Arnao de Bruselas

Arnao de Bruselas (Flemish Arnaut Spierinck * around 1520 ; † 1564 ) was a Spanish wood sculptor of Flemish origin. He worked exclusively for churches and monasteries in the central Ebro Valley and in its vicinity. Since he is only mentioned as an employee of other studios, it is unclear whether he ever had his own artist workshop.

life and work

Altarpiece from Santa María del Palacio in Logroño

According to the will that was not discovered until the end of the 20th century, the father Arnaos was Arnaos Toussaint Spierinck (or Tosan Espirin ); he also had a brother named Gillis Spierinck (or Gil Espirin ), both of whom lived in Oudenaarde . Around the mid-1530s, Arnaut came to Spain, where he was recorded as a pupil of Damià Forment in Saragossa , the capital of Aragon , in September 1536 . From 1537 to 1540 he worked with Forment and his workshop on the high altar of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada . In the years 1540 to 1545 his work in the area of Calahorra is documented, where he participated, among other things, on the altarpieces (retablos) of San Vicente de la Sonsierra and Aldeanueva de Ebro . From 1549 to 1552 he lived and worked in Genevilla north of Logroño , where he - together with Andrés de Araoz - created the altarpiece for the local church; at the same time he worked on the reredos of the church of San Martín in Alberite . After 1553, his collaboration on the reredos of the Iglesia de Santa María del Palacio in Logroño is documented. Later he seems to have settled in Aragón, where he participated in the reredos for the Capilla de San Bernardo in the church of the Veruela monastery ; he was also commissioned to make some stone or plaster sculptures on the Trascoro of the Cathedral of Saragossa .

Arnao de Bruselas may have died of the plague in Logroño at the end of 1564 .

Web links

• Arnao de Bruselas - Biography + photos (English)
• Arnao de Bruselas - biography + photos (spanish)
• Arnao de Bruxelas - Testament etc. (Spanish)