The saint above the door: hagiographic sculpture in twelfth-century Uncastillo

ABSTRACT

Over the course of the twelfth century, six fine Romanesque churches were built in the town of Uncastillo, Aragon. Three of these churches display carved hagiographic scenes on the tympana above their principal entrances, a highly unusual placement for saints’ lives during this period. Though the subject matter responds to a broad interest in hagiographic imagery across post-conquest Aragon, its prominent location and recurrence in multiple churches were both motivated by political and social factors shaping the kingdom at this time. On the one hand, the hagiographies’ allegorical evocations of the Christian conquest speak to the relevance of Aragon's territorial expansion to the town's inhabitants. On the other, the sculptures’ placement above the church portal – the focal point of the community – responds to the contemporary experience of urbanization in Uncastillo, which resulted in the town's organization into six different neighborhoods. Considering the hagiographic tympana with respect to sculptural traditions, reconquest rhetoric, and patterns of urban settlement and development, I argue that Uncastillo's experiments with form and iconography aspired to cohere urban communities during a dynamic period of social transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• hagiography
• Aragon
• Romanesque
• urbanism
• sculpture
• Uncastillo

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Therese Martin, Robert A. Maxwell and the anonymous reviewers of this article for their very valuable feedback on the text in its various stages. In preparing this article, I had a number of stimulating conversations on Uncastillo, its urbanization, and its saints with David L. Simon, Renata Holod and Francisco de Asís García García – thank you.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Julia Perratore is Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Medieval Art and the Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She completed her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012 with a dissertation on the church of Santa María de Uncastillo.

Notes on contributor

Julia Perratore is Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Medieval Art and the Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She completed her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012 with a dissertation on the church of Santa María de Uncastillo.

Notes

1 Abou-El-Haj, Medieval Cult of the Saints, 1–32.

2 For an overview of hagiographic sculpture in Aragon, see García Lloret, Escultura románica en Aragón. For Navarra, see Ginés Sabras, “Programas hagiográficos.” 

3 Surprisingly few twelfth-century churches include hagiographic content in the space of the tympanum. Sporadic exceptions may be observed, as at Ferrara Cathedral and two regional churches, San Giorgio ad Argenta and San Giorgio Vigoleno, all of which depict scenes from the life of St George.

4 Piedrafita Pérez, Cinco Villas, 36–38.

5 The classic account of the Aragonese conquest is Ubieto Arteta, Historia de Aragón. See also Stalls, Possessing the Land; Sénac, Frontière et les hommes; and Laliena Corbera, Pedro I de Aragón y de Navarra.

6 For example, Gaston IV of Béarn, the town's tenente, or lord, c. 1119–30, participated in many Aragonese offensives. See Blasco Valles, “Gaston IV,” chapters 14–17.

7 I will further discuss this concept below. For historiographic discussion and assessment, see González Jiménez, “Sobre la ideología de la reconquista.” For an overview of some medieval sources, see O'Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade, 4–17.

8 Betrán Abadía, Forma de la ciudad, 234.

9 The exact nature and extent of migration in northern Iberia are difficult to assess. The majority of the names mentioned in the Cartulary of Santa María de Uncastillo, the key source for understanding life in the twelfth-century town, are Aragonese in origin, suggesting migration largely occurred within the region. See Martín Duque, “Cartulario.” The specific impact of larger-scale migration, especially from north of the Pyrenees, remains a thorny subject, though the Cartulary does record inhabitants with francophone names. For a seminal discussion of demography in Aragon, see Ubieto Arteta, “Sobre demografía aragonesa.” For the formation of Jewish communities, see Motis Dolader, “Comunidades judías.”

10 Piedrafita Pérez, Cinco Villas, 98–105.

11 Though Estella and Sangüesa would become part of Navarra after the two territories' 1134 split, their urban growth began under the kings of Aragon.

