Bartolomé Ordóñez

Bartolomé Ordóñez (c. 1480 – 6 December 1520) was a Spanish Renaissance sculptor.

Little is known about Ordóñez before the last five years of his life. His will indicates that he was an hidalgo born in Burgos, and that he had a sister named Marina in that city. Assuming this is correct, he would have grown up amidst the first flowering of the Spanish Renaissance, where such pioneers as Andrés de Nájera were working, under the influence of Gil de Siloé, who had studied in Italy, and Domenico Fancelli, who was from Italy.

In 1515 he established a studio in Barcelona, accompanied by three Italian marble sculptors, who came with him: Simón de Bellalana, Victorio Cogono and Juan Florentino. Even then, we know nothing of his actual work for the next two years. The cathedral chapter commissioned him 7 May 1517 to construct the choir stalls and the marble retrochoir of the Cathedral of Barcelona. A few months later, he and Juan Petit Monet were commissioned to create a group of sculptures representing the Entombment of Jesus for the Hospital de la Santa Creu; that piece does not survive. The embellishment of the choir was in preparation for a session of the Order of the Golden Fleece over which Charles I of Spain (Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) was to preside in the cathedral in March 1519. This first documented work by Ordóñez involved collaboration by the Italian assistants in his studio, Monet, and, because of the magnitude and urgency of the work, expert woodcarvers, probably Siloé among them, but the unity of style and the uniform excellence shows that Ordóñez was a strong leader. The upper portion of the choir portrays scenes from the Old Testament—the Embarcation of Noah and the Sacrifice of Isaac—and the New Testament—Christ on the Road to Calvary, the Deposition of Christ, and the Resurrection—as well as the Four Evangelists and the Seven Virtues. All are notable for their quality, and also for the iconographic originality in the presentation to the Virgin Mary of the prophets redeemed from Hell by the risen Christ.

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