30 March 2011

Course 

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

The treasure of the Virgin of the Tabernacle.
The splendor of jewelry at the service of divine ornament.

D. Ignacio Miguéliz Valcarlos.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

The so-called Treasure of Santa María la Real or Nuestra Señora del Sagrario of the Cathedral of Pamplona is made up of pieces of gold jewelry or silverware accumulated by this image throughout history. It contains pieces from the end of the 16th century to the present day, the core of the collection being the jewelry made during the Baroque centuries, and it can be considered the most important collection of gold silverware from the first half of the 18th century in Spain. The trousseau is composed of numerous pieces of jewelry donated to the Virgin by her faithful, and along with these are also guarded works carved ex profeso for the image, generally reusing stones and metals from the collection itself. In this Treasure we find jewels made of the richest materials, especially gold, diamonds and emeralds, and next to them others worked in common metals, fake stones, glass paste, etc., in final, works of cultured jewelry along with pieces of costume jewelry, both contemporary and ancient. And it is that in the constitution of this Treasure the economic value of the works did not prevail, which was obviously also important, but the spiritual importance of the same, evidenced in the amount of donations received by the image issue of faithful and devotees that the Virgin had. Likewise, among the treasured pieces in the trousseau of Our Lady of the Tabernacle are included works of feminine, masculine and ecclesiastical use. Thanks to them we can verify the evolution experienced by this subject of pieces and the adaptation of the different typologies to the fashions and tastes of the moment, which not only affected the design of the same, but also the materials in which they were carved.

As we have already said, the most important core of the preserved jewels are the Baroque pieces, among which we must highlight those from the first half of the 18th century, such as the magnificent crowns of the Virgin and child, made of gold, diamonds and emeralds by the goldsmith Juan José de la Cruz from Pamplona in 1736, as well as the set of gold and diamond bows and bibs, used to fasten the mantle with which Our Lady was dressed. Prior to these, from the second half of the 17th century, are also the airon or scrapbook, of gold, enamels, diamonds and rubies, or the scepter of the Virgin, of gold and diamonds, composed from a breast rose and an encomienda. An exceptional piece are the coral handles of Sicilian origin and dated between the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the only example of this subject that we know of in Hispanic collections. Along with these, pectoral crosses are preserved, some of great wealth, such as the gold, silver, diamonds and emeralds, or gold and rubies belonging to the Pamplona bishop Juan Lorenzo Irigoyen y Dutari (1712-1778); as well as brooches, rings and earrings.

There are abundant pieces carved during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, being perhaps the most important work the crown of Romanesque style in gold and precious stones made according to the design of D. Joaquín Lorda by Talleres de Arte Moreno of Granada and given by the Fuentes-Dutor Foundation, in addition to those of neo-Gothic style carved in the middle of the century in Madrid, by Juan José García, commissioned by the Court of Honor of Santa María la Real. And there are numerous examples of other types, such as rings, including one from the early nineteenth century of the so-called starry sky, or the episcopal ring with an amethyst of Don Emeterio Echeverría Barrena (1880-1954) Bishop Prior of the Military Orders and Ciudad Real, or another with a topaz of Don Juan Pedro Zarranz y Pueyo (1903-1973), Bishop of Plasencia, from Pamplona, of which the matching pectoral cross is also preserved.

In final we find a splendid collection of jewelry that spans from the late sixteenth century to the present day, with a wide variety of typologies, made in various materials, from the most expensive to the simplest, some donated and others made specifically for the use of Our Lady of the Tabernacle, the titular image of the Pamplona cathedral.

1. Airon. Gold, enamels, diamonds and rubies. Seventeenth century. Second half

2. Pectoral cross. Gold, emeralds and diamonds. Eighteenth century. Third quarter

3. Crown of the Virgin of the Sagrario. Gold, diamonds and emeralds. Juan José de la Cruz. Pamplona. 1736