March 29, 2012

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

HOLY WEEK CYCLE

The Steps of the Brotherhood of the Passion of the Lord of Pamplona

D. Emilio Quintanilla Martínez.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

The Brotherhood of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ of Pamplona was founded in 1887, so this year marks its 125th anniversary. It is a good moment to analyze the artistic patrimony that has been gathering along these elapsed years.

The current Brotherhood of the Passion is the result of the merger in 1887 of three other brotherhoods that had existed in Pamplona for several centuries: those of the Prayer in the Garden, of the Raised Christ and of the Holy Sepulchre, which from then on formed a single Brotherhood. Its main goal has been since that time to maintain, promote and renew the devotion and worship of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, focusing mainly on the celebrations of Holy Week, and especially in the procession of the Holy Burial as the central celebration, which runs through the streets of Pamplona on Good Friday.

Therefore, the main core of its historical heritage are the processional floats, which are kept at its headquarters on Dormitalería Street and represent twelve episodes of the Passion and Death of Christ, and are, in chronological order, the entrance of Jesus in Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Prayer in the Garden of Olives, the Arrest, the Flagellation, the Ecce Homo, the Carrying of the Cross, the Fall, the Raised Christ, the Descent, the Holy Sepulcher and the Solitude. None of the floats that were worshipped and carried in procession by the previous brotherhoods have survived, of which we only know graphic testimonies and some images. They were replaced by others that at the time were considered of better quality, and then others were added, until the mid-twentieth century, to fill in the complete visual cycle of the Passion. Perhaps that is its main value, the didactic, because the steps, together with the allegorical figures that participate in the procession, form a severe set, sometimes of not very high artistic quality, but complete and expressive, and above all, identified, in a way, with the being of the city, and that has become part of its hallmarks.

Cristo Alzado. Fructuoso Orduna. 1931
 

As for the images, three are undoubtedly worth mentioning: the image of the Holy Sepulcher, which was commissioned by the brotherhood before the merger, and of which we are also celebrating the 125th anniversary, the dress image of the Soledad, known as the Dolorosa, by Rosendo Nobas of 1883, and the Cristo Alzado, by Fructuoso Orduna of 1931. The Soledad, which arouses so much devotion in the city, responds with clarity to the suffering sorrows of Castilian lineage, strong and suffering, whose dramatism is tempered, in the procession, by the magnificent mantle with which it is adorned; the Santo Sepulcro, beautiful Cristo Yacente by Agapito Valmitjana, one of the most prestigious authors of his time, which also follows Castilian models of the Baroque, but softened by the spirit of romanticism then still in vogue. The Raised Christ brings, in turn, the expressive and contained strength of Fructuoso Orduna from Roncal.

Another aspect that we would like to highlight here is the attempt to form a prototype of a passage, with a decoration and structure based on geometric rhythms, created by Víctor Eusa, and which is linked to the aesthetics with which this architect wanted to endow his buildings, many of which lend their peculiar distinctive appearance to the Ensanche of Pamplona, an attempt with which the sculptor Inocencio Arcaya collaborated. Belong to this group the pasos (referring to the platforms or thrones) in which the Dolorosa, the Santo Sepulcro, the Cristo Alzado and the Caída are carried in procession, of which the first two were designed by Víctor Eusa and the others followed the successful prototype created by that architect.

Passage of the Holy Sepulchre. Agapito Vallmijana. 1887