar, Abu, astrologer 42–3 Masip, Vicente Juan (Juan de Juanes) 181–3, 187 Penitent St Jerome, The/San Jerónimo Penitente 181–3, 187 Medici, Giovanni de’, Cardinal 33 Morales, Catalina de, daughter of Luis 55 Morales, Cristóbal de, composer 20 Morales, Hernando de, painter and son of Luis 189, 199, 214 Morales, Jerónimo de, painter and son of Luis 189, 199, 214 Morales, Luis de Birth of the Virgin/Nacimiento de la Virgen 55, 56 Calvary with Donor/Calvario con Donante 90–1 Ecce Homo 198–9, 203–5, 213 Holy Family with the Horoscope of Christ/Sagrada Familia 40, 45–57, 68–71 262

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 262

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Index

Lamentation over the Dead Christ/ Lamentación Ante Cristo Muerto 72, 74 Juan de Ribera 88 Man of Sorrows, The (Minneapolis) 79, 135–7, 173, 187, 188, 205 Man of Sorrows (Prado) 133–7, 173, 187, 188 Penitent St Jerome, The/San Jerónimo Penitente (Arroyo de la Luz) 162, 163–5 Penitent St Jerome, The /San Jerónimo Penitente (Badajoz) 164, 165–7 Pietà/Piedad (Badajoz) 110, 112, 126, 187, 188, 190, 193 Pietà/Piedad (RABASF) 78, 108–9, 112–13, 128, 187, 188, 190, 191, 193–4 Presentation in the Temple/La Presentación en el Templo 50, 52 St Jerome in the Wilderness 140, 171–4, 176, 179, 186–7 Virgin and Child with a Distaff/ Virgen del Huso 97, 98, 131– 4, 190 Virgin and Child with a Little Bird/ Virgen del Pajarito 1, 28–38, 54, 127, 190 Virgin and Child/Virgen de la Leche 94, 95–6, 127–9, 132–3, 136, 147, 190 Virgin Dressed as a Gypsy with the Child Jesus/Virgen Vestida de Gitana con el Niño 69, 70, 190

Virgin with the Infant Jesus and St John/ Virgen con el Niño y San Juanito 33–5, 190 Morales, Mariana de, Hieronymite nun and daughter of Luis 171 Moreto, Juan de, master mason 45 Moriscos/mouriscos 6, 207, 209 Mudéjares 7 Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban, painter 73 Narvaez, Luciana (Leonor Chacón de Narvaez y Zapata), poet 75 Navarra, Francisco de, Bishop of Badajoz 4 Navarrete, Juan Fernández de, 169– 71, 187 Penitent St Jerome, The/San Jerónimo Penitente 169–71, 187 Novellara, Fra Pietro da, Carmelite abbot 131 Núñez, Mari, Guadalajara alumbrada 62 Obray, Estevan, master mason 45 Ochoa, Juan de, master mason 45 Ordiales, Juan de, music and dancing master 15 Osuna, Francisco de, devotional writer 87, 89, 97 Palma, I Count of, (Luis Antonio de Puertocarrero) 61 Palma, II Count of, (Luis de Puertocarrero) 116 Palomino, Antonio, art historian xxi– xxii

263

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Index

Pantoja de la Cruz, Juan, painter 55 Pardo de Tavera, Juan, Cardinal 17–18 Patinir, Joachim, painter 159, 171 Paul IV, Pope (Giovanni Pietro Caraffa) 80, 81, 89 Paul V, Pope (Camillo Borghese) 3 Paul VI, Pope (Giovanni Montini) 68 Penitent St Jerome, The/San Jerónimo Penitente (Anonymous, Cáceres) 159 Pereira, Nuno Álvares, Constable of Portugal 3 Pereira, Pero Vaz, architect 201 Peruzzi, Baltasar, painter 44 Pico della Mirandola, Maddalena, Poor Clare 111 Pietà (Portable Passion Polyptich, Anonymous) 113, 114, 125 Piombo, Sebastiano del, painter 135 Pius IV, Pope (Giovanni Angelo Medici) 80–1, 102 Pius IX, Pope (Giovanni Maria Ferretti) 155 Poleró, Vicente, painter 31 Ponce de la Fuente, Constantino (Dr. Constantino), theologian 63, 77, 80, 111 Portugal, Francisco de, Count of Vimioso 201 Portugal, Martinho de, Bishop of Funchal 59 Protestantism 4–5, 58, 81, 82, 116 Quiñones, Luis de, musician 18 Quiroga, Gaspar de, Inquisitor 46 Recogimiento 60, 87, 89, 99, 106–7, 138

