MONTBRAY, ALOY DE

Techniques

Sculpture (tombier, imaginator, imaginatorem, sculptor lapidum, lapicide, lapicida, sculptore, ymaginator lapidum, magister ymaginum). Most of the known surviving works are made of alabaster (often from Berga) and marble. Others are made of sandstone or limestone, especially when decorating architectural elements with a structural function. Occasionally, wood was also used. It is almost certain that the same artist sometimes polychromed his own sculptural works, at least in his early period, as suggested by expressions such as pictor sive imaginator found in some documents — a fairly common practice at the time.

Profile and historiographical debate

[Guillaume Alou (?), Aloy de Montbray, Aloi de Montbrai, Eloy, Aloy, Alodius, Elodius, magistro Alodio, Elodio, Eulodius, Eligio].

A French artist originally from the Norman town of Montbray. The patronymic Aloy undoubtedly derives from an orthographic modification caused by the French pronunciation of Alou, a surname that, in its variant form Aloul, appears in 14th-century documents from northern France, at least in the city of Tournai and in the former County of Artois.

It is unknown where or how he received his artistic training in France before moving to Spain. Nevertheless, his personal style clearly reflects connections with the main artistic centers of the time in that country—especially the Parisian circle surrounding Mahaut of Artois, the Cathedral of Rouen, and, to a lesser extent, Mont Saint-Michel. As for his professional activity in Paris, he could possibly be identified with a certain Guillaume Alou, one of the tombiers (tomb sculptors) mentioned among the collaborators of Jean Pepin de Huy on the tomb of Robert l’Enfant, Mahaut’s beloved son who died prematurely. This would also explain his specialization in the creation of funerary monuments. All of them received a generous reward for their work on this project. It is highly likely that, in addition to spending several years working in Jean Pepin de Huy’s workshop, he also participated for a time in the decoration of the Booksellers’ Portal (Porte des Libraires) of Rouen Cathedral, executing some of the sculptural elements that he would later reproduce in other of his works. 

It is very likely that Aloy belonged to a well-known family of sculptors who may have introduced him to these artistic circles. A certain Jean Aloul, who worked in Tournai, later moved to Artois and carried out, among other commissions, a luxurious tomb supposedly made for Mahaut of Artois (an attribution made by Françoise Baron; M. BEAULIEU / V. BEYER 1992:10. There are differing opinions regarding this sepulchre). The recumbent effigy, known as the “Black Recumbent,” is currently preserved in Saint-Denis. However, there is no documentary evidence of any connection between these two sculptors, whose surnames apparently coincide.

As early as 1331, King Alfonso IV of Aragon, known as the Benign, began negotiations to marry his heir, Peter, to Joan, the eldest daughter of the kings of Navarre, Joan II of Navarre and Philip III of Évreux. The initiative did not succeed, although the marriage articles were signed in 1333. Eventually, the princess took religious vows at the Monastery of Longchamp. After Alfonso’s death in 1335, the new monarch, Peter IV the Ceremonious, successfully revived the project in 1336, this time with Princess Mary, Joan’s sister. The marriage agreements were finalized on January 6, 1337, at the Castle of Anet, in the Diocese of Chartres, and the wedding took place on July 27 of the following year in the Aragonese town of Alagón (Castro 1947–1948). During this entire period, Aragonese diplomacy frequently traveled to Paris, where the kings of Navarre resided (LACARRA 1975: 320 and 363–68). The Navarrese monarchs were descendants of Saint Louis, both nephews—though in different degrees—of Countess Mahaut of Artois and direct relatives of King Philip V the Tall of France, whose wife, Joan of Burgundy and Artois, was herself Mahaut’s daughter. Ponce de Copons, abbot of the Monastery of Santa María de Poblet from 1316 to 1348—a learned and enterprising man who rivaled Peter the Ceremonious as a patron—also visited the French capital regularly. A few months before this royal wedding, in 1337, the king had commissioned Aloy de Montbray to create the funerary monument of his mother, Teresa de Entenza. It seems unlikely that a commission of such importance would have been entrusted without proper references regarding the sculptor’s skill. The Franciscan Sancho López de Ayerbe—uncle, protector, confessor, and counselor to the Ceremonious, and Archbishop first of Tarazona and later of Tarragona—was instrumental in Teresa de Entenza’s choice of the Franciscan convent in Zaragoza as her final resting place, for which Aloy executed the tomb. A favorable recommendation from the descendants or close relatives of the late “most noble and powerful lady Mahaut of Artois” (†1329), together with the opportunity presented by the royal marriage, may well have been decisive factors in Master Aloy’s professional establishment in our country.

