Arraioz

The direction towards a severe, austere, cold and rigid neoclassicism is strongly felt in the main altarpiece and collaterals of Arraioz, works contracted by the French master José Poudez from 1778 and valued by José Muguiro in April 1785, according to the data that we have exhumed from the book of accounts of the town, where it is also noted that an anonymous devotee gave the amount of 320 pesos for its execution. The architecture of the main altarpiece is of a certain quality, although the round sculptures are very inferior, unlike other localities in Baztanes where the sculptures of courtly origin and A perfection prevail. The biggest is of subject shell and it adapts to the head of the church perfectly. It consists of three streets articulated by columns of Corinthian capital and fluted shaft. The central one is more prominent with an Assumptionist group and the lateral ones with the effigies of St. Augustine and St. Norbert. In the attic, a glory with a great burst of golden rays, with angelic choirs on both sides, formed by trios of small round sculptures with stringed musical instruments -violins- and sheet music in their hands.

From the iconographic point of view, the most singular thing is the presence of Saint Norbert, archbishop of Magdeburg and founder of the Premonstratensian canons regular to which the monastery of Urdax belonged. The proximity and relationship with that enclave explains his presence in the altarpiece, accompanied by the monstrance, due to his defense of the sacrament of the Eucharist. In Navarre we hardly know images of the saint, with the exception of a canvas in Urdax.

As for the artist who contracted the altarpiece, José Poudez, he is one of the masters who fitted in with an academicism that was rapidly gaining ground. Poudez was living at place del Castillo de Pamplona in 1797, precisely as a "tracista y escultor", stating that he was fifty-five years old and at marital status a widower and accompanied by his son José, a twenty-five year old bachelor who had been part of the volunteers. He was born in Pau and is documented in Navarre in the lands of Baztan in different works, such as the tower of Elizondo (1780) or the altarpieces of the latter town (1775-1777) and the present one in Arraioz (1778-1785). subject Between 1775 and the beginning of the 19th century, he worked unspeakably hard in different places, especially for the collegiate church of Roncesvalles/Orreaga in works such as the new hospital and the priory house, the parish of Zugarramurdi, the monastery of Urdax or the Estebecorena or Istecorena house in Elizondo (1776).