One of the greatest legacies that can be passed on to those who come after you, is what you have dedicated your life to. In the case we are going to analyze, this work was linked to the needle, one of the most subtle and delicate instruments that exist, and rich materials such as gold and silk, all in order to create unique works of sumptuary character that speak of another way of understanding religiosity and art.

With certain medieval precedents, at the dawn of the 16th century the first manifestations of scholarly embroidery began to be documented in Navarre thanks to the influence of the Rioja and Aragonese centers. From that moment on, and especially in the second half of the century, the Pamplona workshop began its activity, sponsored by the context of the Counter-Reformation, which would become the center from which all parts of Navarre would be supplied with works of a textile nature.

In the capital of the old kingdom, for more than a century, different embroidery workshops were concentrated, which were similar to those found at the same time in other parts of Spain. These were made up of men, who were the ones who were professionally engaged in the execution of embroidery, leaving women's work relegated to the domestic sphere. But in these Pamplona workshops, which were of a family nature and together with the master embroiderer, the journeymen and the different apprentices, the wives and daughters also worked, although they are not documented. What does appear is their role in preserving the official document and consolidating the workshop through the generations, since there are several data the daughters of master embroiderers who married other craftsmen, something that is confirmed, as we will see below, in the case of Juan de Sarasa.

In these family embroidery workshops, as in other art forms, it was common for the official document to be passed from father to son, something that not only happened in Pamplona, but we can confirm it with the example of the Álvarez and Lizuain families in Zaragoza in the 16th and 18th centuries respectively, or the case of Juan López de Robredo, embroiderer of the Royal House during the reign of Charles IV. He, whom Goya came to portray and whose son continued the official document, had inherited the position of embroiderer of his father's chamber. 

As an example of what has been said and in the 16th century embroidery scene in Navarre, the role of the Sarasa family stands out. Already at the end of the 15th century and in Tafalla, the town where this family was born, an embroiderer named Miguel de Sarasa appears who worked for the church of San Sebastián and in the same town, another embroiderer also named Juan de Sarasa is documented a few decades later. With these precedents and understanding that they are different persons, given the chronological difference between the two and the usual repetition of names from generation to generation, we are already in the figure of Juan de Sarasa, an artisan who played a major role in the first steps and in the configuration of the aforementioned workshop in Pamplona.

From his native Tafalla, in the middle of the century he moved to Pamplona due to a greater demand for work and, from there, he contracted with several churches in Navarre such as Riezu, Goñi, Huarte or Burlada, the making of different liturgical ornaments, the main function to which the embroiderers dedicated themselves during this period. The fact that he occupied the position of cathedral embroiderer and the work he did for the former bishop of Pamplona, Don Diego Ramírez Sedeño de Fuenleal, for whom he made some embroidered pastries and a chasuble with a Roman border embroidered with the bishop's coat of arms, speaks of his transcendence.

            In the case of the textile arts, the documentation rarely coincides with the preserved works and there are few garments that, due to the fragility of the materials that make them up and the loss of their use, have survived to the present day. Therefore, as a sample of the different works of Juan de Sarasa, there remains a chasuble in the church of Lizasoáin made in 1562. This one, whose bodies are made of crimson velvet, has a green silk border embroidered with a candelieri decoration composed of vases, plant motifs and heads of fantastic animals, all in silver thread, which is one of the first examples of the introduction of the Renaissance style in Navarrese embroidery.

The figure of this master embroiderer is also important because in his workshop coincided some of the most outstanding artisans of the second generation of the Pamplona workshop, which meant its consolidation. In this sense, and exemplifying the above, in the workshop of Juan de Sarasa, besides the embroiderer's own son, Miguel de Sarasa, who was the one who continued the work begun by his father, the other artisans Juan Vidal and Andrés de Agriano y Salinas, both married to two of the daughters of the aforementioned Sarasa, also lived together.