Until now, no reasonable proposal had been put forward regarding the early professional career of Master Aloy de Montbray—beyond that year 1337, when the sculptor undertook the work on the tomb of Teresa de Entenza—which might help to define his personal style. The hypothesis presented here makes it possible to trace his origins back to Normandy and the Kingdom of France, supported by concrete arguments from both an artistic perspective and the broader historical context of early 14th-century Europe. These factors allow for a better understanding of the reasons behind his presence in the Crown of Aragon and the motives that led Peter IV the Ceremonious to entrust the creation of his mother’s funerary monument—and eventually his own—to a prestigious French artist.

In the absence of such precedents, art historians have expressed surprise at the sudden rise of an unknown artist to royal favor (CRISPÍ 2004), and some have even questioned his French origin, since the toponym Montbray might also refer to a distant family background (BESERAN 2007). Moreover, the master undoubtedly worked with collaborators—maintaining a workshop whose true scope remains unknown—and at least one local partner, Jaume Cascalls, with whom he was obliged to share responsibilities and profits to such an extent that it is often difficult to distinguish the work of one from that of the other, especially due to the lack of clear, verified, and complete examples.

To advance the research and substantiate these arguments, it was necessary to follow the only possible path: to reconstruct the journey that a young man born around 1300 in the Norman town of Montbray might have taken, determined to practice the art of sculpture. His destination: Paris, the city of Saint Louis, where in the first third of the 14th century the powerful Mahaut of Artois stood out as a major patron. His first step: the workshop of a prominent artist—and, if possible, the support of a guarantor. Jean Pepin de Huy worked for Mahaut at least between 1311 and 1329, heading an important workshop specialized in funerary monuments, in which a Guillaume Alou is mentioned. Guillaume was a very common name in Normandy, and Guillaume Alou was not the only one of that name in his immediate surroundings, so he soon stopped using it and distinguished himself only by his surname. The change did him no harm: a certain Jean Aloul, who worked in Artois, produced a magnificent tomb apparently commissioned by Mahaut herself. These coincidences cannot be overlooked—nor the fact that the patronymic Alou became Aloy when pronounced in Spain. After Mahaut’s death in 1329, Pepin’s workshop dispersed. Some of its most accomplished members established themselves independently in Paris, continuing their work on monuments such as the Hôpital Saint-Jacques-aux-Pèlerins; others moved southward through France. At around thirty years of age, Aloy may have found employment—already as a master—in the Cathedral of Rouen, in his native Normandy, before later relocating to work for the king in the Crown of Aragon. This move appears closely linked to another sculptor from northern France, Pierre de Guines of Artois, and possibly to the English architect Reinard de Fonoll. Paris as a whole, Rouen Cathedral—paricularly its so-called Booksellers’ Portal—and Mont Saint-Michel were then the leading artistic centers of northern France. From all of them, we can trace unmistakable stylistic elements that reappear in the work of Aloy de Montbray during the reign of Peter the Ceremonious, a monarch directly related to the descendants of Mahaut and to the French royal family.

