October 24, 2006

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

THE RECOVERY OF A HERITAGE SITE: TUDELA CATHEDRAL

Artistic promotion in the century of Humanism

Dr. María Concepción García Gainza.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

Throughout the 16th century and in the cultural environment of Renaissance Humanism, important artistic enterprises were undertaken in the Cathedral of Tudela, whose patrons or promoters were prominent ecclesiastics.

The first, Don Pedro Villalón, dean of Tudela, who was familiar with Renaissance Rome, introduced the new style in the façade of the Dean's Palace and especially in the choir stalls of the Cathedral, where the Italianate decoration appears for the first time.

The second artistic business is the one undertaken by Don Martín de Mezquita, canon treasurer of Tarazona, who built the chapel of San Martín -decoration, grille and altarpiece of paintings-, in which he introduced the most advanced language of reformed mannerism.

Finally, the two mural paintings of the Last Judgment of the cathedral's transcourse show the presence of Michelangelo's iconography of the Last Judgment from the Sistine Chapel in Tudela, with Michelangelesque forms.

These three works mark three milestones in the development of the Renaissance in the Catredal of Tudela, which will be the first in Navarre to mark the arrival of the Renaissance.