The piece of the month of July 2014

THE ARTISTIC DECORATION OF THE CHAPEL OF THE CERVANTES ENRÍQUEZ DE NAVARRA FAMILY IN THE CHURCH OF NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA VICTORA DE CASCANTE

Mª Josefa Tarifa Castilla
University of Zaragoza

The current parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Victoria de Cascante was originally the church of the convent that the Order of the Minims built after their arrival in the town in 1586, making it the only foundation that these Franciscan friars made in Navarre. The different chapels that open on both sides of the single nave of the church were acquired in board of trustees by different members of the town, from high ecclesiastics, nobles, such as the López de Ribaforada or Miguel Cruzat, prior of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, to brotherhoods, with a funerary purpose, as a privileged and unique burial place for themselves and their relatives, their owners being obliged to provide them with everything necessary for the good development of divine worship.

One of the most exceptional chapels found in this church, both in terms of the importance of the person who founded it and its artistic value, is the one located on the Gospel side next to the main chapel. It was acquired by a son of the city, Luis Cervantes Enríquez de Navarra, prior of Berlanga de Duero (Soria) and abbot of Larza, belonging to one of the most outstanding lineages of the Navarrese nobility. agreement In accordance with the conditions presented on 6 May 1593, the ecclesiastic built the aforementioned chapel under the patron saint of San Luis, and was obliged to provide it with an altar, altarpiece, grille, frontal, as well as the objects necessary for the service of divine worship, such as chalices and chasubles, leaving the ornamentation and the placement of his coats of arms on it to his own discretion. The building was completed in 1602, a work that was finished by Pascual de Horaa, a workman from the town, and in April of the same year the prior of Berlanga commissioned the Corellan fusso maker Diego Pérez de Bidangoz y Enciso to make the wooden grille that enclosed the room, which has not survived to the present day.

Church of Nuestra Señora de la Victoria de Cascante
(Photo: M.J. Tarifa)
 

In the space of the wall between the arch of entrance to the chapel and the vaulted ceiling, a pictorial decoration of a heraldic nature was arranged, together with two coats of arms sculpted in plaster that delimit a registration, all elements that allude to the board of trustees of the same, where the names of the founder's parents, Alonso Gómez de Cervantes, a soldier in the service of Charles V, and Isabel Enríquez de Navarra, are referred to. These coats of arms were again sculpted inside the room in the upper part of the walls, between a moulded cornice that runs around the entire perimeter.

Heraldic emblem of Luis Cervantes Enriquez de Navarra in the chapel of the Assumption.
(Photo: M.J. Tarifa)
 

To preside over the chapel, Luis Cervantes commissioned an altarpiece dedicated to the Assumption of Mary at the end of the 16th century, one of the highest quality works in the church. The main panel depicts the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, at whose feet the patron himself kneels next to a book with the arms of Navarre, among other figures, such as Saint Francis of Paula, with the Franciscan charitas, founder of the religious order of the Minims to which this convent belonged, and the French monarch Louis XI, recognisable by his shield of three lilies on a blue background and under whose patronage Cervantes instituted the chapel. This painting had previously been attributed to Rolan Moys (1571-†1592), a Flemish painter who arrived in Spain in 1559 in the entourage of Martín de Gurrea, Duke of Villahermosa, as a chamber artist, no doubt due to its resemblance to other depictions by the artist of the same Assumptionist topic , such as the central panel of the main altarpiece in the Cistercian monastery of La Oliva, which he painted in 1571 together with the Flemish artist Paul Scheppers (1566-†1577), an altarpiece now in the church of San Pedro in Tafalla. However, recent programs of study ascribe the painting of the altarpiece in the chapel in Cascantina to a follower of Moys. Criado Mainar suggests that the panel may have been executed, or at least completed, by Francisco Metelín the Younger (acted. 1573-†1614) or a painter close to his workshop, who collaborated with Moys between 1580 and 1583 before opening his own workshop in Tarazona in 1588, producing among others the main altarpiece of the parish church of the Assumption of the Virgin in Grisel (1591-1593), whose similarities with the Cascantino altarpiece are more than evident, as is the case with the panel by the same artist topic from the altarpiece of Nuestra Señora de Vera del Moncayo (1588-1590).
 