I am fully aware—and that is precisely why I present it—that this contribution calls for a new reassessment of Aloy’s body of work, an exceptional artist who truly deserves such an effort. Pere Beseran has provided the most recent comprehensive overview of the historiographical debate, offering his own opinions and hypotheses on the subject (BESERAN 2007). All of this, of course, concerns the works documented in relation to the master in known sources, aside from those that may henceforth be attributed to him. Unfortunately, of Aloy’s first major documented work in Spain—the tomb of Teresa de Entenza in Zaragoza—only written descriptions remain, which do not allow for the identification of his personal stylistic traits, though they do reveal certain formal and iconographic similarities. In this study, we will discuss what little can be ascribed to the master based on the surviving fragments of the tomb he created—entirely, including the jambs beneath the arch—for the monarch and his wives, now part of the current ensemble of the Royal Tombs of Poblet, the monumental project of Peter the Ceremonious, as well as what should be ruled out. And although the remnants are few, they correspond to what one might expect from a Norman artist trained in Paris. We are left to examine, in chronological order and in varying states of preservation, a series of documented works: the Virgin and Child from Els Prats de Rei (1340); the remains of the tombs of the Lauria family and Nicholas of Joinville in the Monastery of El Puig in Valencia, for which payment was made in 1344; the tomb of Saint Daniel in Girona, commissioned in 1345; the Entombment of Christ in the Collegiate Church of Sant Feliu in Girona (1350); the episcopal chair and the corresponding choir stalls of Girona Cathedral, commissioned in 1351; the fragments of the altarpiece of Saint Michael of Escornalbou, for which the final payment was made in 1367; and the altarpiece of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Tailors in Tarragona Cathedral, for which he received partial payment of an outstanding debt in 1368. There are also a few surprises—on several occasions anticipated or suspected—such as his possible involvement in the cloister of Santes Creus and in the sculptural decoration of the Tailors’ Chapel, works that can be stylistically attributed to the artist, although they remain undocumented for now.

If we analyze these data, we can see that the extensive documentation available links the master to a certain number of works and ensembles, for the execution of which he frequently relied on collaborators. These were major commissions promoted by the Crown, the Church, or the high nobility of the time. Yet, this is far too little to account for a long professional career that spans, in Spanish territory alone, from 1336 to 1382. There must undoubtedly have been more—works that have not been documented, that we have so far failed to identify, or that simply have not survived to the present day.

The large amount of documentation and the importance of the works to which it referred soon focused scholars’ attention on Master Aloy. The publications of FITA (1837), RUBIÓ I LLUCH (1908–1921), DURAN I CAÑAMERAS (1919), RIUS I SERRA (1928), DURAN I SANPERE (1932–1934, 1957, 1973), GILMAN (1932), CAPDEVILA (1935), MADURELL (1935, 1936, 1937–1941, 1949–1952), DEL ARCO (1945), and MARÉS (1952), in particular, provided an enormous amount of information. Thus, the stages of his career were established: his workshop in Barcelona from 1336; his establishment in Girona in 1344—a location closer to the quarries that supplied him with materials—and his later move to Tarragona in 1353, which proved highly advantageous. What followed, however, was the difficulty of attribution.

The association of Aloy with Cascalls, and their collaboration in the Royal Pantheon of Poblet—which, destroyed following the events of the Desamortización, offers practically no reference points for comparing the works of the two artists—has always caused great confusion among scholars. Most hypotheses take as their starting point a work by Cascalls: the altarpiece of Cornellà de Conflent. Along the lower part of the predella runs a long inscription naming the author as “...magistrum Iacobum Cascalli de Berga...,” an uncommon detail that facilitates identification. The date, apparently 1345, is somewhat less certain, as a possible scribal error in the final digit might suggest an earlier completion.

