6 November 2007

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

NEW VIEWS ON THE CATHEDRAL OF PAMPLONA

New times and new needs for worship.
Humanism and the Counter-Reformation

Ms Concepción García Gainza.
Chairof Navarrese Heritage and Art

Pamplona Cathedral began the 16th century with the completion of its building as the chancel was now finished. From this moment onwards and throughout the 16th century, the cathedral began to be furnished with liturgical furniture such as the choir stalls, grilles, bells, images and altarpieces which, having abandoned the Gothic style, would display the new style that had been born in Italy, the Renaissance. A new style that recovered Greek and Roman Antiquity, which gave rise to a new culture, that of Humanism. Based on classical texts and mythology, its arts showed a preferential interest in architecture and classical orders, which were known through treatises, and also in the proportions and harmony of the human body, preferably the nude.

Bishops, priors, dignitaries of the cathedral and canons were the promoters and patrons of the new works in which Italian Humanism was first introduced and then the Counter-Reformation.
The choir stalls are the great common businessin the cathedral, involving a great collective and economic effort. Its promoter and mentor, Don Sancho Miguel Garcés de Cascante, prior of the cathedral, had been in Rome, which allowed him to become acquainted with the great works of the Italian Renaissance. The choir stalls can be considered a milestone in the introduction of the Renaissance language in Navarre after the Tudela stalls, which were still Gothic, and represent a considerable advance in the new style. It forms a large-scale sculptural ensemble in which, together with the Christian programme, a whole series of images taken from Antiquity and mythology, typical of Humanism, are developed. A synthesis of Humanism and Christianity is thus achieved.
 

Pamplona Cathedral. Choir stalls. Esteban de Obray. 1539

Both the grille that closed the choir and that of the presbytery were promoted by Don Remiro de Goñi, archdeacon of the Tabla, whose relative Don León de Goñi paid for the construction of some of the bells. Bishop Juan Rena was responsible for the silver bust of Saint Ursula.

During the Counter-Reformation, the cathedral put the directives of the Council of Trent on internshipby means of the Synodal Constitutions of the Bishopric of Pamplona promulgated by Bernardo de Rojas y Sandoval and published in 1591. It was at this time and in this context that the cathedral acquired one of its most devout images, the Crucifixion by Juan de Anchieta. Likewise, during the episcopate of Don Antonio Zapata, the construction of the main altarpiece was promoted with a Counter-Reformationist programme that was a fundamental element for the renovation of the worship of agreementin accordance with the guidelines of Trento.

Main altarpiece of Pamplona Cathedral, currently in the parish church of San Miguel de Pamplona.

The placement of the main altarpiece immediately led to the renovation of the entire presbytery, not only with the silver templete, made by Zapata himself, to house the Eucharist in the main altarpiece, but also with the construction of the altarpiece of Our Lady of Piety for the royal chapel located in the presbytery.

Pamplona Cathedral. Eucharistic shrine and monstrance