9 March 2011

Course

THE CATHEDRAL OF PAMPLONA. A VIEW FROM THE 21ST CENTURY

The Cloister and its outbuildings: architecture and sculpture

Ms. Santiaga Hidalgo Sánchez.
University of Paris-Ouest

The cloister and its Gothic rooms, which began to be built around 1280 and were finished around 1340, were overflowing with figurative works -sculpted or painted- which, in a large issue and in better or worse condition, have survived to the present day. Given the impossibility of discussing all of them in 45 minutes, lecture focuses on a specific example - the capitals with scenes from the Old Testament (around 1280-1290) - which serve to understand the importance of the cloister, its level as a work of art and as a historical document. They allow us to appreciate, on the one hand, the formal quality of some of the elements of the cloister, and on the other, the importance of the iconographic program, which will reflect a series of ideas related to the mentality of the time and the personality of the Pamplona headquarters.

Thus, through the detailed analysis of the different scenes and their comparison with other contemporary examples, we can see sample how in the biblical capitals of Pamplona we find an affirmation of the traditional conception of humility -in the story of Job- as the main virtue against pride, source of all sins -represented specifically in the tower of Babel, just in front of the capital of Job, but also in the rest of the cycle of Genesis: pride in the original sin, Eve's lust, envy in the murder of Abel, anger in the episode of Lamech and Tubalcain-. The affirmation, which was supported by the traditional opinions of which St. Bonaventure was the standard-bearer at the time, was very topical in the discussion on the excesses of Averroism regarding the new system of virtues that Aristotelian ethics implied, and which was taking place at the University of Paris in those same years in which the cloister was being erected. On the other hand, it suited a community of canons regular that had already had Job as an example of life for centuries.
 

Construction of the tower of Babel. East gallery, cloister of the cathedral of Pamplona.

Expulsion from Paradise and Works of Adam and Eve. East gallery, cloister of the cathedral of Pamplona.