12 Betrán Abadía, Forma de la ciudad, 158.

13 Piedrafita Pérez, Cinco Villas, 98.

14 For the criteria defining a parish, see López Alsina, “Encuadramiento eclesiástico,” 438.

15 Uncastillo would benefit from study along the lines of D'Emilio, “Documentos medievales.”

16 Abad Ríos, Iglesias románicas; Canellas López and San Vicente, Aragon roman, 349–61; Surchamp, “Sur quatre chapiteaux”; Lacoste, “Decoration sculptée”; Müller, “Santa María la Real,” 158–66; Torralbo Salmón, Escultura; Lacoste, “Sculpture romane”; Idem, Grands oeuvres, 185–200; and Perratore, “Santa María de Uncastillo,” 74–119.

17 Simon, “Historietas de la vida cotidiana,” 75–97; Bauer, “Castus Castor”; and Perratore, “Santa María de Uncastillo,” 184–221.

18 I date the commencement of the project slightly earlier, c. 1130, based on sculptural and circumstantial evidence. The completion date of c. 1155 comes from three records of donation that note the church's consecration in that year. See Perratore, “Santa María de Uncastillo,” 47–50.

19 Simon, “L'art roman,” 263–65.

20 For San Miguel, see Cahn, Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections, 115–19; and Zapater Baselga and Gil Orrios, “San Miguel de Uncastillo.” For San Lorenzo, see Zapater Baselga et al., “San Lorenzo de Uncastillo,” 89–112.

21 De Egry, “San Martín de Uncastillo.”

22 García Lloret, “Fuentes del arte románico.”

23 Several recurring masons' marks and similar column base profiles indicate a shared team of masons at both sites.

24 Borrás Gualis and García Guatas, Pintura románica en Aragón, 293–306.

25 García García, “Imágenes ejemplares.”

26 Ocón Alonso, “Maestros de San Pedro el Viejo.”

27 Another potential source of models may have been the cloister of Saint-Pierre de Moissac, which includes a number of hagiographic capitals. The sculptors of Santa María were familiar with this French abbey's monumental imagery. See Surchamp, “Sur quatre chapiteaux”; and Torralbo Salmón, Escultura románica, 27–36.

28 Rodríguez Barral, “Imagen de la justicia divina,” 214–17. See also Yarza Luaces, “San Miguel y la balanza.”

29 Rodríguez Barral, “Imagen de la justicia divina,” 214–17.

30 For St Lawrence's life and martyrdom, see Prudentius, Poems, 108–43.

31 The distinctive form of the flames particularly recalls the Martyrdom of St Lawrence capital in the Moissac cloister. See Cazes, Cloître de Moissac, 154–55.

32 Literature on the San Juan de la Peña style is reviewed in García Lloret, Maestro de San Juan de la Peña, 27–34.

33 For the image's identification, see García Lloret, Escultura románica en Aragón, 23–24. For the life of St Felix of Girona, see Riesco Chueca, Pasionario hispánico, 166–81.

34 I would like to thank Therese Martin for suggesting this interpretation.

35 For the symbol's variety of configurations and range of compositions, see Sené, “Quelques remarques.” For discussion of the San Martín tympanum, see Mann, Romanesque Architecture, 156–58.

36 Sené, “Quelques remarques,” 379.

37 Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections, 116. See also Bartal, “Anges et louange du triomphe chrétien,” 35.

38 Santa María is a likely exception. While its southern portal is elaborately carved and was once framed by a porch, other sculpture fragments suggest its original western façade, no longer intact, was also impressively decorated.

39 I would like to thank one of the anonymous reviewers of this article for this suggestion. The concentric tracing of roads and paths leading to the castle is characteristic of the urban layout in many towns emerging from fortress settlements. For discussion of this phenomenon, see Betrán Abadía, Forma de la ciudad, 153–63.

