"Muchas copas de oro con muchas piedras preçiosas": Jewelry, Luxury and Magnificence in the Castile of Don Álvaro de Luna

Abstract

Don Alvaro de Luna (c. 1390-1453), was one of the most influential figures of the Spanish policy in the reign of John II. His influence over the king allowed him the exercise of the political power, to set a heritage that he had not inherited and accumulated an immense wealth. The castle palace of Escalona, his main house, was converted by him in the archetypal of the noble residence and it was the place for the custody of his treasures. Using the chronic, the inventories made in 1453 after his death, some church donations to certain areas and the endowment of his funerary chapel by his widow, 30 years later, on May 8, 1484, the main objective of this article is to systematize and rebuild the sumptuary set of pieces which possessed, as a sign of power, one of the most fascinating personalities of the fifteenth century.