The "Art and Theology" symposiumorganized by the School of Theology of the University of Navarra, has concluded after three days in which more than 250 people attended.

At the symposium "Art and Theology", Maria Antonieta Crippa, professor at the Politecnico di Milano's School of Architecture , called for a friendship between artists and theologians, so that they can work in "an environment where analogies emerge and respect is maintained for the variety of cultures and sensibilities, as well as a connection between the existing tradition".

The rococo sacristy of the Cathedral of Pamplona was the place chosen for the roundtable "The images of faith", with the participation of the Navarrese painter Juan José Aquerreta and the sculptors Darío Fernández and Javier Viver. In his intervention, Aquerreta said he had come to sacred art indirectly: "Throughout the centuries, 90% of art is religious, because there is a need to bring people closer to attention with God".

Dario Fernandez, an image sculptor working in Seville, explained that his activity is complex, since he has to combine sculpture with polychromy: "I am anchored in tradition, my work is destined for worship".

For his part, Javier Viver assured that his process of autonomy "is subordinated to the service of a transcendent reality: I do not make a work in which I seek self-affirmation. The sculptor's inspiration is the face of the Shroud of Turin, "that of a crucified man with all the signs of being Christ".

In the subsequent colloquium , when asked if the artist is born or made, Aquerreta assured that "the artist does not choose to be one, it is something that is produced" and alluded to the loneliness he often encounters: "the artist is a castaway".

The symposium "Art and Theology" concluded with the intervention of the film critic Jerónimo José Martín, who spoke about contemporary cinema at core topic theological. After analyzing some films such as "The Tree of Life", "Love and Letters", "To the Wonder", "Magic in the Moonlight" or "The Choir", he affirmed that "theological themes have never been treated in cinema with the depth with which they are treated now, with great aesthetic excellence".

The pregnant Virgin

Javier Viver is the author, among many other works, of the image of the pregnant Virgin venerated in the Monastery of La Aguilera, of which he commented on its creation process. This consisted in the casting of a young woman from life, an ancient technique that Gaudí also used at the time in the Sagrada Familia. Through it, a "direct, real and very close image is achieved, while at the same time abstract, because the color is annulled".