Bidspirit auction | Burgos workshop linked to Diego

Burgos workshop linked to Diego de Siloé and Felipe de Vigarny. Circa 1520 – 1525. - “Saint Anne with the Madonna and Child” Imposing alabaster sculpture with pink veins and gilt residue. Height: 59 cm. Delicate depiction of the group of Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. What is most outstanding about it is the principal role of the mother of the Virgin, who embraces Mary with a maternal and protective gesture, as she supports the Christ Child at the back with a tender gesture, as he turns his head towards her while he plays with his mother’s veil. As Dr. Antoni José i Pitarch, notes in the study that accompanies this sculpture: “Knowing the creative richness and intensity which originated in a centre like Burgos Cathedral throughout the 15th century and in the first half of the 16th century, where important clients commissioned sculptures for private devotion, as well as the spread of worship of the Saint Anne trinity, it is more than probable to conclude that a piece such as the freestanding group of Saint Anne, the Virgin and the Christ Child, carved in alabaster and of a small size, belonged to a private chapel.” In the study he continues, indicating with regard to the artist: “Although the place of origin of this sculpture cannot be pinpointed through documents, its technical characteristics and execution point to the sculptural typology of Castilian sculpture of the first third of the 16th century, specifically those developed in Burgos Cathedral and its surroundings, such as the Miraflores Charterhouse. It is in the first building that one of the greatest wood and alabaster workshops in Castile was located, the greatest exponent of which was Gil de Siloé, born in Antwerp, who also worked at the Miraflores Charterhouse between 1490 and 1500 where he sculpted the tombs of King John II of Castile and Queen Isabella of Portugal and King Alfonso XII of Castile’s tomb, and the main altarpiece at the church. … It is believed that when the mausoleum was completed, Gil de Siloé was the sculptor who began the wooden sculptural set on the Saint Anne reredos in the Constables Chapel in Burgos Cathedral. Gil was unable to complete the set, as death overcame him in 1500, which meant that it was finished by his son Diego, who is documented as being in Italy and Barcelona between 1517 and 1519 with Bartolomé Ordóñez. When he returned to Burgos in 1519, Diego took over this father’s unfinished work and undertook his own commissions alongside his collaborator Felipe Vigarny (active in Burgos Cathedral from 1498). The scenes from the altarpieces of Saint Anne and of the Purification in the Chapel of the Constables have more elements that are linked to this sculpture and are those that histography has attributed to Diego de Siloé: the body of the dead Christ among the angels, the figures of the saints Magdalene, Perpetua and Marina or Margaret; the Visitation, the Purification of the Virgin and the Presentation of the Christ Child at the Temple as well as the figures of the Evangelists Mark, John and Luke… It is in this geographical and chronological context that the alabaster carving of Saint Anne, the Virgin and Child can be situated, especially on observing with attention the different characteristics in the execution of the Purification reredos and that of Saint Anne in the Chapel of the Constables.”