Old cathedral of Salamanca: medieval funeral imagery

Once they contained the remains of relevant characters of the clergy and the highest of the nobility, the details of whose lives, no doubt that make biographies more or less dressed in the enameled rigidity of history books, whose reading may result more or less pleasant.

But what is interesting here, does not entail, at all, the obligation to make a detailed essay of the life of Dona Mafalda, daughter of King Alfonso VIII; nor hypothesize about the irrelevance of how his free time was used by Juan Fernández, son of Alfonso IX de León; nor throwing the glove of suspicion about pious wanderings - cogito, ergo sum - of the bishops of Castile, such as Gonzalo Vivero or Archdeacon Diego Arias Maldonado, but of reviewing, even from the complacent perspective of admiration, the detailed beauty and artistic quality of the sarcophagi that house them. Neither, obviously, it is about placing the observer in a morbid disjunctive, because there is nothing that can terrify us more, as creatures imprisoned and fearful of the time factor to which we are subjected, than the idea of ​​finite far niente, which involves dealing with a subject as thorny as death is.

Far, then, to alter the morbid sensations attached to that black hole that awaits us all at some time, it is suggested to give a timely detour, and avoid, far for the time of the reach of the scythe of the Black Angel, part of the rich costumbrismo that made the medieval graves a worthy art, at least of study and admiration. Possibly derived from the great workshops of Burgos and Palencia, to whom the vicissitudes of the Reconquista were offering new opportunities, the tombs that can be admired here, contain, by themselves, an important part of the artistic wealth that is preserved in this cathedral of Salamanca.

Even some of them still have, to their credit, a considerable part of that attractive polychromy with which they were originally endowed. Delicate, likewise, in the details of his sculptures, they offer us not only a detailed exposition of the customs of the time, but also a rich illustrative repertoire, of an anthropological nature, whose rites, although they have been modified with the step inexorable of time, they have been the bread of the people until relatively recent times. The most specific case, and the one that perhaps draws more attention for its repetitiveness as well as for the sometimes comical drama that accompanies it, is the courtship of muffins or professional mourners, who describe to perfection the rites and customs of the time .

Humanly related, the heraldic not only refers to the ego sum of a nobiliary estate that is still in force, but also, accompanied by pomp and circumstance, adapts the qualities of the deceased to the classical mannerism, equating him, by right of birth, with the image primordial of the hero. And evidently, with such a right, the theme also includes that spiritual and New Testament part, which involves the deceased of the most relevant episodes, or at least, of the most significant, based on the history and life of the solar hero par excellence: own Christ. It is not surprising, therefore, that among the numerous recurring models, some are located that, by insistence, induce to consider well a particular specialization, a fashion or perhaps the inclusion of an allusion to immortality or rebirth related to the canons of thought of the time.

Undoubtedly, the scene that is most repeated in these magnificent tombs is none other than the Adoration of the Magi. A scene, of course, full of symbolism, and generally crowned by a universal symbol, the star, whose rich symbolism hides archetypes, such as guide, immortality, rebirth that at the same time, could be related to the symbolic content of the cups or jugs that the magicians give to the Child. Another of the recurring themes is the burial of the deceased; and above this, the archetypal vision of the two angels collecting their soul. And as you can see, graphically and explicitly, it does not matter how old the body destined to the earth is: the soul, eternal and indestructible, always preserves the appearance and vitality of a young person.

Other times, Calvary is one of the central themes of the tomb, where, among the group of spectators, there may also be a representation of the deceased, a custom that has a lot to do with the figure of the donors, who also appeared in the paintings that they ordered One such representation, as an example, could be the anonymous triptych, which is preserved and exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Madrid, entitled Triptych of the Passion of the Knight of Santiago.

In short, it could be said that the medieval funerary imagery is a world, artistic and archetypal, worth discovering. And in that sense, a good school, and a good opportunity to introduce ourselves to it, constitute, without a doubt, these magnificent exponents that are located in the old cathedral of Salamanca.

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NOTICE: originally published on my blog ARTE, MITOS Y ARQUETIPOS, although the photographs are unpublished in Steemit. Both the text, as the photographs, and the video (except music, reproduced under license of YouTube) are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry can be found at the following address: https://artemitosyarquetipos.blogspot.com.es/2016/08/catedral-vieja-de-salamanca-imagineria.html

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