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Heritage and identity (51). Snakes in Navarrese art. Meanings found: between vice and virtue.

07/05/2021

Published in

Diario de Navarra

Ricardo Fernández Gracia

Director of the Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

The image of the snake, like that of other animals and objects, does not have the same meaning in different historical periods, nor in the different places where it is represented. It is always necessary to contextualize its presence and note the relationship with the character it accompanies, without ever losing sight of the general and particular environment. Its poisonous character and its role as a temptress in Paradise made it a symbol of sin and the devil. The derogatory allusions in the Bible are abundant. However, its ability to renew its skin, or to get rid of poison when it goes to drink water from a river, made it a symbol of prudence and renewal of life.

In antiquity, it was an attribute of Apollo -for having defeated the serpent Python-, of Hercules -for having faced a pair in the same cradle-, of Aesculapius -divinity of medicine- and of Ceres -personification of the earth, for always being attached to it-. It accompanies the allegories of envy, heresy, sin, discord and dialectics. When it appears in a circle, biting its tail, it is known as ouroboros, meaning eternity.

Assimilated to evil, sin and poison in religious iconography

The presence of the serpent next to Adam and Eve in paradise, or defeated and trampled at the feet of the Immaculate Conception or of a Risen Christ, is eloquent enough of its affiliation with sin and evil.

Since the twelfth century, we have figurations of the serpent in paradise, next to the tree of good and evil and inciting Eve to take the forbidden fruit. The divine curse on the animal was a much commented text in Genesis. In this regard, it should be remembered that the reptile was an instrument of the devil in the temptation and ended up being identified with him since the second century. Among the representations of the passage, we have a spandrel of the doorway of Santa María de Sangüesa from the end of the 12th century, a capital of the door of the Judgment of the cathedral of Tudela, in the first decades of the 13th century and another capital of Santa María de Olite, from the end of the same century. In the Pamplona cloister, in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, we find the scene in a capital, with the novelty that the ophidian has the head of a woman, in harmony with some texts of the 12th and 13th centuries. The art of the following centuries left examples of the passage in altarpieces, such as the Renaissance altarpieces of Huarte Araquil and Valtierra or the rococo painting of Pedro de Rada in the chapter sacristy of the cathedral of Pamplona. The scene of the original sin is delicately painted in the orb, on which rests the Triumphant Child of the Capuchin nuns of Tudela (today in the Museo Decanal of the same city), a work attributable to Luis Salvador Carmona (c.1760). As if this were not enough to emphasize the triumph over sin and death, a defiant serpent with its mouth open coils around the orb. There is no shortage of representations of topic in the sumptuary arts, such as the alms dish of Sorlada, a work from the first half of the 16th century.

The figure of the risen Christ, not as abundant as one might think, because in the cycle of passion and resurrection, the first section clearly dominates, is sometimes accompanied by a skull and a serpent at his feet, to proclaim his victory over death and vice. Thus we find it in the main altarpiece of Santa María de Tafalla, a Romanesque work begun by Juan de Anchieta and completed by Pedro González de San Pedro. The model of Tafalla, based on a famous sculpture by Michelangelo, was followed in other cases such as those of Andosilla, Murillo de Yerri and Mendigorría. With the same meaning, it appears on the doors of some tabernacles, such as those of Lácar, Mutilva leave, Galar, Arboniés and Araiz.

At the feet of the Immaculate Conception, next to the average moon alluding to the apocalyptic text, usually appears a dragon or a serpent, often biting the fruit of the tree. Paintings and sculptures conserved in different localities present us, with great reality, beautifully polychrome serpents, with the details of the scales of their skin and their color, as well as the heads in which their eyes of penetrating look stand out. In some paintings and sculptures the snake coils around the lower moon (late 17th century sculpture of the Poor Clares of Olite), sometimes it bites the apple (sculpture of the comendadoras of Olite by José Ramírez, 1770, or the Aragonese embroideries of the hoods of the ternos of the Poor Clares of Estella and the Augustinian Recollect nuns of Pamplona, and the engravings of the late 18th century.

In allusion to its poison, it accompanies the cups of saints who were tried to be poisoned, such as St. John the Evangelist, St. Louis Beltran, St. John of Sahagun or St. Benedict. On many occasions, the head is that of a dragon. It also accompanies Saint Christina, because of the torments to which her executioners subjected her with poisonous animals, vipers and asps.

In the infernal visions, such as the one in the sacristy of Larraga, a work by Diego Díaz del Valle (1803), studied by I. Cacho, there is no lack of dragons and monsters. In that composition and in the canvases with the same topic of St. Michael expelling the evil one, enormous snakes usually appear together with picturesque demons.

In tune with some vices: lust and discord

The chapter on allegory as a personification of vices, virtues, attitudes and aptitudes was very present, in a very special way, in books and engravings, although it was not lacking in reliefs of choir stalls or altarpieces, and even in monumental sculpture since the Middle Ages average.

E. Aragonés studied in his monograph the image of evil in Romanesque art in Navarre, as well as the origin and development of topic in the mentioned period, highlighting the texts of Juan Clímaco, Etienne de Fougères or the vision of Alberico, who not only reservation the punishment of toads and snakes to adulteresses and lustful women, but extended it to single mothers and those who did not want to breastfeed their children.

Among its representations in relation to lust, we remember the Romanesque doorway of Santa María de Sangüesa, from the end of the 12th century, where it is found on four occasions, three in the archivolts and one in the spandrel. In the doorway of San Miguel de Estella, it is seen in the external archivolt in a context of beasts and vices and presents her breasts attacked by two snakes which she grabs with her hands in an attempt to stop the torture. The other great example is in one of the voussoirs of the cover of the Judgment of Tudela, in both cases a snake bites the sex of a woman, while her breasts are corroded by toads. In another voussoir the demons show the woman a mirror, as a reminder of presumption and vanity.

