The Meeting at the Golden Gate

(Francisco Giralte)

FRANCISCO GIRALTE
(Valladolid c. 1500 – 1576 Madrid)
20. The Meeting at the Golden Gate
Pine, carved in high relief
135 x 114 cm x 21 cm (53 ⅛ x 44 ⅞ x 8 ¾ in.)
PROVENANCE: H Lüttgens, Aachen; Mrs Clifford Ambrose Truesdell, New York
Spain at the end of the fifteenth century and well into the middle of the sixteenth was overflowing
with churches and altarpieces, as well as tombs, choir stalls and facades, all of which were
decorated with sculptures and reliefs. For sculptors this level of development was unprecedented,
both in the quantity of works produced and in their overall quality. This large pitch-pine relief
depicts the moment the aged Anna met her future husband. Joachim. Despite their advanced age, the
pair would be blessed with a son, Joseph, who would later serve as father to the infant Jesus.
Stylistically, the relief is typical of Francisco Giralte and must have been carved originally as part of one
of the many large altarpieces made during this period or, since it is without polychrome, it may have
formed the decorative backing above a series of sumptuous choir stalls.
We do not know if Giralte’s father – who must surely have been French with such a surname – first
came to Palencia in search of greater fortune before his son arrived in the city.1 The younger Giralte is
known to have had firm ties to Palencia at an early date, where he probably owned land. Certainly
Francisco established his first professional contacts in the city where he received an early commission.
In any case, it is known that Francisco was married in Palencia in 1547 and that he had a sister, who
married the sculptor Manuel Álvarez, a pupil of Alonso Berruguete, as indeed, was Francisco Giralte
himself. After having trained in his master’s workshop between 1532 and 1535, Giralte went on to
develop his own style, which, while distinct in many ways from that of Berruguete, is nevertheless seen
as faithful to the work of the Castilian master.2
As the director of his own workshop, Francisco Giralte received commissions for numerous altarpieces
throughout his entire life, assuming a risky management strategy, technically as much as artistically,
and, in some respects, economically as well, because the demand for such works far outstripped the
capacity of Giralte’s workshop.
The aesthetics of The Meeting at the Golden Gate exhibited here illustrate the incorporation of
successive influences that are both recognizable in and indicative of the work of Giralte. We can analyse
this adoption of models: the shortened proportions of the figures and the five heads are all characteristic
of Giralte, and both features are emphasized by the square support, which indicates that the relief may
originally have been part of the lower mid-level of a large retablo, or the backing of choir stalls, as said
above.

