Alonso Berruguete (ca. 1488–1561) transformed the arts of Renaissance Spain with an innovative style of drawing, painting, and sculpture that modernized the visual traditions of late medieval and early modern Iberian art. Written by leading scholars in the field, this exhibition catalogue is the first English-language publication that treats Berruguete's art and career in a systematic fashion, from his origins in Castile and formative years in Italy to his later career in Toledo. It accompanied a traveling exhibition (13 October 2019 to 17 February 2020) organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and the Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, in collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, and was awarded the 2020 Eleanor Tufts Book Award in recognition of its groundbreaking scholarship.
A preface by Jonathan Brown and an introduction authored by C. D. Dickerson III and Mark McDonald succinctly outline the catalogue's innovative approach to studying this artist. Eleven chapters trace the trajectory of Berruguete's beginnings, travels, projects, and reception. Dickerson's three essays concentrate on Berruguete's early years in the kingdom of Castile, namely in the city of Toledo, his twelve-year stay in Italy, and his settlement in Valladolid. Imperative to his early artistic formation was the education he received from his father, the artist Pedro Berruguete, and the social connections and networks afforded by household ties vis-à-vis his mother, Elvira González.
Despite the lacunae of information on his time in Italy from 1506 to 1518, it is clear that Berruguete's study of antiquity and early modern luminaries such as Donatello, Masaccio, and Michelangelo profoundly shaped his artistic innovations. In 1523, five years after his return from Italy, Berruguete was officially attached to the itinerant court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. His important commissions included the designs of the Retablo Mayor of the Capilla Real in Granada, which might have signaled a collaboration with the sculptor Felipe Vigarny. While Berruguete had a peripatetic career between Italy and Spain, the tomb and altarpiece for Jean Sauvage, one of Charles V's closest advisors, established his presence in Spain for longer than was previously thought.
Richard L. Kagan's chapter focuses on Berruguete's social status and strategies of upward mobility in Castile. Berruguete's pursuit of wealth and fame, his ambitions and setbacks, and his ability and drive to secure his family's fortunes through the acquisitions of notaryship (or escribania) attached to the Real Audiencia and Chancilleria in Valladolid and of a señorio (or lordship) allowed him to leverage economic and political benefits on par with Castile's nobility.
Essays by Mark McDonald, Manuel Arias Martínez, and Daphne Barbour explore the complexity of Berruguete's work as a draftsman and use of prints, legacy as a maker of retablos (multi-storied, intermedial altarpieces), and his workshop operations and collaborations. Berruguete's mature and late-career projects, such as the Choir of Toledo Cathedral, his final commission of the Tomb of Cardinal Juan Pardo de Tavera (1554–61, Hospital Tavera, Toledo), and his critical fortunes are assessed by Wendy Sapponen, Julia M. Vázquez, and Manuel Arias Martínez respectively. Mark McDonald's catalogue of drawings by Berruguete is an excellent addendum to his essay. The volume also considers fifteen autograph drawings, eight attributed designs that include an engraving, and eleven sheets from Berruguete's workshop and circle.
In sum, this publication presents the different facets of the art and career of one of the Renaissance's most accomplished and versatile artists: a skilled draftsman, painter, sculptor, and entrepreneur. His work arrived at a time when art in Spain was at a crossroads of remarkable change; it was a catalyst for the transition from a late medieval Hispano-Flemish idiom to a more classicizing Italianate style.
