felipe bigarny but who made his career in spain and was one of the leading sculptors of the spanish renaissance. he was also an architect.
his work shows flemish, burgundian, and italian renaissance influences. he gained great prestige working in various parts of spain which led to his becoming the master sculptor and carver of the burgos cathedral. he also played a role in creating many important works for the crown of castile, simultaneously operating several studios, and thus became quite wealthy.
born in langres, burgundy around 1475, bigarny arrived in italy as a youth and appears to have studied in rome. as a result, italian renaissance influences can be found even in his early gothic sculptural work.
in 1498, at about the age of 23, he traveled the pilgrim route to santiago, staying on in burgos. there he executed the technically precise reliefs of the main retrochoir of the cathedral, which led to further contracts and a lifelong career in spain. he would end up working in every sculptural genre of the time, executing both sculptures and decoration, and working in both stone and wood.
in 1499 bigarny designed the basic structure of the main altarpiece of the toledo cathedral, for which he was contracted by cardinal archbishop francisco jiménez de cisneros. he also prepared a figure of saint mark the evangelist and agreed to sculpt several reliefs for the altarpiece, which he did between that time and 1504. in those same years, he also made sculptures of saints augustine, barbara, gregory, jerome, john the baptist and of the assumption for the altarpiece of the university of salamanca. he next began plans for the chapel of the sanctuary of the palencia cathedral, making it clear that although most of the work would be done by others in his studio, he personally would sculpt the faces and hands. on 12 december 1506, bigarny delivered seventeen sculptures (among them a polychromed saint antoninus of pamiers, the titular saint of the cathedral) and on 19 october 1509 he delivered the remaining nine figures. these were brought together on the main altarpiece of that cathedral. in 1509 he returned to burgos to work with andrés de nájera on the choir stalls of the burgos cathedral, a project completed in 1512. the panels of the top row of side chairs are attributed to him and his workshop.
in 1513 he designed the baldachin of the tomb of dominic de la calzada for the cathedral of santo domingo de la calzada (in santo domingo de la calzada, la rioja, spain); his design was executed by juan de rasines.
in 1516 he began work on the main entrance and main altarpiece of the church of saint thomas in haro, la rioja, completed in 1519. that year he also lived for a time in casalarreina, la rioja, where he may have collaborated in the construction of the la piedad monastery, although there is no documentary evidence for this.
in this same period he executed a profile relief of cardenal cisneros, which can now be seen in the complutense university of madrid. there is also documentary evidence of a similar relief of antonio de nebrija.
bigarny married maría sáez pardo, a widow with sons who had emigrated to the americas; they had five further children. the first of these, gregorio pardo, born 1517, was the only one to follow in his father's career, collaborating with him toward the end of his life and continuing bigarny's studio in the archdiocese of toledo. his influence extended to much sculpture in burgos and throughout castile in the first third of the 16th century and was even stronger at mid-century, until the rise of romanism.
in 1519 he collaborated with alonso berruguete on the tomb of cardinal juan selvagio in zaragoza; the pair probably continued a collaboration on the royal chapel of granada, which bigarny appears to have helped design in 1521, but he was not actively involved in the construction.
upon returning to burgos he began a collaboration with the burgalese diego de siloé, who had returned in 1519 after studying in italy. bigarny and diego de siloé had a strong rivalry, although the latter was always ascendant. in 1523 the two executed the saint peter altarpiece in the capilla de los condestable ("chapel of the constables", referring to the title of constable of castile) of the burgos cathedral. in that same chapel, between 1523 and 1526 they created, for the main altarpiece, the figures of the presentation of jesus at the temple, considered one of the most beautiful works of the spanish renaissance. no later than 1534, bigarny had also executed the recumbent sculptures in the chapel of pedro fernández de velasco, 2nd count of haro and his wife.
aware of his fame and prestige in the city, bigarny took permanent residence in burgos, first in a building in the san juan neighborhood and then in a distinguished house next to the casa de la moneda. in 1524 he contracted for work on the tomb of the canon gonzalo díez de lerma, also in the burgos cathedral, in the capilla de la presentación ("chapel of the presentation"). this very expressive sculpture shows influences from diego de siloé.

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