Ten spectacular Spanish wood reliefs of the Renaissance period, rediscovered during renovation works in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, are being exhibited by this institution until March 26th 2000. These sculptures had been stored in a room eventually walled up at the beginning of the 20th Century. They came from the collection of Emile Peyre who donated Middle Age and Renaissance pieces to the museum in 1904 but were not listed in the inventory of his donation.
These sculpted panels originally decorated the castle of Velez Blanco in Andalucia and were bought in 1903 by Emile Peyre from a collector named Goldberg. Peyre could not place them in his house and these were stored in the Marsan pavilion pending his donation. At that time a new heating system was installed in the pavilion and workers without the knowledge of curators walled some rooms up.
The reliefs were rediscovered in 1992 when the old heating installation was removed. They were restored before being placed in the Middle Age and Renaissance rooms of the museum.
These were identified as originating from the Velez Blanco castle thanks to the sculpted coats of arms of Pedro Fajardo y Chacon and of his second wife Dona Mencia de la Cueva. They will be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in a few months time.
The reliefs showing the labours of Hercules and the triumph of Caesar decorated two rooms on the second floor of the castle. Some of these were produced according to prints published in Venice in 1503 by Jacopo of Strasburg and by those of Zoan Andrea Vavassori, published between 1506 and 1510. The artists who carved these reliefs have been unidentified so far but were probably Spanish who were still following Gothic traditions. The name of Rodrigo Aleman has however been put forward as the inspirer of these artists.
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