National Museum of Sculpture
Spanish polychrome wood sculpture in the late-Gothic College of San Gregorio.
The museum occupies the College of San Gregorio, a Dominican foundation begun in 1487 for Bishop Alonso de Burgos. Its facade is one of the great works of the Isabelline style, a densely carved screen of heraldry, foliage and figures, and the two-storey main courtyard is decorated with twisted columns and openwork balustrades. The building later served as a barracks and offices before the provincial collection of fine arts, formed after the nineteenth-century confiscations, was installed there and opened as a national museum in 1933.
The collection concentrates on Spanish sculpture from the late Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, with an emphasis on polychrome wood. It holds major works by Alonso Berruguete, including the dismantled altarpiece of San Benito, along with Juan de Juni, Gregorio Fernandez, Pedro de Mena and Francisco Salzillo, and a well-known set of Neapolitan nativity figures. Displays continue in the neighbouring Palacio de Villena and the Casa del Sol, which also houses copies of classical statuary.
Highlights
- Isabelline carved facade of the College of San Gregorio
- Two-storey courtyard with twisted columns and openwork galleries
- Alonso Berruguete's altarpiece figures from the monastery of San Benito
- Baroque processional sculpture by Gregorio Fernandez
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