Iohanes Oliveri, Johan Oliuer or Juan Oliver is the first known painter working in Navarre. He founded a workshop in Pamplona that was active for much of the fourteenth century. And he created a school: the School of Pamplona. We have an interesting documentary repertoire and an exceptional Catalog works that give content to the figure of a Gothic painter of international stature. We have been very lucky, since what we are going to tell from now on is not at all frequent. Definitely, we have won the lottery! We consider his works to be the first polychromy of the façade of Santa María de Olite (1330), the mural of the Refectory of the cathedral of Pamplona (identified by registration, 1335), the head of Christ of his pulpit, and the decorative programs of the major chapels of San Julián de Ororbia (the best preserved group), Santa Ágata de Olloki and the Crucifix of Puente la Reina (almost completely lost). And we continue to work on the location of more testimonies that will complete a monographic publication as relevant as it is necessary.

The study of mural painting in the medieval European West is determined by a disheartening reality: the collections that have come down to us are a minimal part of the corpus produced. Mural painting has been the victim of humidity and the passage of time, of fashions and changes in taste, of nineteenth-century restorations that repainted to the point of disfiguring the original and, more modernly, of twentieth-century restorations that ripped out the paintings and transferred them to canvas or directly chipped the walls to leave the bare ashlars of the interiors exposed. A tragedy.

In spite of everything, the density of mural paintings preserved around Pamplona in the second quarter of the 14th century is surprising. The wealth of testimonies is striking; also their quality, proportional to the artistic relevance of the architectures and sculptural ensembles that had been carried out in the cathedral of Pamplona since the last years of the 13th century. We have already brought to these pages the master Guillermo Inglés, architect and sculptor in the cathedral cloister. And therefore, we know well the artistic context in which these artists arrived in Pamplona. Johan Oliuer found in Pamplona the ideal place in which to develop his official document; he also found a favorable context in which to put down roots and stay and live.

With the known documents we can reconstruct his life and formative trajectory. In 1316 he appears working on the decoration of the episcopal castle of Noves near Avignon, papal seat since 1308. We can suppose that he was already a young painter trained in an advanced artistic context. When was he born? Perhaps in the last decade of the 13th century. Where? No idea. 1316 coincides with the beginning of the pontificate of John XXII (1316-1334). Born in Cahors as Jacques Dueze, he was a canon of his cathedral, bishop of Fréjus, chancellor of Charles II and archbishop of Avignon. The trajectory of the new pope reinforces a hypothetical Occitan origin for our artist. For stylistic reasons, he could have been trained as a painter in Cahors, and then arrived in Avignon under the guidance of Jacques Dueze. There he became familiar with the main pictorial trends of the time, from the British and Parisian linear tradition already present in Cahors and the Midi, to the novelties coming from Italy.

In 1321 Johan Oliuer continues to work in Avignon. He appears enrolled in a numerous workshop of painters under the leadership of Pierre du Puy, painter known in Toulouse and Cahors. Most of the members of the workshop are of southern origin. Although nothing of their artistic work has been preserved, we know a lot about their daily life. Even the colors, materials, oils or binders that Pierre du Puy bought for his workshop(the archives sometimes give us this subject of surprises). These colors and materials are very similar to those that Oliver will use in Olite or Ororbia. Here, his "shopping list" is known thanks to the chemical programs of study associated with the restorations.

Perhaps the workshop was disbanded when Pierre du Puy died in 1328; perhaps Oliver abandoned it earlier to continue his degree program tempted by other proposals for work. We believe that, hired by the municipal regiment of Olite, by 1330 he had finished the pictorial decoration of the façade of Santa María. It is likely that he arrived in Navarre a few years earlier. In 1332 the prince Luis commissioned him to paint two wax sculptures for the altar of the cathedral of Pamplona. The document already refers to him as "painter of Pamplona", suggesting that Oliver was by then perfectly integrated in the city and his name was identified with it. Given the decorative needs of the new cathedral complex (cloister galleries, doorways, outbuildings...) it was perhaps Bishop Arnaldo de Babazán who crossed the destinies of Oliver and Pamplona. It should be remembered that in 1318 he had been recommended to the episcopal see of Pamplona by John XXII himself, with whom he had a fluid contact in Avignon.

