13 September

lecture series
"FROM THE MUSES TO ARÍNZANO. WINERIES IN TIERRA ESTELLA".

Evocations of wine in the figurative arts of Navarre

Ricardo Fernández Gracia
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

With degree scroll of "Grapes and vines in Navarrese art", we gave a lecture whose content can be consulted on the web page of the Chair de Patrimonio y Arte Navarro.

In it we echoed the representations of vine leaves and bunches of grapes in numerous examples of the figurative arts of Navarre, from Roman to contemporary times. The importance of vine cultivation in the traditional Navarrese Economics was reflected in the quantity and quality of the artistic representations.

A small, but not negligible, testimony of that reality is provided by some cultural goods from different periods. Everything related to wine, as well as crafts and visual arts, had an outstanding development , since artistic manifestations are nothing but a reflection of the historical context in which they are developed, as well as a means of communication between men.

Expanding on the panorama indicated in the aforementioned lecture on grapes and vines, on this occasion we wanted to reflect on other presences of everything related to wine in evocative passages of the same, mainly based on some biblical passages.

If in the medieval period the decorative criteria related to the harvesting of grapes, as well as the agricultural tasks connected with them in the mensarios were the most outstanding and primordial, we must not forget other images related to wine. Thus, we have to remember some voussoirs of the door of the Judgment of the cathedral of Tudela, work A of the Navarrese heritage of the time of Sancho el Fuerte (c. 1230), along with examples of the bad practice of some trades; also gluttony, pride or greed have their part. Specifically, the pernicious effects of wine are shown in a cauldron in which two people are burned and forced to drink the liquid poured by a pair of demons. In another dovela two other demons force to drink the liquor that comes from some vessels, in just punishment for the excessive consumption of drink and warning to soldiers and other people in general of the pernicious effects of the immoderate drink.

In the line of the sin of the abuse of wine we also find the relief of the prodigal son in the altarpiece of the Magdalena, made by Miguel López de Ganuza and entrusted, after his death, to Domingo de Lusa, from 1632. Together with other reliefs of the parable of the prodigal son, the only artistic representation that we know of in Navarre of the dissipated life of the young man in the Gospel text was sculpted.

Arróniz. Scene of the prodigal son. Miguel López de Ganuza and Domingo de Lusa, 1632.

In harmony with the engraved compositions, we find banquet, wine, fruit, feast, dance and music. From left to right, three groups follow one another inside a room built with ashlars and with several openings that leave painted landscapes. The first one with two women: the first one with the money bag, the same one that appears in the scene of his departure from the same altarpiece, while the other woman holds a large cup inviting the young man to drink. The second presents the young man squatting next to a woman who embraces him and sample him a book, surely with literature considered pernicious: to the two is added a young musician playing a vihuela bow. The third and last one presents two dancers next to a table with rich food. It is interesting to emphasize, above all, the message of the young man captive of the pleasures of the world, drink, women, music and dance.

However, not everything was aimed at these dire consequences of wine, as it was glossed in more festive scenes and with other meanings, as in the Romanesque capitals depicting the Wedding at Cana, in the cloister of the cathedral of Tudela and the church of the Magdalena in the same city or the cover of San Miguel de Estella. The Renaissance and early Baroque tabernacles and exhibitors show the same scene (Aibar, Tafalla) and it is not absent in other works such as the silver Corpus Corpus of the cathedral of Pamplona or the ashlar of Ujué, the latter, the work of Manuel Martín de Ontañón (1774). In most of these cases the presence of the Gospel passage should be interpreted as a prefiguration of the Eucharist due to its location in tabernacles or pieces related to the Blessed Sacrament. Some reliefs of Melchizedek presenting the bread and wine obey the same reason.

The popularity of everything related to wine is evidenced by the significant presence of grapes and vines, such as a heraldic coat of arms of the town of Lecároz in Baztania or a letter of profession of the Benedictine Sisters of Estella from the first half of the 18th century.

Saint Ubaldesca, so closely linked to the Order of Malta, appears in the canvases of Corella, Tafalla and Cintruénigo with large bunches of grapes or vines and, of course, the sacred vessels of many parishes and convents, as well as the monstrances are decorated with the symbolic grapes for obvious reasons of use and function in everything related to the Eucharist.

A last contribution to topic we made when commenting on the presence in Arróniz of a Shrine of Our Lady of Fair Love under the invocation of the Virgen de las Viñas, whose patron saint was kept in the parish in the middle of the last century on a very colorful pedestal with the double eagle and the symbol of Marian slavery (S with a nail), whose photograph was published by Father Jacinto Clavería in his well-known monograph.

For the rest, we refer to the previous partnership on the presence of grapes and vines in the arts of Navarre, to which we have made reference letter at the beginning of this summary.

Congress VIII of Father Moret. 1766.