October 25, 2007

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

IV CONFERENCE BAROQUE IN CORELLA

Sumptuary arts in Corella

D. Ignacio Miguéliz Valcarlos
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

Corella will live its time and period of maximum splendor during the centuries of the Baroque, dates in which it obtains the degree scroll of city, given by Felipe IV in 1630, moment in which it will experience an economic and social boom, splendor that will also be noticed in the arts, which will allow that the churches and convents of Corella are richly decorated.

Within the artistic enrichment of the temples of Corella, the Sumptuary Arts, especially silverware and embroidery, will gain special importance, and although the accumulation of this arts subject will experience its peak during the centuries of the Baroque, there are several works preserved today that are outside this chronological and stylistic framework .

Of special importance is the group of silver pieces accumulated by the Corellan temples, which cover a large issue of typologies, and not only the most necessary for the Christian liturgy, as occurs in other temples. The oldest pieces among those preserved are two Mannerist navetas from the parishes of San Miguel and El Rosario, probably a work from Zaragoza commissioned by the Corellan regiment, and which have the particularity that they are both identical, with a rich chiseled decoration on the hull, divided by means of four herms, and which have four kneeling figures on the deck, three of them in a praying attitude, and the fourth, located at the stern, holding the coat of arms of Corella. These are not the only identical pieces found in both churches of Corella, since the same is true of the processional crosses, sent from Madrid, the sacred ones, made by the Pamplona silversmith Miguel de Lenzano with the silver left over from the reform of the platforms, and in both cases the only difference is the presence of the patron of the respective church, or the lecterns made in 1794 by the Calagurritano silversmith Rebollón, also bearing the coat of arms of Corella.
 

Sacras. Miguel de Lenzano. Pamplona. 1777

The section richest in terms of typologies is that of the monstrances, with four pieces worthy of accredited specialization, although the most outstanding are two works from the parish of the Rosary, on the one hand a monstrance of coral, Sicilian work of mid-seventeenth century, known as "of Malta", because at its base looked crosses of that order, and that was given by a gentleman of the same native of Corella, Don José Bruno de Luna y Sesma. And on the other hand a Cordovan monstrance, carved in silver, gilded silver and emeralds in 1756 by the silversmith Juan Antonio Pastor, one of the most distinguished masters of this workshop, and that was given to the church of Corella by Roque and Antonio Aguado, who having made their fortune in the Indies will not forget their native city, where they will buy a palace and where they will send rich gifts. Complementing this custody there are some magnificent platforms, gift in 1766 of Roque Aguado, Count of Montelirios and Viscount of Casa de Aguado, and that due to its weight had to be reformed in 1777 to lighten them and so they could be carried more easily, work that executed the Pamplona silversmith Miguel de Lenzano, who came to give magnificence and splendor to the processions of Corpus Corellanas.

Custody of the Aguado family. Juan Antonio Pastor. Córdoba. 1756

Also noteworthy is a gilded silver chalice, dated 1610 and with marks from Mexico, which is one of the first silver works sent from America to the churches of Navarre, and preserved by the Carmelite Mothers of Araceli. And also of American origin is a dulcera from the church of San Miguel with Guatemalan marks, presenting the double punch of Santiago de los Caballeros, a workshop where the pieces were hardly marked, besides being a work of a purely civil character, difficult to accommodate to its use in the Christian liturgy.

No less rich is the set of sacred vestments preserved by the different Corellan temples, among which the terno de las Calaveras, embroidered in gold and silk threads on black and crimson velvet, and used in the ceremonies of the deceased, hence the iconography that gives its name to the set, and which was made in 1580 by the Calaguritan embroiderer Alfonso Morales, author of other ternos, now lost, for the Corellan parishes. And A is the set composed of about 15 cloths, embroidered with gold thread and colored silks on white satin in Genoa, given in 1762 to serve the two parishes by the brothers Roque and Antonio Aguado. Among the pieces are four chasubles ordered to be made for the four priests who carried the monstrance on the procession, both pieces also given by the Aguado brothers.

Pluvial layer of the Aguado family. Genoa. 1762

And together with these, other ornaments are preserved, such as the terno de Toledo, embroidered in that city in the second half of the 18th century, with gold threads on silver tisu and belonging to the church of San Miguel; the set of mantles of the Virgin of Araceli, which include those given by the queens Bárbara de Braganza and Isabel II, or that of the García de Loigorri family; or the banner of the church of the Rosary, embroidered and painted in rococo style in 1778, with a rich iconography, presenting on the obverse side the Immaculate Conception, while on the reverse side is the Apparition of the Virgin of the Rosary to Saint Dominic, thus uniting the two main devotions of Corella, on the one hand the Virgin of the Rosary, titular of one of the two churches of the town, and on the other the Immaculate Conception.