In 1335 his prestige was such that he faced the most demanding commission that a painter from Pamplona could receive at the time: to paint the presidential mural of the new refectory, a building that was particularly significant both artistically and politically. In fact, the whole story we are telling begins with the registration "IOHANNES OLIVERI DEPINXIT ISTUD OPUS" at the bottom of the mural. Without it we would know nothing. Without its "signature" in Pamplona, we would not have been able to relate it neither to Avignon nor to Pamplona. It would have been of no use to us to note that in 1366, a "Johan Oliuer" lived in the Rúa Mayor del Burgo de San Cernin and paid 3 florins of taxes. Was he a second generation? Around that time (between 1362 and 1377), a painter of the same name appears in the documentation in Aragon. In 1379, 1387 and 1390 the kings of Navarre made new commissions to Johan Oliuer. In these late chronologies we are already speaking with certainty of a second or even a third generation of what we can understand as a saga of painters with a permanent workshop in Pamplona.

Indeed, the mural of the Refectory is one of the core topic pieces of our heritage. Its interest goes beyond the regional sphere to become one of the most relevant references of Gothic line painting. It reached the 20th century half-hidden by later paintings. Unfortunately for its good conservation, in 1944 it was torn off the wall, transferred to canvas and repainted by Ramón Gudiol. That is why today we can contemplate it in the permanent collection of the Museum of Navarra together with other very interesting pictorial testimonies of its stylistic context. However, it is a pity not to be able to enjoy it in the space for which it was created. As if that were not enough, apart from the contract, Gudiol made second starts (also third starts?) that he sold to private collectors without any subject of authorization subject One of these second starts, with the image of the prophet Ezekiel, was recently recovered by the Government of Navarra. The epilogue of the tragedy was the pitting of the preparatory layer of lucido. Even today, next to the east window of the refectory's headwall, remains of the original vegetal framing are still preserved.

Logically, this cannot be the moment to deal with its characteristics in detail. That is what the images in this article are for. It is dedicated to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, and is organized in the form of an altarpiece. The center of the program is occupied by a very interesting and complex Crucifixion, three meters wide and two meters high. Above it we see the Flagellation and the Way to Calvary; below, the Holy Burial and a double final scene with the three Marys before the tomb and the Resurrection. On the sides, two vertical bands each contain six lobed niches, which house prophets of the Old and New Testament. The bench sample an interesting armory that, together with the lower registration , identifies not only the author but also the commissioner: Miguel Périz de Estella.

In the parish of San Julián de Ororbia, behind its magnificent main altarpiece, we will again find the different episodes of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ in the lower register, as well as the Nativity and Infancy in the intermediate one. What we can see today is what was saved from the interior of the temple (1944). In the words published by this same newspaper, the church was "more beautiful and more serious, and certainly much more artistic". Another tragedy. Petrophilia result the loss of at least a third of the program. We assume that the patron was the cathedral canon Gonzalo Martínez de Ororbia (between 1290 and 1335). Climbing the scaffolding, behind the Renaissance altarpiece, we can better perceive the qualities and artistic quality of our painter: his care in the representation of volumes, the smoothness of the incarnations, the standardization of types and models, the sensitivity of the treatment of some faces, the technical quality of the whole and its brilliant polychromies, as well as the distribution of registers and tracery by means of incised punch drawings. A true marvel.

Also in the Pamplona basin, the restoration of the parish church of Olloki uncovered another pictorial ensemble dedicated to the life and martyrdom of Saint Agatha. After the layers of modern lime and color, the restoration consolidated the medieval pictorial layer, reintegrating chromatic gaps and reconstructing lost figures and elements by means of drawing.

Johan Oliuer created a school. We know at least the names and works of two more painters: the masters Roque and Martinet de Sangüesa. The former signature the lateral paintings of the presbytery of San Saturnino de Artajona (1340); the latter, with a somewhat later chronology, a mural in Ujué. Other works show the characteristics of the escuala already diluted in the hands of more local masters. The paintings of Belascoáin, Ekai, Azanza, or the magnificent Tree of Jesse in the cathedral cloister stand out. Much to see. Much to visit. Much to experience. May these lines encourage us to enjoy our cultural heritage. By socializing it we will preserve it.