Remisa, Gaspar de, financier and collector 31 Resende, André de, humanist 59 Ribera, Juan de, bishop of Badajoz xviii, 4, 41, 42, 67, 69, 76, 77–101, 103, 108, 113, 123, 146, 186–7, 190 Ribera, Jusepe de, painter 155 Ribera, Pedro Enríquez y Afán (Perefán), Viceroy of Catalunya, Viceroy of Naples 77, 113 Rodrígues, Simão, painter 199 Rodríguez, Francisco, sculptor 161 Rojas y Sandoval, Cristóbal de, Bishop of Badajoz 4, 65, 83–4, 112, 128 Rúa, Jorge de la, painter 163 Rueda, Lope de, merchant 61 Rueff, Jacob, physician 42 Ruiz de Hojeda, Agustín, theologian 77 Salaì, Giacomo, painter 132 Sánchez de Badajoz, Diego, playwright 7–14, 20, 23, 38, 99, 187 Danza de los Pecados 19, 25–6, 28 Farsa de la Iglesia 10–13 Farsa del Juego de Cañas19, 25, 27–8, 99–100 Farsa de Moysen 8–11 Farsa del Santíssimo Sacramento 13–14, 23–4 Sánchez de Vera, Pedro, painter, son-in-law of Morales 189 Sánchez Galindo, Benito, poet and painter 29 Sánchez, María, Extremadura alumbrada 66 Santo Domingo, Fray Vicente de, painter 169, 171

264

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Index

Sanzio, Rafaello (Raphael) 30, 33–6 Madonna with the Goldfinch/ Madonna del Cardellino 30, 33–6 Savonarola, Girolamo, theologian and preacher 109, 138 Sebastião I, King of Portugal 1, 67, 207, 212 Sforza, Ludovico, Duke of Milan 155 Sigea, Luisa, classicist 212 Sigüenza, José de Fray, Hieronymite historian 169, 175 Simancas, Diego de, Bishop of Badajoz 89–91, 126 Sixtus V, Pope (Felice Piergentile) 46 Spirituali 81 Teixeira, Diogo, painter 195–7, 199 Teodósio I, Duke of Braganza 18, 199 Teresa of Ávila, St. 3, 62, 67, 173 Theotocópoulos, Doménikos (El Greco), painter xvii, xviii, xxiv, 186, 214 Tura, Cosmè 154, 156–7, 185, 187 St Jerome 154, 156–7, 159, 161, 185, 187

Cathedral choir stalls, with Hans de Bruselas) 166–7, 172 Vasari, Giorgio, art historian 142 Vaz, Joana, classicist 212 Vázquez, Juan, composer 17–18 Velázquez, Diego de Silva y, painter 42 Vicente, Gil, playwright 8, 25 Vilhena, Joana de, Countess of Vimioso 201 Villalobos, Diego de, painter 14, 16 Villena, Marqués de (Diego López Pacheco y Portocarrero) 61 Vinci, Leonardo da 36, 48, 131–2, 144, 153–6, 161, 178, 187, 190 St Jerome 152, 153–6, 178, 187 Madonna of the Yarnwinder/ Madonna del Fusi (after Leonardo da Vinci) 130, 132, 155 Voragine, Jacobus de, author of The Golden Legend 93 Weyden, Rogier van der, painter 113

Valdés, Francisco de, Inquisitor 42, 82, 84, 102 Valdés, Juan de, humanist 61, 80 Valencia, Jerónimo de, sculptor 166–7 Penitent St Jerome, The/San Jerónimo Penitente (Badajoz

Yllescas, Ana de, Sevillian gentlewoman 63 Zúñiga y Sotomayor, Antonio de, Marqués de Ayamonte 17

265

NOTES PaintingDev_2020_5_15.indd 265

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