This particular subject – always depicted as the aged saints embracing
before a monumental city gate – is included as part of the Life of the
Virgin Mary. The individual scenes of reconstituted altarpieces tend
to follow a pre-established iconographic order, which is medieval in
tradition. This iconographic formula is also found in the graphic
depictions of religious narratives and particularly in those of
Flemish printmakers, who were fond of including anecdotal
elements, in much the same way as in this relief by Giralte, where
an angel, approaching over the heads of the saints, serves to
communicate the heavenly benediction of their betrothal.
Interestingly, on this occasion Giralte borrowed his composition
from a work by Pedro de Berruguete, Alonso’s father, as can be seen
in a painting dated to the last quarter of the fifteenth century in the
Church of Paredes de Nava, Palencia (Fig. 1). Even greater proof of
this connection is illustrated in the Palencian subjects of his master
Alonso.
The narrative focus of the composition is the shepherd, who carries
a lamb slung across his shoulders. His position in the relief, on the
far left, is made all the more noticeable by its slightly unstable and
truncated impression. No doubt this sort of detail would have been
pleasing to Castillian eyes of the time. The head of the shepherd is
magnificent and corresponds to the model that Giralte and his companions explored in the walnut choir
stalls of the Cathedral of Toledo, where he had been the foreman of Alonso’s Berruguete’s team.3
From 1550 onwards, most depictions of The Meeting at the Golden Gate did not feature either an angel
or a shepherd: these figures were not part of the standard iconography. However, the figure of the maid,
whose presence as witness is consistently referred to in the Apocrypha, was generally retained. Perhaps
in a bid for even greater expressiveness, Giralte depicted this particular figure as rather old, in fact, as
old as Saint Anne herself, perhaps to symbolize the sage gravity of her role as witness of the holy scene.
All in all, these altarpieces were constructed as enormous stagings of the divine mysteries. The
sculptures were specifically designed and executed to capture and, just as importantly, to hold the
attention of the faithful, who would pray before them everyday, throughout their entire lives. To
maintain an element of surprise in their depictions of such familiar narratives, artists looked for new
approaches to composition, pose and expressions to enliven these sacred scenes.
At first glance the bodies of the characters seem curious because they are not treated as a whole, but as
parts: that is, heads, hands and drapery. For the most part, the facial types derive from Berruguete, a
particular feature being the open mouth with a very high upper lip, as in the Angel of the Anunciación (Figs. 2a, b) from Berruguete’s altarpiece of La Mejorada (Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid).
His faces are typified by an emotional expressiveness – particularly evident in Saint Anne and her maid –
that communicates a deep agitation of the spirit, and constitutes possibly the defining characteristic of
Alonso Berruguete’s work: his urge to release the intangible and the divine from the solid as in the relief
of La Visitación from the Convent of Santa Ursula in Toledo (Fig. 3).
For example, in the present relief the head of the shepherd appears to follow a classical (almost Hellenistic)
model, and the locks of his long hair seem charged with energy, as well this humble figure might be in
witnessing such a divine moment. The first time we encounter a similar figure is in Berruguete’s Adoration
of the Magi, from the Santiago parish in Valladolid (Fig. 4). In this composition, Berruguete appears to
have deliberately depicted the hands so that they appear odd, with strange fingers and in physically
impossible poses. The hands recall the template technique used for the choir stalls from Toledo Cathedral,
in which a variety of hands, feet and heads would be modelled from plaster impressions, and then later
incorporated by Berruguete’s assistants into the figure for the corresponding seat.
The draperies in Giralte’s relief are depicted in such thick, heavy folds they must surely have been
modelled on the cloths that made Castile famous in European markets and fairs. Like felt, the cloth,
when crumpled, formed great folds, and therefore, in terms of sculptural representation, was very
efficient for imparting monumentality and gravitas in the figures, regardless of their size. Giralte’s style
has a tense monumentality, evident in the present relief. Doubtless, this aspect of his style was Giralte’s
response to the influence exercised by Juan de Juni, whom he greatly admired, despite being, at the
same time, his rival in Valladolid. Both artists maintained a historical lawsuit in relation to the award
of the altarpiece commission for Santa María Antigua, Valladolid. The document relating to this
lawsuit is of major importance for our knowledge of Giralte because it provides us with most of the
facts that form his biography.4

