Art, Liturgy, and Legend in Renaissance Toledo: the Mendoza and the Iglesia Primada. (Reviews).

Lynette M. F. Bosch. Art, Liturgy, and Legend in Renaissance Toledo: the Mendoza and the Iglesia Primada

University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000. xii + 292 pp. + 9 color pls. $65. ISBN: 0-271-01968-9.

The decoration of Spanish Renaissance manuscripts literally has been marginalized by modern historians, but Bosch demonstrates that patrons regarded this as a "central" art form. She reconstructs the production and significance of manuscripts commissioned during the later fifteenth century by members of the powerful Mendoza family. In the process, she considers many political, cultural, and spiritual factors that shaped the milieu in which the manuscripts were created.

In the Introduction, she explains that intermingling of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish cultures helped to make Toledo an important center for the translation of classical sources and the production of manuscripts. This development was supported by caballero families, who utilized classical myths to evoke their prestige. These families, who provided military leadership for the Christian reconquest of the peninsula, allied themselves with the Trastamaran dynasty. Ironically, the unification of Spain under the Trastamaras resulted in the suppression of the diversity that had made Toledo so dynamic. The Marques of San tan illa, Don Inigo L6pez de Mendoza -- a soldier, politician, poet, and patron --serves as the "exemplar of caballero cultural norms."

In the first chapter, Bosch interweaves legendary and documented histories to explain the status of Toledo Cathedral as the Primacy of Spain. The appointment of an Archbishop of Toledo involved negotiations among Cathedral chapter, Spanish monarchs, and Pope.

In the second chapter, Bosch explains that the Trastamaras and the Archbishops of Toledo established the Inquisition and instituted other policies, intended to achieve spiritual and political uniformity. She also reviews the careers of Alfonso Carrillo de Acuna, Archbishop of Toledo 1446-1482, and his successor, Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, 1482-1495. Carrillo helped to arrange the marriage of Isabel of Castilla with Fernando of Aragon, but he later supported the efforts of the Portuguese king to claim their kingdoms. Upon Carrillo's death, Isabel worked to ensure the appointment of Mendoza, a close advisor.

Over half of the material in the second chapter concerns Marques of Santanilla, the father of Archbishop Mendoza and a relative of Carrillo through marriage. Maintaining that his taste influenced both Archbishops, Bosch discusses his achievements as collector and patron. Santanilla commissioned the first vernacular translations of classical sources. Bosch reconstructs the careers and workshop practices of his favorite painters, Jorge Ingles and Juan de Carrion.

The third chapter is focused upon liturgical manuscripts commissioned by Carrillo and Mendoza. Criticizing previous scholarship for narrow connoisseurship, Bosch recommends a contextual approach. Therefore, she explains how functions and contents influenced the appearance of decoration. In contrast to most historians, she gives extensive attention to marginalia; she proposes that the increasing restraint of marginalia in manuscripts commissioned by Mendoza paralleled the suppression of cultural diversity. Bosch assigns several manuscripts to Carrion and artists associated with him, and she establishes the contributions of others, including some identified for the first time here. I think that it would have been considerably easier to follow her (often dense) analysis of individual styles if there had been large scale, "close up" illustrations of relevant details.

The "Conclusion" actually is a lengthy, discrete chapter. Utilizing Santanilla's theories of poetry, she proposes that marginalia should be interpreted as allegories upon religious themes. Referring to the medieval conception of the Great Chain of Being, she describes fantastic motifs both as expressions of God's plenitude and representations of demonic forces; Renaissance viewers would have regarded both as present in the created world. For these viewers, marginalia may have constituted the physical and spiritual center of manuscripts.

Throughout, Santanilla emerges as key figure, who decisively influenced the culture of late fifteenth-century Toledo, even though he never resided there. I frequently wondered whether the book should have been structured around Santanilla's personality instead of the status of Toledo Cathedral.

Bosch provides extensive documentation in endnotes, but a bibliography would have greatly aided other scholars who wish to consult some of her sources. Sifting through several hundred notes for a frill citation can be a time-consuming and frustrating task. I suspect that many readers will want to track down her sources, for her book will stimulate further interest in Spanish manuscripts. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of Renaissance culture.