February 29, 2012

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

PAMPLONA AND SAN SATURNINO

A B guild in the parish: The silversmiths of Pamplona

Ms. María Concepción García Gainza.
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

The parish of San Cernin was a guild church, since the brotherhoods of some of the guilds that carried out their trades in the different streets of the Burgo had their altars there and worshipped their patron saints. One of these guilds or brotherhoods was that of the silversmiths, which was constituted as such in the Ordinances of 1587. The brotherhood of San Eloy was a religious, welfare and also labor association , as it regulated the work of the gold and silver silversmiths, examined masters, apprentices and apprentices. The patron saint of the brotherhood was Saint Eloy, bishop of Noyons, whose patron saint is a Romanesque sculpture that has preserved a careful polychrome and that can be dated around 1587, date of the constitution of the brotherhood. 

St. Eloy

The festivities celebrated in the church of San Cernin were on June 25 and December 1, the birth and death of San Eloy, and the candelaria was also celebrated, in addition to the funerals of the artisans. The positions of the brotherhood were those of mayordomo mayor, mayordomo menor or second, and luminero. Each one kept the key to the chest that contained the city's mark and other tools, which were kept in the house of the main steward.

Silversmithing was considered a liberal art because the artisans needed to master drawing and extensive theoretical and technical knowledge. They always enjoyed great social consideration after the Pragmatic of 1552 given by Emperor Charles V in which silversmiths were authorized to wear silk suits. This Pragmatic was printed in Pamplona in the "Crisol" with the Ordinances of 1743.

Historical-Political Crucible of Antiquity, nobility and liberal estimation of the distinguished art of silversmiths. 1744
 

The process of training in the brotherhood began with an apprenticeship with a master for five or six years, at the end of which the apprentice was promoted to the status of mancebo and finally after the examination he became a master silversmith. The examination was perfectly regulated in the Pamplona ordinances and consisted of a drawing of a piece chosen by the apprentice among three offered by his examiners; then came the work of the piece of agreement with the designed drawing and finally proceeded to the theoretical examination on the law of metals, alloys, precious stones and other technical issues. If he was C he proceeded to the oath of the ordinances and pragmatics and was recognized as a master with the School to open a store or shop.

In Navarre, the Book of Examinations of Pamplona has been preserved in the Municipal file of the capital, a rare material, almost always disappeared, which is only preserved in Barcelona and Valencia and some loose drawings in Orense and Granada. Its contents include 128 exams with their corresponding drawings that begin in 1691 and end in 1832, the latter date indicating the decline of the Pamplona silversmiths' brotherhood and probably the withdrawal of the test in line with the rest of the country's silversmiths. These exams offer us, in addition to beautiful drawings, numerous data of each of the examinees such as name, surname, origin, date on which the exam takes place, reference letter to the different tests of the exam and territorial validity of the degree scroll obtained.

As for the drawings, some of which are very precise and beautiful, they are a good representation of eighteenth-century jewelry, the main types of which are: ribbon, cross, ring and breastplate. In the silver drawings there are pieces of worship and others of domestic use with predominance of the civil silver over the religious, which is interesting given the considerable disappearance of this subject of pieces, like beautiful drawings of saltcellars, pepper and toothpick shakers, holy water basins, despabiladeras, barber's empty, salvillas and an interesting collection of azafates that includes 19 drawings.

If the study of the drawings is interesting from a typological point of view, it is no less interesting if we consider the stylistic evolution that can be seen in the evolution of these drawings over time. Indeed, throughout the century and a third that the Examination Book covers, it is logical to appreciate the changes in tastes and the introduction of new fashions and styles, despite the fact that Pamplona's silverware sample shows a certain conservatism, even though the novelties from the Court and from neighboring silversmiths, Aragon and France itself reach it.

Drawing of the Pamplona Examination Bookpreserved at file Municipal de Pamplona