Little is known about Spanish sculptor Bartolomé…

Little is known about Spanish sculptor Bartolomé 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.

Returning to his native Spain at the beginning of 1519 , he had establishes himself in Barcelona, executing many woodcarvings for the cathedral there.

Ordóñez had in May 1519 undertaken a contract for work previously contracted to Domenico Fancelli: the tombs of Philip I and Joanna of Castile in Granada and of Cardinal Cisneros in Alcalá de Henares, and according to his last will, those of some of the Fonseca family.

He travels to Carrara in autumn of the same year, with the intent of returning to Barcelona, but upon the death of his wife he starts a new studio in Carrara; he works feverishly here, but dies on December 6, 1520.