Pride and memory: perceptions of individuality in Iberian sculpture around 1400

Abstract

In the Iberian kingdoms of Castile-Leon and Navarre, the development of individualized sculptural representations at the beginning of fifteenth-century was directly conditioned by the interest of patrons. Castilian kings and many nobles of the most powerful lineages gave no importance to the commissioning of funerary statues. On the other hand, King Charles the Noble of Navarre and some prelates and nobles, raised to the highest positions because of their services to the monarchs, felt more attracted by the idea of leaving a memory including their physical appearance. The depiction of physical likeness depended, secondly, on the training and ability of the artists, as well as on the existence or not of the sitter at the time the work was executed. In Navarra, sculptural fidelity to facial features enjoyed wide acceptance, while the contemporary literature showed no signs of interest in these personality traits. In Castile, however, writers of classical training had provided physical descriptions of the main characters in history since the 14th century, while sculptural depiction of individualized features came later.

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