In the palace of the Marquis of San Adrián de Tudela, the first of the paintings that introduces us to the group of illustrious women, studied by Professor García Gaínza, is the allegory of discord. As usual, her hair is disheveled, a snake runs along her body and she holds an apple, which she is about to offer -like Paris' trial-, to Juno (omnipotence), Venus (love) and Minerva (wisdom). As it is known, this set was made by the painter Pietro Morone, in 1569, with a didactic purpose, at the initiative of Don Pedro Magallón, in honor of his wife, Laura de Soria.

In core topic positive: attribute of prudence

The personification of prudence usually carries as attributes a mirror and a snake. The first one to make reference letter to the virtue of the knowledge own. The serpent has as literary foundation the text of Saint Matthew (10,16), in which it is warned: "Be wise as serpents and simple as doves". The cardinal virtue was defended in the texts as the foundation of government in princes, kings, magistrates and prelates, concluding that a republic without prudence was a ship without a rudder.

Municipal buildings of the category of Pamplona's town hall, from the middle of the 18th century, the town house in the new place of Tudela, from the end of the 17th century, or the consistory of Vera (1773-1776), resorted to the language of the personification of the virtues of good government.

In the main altarpieces of Cábrega, Learza, Ugar, Olazagutía, Berrioplano, Tirapu, Arellano and Muruzábal and in collaterals of Azagra, Ochagavía, Garisoain, Lumbier, Villatuerta or Mañeru, among others, the theological and cardinal virtues can be contemplated with their corresponding attributes. However, prudence is usually presented only with the mirror of knowledge and truth, although sometimes, as in Urroz Villa, it is accompanied by a pair of snakes. It gives the impression that, inside the temples, it was decided to eliminate them so as not to give rise to misunderstandings with an animal, which was assimilated with sin and evil.

The allegory of prudence in a large sculpture of the altarpiece of the Virgin of the Way of Pamplona, only carries the mirror. However, the one in the baldachin altarpiece of Santa Ana de Tudela, located in its attic, has a snake clearly visible, in a program dedicated to the exaltation of the mother of the Virgin, together with the rest of the cardinal virtues, which escort faith. It is a work of 1751, made by José Ortiz, in charge of the completion of that project, started in 1737 by Juan Bautista Eizmendi.

It goes without saying that, among the graphic and oratory resources linked to royal funerals, the positive meanings of prudence fit perfectly for the laudatory speeches of the deceased monarchs. Among the emblems conserved in the file Municipal of Pamplona, studied by J. L. Molins and J. J. Azanza, we find the serpent in three compositions, two corresponding to the funeral of Isabel de Farnesio (1766) and one to those of Carlos III (1789). In those of the aforementioned queen, within a program devised by the Mercedarian Juan Gregorio González de Asarta, with a drawing by the painter Fermín Rico, we find a young man, with a melancholic face, bitten in his heart by a snake to signify pain, in clear inspiration of the allegory of the same, according to Cesare Ripa. In the second, a serpent is depicted among stones to signify prudence and care, away from false flattery.

In the case of the king's hieroglyph, a serpent with a coiled body is drawn to signify prudence, cunning and caution, for which reason it is represented hiding its head under its body. From the performance of the animal, the emblemists and preachers extracted its great qualities: renewal and sagacity (by changing its skin taking advantage of the cracks in the stones), eternity (when it appears in a circle), prudence and cunning (in a spiral). The material execution corresponded to Juan Francisco de Santesteban, gathering the thought of the presbyter Ambrosio de San Juan and the playwright and poet Vicente Rodríguez de Arellano.

Sin and its antidote: some cornucopias and Lerín's ashlars

Without leaving the world of symbolism and allegory, we can look at the rococo style cornucopias in the sacristies of the cathedral of Pamplona and the parish of San Saturnino in the same city, to verify a unique message from the hand of both elements. In both cases, these cornucopias could be with the same elements in a palace of the time. The field of the cornucopia is occupied by large mirrors that, in these contexts, must be read as vanity and vainglory of the one who contemplates himself before them, whether a noble or a high member of the clergy. In the border there are serpents and doves, in clear allusion to the evangelical recommendations to be humble as doves and prudent as serpents. The message is evident: against the sin of vanity, the virtue of humility is always related to prudence. That subject of games of wit and wit were very present in that society that, despite being largely illiterate, handled some codes of reading some objects and animals with greater skill than we could assume today.

The lower order of the Lerín masonry contains in its backs panels from different workshops, but of the same chronology. The set was proposed in 1763 according to the plan of Diego de Camporredondo. The visitor granted permission for its execution, but two Frenchmen named Pedro Labarrera and Francisco Bussou, his servants, tried to have it awarded to them by making a reduction.

One of the panels, sample a tree to which a snake is coiled with a fruit in its mouth, in clear evocation of temptation and the tree of Paradise. On its sides, two motifs with opposite symbolism: on the right, we see a stork killing a snake, which signifies the concern for the common good, following authors such as Aristotle, Pliny and Plutarch. The stork is also a symbol of filial piety because of its fame for feeding its parents when they grew old. On the other side, a bell tower crowned by a dove, in clear allusion to humility. Thus, it is about opposing sin, the devil and his insidiousness to humility and the common good, the latter very much in tune with the Enlightenment era.