Based on this altarpiece—and specifically on the figure of the young king who occupies the second position in the Adoration of the Magi scene—Agustí DURAN I SANPERE (1932–1934) attributed to Cascalls one of the best-known and most important sculptures of 14th-century Gothic art in Catalonia: the so-called “Saint Charlemagne” from Girona Cathedral. This attribution sought to define the personal style of Jaume Cascalls. By stylistic affinity with the “Saint Charlemagne,” the statue believed to represent Saint Anthony Abbot (now in the MNAC and originally from La Figuera), as well as the exceptional Recumbent Christ from the Collegiate Church of Sant Feliu in Girona, were likewise attributed to Cascalls. However, the discovery of the contract with Master Aloy for the creation of the Entombment of Christ—to which the Recumbent Christ belonged (FREIXAS 1983)—cast doubt on Cascalls’s authorship of both the “Saint Charlemagne” and the Saint Anthony (DALMASES / JOSÉ I PITARCH 1984; FREIXAS 1983 and 1989 [MILLENUM. Historia i Art de l’Església Catalana, exhibition catalogue, Barcelona, 1989, p. 278]). The contract also included the statues of the Virgin, Saint John, the Three Marys, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea—many of which have survived, albeit in varying condition (PÉREZ 1979; ALCOY / BESERAN 1991; FREIXAS 1994)—and these remain a highly significant point of reference. Subsequently, and despite such evidence, the attribution of the “Saint Charlemagne” to Cascalls has prevailed, leading to the conclusion that the Entombment of Christ in Girona was not the work of Aloy but rather of Cascalls himself (ALCOY / BESERAN 1991; ESPAÑOL 2002; BESERAN 2007; BRACONS 2007). Nevertheless, some scholars have adopted less categorical positions, choosing instead to present the documentary evidence in detail, acknowledging the difficulties of attribution, and refraining from issuing judgments that might once again prove inconclusive (TERÉS 1997).

The characteristics of the art of Cascalls have been related to Italy –something logical if we take into account his marriage to the daughter of the royal painter Ferrer Bassa and the spread of Italian trends in the 14th century– without underestimating the French influence, attributed to his professional relationship with Aloy. But, if we seriously consider the Norman origin of this latter master and his Parisian training, circumstances that defined his style, we must reconsider these attributions. It is not possible that the person who received the commissions always left the work in the hands of collaborators. There is no record that Cascalls received commissions in Gerona. Nor is there any record that he made statues of kings. Aloy had been making since 1342 the 19 alabaster images of the kings of Aragon and counts of Barcelona who preceded him, and there is no documentary or material sign that indicates he ever collected payment or placed them in the hall for which they were intended. The “San Carlomagno”, the Saint Anthony, and the Holy Entombment can be stylistically related to the art of the Kingdom of France. It is necessary to reconsider the possibility that the “San Carlomagno” (GILMAN 1932) and, probably, the Saint Anthony Abbot formed part of that series of 19 statues. On more than one occasion, the hypothesis has been considered that the statue represented the Ceremonious King, in a logically idealized version of the character, although it has also been stated categorically that it represents Emperor Charlemagne (BRACONS 2007). Without a doubt Aloy would have made the statue of the promoting king, distinguishing it by the attributes with which he has passed into history: his luxurious attire as a man of arms, the exquisite care for appearances, and the dagger, as well as the sword, at his belt. The work would have been finished before the date of the magnificent altarpiece of Cornellà de Conflent, serving as a unique model to, reduced to a small scale, beardless and with fewer details, turn it into the young king who represents in the altarpiece the vigor of youth. It would not be the only known case in which a reigning monarch is incorporated by artists into the sacred space of an Epiphany, turned into the second of the Magi. Everything seems to indicate that Peter the Ceremonious never took charge of those images and the master may have sold them on his own. However, if Bishop Arnau de Montrodón later acquired, a few years afterwards, that of King Peter to dedicate it to the cult of Saint Charlemagne in his chapel in the cathedral of Gerona, it was not necessary to erase from the scabbard of his sword the corresponding coats of arms. To identify the king, trampling on the dragons that represent the defeated enemies –very similar to those of the “black recumbent figure”– with Emperor Charlemagne “conqueror of Gerona”, an emulator in turn of Constantine himself, meant recognizing for Peter the Ceremonious the same rank as defender of Christendom. The monarch could not have felt offended.

