March 12, 2014

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

CONVENTUAL PAMPLONA

The ornamentation of the convent church, mirror of Orders and patrons

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

The convents called by Bazin "palaces of faith" required, in addition to a functional and rigorous architecture that made community life possible, the language of images that, as visible scriptures, showed the visitor the foundations of their rule and doctrine. This was made visible in the altarpieces of the conventual church through the programs by means of images that showed the spirituality of the order, its founders and saints accompanied by scenes of the miracles they performed. In final, a speech with images parallel to those used for sermons in preaching. These programs expressed with images and paintings were shown in architectural supports in which theatrical and scenographic resources were used.

The founders of the convent and its patrons were also present through their coats of arms located in prominent and visible places, as well as their burials, tombstones and sepulchers, located in presbyteries, chapels and crypts. In this way, the convent church becomes a mirror that reflects the orders and patrons.

Three examples of conventual churches corresponding to the Dominican, Carmelite and Augustinian Recollect orders show the evolution of the arts in the foundations of Pamplona during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The main altarpiece of the monastery of Santiago de Pamplona is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture in the city. Its well known history is now completed with the study and analysis that has allowed the restoration of the work carried out in 2008, which responds to the confusion that its contemplation and its evaluation produced until now.

Its authors, two Franks from the workshop of the cathedral of Pamplona who worked extensively in Navarre: Pierres Picart, more carver than sculptor, and Friar Juan de Beauves, the most outstanding sculptor of the phase of transition to Romanism of Juan de Anchieta. Beauves is responsible for most of the sculpture of the altarpiece of Santiago, which gives shape to a complex iconographic program composed of the Passion, the legend of Santiago Peregrino, the Apparition of Christ to the Magdalene, San Fermín and his Martyrdom and Dominican Saints.

Three fundamental conclusions can be drawn from this analysis, the first is that the Renaissance altarpiece is preserved practically in its entirety. The second is that the reform of the 18th century, which added four giant columns, only slightly altered the Renaissance altarpiece. And the third that the great transformation of the altarpiece took place by the polychromy of the XVIII century whose contract published by Mª Josefa Tarifa tells us that it was respectful with the "senses and movements" of the figures but that in fact it deprived the vibration of the Renaissance estofado and the smoothness of the reliefs subtracting them the expressiveness and idealization of the Renaissance by following the imitation of the natural characteristic of the baroque. As a final evaluation it can be said that it is a great altarpiece of the Second Renaissance of excellent sculpture, the work of two French masters rooted in the area.
 

Main altarpiece of the Dominican monastery 

The second example of a conventual altarpiece, that of the Carmelites of Pamplona, represents a radical change. It is no longer a local art but a foreign one coming from the focus Spanish and its center Valladolid. The main altarpiece and the collaterals were executed in 1669 following a Madrid style model by Alonso Cano that was taken to Valladolid by Sebastián de Benavente, author of the altarpiece of Jesus and Mary of the Castilian city. Its design was copied punctually by the Carmelite tracists Fray Francisco de Jesús y María and Fray Martín de San José from the main altarpiece of the convent of Pamplona and in other Castilian altarpieces such as the one in Alba de Tormes. The classicist style altarpiece with cartouches and festoons originally housed canvases and sculptures and currently houses sculptures of St. Elias, St. John of the Cross and St. Anne, as well as images of St. Joseph from one of the collaterals and St. Teresa that follows the model of Gregorio Fernandez. Excellent for its workmanship and polychromy is the sculpture of San Joaquín with the Virgen Niña, head of the chapel. All these images make up a good group of sculpture of Valladolid origin in the orbit of Gregorio Fernandez, with its advantages and disadvantages. In the case of the convents outside the walls, they enjoy a larger area of land as they are not as limited as those inside the walls; on the other hand, such a location makes the apostolic work of the religious orders (in the case of the male orders) more difficult, poses problems for the building and its inhabitants as it is built close to the banks of the Arga River, and is subject to military needs in the case of a first-rate fortress like Pamplona ( place ). In the case of the convents within the walls, such a location facilitates their catechetical mission statement ; nevertheless, they are not exempt from difficulties in the form of shortage of space, civil service examination of the parishes and other religious communities previously installed in the city, and even strategic-military ones.
 

Main altarpiece of the convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns

The third example is represented by the convent and church of the Augustinian Recollect nuns of Pamplona, whose altarpieces of the chevet constitute a sample of the advanced baroque around 1700. In this case the convent building and its ornamentation are of Madrid imprint by express desire of its founders Don Juan de Ciriza, Marquis of Montejaso, secretary of Philip III and Doña Catalina de Alvarado, buried in the crypt, who had as model to follow in this convent that of the Encarnación in Madrid.

The main altarpiece and the collateral ones are the work of the masters of the focus of Tudela, Francisco Gurrea, retablista and to the sculptor Juan de Peralta that shaped a splendid set of exuberant decoration that dissolves its architecture. This altarpiece came to replace a previous one designed by Vicente Carducho. The architecture of great theatricality and effect houses in its central oval the sculpture of the Immaculate Conception, titular of the convent, and San Juan and Santa Catalina patron saints of the founders, in addition to Santa Monica and San Agustín, San Francisco de Asís and Santa Clara. St. Joseph and St. Anthony preside over the collaterals.

The cloister keeps some sculptures due to notable sculptors or schools. Among them, some Neapolitan sculptures that arrived through bequests and the Crucified of the choir by Juan de Anchieta as well as the Virgin and Child stand out. In the conference room Capitular highlights the Immaculate Conception, documented work of Manuel Pereira, polychromed by the painter Francisco Camilo and a Recumbent Christ. Of special merit is a Dolorosa by Pedro de Mena, an extended bust with arms. It is a Dolorosa in contemplation, an image of close devotion that moves to pain. Also a lead Infant Jesus according to an original by Montañés.

Main altarpiece of the Augustinian Recollect nuns

Immaculate Conception. Manuel Pereira
Augustinian Recollect Nuns Convent