Another particular characteristic of Giralte’s work is his focus on detail, such as hairstyles and shoes,
and it is worth pointing out that this fondness for capturing specific minutiae grew out of his repeatedly
making sketches and drawings for silversmiths. To this decorative precocity belongs the beard of Saint
Joachim, a feature of the relief that could have come out of Felipe Bigarny’s workshop, and that is
stylistically similar to one of that artist’s first sculptures for Palencia Cathedral.
Francisco Giralte is defined as an eclectic, an artist so driven to assimilate that he poached elements of
his style from his rival, Juan de Juni, such as the use of tight compositions that depend on a strong sense
of symmetry to maintain narrative focus and clarity in the subject depicted. This manner of arranging
the figures is clearly illustrated in the present relief.
Giralte’s career can be divided into two periods, the first includes his first works executed in the
workshops of Palencia, sculptures of far-reaching effect, which were modelled closely on Berruguete
and which reflect the sense of drama and the movement typical of that master. During this period,
which comes to a close around 1548, Giralte made the altarpiece of the Cisneros in Palencia, one for
the Monastery of Valbuena (lost), and another for the Corral Chapel of the parish church La
Magdalena in Valladolid.
Giralte’s second period is distinguished by his most important Madrid commissions, such as the famous
Chapel of the Bishop, a family chapel in the Plaza de La Paja, a spectacular funerary space that
anticipates the royal sepulchres of El Escorial (Fig. 5). Giralte secured
this commission as a result of the fame he had acquired from his work
on the choir stalls in Toledo Cathedral, which gained him entrance into
the exclusive circle of artists in Toledo who would oversee projects for
the budding Madrilenian court.
Around 1550, Giralte set up his new workshop and home in the heart
of Madrid, close to the parish church of San Andrés and the Chapel of
the bishop, when the city was being promoted as the new capital of the
kingdom. From the beginning of his independent career, he had made a
distinctive speciality of altarpieces – just like Berruguete – and his fame
in this genre led to commissions to design altarpieces for other artists.
Giralte was also hired to design several altarpieces in Madrid (most of
which are now lost), including one for the Church of the Almudena, two
for the Church of Pozuelo de Alarcon, as well as others, such as those
in Barajas and Ocaña (Toledo). The altarpiece from El Espinar survives
and Giralte’s intervention in several others may also be recognized, for
example in the altarpiece in Colmenar de Oreja (Madrid).
The present relief must belong to Giralte’s Madrilenian period,
specifically the 1550s, as it illustrates the artist’s predominating style. It
is probably a section of an altarpiece, and includes some necessary general workshop participation, as required of works of such dimensions, complex organization and
economic risk. The successful completion of these large-scale retablos demanded significant capital and
a teamwork of sculptors and artisans of the highest calibre.
The syncretism and evolution of Giralte’s style is evident in his approach to characterization in The
Meeting at the Golden Gate. In an effort to renovate his art, Giralte had always remained alert to the
enduring appeal of earlier masters, such as Berruguete, as well as contemporaries and rivals, such as
Juan de Juni and Diego de Siloé. Truth be told, under the circumstances, Giralte was spoiled for choice,
working as he did side by side with the best sculptors of the kingdom. Giralte knew all of them and was
influenced by several. If, therefore, Giralte is now relegated to the ‘second tier’ of Spanish Renaissance
sculptors, he should nevertheless be firmly placed just below the greatest of his contemporaries in
sixteenth-century Castile.

1 For a discussion of the sources of the name Giralte and a
good analysis of the work of both father and son, see J. M
AZCÁRATE RISTORI, Escultura en el siglo XVI, Colección Ars
Hispaniae, Plus Ultra, Madrid 1958, vol. XIII, pp. 187–191.
2 For further discussion of Giralte’s style see J. M. PARRADO
DEL OLMO, Los escultores seguidores de Berruguete en
Palencia, Universidad de Valladolid, 1981, p.163. The
influence of Michelangelo was felt in Spain after 1550; see J.
M. AZCÁRATE RISTORI, ‘La influencia miguelangelesca en la
escultura española’, in Goya, no. 75, Madrid 1966, p. 108.
3 Giralte worked on this project with Inocencio Berro and
Pedro Frias amongst other sculptors who were under the
direction of Alonso Berruguete.
4 A. MARTÍN ORTEGA, ‘Más sobre Francisco Giralte,
escultor’, in Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y
Arqueología: BSAA, Universidad de Valladolid, 1961, vol.
XXVII, pp. 123–130.

135 x 114 cm x 21 cm (53 ⅛ x 44 ⅞ x 8 ¾ in.)

Pine, carved in high relief

H Lüttgens, Aachen; Mrs Clifford Ambrose Truesdell, New York

Acquired through The Matthiesen Gallery by The Art Gallery of South Australia

Mannerism & Cinquecento - 1530-1600

Religious: Old Testament

Spanish

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