The Piece of the Month for October 2026

THE SADELER ENGRAVINGS IN THE RENAISSANCE OF LATE MANIERIST PAINTING IN NAVARRA

 Pedro Luis Echeverría Goñi

The finest generation of Navarrese painters, active at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries—with Juan de Landa in the Diocese of Pamplona and Juan de Lumbier in the Diocese of Tarazona as leading figures—created oil paintings on panel and canvas, still in the Mannerist tradition and featuring colorful, lifelike polychromatic renderings. In their works we find monumental figures, luminous pre- programs of study -style figures, a striking Venetian-inspired color palette, foreshortening as a means of expression, diagonals, and oblique perspectives. These characteristics derive from the Mannerist compositions of Flemish engravers, such as Cornelis Cort, the Sadeler family, and the Wierix family, whose works they either copied verbatim or simplified, adding their own colors. 

Three members of the Sadeler dynasty—the founder Jan I, his brother and collaborator Raphael, and his brilliant nephew Aegidius II—developed a prolific production and edition of engraved prints, reaching a figure close to 1,000, with more than 600 attributed to the dynasty's founder. Drawing on the inventions of M. de Vos, Schwarz, von Aachen, Sustris, J. Bassano, and F. Zuccaro, they offered a visual repertoire to painters and sculptors, renewing and unifying Nordic and Italian art. In previous articles, we have already explored the graphic models of paintings by Juan de Landa in Cáseda, Sagaseta, and Eransus. Therefore, as a preliminary study to this month's featured piece, we will refer to one of the panels that the herald painted for the door of the Ororbia sanctuary. Next, we will focus on the panel of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, a work executed by Juan de Lumbier for the side altarpiece of the Assumption of Cadreita.

In plenary session of the Executive Council Within the Counter-Reformation atmosphere of reaffirming the Eucharist, which was extended to the Bishopric of Pamplona by the Synodal Constitutions of 1591, we find the creation of a tabernacle-monstrance for the altarpiece of Ororbia by Juan de Gasteluzar. On June 4, 1607, the abbot and the first priests entrusted Juan de Landa with its painting and gilding, “inside and out.” We know that the door, the three panels, and the ceiling were painted with scenes from the Passion, the background of which depicted Christ carrying the Cross. Upon opening some tabernacles, such as the one in Santa María de Tafalla, we find other scenes painted by the herald, such as the Descent of Christ into Limbo, the Holy Burial, and God the Father. 

In the panel of Jesus before Caiaphas and the false witness, which today serves as the door of a baroque tabernacle, removed from the sacristy, Juan de Landa reproduces almost literally a burin engraving of the same topic by Jan Sadeler I, which was part of a series of eight Passion scenes, based on Christoph Schwarz, dated 1589. They are copies of those that made up the altarpiece of the Passion and were designed by Friedrich Sustris and executed by the aforementioned Munich painter for Duchess Renata of Lorraine, wife of William V of Bavaria. All of them represent a renewal in compositions, with original groupings of figures and a preference for depicting Christ prostrate on the ground, not only in the themes that demanded it, but in others, where it was unusual, as in the one we are dealing with or in that of the Flagellation.

 
Jesus Before Caiaphas and the False Witness. Jan Sadeler I, British Museum. Juan de Landa, Ororbia. Door of a tabernacle. Photo: Carlos Becerril

The Navarran painter depicted all the figures in their entirety: Caiaphas seated on his throne, the bribed witness raising his index finger, and the members of the Sanhedrin—specifically six priests, scribes, and elders—wearing the headdresses that identify them. The foreground “ group ”—featuring Christ collapsed and leaning with both hands on the ground, flanked by two soldiers, one of whom is striking him while the other is trampling him—is a literal copy of the print. The variations noticeable in the painting’s composition are the omission of the tiled floor and the replacement of the canopy that dignifies the high priest with a semicircular arch. We know from the Gospels that this was a nighttime scene, which is evoked in the engraving by a large lit candle glowing against a dark background. Amid a pattern of spears and halberds at the base of the arch, a cluster of weapons, a candle, and a pole with a bowl containing fire and smoke are arranged in a row—all of which have been omitted from the painting. 

The altarpiece of the Assumption in Cadreita must have been commissioned, along with its companion piece depicting the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, in 1608 by Sancho Díez de Aux Armendáriz from the painter Juan de Lumbier. Among the panels depicting monumental saints that make up the altarpiece’s program is the one showing Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows, selectively copied from an engraving by Aegidius Sadeler II depicting the saint’s martyrdom, based on a painting by the Venetian artist Palma the Younger. This is one of the most frequently used motifs by early 17th-century painters, depicting the preliminary stages of the execution, when the saint is tied to a tree by two executioners, while two executioners armed with bows and arrows, under the supervision of a horseman, set out to carry out the order. In this model , the young man raises his eyes toward the sky, entrusting himself to God. On the right appears Saint Irene with a group of Christians, while at the top an angel flutters among the clouds, holding the palm and the crown of martyrdom. The painter from Tudela made a literal copy of the captain of the Praetorian Guard, complete with the identical cloth of purity and even the detail of his tousled hair, omitting the rest of the figures. The presence of this intercessor against the plague—like that of Saint Roch in the painting of the Exaltation of the Cross—reminds us of the devastating Atlantic plague of 1597–1602, which, having entered through the port of Santander, ravaged Castile and affected Cadreita, as well as the entire Ribera region, and of the successive epidemics that afflicted this area.

In the painting, the preparations for martyrdom have given way to the depiction of the saint, now pierced by arrows, with the addition of six arrows throughout his body. The spaces left by the removed groups have been filled with landscape elements, such as bushes and rocky outcrops, and, to the left of the saint, a tree trunk lying diagonally like an arrow and a house in the background. The young man’s stocky body traces a serpentine line, his right arm raised with his hand open in a gestural pose. Ultimately written request, the tension and pain expressed in this work are yet another derivation from the Roman copy of the Hellenistic “ group ” of Laocoön and His Sons, which inspired Michelangelo himself and the great masters of Mannerism and the Baroque. At the top, the angel bearing the attributes of martyrdom has been replaced by a divine halo shining upon Sebastian’s head.

 
The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. Aegidius Sadeler II, British Museum. Juan de Lumbier, Cadreita. Altarpiece of the Assumption (Artres)

SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

AGN. Prot. Not. Asiain, Fernando de Echaguren, 1607, undated.
GARCÍA GAINZA, Mª C. et al ., *Catalog * *Monumental de Navarra*, I Merindad de Tudela, Pamplona, Institución Príncipe de Viana, 1980, pp. 40–41. 
ECHEVERRÍA GOÑI, P. L., “Painting,” in FERNÁNDEZ GRACIA, R. (ed.), Renaissance Art in Navarre, Pamplona, Government of Navarre, 2005, pp. 289, 322, and 366–367.
ARIAS FERNÁNDEZ, M., “The Reception of Sadeler’s Engravings in the León Region: Some Examples of Their Influence on Sculpture and Painting in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” *De Arte*, 1 (2002), pp. 89–106.