There have also been doubts regarding another work commissioned to Aloy, the tomb of Saint Daniel of Gerona (MACIÀ 1992: 308–309). The fact that in the document he committed himself to “make or have made” this funerary monument seems to open the door to some kind of collaboration. To this must be added the noticeable differences between the lid and its recumbent effigy, which shows a very different treatment from the extraordinary realism of the Christ of the Holy Entombment in the same city of Gerona, and the reliefs of the sarcophagus itself. These differences could be due to his condition as an artist–entrepreneur, who employed collaborators (YARZA 1987). Based on the characteristics of the recumbent statue, it has been proposed to include it among the artistic production of a hypothetical Maestro de Pedralbes, the name given by J. Ainaud and A. Duran i Sanpere to the anonymous author of the tomb of Queen Elisenda de Montcada in the Barcelona monastery of Pedralbes, to whom they assigned, by comparison, a series of works (DURAN I SANPERE – AINAUD 1956).

To these, new examples have been added later (BESERAN 1994 and 1998), associating all of them with the figure of another French sculptor, Pierre de Guines de Artois. Pierre de Guines remains a great unknown, and it has been suggested that he should be placed among the group of works documented as belonging to ALOY (BESERAN 1994 and 2007). Nevertheless, the most frequent attribution of the Girona tomb continues to be that of the maestro ALOY (MANOTE – TERÉS 2007). It is true that the recumbent effigy could have been executed by another artist close to the master, but the stories on the sarcophagus, which had to be based on the illustrations of a book in the possession of the Mother Sacristan of the monastery, possess that delicate narrative sense of French fourteenth-century miniature. A similar intention can be found in the altarpiece of the Chapel of Saint Mary of the Tailors in the Cathedral of Tarragona, which seems to have been designed by ALOY although executed by one of his collaborators, possibly Guillem de Timor, two decades later than the work of Saint Daniel. In this latter case, the early use of the ogee arch, the double tier of the uprights, the crochet decoration and the treatment of the drapery may be aspects related to ALOY, unless documentary evidence proves otherwise.

Just as with other documented works by Aloy, the episcopal chair and the choir stalls of the cathedral of Girona have given rise to differing opinions. Likewise, they have suffered destruction, dismantling, and dispersal. When the work was contracted with Aloy, it had already begun. It is unknown since when and under whose supervision the commission was undertaken. A year later, a “fustero,” a carpenter, was called upon to make the choir stalls. These apparent inconsistencies, together with the evidence that in 1387 renovations were carried out on the episcopal chair (DOMENGE 1997: 117) and the fact that there were two rows of stalls—one of them possibly from the fifteenth century—have led scholars to dismiss the intervention of a workshop directed by Aloy in the mid-fourteenth century and to move forward the chronology of all the Gothic work to the decade between 1374 and 1384, during the episcopate of Bertrán de Montrodón (ESPAÑOL 1997: 273–276), in supposed connection with the so-called “Taller de Rieux.” It has even been suggested that an Italian artist participated (ESPAÑOL 1995: 110). And naturally, the involvement of Cascalls and possibly other collaborators is not ruled out, since certain similarities have been observed with details from the funerary monuments of El Puig (BESERAN 2007). Aloy could not have personally made all the choir stalls. To identify his style, one must focus on the episcopal chair. In addition to the contract indicating that the work had already begun, it also included several obligations concerning it. The volutes on the sides had to be reused—elements that have been preserved and resemble others depicted twice in the Sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt—which may have seemed novel in Girona in the mid-fourteenth century. The artist was also required to make an Annunciation, several compartments (probably the polylobes), and afterward “all the beasts that were necessary.” All these details—such as the atlantes, the friezes, and the monstrous creatures—refer us to Normandy, especially to the Puerta de los Libreros of the cathedral of Rouen, which in turn inherited the Parisian style of the time of Saint Louis, as well as the combination of heraldic elements. These aspects, together with the lateral relief of the Adoration of the Magi, are characteristic of the presence of master Aloy. It is not surprising that we find some of these features in the chapel of Santa María de los Sastres in the cathedral of Tarragona, since Aloy worked on several occasions for the Tarraconian See. In addition to intervening in some of the nave chapels, he made the altarpiece for the church of the priory of San Miguel de Escornalbou, whose remains we have already discussed, and he was paid for the altarpiece of the aforementioned chapel of Santa María in the cathedral—a commission that he must have left in the hands of a collaborator, possibly Guillem de Timor (LIAÑO 1991: 273–293; LIAÑO 2006: 239–256; LIAÑO 2007: 134). Several of the magnificent statues and reliefs, both from this chapel and from the small adjoining sacristy, belong to him and also coincide with some of the preserved remains from the funerary complex of the Valencian monastery of El Puig. Other images from the Sastres chapel, which appear to be works from his workshop, bear a strong resemblance to the Virgin and Child of Els Prats de Rei, commissioned at the end of 1340, when Aloy was beginning a large number of projects.