40 Lacoste, Pèlerinage à Compostelle, 104–12.

41 For discussion of the placement of capitals with respect to the space of the church interior, see Baschet, Bonne, and Dittmar, “‘Iter’ et ‘locus': Lieu rituel.”

42 For example, circumstantial evidence strongly suggests Gaston IV of Bearn and his wife Talesa were the patrons of Santa María. See Torralbo Salmón, Escultura románica, 14–15, 41. García Lloret has suggested the patron of San Felices was Bishop Pedro Tarroja of Zaragoza, though in my opinion, evidence for this association is tenuous. See García Lloret, “Fuentes del arte románico”; and Perratore, “Santa María de Uncastillo,” 64–65.

43 For early textual accounts of these saints' passions, see Prudentius, Poems, 109–43, 157–69, 169–203.

44 For the translation of St Indaletius' relics from Almería to Aragon, see Gudiol Ricart, “Traslado de las reliquias”; and Pérez-Embid Wamba, Hagiologia y Sociedad, 49–55. For the translation of Valerius' skull, see García Lloret, Escultura románica en Aragón, 92. For the early history of the cult of St James in Zaragoza's Santa María la Mayor (Basilica del Pilar), see Blasco Martínez, “Nuevos datos,” 120–21. In my opinion, Blasco's findings are suggestive of a post-conquest origin for the cult of St James in Zaragoza that could well have emerged during the twelfth century.

45 Laliena Corbera, “Memoria real,” 315–16.

46 Though the earliest accounts of Lawrence's life do not mention a Spanish origin, this tradition soon arose through sources such as the Passio Polychronii. García García, “Imágenes ejemplares,” 148. For discussion of the early cult of St Lawrence in Huesca, see Garcés Manau, “Huesca y su patrón San Lorenzo.”

47 García García, “Imágenes ejemplares,” 148–49.

48 Ibid., 150.

49 See note 7 for historiographic references.

50 O'Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade, 8–9.

51 Fletcher, “Reconquest and Crusade in Spain,” 47.

52 Zapke, “New Politics – New Cults,” 39; García García, “Imágenes ejemplares,” 148–49.

53 For the dating and locating of the hymnal, see Castro Caridad, Tropos y troparios hispánicos, 154–55. For the implications of reconquest in the hymn for the Liberation of St Peter, see Szövérffy, “Huesca et les hymnes,” 105–9.

54 Daniel Rico Camps has connected the hymn to a capital from San Pedro el Viejo. See “Claustro de San Pedro el Viejo,” 86.

55 For discussion of saints' martyrdoms in the visual arts as allusions to reconquest, see Black, “Saints, Saracens, and the Reconquest”; and Lapina, “Mural Paintings of Berzé-la-Ville.” Black's thesis is of particular note, as the author argues that the Durro antependium, now in the collection of the Museu Nacional de Catalunya, would have played a key role in shaping viewers' memory of the reconquest.

56 This language appears frequently in Crusader texts of French origin but also in Iberia, including Aragon. See for example Flori, “En marge de l'idée de guerre sainte”; and Tolan, “Muslims as Pagan Idolaters.” For Spain, see Wolf, Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain, 91–94. For Aragon, see Zapke, “History, Passion Stories, and Legend,” 217.

57 For the First Crusade, see Cowdrey, “Martyrdom and the First Crusade”; and Flori, “Mort et martyr des guerriers.” For the Iberian perspective on martyrdom, see Guiance Basualdo, “To Die for Country, Land or Faith,” 314–18; and O'Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade, 199–20. See also Henriet, “Hagiographie de la ‘Reconquête,’” 51–53.

58 Ocón Alonso, “Sello de Dios sobre la iglesia,” 97–101.

59 For example, Prudentius, Poems, 109.

60 Piedrafita Pérez, Cinco Villas, 106–8, 157–94.

61 Ocón Alonso, “Sello de Dios sobre la iglesia,” 92–101. For further exploration of this idea in the context of Jaca's urban setting, see Mann, Romanesque Architecture, 132–60.

