rum
judicia."

Berruguete's work (on the Gospel side) shows distinct traces of Michael
Angelo's influence and his study in Italian ateliers with Andrea del
Sarto and Baccio Bandinelli.[13] The nervous vigor of the Italian giant
and the purity of style which looked back at Greece and Rome, are
apparent.

The subjects of Vigarny's work, as also of Berruguete's, are taken from
the Old Testament. They have a more subtle charm, more grace and
freedom. Some of them show strength and an unerring hand, others,
delicacy and exquisite subtleness. Where the Maestro Mayor of Charles V
is powerful and energetic, Vigarny is imaginative and rich.

Comparing the upper and lower rows of panels, we must see what
remarkable steps had been taken in so short a time by the sculptors. A
lightness of execution, a victorious self-reliance, seems to follow
close on the steps of tentative, even if conscientious, effort. The
carving, the bold relief of the chiseling, have a vividness and
intensity of expression, surpassing some of the best work of Italy and
France.

The niches in the marble canopy above the upper row of stalls are filled
with figures standing almost in full relief, and representing the
genealogy of Christ.

The outer walls of the choir are also completely covered with sculpture.
It is thoroughly Gothic in character, crude, and fumbling for
expression, consisting of arcades with niches above containing
alto-relievo illustrations of Old Testament scenes and characters. You
recognize the Garden of Eden, Abraham with agonized face, Isaac, Jacob,
passages from Exodus, and other familiar scenes. Many of the panels
depict further the small, everyday occurrences and incidents so loved by
mediaeval artists, and so full of earnest, religious feeling. Crowning it
all, amid the pinnacles, are a whole flock of angels, quite prepared for
Ascension Day. It is all very similar to the early fourteenth-century
work in French cathedrals.

The bay in front of the high altar, forming with it the Capilla Mayor,
and the choir are closed from the transept by a huge reja as fine as the
one facing it, and the work of the Spaniard Francesco Villalpando
(1548).[14]

The Capilla Mayor originally consisted of the one bay to the east of the
transept, the adjacent terminating portion of the nave being the chapel
containing the tombs of the kings. The great Cardinal Ximenez received
Isabella's permission to remove the dividing wall in case he could
acc