Treasure in Iron

Spain's ironworkers are artisans beyond compare, and Spanish architects have known full well how to use their best craftsmen. When Philip II commanded Architect Juan Herrera to build the Cathedral of Valladolid in 1585, Herrera designed it to include a lofty screen, or reja, 45 ft. high and 47 ft. wide, that would span the width of the cathedral between the choir and the altar. Work on the wrought-iron grille .was begun about 1668; the gilding was not completed until 1764. In 1920, when the church rearranged the choir, the huge grille was removed.

What saved the reja from the scrap heap was the omnivorous taste of the late William Randolph Hearst--who once bought a whole monastery in Spain, shipped it stone by stone to the U.S. But even Hearst did not have room to house the cathedral screen. For more than 25 years it remained in packing boxes in a Bronx warehouse. Eventually, Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum, which has in its towering Medieval Sculpture Hall a room made to order for the 60,000-lb. screen, began negotiating to buy it. Earlier this year the Hearst Foundation donated the screen to the museum. Last week, with Valladolid's masterpiece installed in its new setting (see cut), the Met could boast a treasure unequaled outside Spain.

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