62 Mann, Romanesque Architecture, 149–54.

63 There is little explicit twelfth-century evidence for Muslim residents in Uncastillo apart from a mention of exaricos, or Muslim sharecroppers, in the Cartulary of Santa María. See Martín Duque, “Cartulario,” doc. 72.

64 For a comprehensive study of Uncastillo's medieval Jewish community, see Motis Dolader, Judíos de Uncastillo.

65 Ibid., 1:21–22.

66 Ibid., 1:37.

67 Betrán Abadía, Forma de la ciudad, 232–38.

68 Laliena Corbera, “Articulación del espacio aragonés,” 85.

69 Many of the urbanizing practices observed in Aragon had their origins in Jaca, and in the institution of the fuero of Jaca. See Nelson, “Foundation of Jaca.”

70 For a case study, see Passini, “Structure urbaine de Jaca.”

71 Laliena Corbera, “Articulación del espacio aragonés,” 100–103.

72 Martín Duque, “Cartulario,” doc. 83.

73 Ledesma Rubio, Cartas de población, doc. 94. For commentary, see Laliena Corbera, “Articulación del espacio aragonés,” 103.

74 Betrán Abadía, Forma de la ciudad, 154–58.

75 Laliena Corbera, “Articulación del espacio aragonés,” 101.

76 Martín Duque, “Cartulario,” doc. 44. This may have been a unique situation within the town.

77 Lema Pueyo, Colección diplomática de Alfonso I, doc. 149. Since the burgo of San Lorenzo no longer exists, the extent of its medieval bounds is unknown.

78 Unpublished, uncatalogued document in the Archivo Parroquial de Santa María de Uncastillo (housed in the Archivo Diocesano de Jaca).

79 Betrán Abadía, Forma de la ciudad, 292–96; Passini, “Estructura de los espacios urbanos,” 40–41.

80 For example, following Antonio Naval Mas' dissertation, I count a dozen churches in twelfth-century Huesca, some of which were converted mosques. “Huesca: Desarollo del trazado urbano,” 208–15. For the definition of these locales as cities, see Falcón Pérez, “Desarollo urbano de las ciudades,” 76.

81 Falcón Pérez, “Cinco Villas,” 299.

82 Ubieto Arteta, “Sobre demografía aragonesa,” 582–85.

83 Corral Lafuente, “Desarollo urbano,” 96.

84 Falcón Pérez, “Cinco Villas,” 299.

85 Martín Duque, “Cartulario,” doc. 44.

86 Falcón Pérez, “Cinco Villas,” 299.

87 Verzar, “Medieval Passageways.”

88 For examples, see Castiñeiras, “Adro para un bispo”; Rodríguez Barral, “Imagen de la justicia divina,” 173–85; and de Appolonia, “Justice and Judgment.”

89 Havens Caldwell, “Penance, Baptism, Apocalypse”; Simon, “Art for a New Monarchy.”

90 Miller, Clothing the Clergy, 83 n. 6, 92.

91 Riesco Chueca, Pasionario hispánico, 166–81.

92 For an overview of depictions of St Michael, see de Waha, “Dragon terrassé,” 48–51.

93 The angels form part of a larger composition comprising the Virgin and Child and Adoration of the Magi, dated c. 1100 and attributed to the Master of Pedret. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, 1950, accession number 50.180a-l.

94 Miller, Clothing the Clergy, 191. The clerical tonsure was described as a “crown” in a number of early Christian and medieval sources.

95 The priestly associations of some French representations of St Michael in a chasuble have been noted by Davy, “Place de l'image,” 107–8.

96 García Lloret, Escultura románica en Aragón, 33; and Maestro de San Juan de la Peña, 315–18.

97 For the iconography of the Biota tympanum, see Sànchez Màrquez, “Iconografía de la psicóstasis”; and Idem, “Taller de San Miguel de Biota,” 40.