Students of the subject "Renaissance, Baroque and Enlightenment in Europe" visit Pamplona's Municipal file
Together with Professor Javier Azanza, they have analyzed the hieroglyphs of the royal obsequies of the 18th century.
05 | 11 | 2025
The students of the subject "Renaissance, Baroque and Enlightenment in Europe" have visited the file Municipal de Pamplona with Professor Javier Azanza, to analyze the collection of hieroglyphs that were part of the royal funeral ceremonies of the eighteenth century, held in the cathedral of Pamplona. The subject is taught in the Degrees of History; History and Diploma in Archaeology; and the double Degrees of History and Journalism; and International Relations and History, of the School of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Navarra.
As Professor Azanza explains, "the hieroglyphs were visual riddles that, through the combination of text and image, made the funerary monument speak of the glory of the deceased king or queen". Made on vat paper in the form of large cards and with an average size of 60 x cm, they were destined for the tumulus or catafalque, an enormous funerary machine of several decreasing bodies that was erected in the middle of the cathedral Wayside Cross .
"In their composition they conform to the triplex emblem of Alciato, formed by a motto or mote in Latin language , a body or pictura, and an epigram in the form of Castilian poetry", continues Professor Azanza. As he explains, in his message they link a coherent speech that begins with the deep pain of the subjects of Navarre upon hearing the news of the death of the monarch, advances towards the presence of death that reaches everyone equally, and culminates with the triumph over death through a virtuous life that guarantees the king or queen eternity and becomes a model of conduct for the people: "In the case of the kings, an allusion to the dynastic continuity that guarantees the stability of the monarchy is added".
Almost a hundred compositions have been preserved in Pamplona, corresponding to the funerals of Felipe V (1746), Bárbara de Braganza (1758), Isabel de Farnesio (1766) and Carlos III (1789). "The Pamplona hieroglyphs are exceptional and constitute one of the greatest values of the archival-documentary heritage of Navarre, only comparable in the field of ephemeral art with the polychrome hieroglyphs of the Mexican funeral pyres and with the two series of hieroglyphs commissioned by the Medici for the funeral rites of Philip II and Margaret of Austria in Florence," Azanza concludes.