Only one document is known to link Aloy with El Puig de Valencia. In 1344, the master appointed a representative to collect a certain amount for the price of a tomb for Margarita de Lauria y Entenza (FREIXAS 1984), which seems to be a weak documentary connection (BESERAN 2007). Although it seems plausible that Margarita promoted a family pantheon —including, along with her own and that of her husband Nicolás de Joinville, the tomb of her ancestor Guillem— it has been suggested that the initiative for the latter may have come from the monarch himself. That would justify the participation of two different artists: Aloy for the Laurias, since it is documented that he was paid for that work in 1344, and Jaume Cascalls (BESERAN 2007), since the style of the altarpiece of Cornellà has long been identified in the ensemble intended for Guillem de Entenza (DURAN I SANPERE – AINAUD 1956). That, along with the possible presence of Ramón Cascalls, also suggests the collaboration of a younger and more personal artist, inclined toward a surprising realism (BESERAN 2007). At this point, after the restoration carried out in the chapel of Santa María de los Sastres, we can consider that the artist capable of such unique realism is none other than Aloy. Despite the destruction, during the Civil War, of a large part of the tomb of the Lauria and Entenza family, it can be seen from the surviving remains and old photographs that he made the recumbent effigies, maintaining the features characteristic of his French training, and that he was responsible for the design of the work and likely for most of the relief figures. It is probable—if not certain—that he received some assistance, in which Jaume Cascalls should not be ruled out: an excellent artist who later would be, for a time, his partner. If, during their association, the royal documents always list the Frenchman first, it is very doubtful that Peter the Ceremonious would have commissioned Cascalls to make the monument of Guillem de Entenza so that Aloy could collaborate with him, while the latter was simultaneously contracting and executing the one for the Lauria family. It remains a mystery why he was once again in Valencia at the end of his days, living on the king’s charity.

Those two circumstances—the proposal regarding Aloy’s French career presented here, and the restoration of the Tarragona chapel of the Tailors—provide a line of research in which we may finally find the references that have always been lacking to support the attributions to an excellent artist who may no longer be an unknown figure.

[BASIC TRAITS FOR AN ATTEMPT AT DEFINING HIS STYLE]

• “Tumbero” (specialist in tombs).
• Ogee arch adorned with crochet and topped by a finial (not rampant monsters), or else moulded and doubled.
• Mourners under arcuations.
• Contrapposto, even in recumbent figures.
• Floral mask (tête de feuilles).
• Realistic faces, with large eyes and especially well-treated hair. Abundance of curls with waves and large, plentiful, very realistic ringlets.
• Tunics that gain volume as they descend, in broad, curved folds. There may be a short vertical cut at the lower part.
• Hybrid beings, fantastic animals, mice, rabbits, pelicans, monkeys… forming part of borders with wavy stems and very realistic vine or parsley leaves as a linking element. Human torsos holding the stems with both hands at intervals.
• Multifoils with heraldry and fantastic beings.
• Exquisite polychromy.