Following this, Miguel de Sarasa learned the official document and worked in his father's workshop and, upon his father's death in 1579, he took over the family workshop. That same year he received from the parish of Burlada certain payments for works that he did for it together with his father, beginning then to work alone and to develop one of the most prolific and significant careers of the Navarrese embroidery. His works are documented for different temples, such as the church of San Nicolás de Pamplona, the church of San Miguel de Estella, the church of Sesma, Maquirriáin or Funes, among others, or the works he carried out for the City Council of Pamplona at the end of the century, such as a white taffeta canopy to be used in the Corpus Christi festivity with the silver temple that Bishop Zapata had given to the cathedral of Pamplona.

Of his career, according to his own testimony, he had up to eight officials in his service and, like his father, he maintained a continuous relationship with the main temple of the city, the cathedral of Pamplona, in addition to occupying from 1587 the position of overseer of embroidery works of the bishopric of Pamplona, being in charge of the appraisal of numerous garments made by other artisans.

The preserved works reaffirm what has been said. It is documented that around 1600 he worked for the parish of Peralta making different vestments that reached 3000 ducats and consisted of twelve chasubles and two ternos, one of which we identify with that of St. John the Evangelist that is preserved in the church. This one, in which along the embroidered trimmings of the different garments the iconographic cycle of the life of the titular of the parish is developed, unfortunately for the most part keeps little of its original appearance as the different scenes have been re-stitched with anachronistic silks in a vulgar way. In spite of it, the good drawing of the figures, the adequate disposition of the characters and the skill in the composition of the different episodes can be appreciated. In turn, in the same year of 1600, he made a chasuble and some crimson velvet dalmatics of a lower level that are preserved in the parish of Falces, and a year later, he carried out, together with the artificer Pedro Martínez de Álava, several works for the parish of Santa María de Viana of which remain today and as a valuable testimony of them the terno de Santiago and the cape of Santa Catalina. In addition, and in spite of the inexistence of documentary data that confirm it, we can also consider the rich terno de los Cruzat that is treasured in the cathedral of Pamplona as the work of this master embroiderer, not only because of the connection that he had with the Pamplona cathedral but also because of the stylistic relationship of this ensemble with other works of this outstanding Navarrese craftsman.

Where the embroiderers demonstrate their mastery is in the work of the point of nuance that makes it relate directly to the painting, because where in this are brushstrokes in embroidery is done by the needle and silk, which is why this technique is called acu pictae or needle painting. But if to the silk thread we add the gold thread, the result the procedure of the nuanced gold that creates scenes where the brightness and the chromatic effects are the protagonists.

A magnificent example of this is the ensemble of San Saturnino, which is preserved in the Pamplona parish of the same name and which boasts various borders of embroidered imagery. The garments that compose it tell us about their chronology, since the chasuble, in which episodes of the Birth and Infancy of Christ are represented, bears the date 1576, while the pluvial cloak, in which a journey through the life of the patron saint of Pamplona is depicted, bears the date 1584.

Biurrun y Sotil in the 1930's linked this work to Miguel de Sarasa, linking it to the aforementioned terno de Peralta, a documented work by the artist. Although the different technique used and the fact that the San Juan Evangelista set has little of its original appearance may be impediments to establishing the connection, the drawing of the figures and the composition of the scenes is similar in both. In addition, the fact that the relationship of this embroiderer with the same church some years later is documented, makes us endorse the attribution of the authorship of the work.

As for the chasuble, the status is different. In addition to the obvious stylistic differences between the embroidered borders of the chasuble and the cape, its manufacture cannot be attributed to Miguel de Sarasa, since he began his professional career in 1579, the date on which, as mentioned above, he inherited the direction of his father's workshop. It is documented that his father Juan de Sarasa made a rich brocade ornament for the church, of which 192 ducats had yet to be paid to his heirs in 1582. Taking into account that it is recorded that this ensemble originally consisted of a luxurious brocade fabric, we estimate that the work was commissioned to his father Juan de Sarasa, who made the chasuble and that, upon his death, the rest of the garments were continued by his son. The apparatus of this ensemble and the extraordinary quality it exhibits, makes us consider it one of the best examples of embroidered vestments preserved in Navarre and are, likewise, test to the high level and mastery reached by the artisans analyzed here.