8 February 2012

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

PAMPLONA AND SAN SATURNINO

The doorway of San Saturnino

Ms. Clara Fernández-Ladreda.
University of Navarra

After the talk by Professor Carlos Martínez Álava on the architecture of the church of San Saturnino in Pamplona, Clara Fernández-Ladreda, from the University of Navarre, explained the doorway of the aforementioned parish church, which opens on the north side and has a rich iconography.

The capitals on the left show the cycle of the Infancy of Christ: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, advertisement to the Shepherds, presentation in the temple, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Magi before Herod, Flight into Egypt and Epiphany, these four episodes being somewhat disordered. On the right, the cycle of the Passion: entrance in Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Arrest, the Descent, visit to the Sepulchre, the Apparition to the Magdalene and the Descent into Limbo.

The tympanum depicts the Last Judgement. In the centre is Christ the Judge, flanked by Mary and Saint John - the intercessors -, a trumpeter angel summoning the judgement and the kneeling donor, with small angelic figures with the attributes of the Passion filling in the gaps. On the lintel, the Resurrection of the Dead, the Blessed and the Damned.

The keystones of the archivolts complete the ensemble, in which, from the inside to the outside, the following appear: God the Father, the Trinity Throne of Grace, the Risen Christ and the Crucifixion, which presides over the ogee arch of the archivolt.
The ensemble can be attributed to the same workshop that made the keystones in the Barbazana chapel and can be dated a little later, ca. 1330-1340.
 

Tympanum of the north doorway of San Saturnino in Pamplona

North façade of San Saturnino de Pamplona. Detail of the Trinity