THE HOLY CROSS ALTARPIECE

HISTORY 

As may be seen on an inscription above the access to the vestry of the church, the chapel of the Santa Cruz, San Salvador and San Andrés in the Church of San Lesmes was built thanks to the initiative of García de Salamanca, a merchant from Burgos who wanted the chapel containing his final resting place to be built against one of the side walls of the church. The names of both he and his wife figure as donors of the chapel together with those of their patron saints on the predella of the altarpiece. García de Salamanca's business affairs took him to Lisbon, Medina del Campo and Flanders, which is probably where he came into contact with this kind of religious woodcarving for the first time.

Ten days before his death on the 20th of September, 1510, he dictated his last will and testament in which he stipulated that a series of Holy Masses were to be said on commemorative saints days "in honour of Our Lord and the saints whose names figure on the altarpiece in my chapel". Accordingly, we may safely assume that the altarpiece had been manufactured before that particular date.