December 21, 2007
Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series
A CONTEXT FOR AN IMAGE
The Renaissance carving of San Miguel de Oteiza and its artistic environment
D. Pedro Echeverría Goñi.
University of the Basque Country
The cult to San Miguel in Navarre has its main reference in the Sanctuary of San Miguel de Aralar, being dedicated to the Archangel 42 parishes, in which it is the fifth most abundant dedication in the Old Kingdom. Of the ten churches that it titles in the merindad of Estella, the oldest is the Romanesque one of San Miguel of the city of the Ega and the most important are factories of the XVI century like those of Carcar, Lodosa and Oteiza. As he is a celestial saint, he usually appears in elevated locations such as hermitages, real eagle's nests, towers, porticoes, keystones and even weather vanes. When in full baroque renovation, in the last third of the 18th century, the present portico was added to the parish of Oteiza, a niche was fitted out in the overhanging cornice to house a carving of St. Michael with a false devil at his feet as guardian of the temple. This Protorrenaissance image from around 1528-1530 must have been the primitive titular image of the church, which presided over an altarpiece of painted panels or earlier carvings. When the present rococo altarpiece was placed, instead of walling it in or removing it, this carving was given a preferential location in view of all the parishioners, although it underwent a series of modifications to fit it into the aforementioned framework, such as the addition of a rustic articulated arm with the sword.
Former head of the parish of Oteiza de la Solana (XVI century).
Due to its stylistic features typical of an incipient Renaissance with traces of the Tardogothic, we attribute this carving to Miguel Terin, carver and image maker, son of Master Terin, founder of a dynastic workshop established in Estella. This carver dominated the artistic panorama in the region during the first third of the 16th century, succeeded by his son and partner Miguel, who caught up with the "Roman" language. Both were key figures in the transition between the Tardogothic and the Renaissance, as well as Johan de Eguía, an illustrious promoter and patron of Estella. Maestre Terín was the author -from the end of the 1920s with his son's partnership - of several altarpieces of "modern" painting and carving, of which only the main carvings and some reliefs in San Miguel de Estella, Lerín, Eguiarte, Mendigorría and in several villages of the Améscoa valley have survived to the present day.
Despite the transformations suffered in the last restoration, we can still appreciate some characteristics of the protorrenaissance carving such as its oval face with characteristic blond hair, the Roman soldier's breastplate with short skirt, the survival of the elbow and knee pads of the medieval armor, and the red cape. The anthropomorphic demon that was at his feet has disappeared and the wings and sword have been replaced (the original was straight). It is a contemporary work to the carving of San Miguel of the parish of Santa María de Sangüesa and has good late Gothic precedents in the carvings of San Miguel de Estella, Berbinzana and Ecala, works of his father Master Terin.