Altarpiece of the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin
Detail of the central panel with St. Louis of France, Luis Cervantes Enriquez of Navarre and St. Francis of Paola
(Photo: M.J. Tarifa)
 

topic Further compositional coincidences can be seen in the bench, whose central panel depicts the scene of the Holy Family with the Virgin and Saint Anne holding the Child, flanked by Saint Joseph and Saint Joachim, many of whose elements can be seen in the panel of the same style on the bench of the Grisel altarpiece of the Assumption, which once again suggests that the Navarrese painting was painted by Francisco Metelín the Younger. This central panel of the bench is flanked on the left by paintings of Saint Lawrence the Martyr, a seated enthroned saint with the book half-open in his lap, perhaps King Solomon, who has lost part of the pictorial layer, and on the right by a pontiff writing, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and Saint John the Baptist with the attribute of the lamb in his hand.

On the other hand, the finding of unpublished documentary data located in different Navarrese archives allows us to provide unpublished information regarding the rich textile and silver ornaments with which the chapel was provided for the good service of divine worship. According to agreement with an inventory dated 23 June 1626, the chapel of the Cervantes Enriquez de Navarra family had been endowed since its foundation in 1593 with a series of liturgical objects necessary for the proper development of the divine offices, referring to a gilded silver chalice, "the cup for inside with its coat of arms at the foot, with its paten, plus a silver salbilla with its arms and two silver cruets". To this were added a series of textile ornaments, such as "a green damask chasuble with its brocade and golden border with an embroidered coat of arms, with its stole and maniple. Plus another chasuble of black gorgaran lined in red taffeta, with its gold handrails by border with its embroidered coat of arms, and its stole and stole. And another chasuble of network overlaid with yellow taffeta and its stole and stole. Plus an alb of soft furnishings with its points and randas and amito. Plus two black corporal bags without corporals. Plus a small old-fashioned missalic and a caxon to hold all these things".

Most of the pieces disappeared in November 1808, as did the rest of the rich trousseau of silverware in the other rooms of the church, as a consequence of the brutal looting of the convent by the French troops during the War of Independence, which had such disastrous consequences for the historical and artistic heritage, status which worsened after the exclaustration of the friars in 1836 as result of the application of the disentailment measures of Mendizábal. Of all the trousseau donated by the patrons of the chapel of the Cervantes Enríquez de Navarra family, only one textile ornament has come down to us, the chasuble (fig. 4) which is currently conserved in one of the cupboards in the sacristy of the conventual temple, with the arms of the founder embroidered on the back (fig. 5). The coat of arms, similar to the central coat of arms on the pictorial decoration above the arch of entrance to the chapel, corresponds to the Enríquez family of Navarre: quartered, first and fourth in gules, with the gold chains of Navarre; and second and third in azure, with a crowned lion rampant, in gules. In the central part of the shield there are three escutcheons: on the right flank, of azure, the castle of gold; in the centre, of sinople, two hinds; and on the left flank, of azure, a band of gules with two gold crescents, accompanied by two gold crescents, and bordered with eight gold sotueres. These are the arms of the Rivadeneira, Cervantes and Amézcoa families, the family antecedents of the Prior of Berlanga.

This emblazoned central piece is the only thing that corresponds to the liturgical vestment of the late 16th century, as the rest of the precious fabric that serves as the base for the border is later, from the 18th century, a very common solution in order to continue using very expensive pieces that were partly deteriorated.

Chasuble donated by Luis Cervantes Enríquez de Navarra
(Photo: M.J. Tarifa)
 

Detail of the chasuble with coat of arms of Luis Cervantes Enríquez de Navarra
(Photo: M.J. Tarifa)
 

bibliography
- CRIADO MAINAR, J., Francisco Metelín y el retablo mayor de Grisel, Tarazona, Ayuntamiento de Grisel and Centro de programs of study Turiasonenses de la Institución "Fernando el Católico", 2006.
- FERNÁNDEZ framework, J.I., "Nuestra Señora de la Victoria. Cascante", Temas de Cultura Popular, nº 348, Pamplona, Diputación Foral de Navarra.
- GARCÍA GAINZA, M.C., HEREDIA MORENO, C., RIVAS CARMONA, J. and ORBE SIVATTE, M., Catálogo Monumental de Navarra, I. Merindad de Tudela, Pamplona, Institución Príncipe de Viana, 1980, pp. 49-53.
- TARIFA CASTILLA, M.J., La arquitectura religiosa del siglo XVI en la Merindad de Tudela, Pamplona, Gobierno de Navarra, 2005, pp. 340-362.
- TARIFA CASTILLA, M.J., "Un pathway genealógico: las armas de las Cervantes Enríquez de Navarra en el convento de Nuestra Señora de la Victoria de Cascante", Revista Hidalguía, nº 334-335 (May-August 2009), pp. 495-525.