Works

[In France]

Paris, ca. 1312–1329 (M. BEAULIEU / V. BEYER, 1992, p. 54 and 81–82):

• Participates in the execution of the tomb of Othon IV, Duke of Burgundy, husband of Mahaut (1312–1314).
• Participates in the execution of the tomb of Robert l’Enfant, the countess’s favorite son (1317–1320).
• Other commissions as a “tombier”.
• Other commissions of a different kind.

Rouen, ca. 1330 – ca. 1331 (LIAÑO MARTÍNEZ, 2007, p. 92–97):

• Works on the so-called Booksellers’ Gate of Rouen Cathedral.

Patrons

• Peter IV the Ceremonious (ca. 1337–1382)
• Archdiocese of Tarragona (at least from ca. 1361–1375)
• Others

Documentary Sources

• 1336, September, 19, Barcelona. Aloy de Montbray, imaginator, appears as an instrumental witness of an agreement.
• 1337, November, 5, Daroca. Aloy was commissioned to make the funerary monument of Teresa de Entenza (+28-X-1327), first wife of Alfonso IV the Benign and mother of the future Pedro IV the Ceremonious.
• 1340, March, 1, Zaragoza. Agreement with the abbot of Poblet regarding the funerary monument for Pedro IV the Ceremonious in Santa María de Poblet.
• 1340, October, 7, Barcelona. Appointment of masters for the funerary monument of Pedro IV the Ceremonious in Santa María de Poblet. Aloy de Montbray is appointed master by Pedro the Ceremonious, together with Pierre de Guines de Artois, both habitatorum Barchinone plenarie confidentes…
• 1340, November, 27, Barcelona. Master Aloy commits to making a Virgin and Child for the town of Els Prats de Rei.
• ca. 1340–ca. 1344, Tarragona. It is likely that Aloy took part in the sculptural decoration of the Chapel of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins in the cathedral of Tarragona, at least in the central keystone of the vault and some other points where details of his personal style can be seen, although it is evident that he was not the only sculptor.
• 1341, April, 6, Barcelona. Pedro IV of Aragon orders his officers to give all possible assistance to Master Aloy, sculptor, to transport stone from Besalú to Barcelona, destined for the tomb of his mother Teresa, and to transport it, by land or by sea or freshwater, when it was finished or nearly finished, to Zaragoza, where she was buried in the Franciscan monastery.
• 1342, January, 15, Barcelona. He hires a collaborator.
• 1342, September, 20, Barcelona. More details are given about the enterprise related to an earlier document from 1340, in which the king writes to the authorities to facilitate for Master Aloy the transport of alabaster blocks intended for some works that the monarch wished to have done in his palace in Barcelona.
• 1343, February, 18, Barcelona. He is making the statues of kings and counts.
• 1344, Girona. Declaration before a notary in which Aloy, sculptor of stones, citizen of Barcelona, appoints as his attorney Master Robeony of Cornwall, for the purpose of collecting 8,000 sous as payment for the tomb of Margarita de Lauria y Entenza.
• 1345, December, 17, Girona. He commits to making or “having made” the tomb of Saint Daniel in Girona.
• 1347, November, 12, Barcelona. Contract of partnership between Master Aloy and Master Jaume Cascalls.
• 1349, November, 24, Valencia. The king, referring to an earlier document not found, orders the payment schedule for the masters for the agreed price of the work.
• 1350, May, 5, Girona. He receives the commission to make a series of alabaster figures intended for a Holy Burial for the chapel of Corpus Christi being built in the collegiate church of Sant Feliu of Girona.
• 1350, July, 1, Barcelona. Letter from the king requesting that Master Aloy be provided with the men, animals, and boats necessary for transporting the stone for the construction of his tomb in Poblet.
• 1351, June, 7, Girona. He contracts for the choir stalls, especially the episcopal chair or throne, for the wooden choir of the cathedral of Girona, which, according to the document, was already begun.
• 1352, February, 26, Barcelona. Order to provide Aloy and Cascalls with a cart to transport stones from the tombs of Poblet to the sea.
