FORMENT, Damian - b. ~1480 Valencia, d. 1540 Logrono - WGA

FORMENT, Damian

(b. ~1480 Valencia, d. 1540 Logrono)

Spanish sculptor. He is recorded in Valencia from 1500. In 1509 he moved to Saragossa to work on the main retable in the cathedral of Nuestra Senora del Pilar, which is modelled on the Gothic altarpiece in the cathedral of La Seo, Saragossa. The Pilar retable, one of Forment’s noblest works, is made in alabaster and has three vertical sections surmounted by Gothic cresting and a central open section that houses the tabernacle (sagrario). The sculpture includes Forment’s self-portrait and that of his wife, as well as reliefs on the base and main body depicting the Presentation, the Assumption and the Birth of the Virgin that show his knowledge of Renaissance art.

In Saragossa, Forment also carved the main wooden retable (1511-24), which is Gothic in structure, in the church of S Pablo and that in the church of S Miguel de los Navarros (1518), for which he turned to Renaissance forms. His alabaster retable (1520-34) for the cathedral at Huesca is, however, modelled on his earlier Gothic retable at El Pilar. This work is mature in its masterful composition and expressive qualities. His alabaster retable (1527-09; heavily restored) in the monastery at Poblet, Tarragona, has three storeys, an ornamental cresting and seven vertical sections.

Main Altar (detail)

Damian Forment was one of the foremost creators of Spanish altarpieces in the early 16th century. Beginning as a Gothic sculptor, he gradually discarded the medieval style and moved towards Renaissance forms. The first stage was the introduction of Renaissance imagery within his Gothic structure; then, from 1527, Forment worked out an entirely new type of altarpiece. Late in the year 1537 he began work on the altarpiece of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, in which he employs typically Castilian themes: tritons, nereids, and nautical themes, treated as a decorative frieze. The Castilian school had borrowed such motifs from Italian artists, incorporating them into a style rooted in Hispano-Flemish tradition.

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Retable of the High Altar (detail)

In Aragon the most significant sculptor of the sixteenth century was Dami�n Forment, who is known to have worked in Valencia shortly after the year 1500. In 1509 he set up his workshop in Saragossa, where he remained until his death in 1540, without ceasing to maintain his contacts with the Mediterranean coast. His art is dominated by a severe decorative concept that lends variety to the composition without degenerating into restlessness. In 1509 he undertook to carve the superb retable of Nuestra Senora del Pilar in Saragossa, a work in a mixed style, with Renaissance figures surrounded by Gothic ornament. We are indebted to Forment for the retable of Huesca cathedral, completed in 1534. His original design for the great retable of the monastery of Poblet, commissioned in 1527, is also one of his masterpieces. During the sixteenth century, Forment’s style played an important part in the development of Spanish sculpture, producing a number of notable sculptors.

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