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Heritage and identity (48). From a sleepy old man to a vigorous adult with moral strength: Saint Joseph in Navarrese art.

22/03/2021

Published in

Diario de Navarra

Ricardo Fernández Gracia

Director of the Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

If any saint has undergone a physical and moral transformation since the 16th century, it is St. Joseph. As is well known, in the Age average, his figure was not relevant, far from it. He is represented in some passages of the infancy of Christ, generally in capitals, keystones of doorways and cloisters and miniatures, as a sleepy old man. The sacred theater of the Middle Ages added to his old age, his clumsiness and aspect of a stunned old man, in different acts of family character: either when washing the diapers or at the moment of carrying out other domestic tasks. All this made the saint the object of some derision, as he appeared disheveled and clumsy. On occasions, he was accused of a certain greed, typical of the elderly, when he quickly withdrew the gifts of the Magi and put them in a safe place in a cupboard.

The capitals of the cloister of Tudela or the cover of San Miguel de Estella are good examples of the Romanesque, while the core topic of the cloister of Pamplona and the miniature of the cathedral Breviary of 1332, refer us to the same model in the Gothic period, although in the latter examples, at least not dormant.

His image changed radically with the arrival of the centuries of Modernity, leaving behind a legendary iconographic model , according to some texts that presented him with eighty or ninety years, for an adult of vigorous appearance and great moral strength, in line with a new vision of his role as the adoptive father of Christ. His figure began to have importance in the liturgy and in worship, highlighting his simplicity and tenderness. As a consequence, his projection in the arts did not take long to arrive. In the Hispanic sphere, an author as widely read as Mother Agreda, affirms that he married at the age of thirty-three, in harmony with the only one who had previously defended the youth of the saint, who was none other than Saint Jerome.

Those responsible for the change of image

Four were responsible for that transformation, all of them of great authority. The first was none other than the Chancellor of the University of Paris, the French Augustinian Jean Gerson (1363-1429), known as the doctor christianissimus, who wrote a poem graduate "Josephina", vindicating her figure. The second was the Dominican Isidoro Isolano, of greater projection, with his book published in Pavia in 1522, with the degree scroll of "Sum of the gifts of Saint Joseph". In his text he glossed the adoptive father of Christ as a man adorned with all subject of perfections, among them the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and the eight beatitudes.

The third contribution, this time in core topic feminine, was the special devotion of St. Teresa of Jesus, who dedicated most of her foundations to him and wrote about him as follows: "I have not agreement until now begged him for anything that I have failed to do. It is something that frightens the great mercies that God has done to me through this blessed Saint, of the dangers that he has freed me, both in body and soul; that to other saints it seems that the Lord gave them grace to help in one need, to this glorious Saint I have experience that he helps in all and that the Lord wants to give us to understand that as he was subject to him on earth (that as he had the name of father, being a godfather, he could command him), so in heaven he does whatever he asks of him".

In full harmony with the testimony of the saint of Avila, we have to point out in fourth place, the one who was her great friend and confidant, Father Jerónimo Gracián, who wrote the Summary of the Excellencies of the Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary, published in Rome and dedicated to his carpenters, in 1597. In his text, besides praising the multiple virtues of the saint, he states that he married at the age of forty and that he dedicated himself to the arts of wood, having carried out different works, such as living works (waterwheels, plows and carts) and dead works (tables, benches... etc.), of raw work or carving, and even the traces or models, the latter tasks proper to "old carpenters".

Through these texts and a growing cult, his images were lavished as a strong and vigorous man, capable of protecting and protecting his family. His representations in solitary will abound greatly, accompanied by the Child Jesus, with some utensil of his official document, without, ordinarily, lacking the flowery rod that is his attribute, par excellence, coming from the Apocrypha.

Important dates: 1621 and 1870

The history of the cult and veneration of the saint has two very special moments. The first is the year 1621, when Pope Gregory XV ordered that the feast of the saint be celebrated throughout the Church on March 19. The provision of the Bishop of Pamplona, declaring the feast of obligation, was published in an edict dated March 5, 1622.

Later, in 1870, Pius IX proclaimed him patron of the Universal Church and more recently, in 1955, Pius XII declared him the protector of workers because he was a carpenter, celebrating this feast on May 1.

By then, in Pamplona and its diocese it was already being celebrated in a particular way. In 1518 his official document appears in the cathedral and, at the request of the synods of 1524 and 1531, his official document was extended to the whole diocese. In addition, the guild of St. Joseph of Pamplona carpenters had been celebrating him for a long time, having an altarpiece in the cathedral temple, made around 1560, of which its titular remains, the work of Miguel de Espinal I. The guilds of Tudela, Estella, Sangüesa, Corella, Fitero, Cascante and Corella, among others, also praised it appropriately.

Along with these professional associations, other confraternities of a markedly devotional nature were also founded, among which those of Pamplona and Tudela stood out, all of them in the 18th century. The one in Tudela was located in the convent of Carmen Calzado and was founded in 1731.

In the convent of Carmen in the capital of Navarre its confraternity was constituted in 1716. Its titular image -today in the parish of San Agustín- was the only one that was printed in an engraving in the second half of the 18th century. In its organization it had a prior, two deputies, two nurses and four stewards and two monitors, positions that were elected annually. As in other brotherhoods, if a brother fell ill, he was helped spiritually and economically. The feast was celebrated with great solemnity in the liturgical and recreational aspects, with bonfires and voladores. Another confraternity dedicated to San José and the Desposorios had its headquarters in San Saturnino since 1717, year in which Pedro Castellos gave the image of the saint.

