The camino was a veritable cultural highway during the middle ages and the cathedral of
Santa Maria grew by its side, connecting the expanding kingdom of Spain with
France and Germany. Construction began in 1221 promoted by the King, Saint Ferdinand
III under the direction of French master builders. The Cathedral was
consecrated in 1260 but construction on its many chapels, towers and other
features continued well into the sixteenth century.
To celebrate
the 800th anniversary of the construction, the then Archbishop and the cathedral
chapter decided to commission three new monumental doors for the western façade to
renowned painter and sculptor Antonio Lopez. The intention of the initiative
was to commemorate the anniversary and at the same time return some of the
iconographic message to the cathedral’s main portals. Antonio Lopez, a key player
in the contemporary figurative and hyperrealistic current, seemed a great
choice for a figurative religious subject. However, once the design was made
public, the matter turned sour.
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| Rendering of the new doors. Archdiocese of Burgos. |
The project
envisioned the main door featuring a gigantic four metre tall self portrait of the
artist as God the Father, the two smaller doors feature Our Lady and the Child
Jesus, modelled by the artist’s wife and grandson. Public opposition to the project
has been growing steadily even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular during
the last few weeks when news transpired that project was continuing forward. ICOMOS,
the International Council on Monuments and Sites, has recently published a
report opposing the intervention. A Change.org petition initiated by a local
artist has already garnered over 30.000 signatures, and while the locals are
the most outspoken, the fact is that the Cathedral of Burgos is part of all of
humanity’s cultural heritage and many have signed from abroad.
Not wanting
to dwell too much on the polemics that are engulfing the project, the news made
me curious about what the story behind the current state of the present western
portal. One is mesmerized by the intricate spires while climbing the steps that
lead to the square at their foot, but once the gaze moves to doors themselves,
something does not seem quite right. The three large portals are plain, flat
and devoid of decoration, and an incongruous classical pediment tops the
central door. One would expect the typical gothic arrangement of archivolts and
jambs decorated with statues, columns and other carvings rich with symbolism,
with larger scenes on the tympani.
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| The western facade. CC by Zarateman |
Only a few
sources from the eighteenth century show the original portals and describe
their iconography. The middle tympanum presented the theme of the Coronation of
Mary, supported by a trumeau carved with an image of Our Lady with the Child
Jesus, while the other two featured the Immaculate Conception and the
Assumption. Files of Saints covered the jambs and entire lower section of the façade.
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The original portal in a 1771 drawing by Romualdo Camino. National Library of Spain.
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I believe that, beyond the artistic merit of Lopez’s doors on themselves, this idea proposed by Lampérez is far more interesting, even if materialized in a more contemporary artistic language, it would be coherent with the rest of the façade and doubtlessly provide a much richer iconographic program that the one proposed
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| Proposed reconstruction by Marcos Rico. 1987. |