• 1353, February, 18, Girona. Aloy, still in Girona but a citizen of Barcelona, commits before a notary to work 34 blocks of alabaster from Beuda, some already carved or rough-shaped and others not, for the tombs of the living queen—Leonor of Sicily—and the two deceased queens—Maria of Navarre and Leonor of Portugal—which the king had commissioned from him for Poblet.
• 1353, April, Tarragona. He lodges in the Castle of the King, which the monarch allowed him to use for life, along with his family, on the condition that he maintain and improve it.
• 1353, September, 13, Valencia. The king reproaches Aloy for the slowness of the work on the tombs and reminds him that he must pay half of the money received to Cascalls.
• 1354, April, 17, Barcelona. The king insists to the masters Castays (Cascalls) and Aloy that the tombs should have effigies of “men with ostentatiously mournful gestures,” over fields of enameled, gilded, and nielloed glass, like the four mourners he saw on a work in Cascalls’s workshop in Poblet.
• 1356, April, 24, Tarragona. The king, referring to a letter from Aloy, acknowledges that, if the master is paid for his work, he will deliver the king’s tomb.
• 1359, April, 15, Barcelona. The king answers Aloy’s doubts about where his tomb should be placed.
• 1359, June, 6, Barcelona. Queen Leonor of Sicily orders the payment of her part, since the prior of Poblet certifies that the work is fully completed.
• 1359, June, 17, Barcelona. The king grants Masters Aloy and Cascalls an extension for the completion of the tombs and declares them free of blame and responsibility, recognizing that, due to lack of money, he himself could not fulfill the agreed terms.
• 1360, October, 24, Barcelona. The king responds to a letter from Aloy regarding the new project for his own tomb and those of the queens, which Aloy had sent “painted” on parchment. The work had been damaged.
• 1361, February, 17, Sant Boi. Queen Leonor of Sicily reiterates her order to her treasurer to pay Masters Aloy and Cascalls the amount of 1666 sous and 8 deniers, corresponding to the work on the royal tombs.
• 1361, March, 13, Lleida. The king, who was in Lleida—whose cathedral Cascalls then directed as magister operis—orders once again that the roads be repaired so that carts and wagons could more easily transport the stones with which the latter artist would make the tomb of the king and queens.
• 1361, May, 20, Zaragoza. Queen Leonor orders her treasurer to pay Cascalls the 1666 sous and 8 deniers that, according to the letter of February 17, were to have been delivered jointly to Cascalls and to Master Aloy, sculptori suo.
• ca. 1361–ca. 1374, Tarragona. He works for the Mitre of Tarragona.
• 1364, June, 3, Tortosa. He had built the tomb of Bishop Jaume Sitjó, who had died in 1351.
• 1366, December, 16, Barcelona. The king informs the authorities of Tarragona not to allow Master Cascalls to be sued by Master Aloy or by anyone else.
• 1367, August, 8, Tarragona. Archbishop Pedro de Clasquerí orders Ramón Pontons, canon and sacristan of Escornalbou (Cornubovis), to pay Master Aloy, sculptor, 27 pounds and 1 denier owed for a retable he made for the church of that monastery.
• 1368, March, 27, Monday, Tarragona. Eulodio, imaginator, is paid 10 pounds out of the 60 agreed for the sale of a retable by the treasurers of the work of the Seo of Tarragona.
• 1368, May, 19, Tarragona. Master Aloy acknowledges receiving from the treasurers of the cathedral works 10 Barcelonese pounds, part of a larger amount owed to him for a retable he made in the chapel of Saint Mary of the Seo of Tarragona.
• ca. 1370–ca. 1375. Aloy and Cascalls must have met again, this time in Tarragona, when one was working on the sculptural complement of the Chapel of the Tailors and the other on the main portal of the cathedral.
• ca. 1375, Valencia. Having completed the remodeling of the Chapel of Saint Mary of the Tailors, Aloy probably settled in Valencia.
• 1382, February, 19, Valencia. The royal almoner paid 110 sous to Aloy, “mestre d’imayes de Valencia,” for his sustenance.

Text: Emma Liaño