FORMENT, Damian
Main Altar (detail)
c. 1540
Marble
Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Saragossa
Damià Forment (1480 - 1540) was a Spanish architect and sculptor, considered the most important Spanish sculptor of the 16th century.[1]
Forment studied in Rome and Florence before returning to his native town of Valencia.[2] He worked there from 1500-09, and then moved to Zaragoza, where he kept his studio for the rest of his life.
Forment’s earliest major work was the alabaster Gothic-Renaissance altar of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar (1509-12), which was preserved when the 15th-century basilica was destroyed and was installed in the present 17th-century structure. He is also known for the altarpieces of the churches of San Miguel de los Navarros and San Pablo, both in Zaragoza, of the cathedral of Huesca (1520-24), done in the Mannerist style; the altar of the Poblet Monastery (1527), his first work entirely in the Renaissance style[3]; and for his last work, the Renaissance altar of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada (1537-40).
He died at Santo Domingo de la Calzada in 1540.