March 26, 2014

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

CONVENTUAL PAMPLONA

Magnificence and splendour to honour God: silverware and ornaments in Pamplona's convents

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

Within the artistic ornaments preserved in the convents and monasteries of Pamplona, the silver trousseaus are of special importance, a reflection of the historical development of these foundations. In spite of the wealth of jewelry that many of these monasteries accumulated, it must be taken into account that these pieces were used to honor God and dignify divine worship, often subject to the rules and norms of each community. This fact will condition the characteristics of these treasures and the pieces that composed them. However, at present, these treasures are very diminished due to the vicissitudes of history. And at this point it is necessary to mention the disastrous consequences that the 19th century had for their survival, with the different wars that were lived as well as the effects of the disentailment. Due to this, the silverware of these centers was diminished, both by the submission that these jewels had to make at the request of the different governments, and by the alienation of the same for their survival. In spite of this, there are several pieces of silver that are still conserved in these monasteries, although most of them respond to the usual typologies in the temples of Navarre, generally those of more common use in the liturgy, being the Augustinian Recollect nuns those who conserve the richest and most varied of the trousseaus that have come down to our days.

Although some of these foundations, such as the Discalced Carmelite nuns, date from medieval times, it should be noted that the silver pieces that these monasteries have today were carved during the Baroque and later centuries. There are only two exceptions: the pair of reliquaries of San Esteban and San Gaspar de las recoletas, medieval works that paradoxically are conserved in a baroque foundation, where they arrived in the middle of the XVII century. They are pieces carved in Bruges in 1435 or 1460, probably by Jean de Quane, which follow the models of architectural reliquary, with ostensorium in the form of a temple. And next to these we find a great variety of pieces that cover different typologies, among which we see some carved in Pamplona workshops, but also foreign ones. Among the latter we find Hispanic pieces, from San Sebastian, Toledo and Madrid; European, from Sicily and Bruges; or American, from Peru and Bolivia.

Ciborium. Discalced Carmelite nuns
 

Along with the reliquaries already mentioned, outstanding pieces would be the ciborium of the Discalced Carmelite nuns, a work from the beginning of the 17th century but with a late-baroque decoration, or the one brought from Eibar in 1632 by the founders of the Recollect nuns. The set of monstrances, thanks to which it is possible to make an evolution of this typology from the Baroque to our days, offers examples in the Discalced Carmelites, Recollects, Discalced Carmelites and Marists. The baroque reliquary of St. Francis Xavier, which comes from the extinct high school of the Jesuits is preserved in the cathedral and the Lignum Crucis, a work from Toledo in the Recollects. Or the set of baroque trays of the Discalced Carmelite nuns, the Recollect nuns and the Augustinian nuns of San Pedro, which tell us about the arrival in these convents of pieces of civil silverware in the nuns' dowries, and their later adaptation as pieces for religious use. Extraordinary works are the baroque sacred pieces of the Recoletas, of Peruvian origin, as well as the little chapel of the Virgin of Copacabana, a very rare jewel of which only one other example is known in Spain. And finally, we cannot fail to mention the variety of crowns, diadems and attributes of saints that are preserved in all these monasteries, a reflection and heritage of the baroque splendor, when every element used in the church was susceptible of being made in silver.
 

Custody. Discalced Carmelites

Reliquary of the Lignum Crucis. Augustinian Recollect Nuns