Monastery of Tulebras
Virgin of the bed
A singularly rare piece is the life-size articulated dress image of the Virgin of the Bed. Due to its facial characteristics, strong features and square chin, it must date from the late 16th or early 16th century, but the polychromy corresponds to the 18th century, when it must have been repainted. It was in 1623 that a brotherhood of the Assumption or the Virgen de la Cama was founded on the site to give a solemn character to this festivity, which was the main local festival, and on which the image is still taken out in procession. In the context of this devotion, in 1633 the abbess Doña Beatriz Español del Niño built a chapel in her honour.
The image rests on a very moving bed of profile with beautiful rococo polychromy, commissioned in 1784, which forms a set with six wooden candlesticks. The Virgin's dress, made of silk and gold, was embroidered by the nuns themselves in 1892.
Photo: Naiara Ardanaz
GARCÍA M. COLOMBAS, M.B., Monasterio de Tulebras, Gobierno de Navarra, department de Educación y Cultura, Institución Principe de Viana, Pamplona, 1987.
ORBE Y SIVATTE, A., Monasterio de Tulebras. Un oasis para la contemplación, nº 60, Edilesa, 2001.
REAU, Louis, Iconographie de L'Art Crrétien. (5 vols.), vol. 1, Paris 1956, p. 22.
RECONDO, J.M., "Monasterio de Tulebras", TCP, nº 127, Pamplona, Diputación Foral de Navarra, 1972.
TARIFA CASTILLA, M.J., La arquitectura religiosa del siglo XVI en la merindad de Tudela, Gobierno de Navarra, department de Educación y Cultura, Institución Príncipe de Viana, Pamplona, 2005.