The following localities, according to the study of Eduardo Morales, also had confraternities under his patronage: Alsasua, Aranaz, Beinza-Labayen, Ciordia, Elizondo, Goizueta, Lacunza, Lesaca, Olazagutía, Puente la Reina, Urdax, Vera de Bidasoa and Zugarramurdi in the merindad of Pamplona. In the lands of Tudela, those of Cascante, Fitero, Corella and Villafranca are documented. In the merindad of Sangüesa there are those of Aoiz, Burgui, Jaurrieta, Lumbier, Ochagavía, Sangüesa, Urroz and Valcarlos and in the merindad of Estella those of Andosilla, Estella, Lodosa and Viana.

All this extension of his cult was related, in many occasions, with the devotion to the saint, at the moment of death. His passing, brilliantly painted by Vicente Berdusán in the Carmen de Tudela, in 1673, enjoyed great popularity, since, at the time of his departure from this world, he was accompanied by no less than the Virgin Mary and Christ. That death was the most desirable. The prayer to the saint was to obtain the defense of the enemy that stalks the soul at the last moment, with which St. Joseph became model of good death and advocate of the good death.

 The aforementioned declaration in 1870 resulted in the arrival in Navarre of numerous sculptures from the Olot workshops, although most of them lacked quality and mastery.

Some singular images in Navarra

On March 20, 2015, we published in this newspaper a article in relation to this topic. We refer to it, summarizing its content and adding other considerations and reflections, as well as other outstanding examples.

Among the Renaissance representations, we will highlight the one in his altarpiece in the cathedral of Pamplona, to which we have alluded, and a panel in the altarpiece of the Visitation in the parish of San Pedro de Tafalla and, above all, the one in the sacristy of the chapel of the Holy Spirit in the cathedral of Tudela, an interesting work for several reasons. In the first place for its dating, around 1540 and, above all, for being accompanied by a marriage -still unidentified-, in which he, with the appearance of an official, carries a green book, which perhaps can be identified with the Green Book of Aragon, which, as we know, was a manuscript from 1507, very widespread throughout the 15th century, in which all the genealogies of Aragonese families with converso antecedents appeared.

As a consequence of the extension of his feast with universal character, it is necessary to locate numerous images. Let us mention three, the delicate one of Ablitas, work of Juan de Biniés, with traits of certain naturalism of the first Baroque; the one of San Juan de Estella, surely work of Juan III Imberto and the one of the main altarpiece of Subiza, work of Domingo de Lusa. In the latter case, it is striking because between the child and the saint they hold a compass, not a saw or a square. Their presence obeys that of official document, considered more intellectual than guide, as a simple carpenter. Nothing could be more illustrative than to read the text of Father Gracián, when he glosses the official document of Saint Joseph, as architect and designer: "A great master who wants to build a sumptuous palace usually chooses officers to help him, laborers to serve him, and to look for the materials suitable for the building; but before he puts his hand to the work, nor orders or commands the officers who are to work, he looks for an old and experienced carpenter and discusses with him the building he intends to make. And the two alone draw the plan, make the design, make the model and, after all foreseen, pointed and agreed, they put their hands to the work".

The decidedly baroque examples, of great quality, can be seen in Recoletas, San Agustín -from the Carmen Calzado- and San Saturnino, all of them in Pamplona. Also noteworthy are the sculptures of the Museum of Corella, Santa María de Tafalla and Cintruénigo. There are also some of foreign origin: Arizcun and Azpilcueta, works by Luis Salvador Carmona; those of Araceli de Corella and the parish of Arizcun, made by Diego de Camporredondo, and those of Comendadoras de Puente la Reina and the disappeared Carmelitas de Lesaca, the latter two works of the Aragonese José Ramírez de Arellano. The sculpture of the Carmen de Tudela fully follows the drawing of the saint in a beautiful sanguine that is conserved in the Prado Museum by Juan Antonio Salvador Carmona. The carvings of the lower choir of the Recoletas of Pamplona and of the sacristy of the cathedral of Tudela, are pieces imported from Naples. The Aranaz arrived from the Indies, sent by Martín de Aróstegui, knight of Santiago and president of the Trading Company of Havana, in 1736.

To these outstanding images, we will add the one that the aforementioned Luis Salvador Carmona made for San Fermín de los Navarros, in 1746, which was valued by a booklet published in Pamplona by the Heirs of Martínez in 1756 and dedicated to Saint Joseph, as protector of earthquakes, "of such a beautiful sculpture, that its beauty comforted the most afflicted heart".

A series of six canvases in the Carmelite monastery of Pamplona

Regarding the cycles, the only one that is currently preserved is the one that decorates the nave of the church of the Discalced Carmelites of the Navarrese capital, made under the care of Fray Bernardo de la Madre de Dios, prior of Pamplona on several occasions and provincial. The whole was possible thanks to a copious alms that his brother Don José Francisco Bigüézal, bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo between 1756 and 1762, had sent him. The realization must have been delayed until 1765, judging by some lawsuit that the friars maintained in relation to the patron of one of the chapels of the church. Its author was Pedro de Rada, a painter established in Pamplona in the second third of the eighteenth century and with extensive work, both in the sacristy of the cathedral, as well as in various commissions from the institutions of the Kingdom.

Five passages from the New Testament were included in the cycle: the Adoration of the Shepherds (Lk 2:8-20), the Circumcision of the Child Jesus (Lk 2:21), the presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2:22-40), the Flight into Egypt (Mt 2:13-15, 19-23) and the Child Jesus lost and found in the Temple (Lk 2:41-52). To these scenes was added a sixth, with the topic of the death of St. Joseph, narrated in the Apocrypha and other texts published from the sixteenth century onwards.

The painter, like many others, based his compositions on engraved prints. However, despite what we might think, he did not use a specific series of prints, but rather each of the passages was copied from different intaglio prints that, most probably, were given to Pedro de Rada by the Carmelites themselves.