“Santiago-Rome-Jerusalem: Old Iusses, New Proposals”, in Santiago de Compostela....

Santiago de CompostelaPilgerarchitektur und

bildliche Repräsentation in neuer Perspektive

Santiago de CompostelaPilgrims architecture and

visual representationin a new perspective

Santiago de CompostelaArquitectura de peregrinación y

representaciones iconológicas desdeuna nueva perspectiva

herausgegeben vonBernd Nicolai / Klaus Rheidt

Sonderdruck

PETER LANGBern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien

ISBN 978-3-0343-1429-9© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2015

Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, [email protected], www.peterlang.com

Santiago – Rome – Jerusalem: Old Issues, New Proposals

Manuel Castiñeiras

In 1923, the American art historian, Arthur Kingsley Porter came to the conclusion that Romanesque sculpture constituted a long-dis-tance international network of relations, in which the major works and artists were united by a chain consisting of journeys, contacts and re-ciprocal influence.1 According to this author the main centres of Romanesque art creation were linked by pilgrimage, along a system of roads which join Compostela to Jerusalem. The Pil-grims’ Roads to Santiago, Rome and Jerusa-lem, known and travelled from the end of the eleventh century, thus constitute the great routes of this new Euro pean artistic culture based on travelling.2 However, most histori cal and artis tic criticism in recent decades, especially W. Sauer-länder, has rejected Porter’s thesis, essentially denying the artistic importance of the roads of pilgrimage a priori, and arguing instead in favour of the individual local origins and their subse-quent development as representing an absolute value.3 We therefore go from an internationalist to a territorial model, one that is unfortunately often narrowly provincial. In my opinion, one should not abandon Por-ter’s contribution to the understanding of Ro-manesque Art as an „International Style“ close-ly related to the roads and the itinerant artists but also to some “travelling” patrons. In fact, the emphasis on this latter issue, which was not sufficiently developed in Porter’s methodology, might help in the re-evaluation of his ideas. In

the case of Compostela it’s only at the beginning of the twelfth century, when the town opens up to the roads of Europe, that it becomes a true center of Romanesque Art. Nevertherless, this phenomenon is incomprehensible without bear-ing in mind the impact of the two journeys made by its bishop, Diego Gelmírez, from Composte-la to Rome, along the French pilgrimage routes in 1100 and 1105. By examining the experiences on these two long journeys and their conse-quent effects on the construction of the Cathe-dral of Santiago, it has become possible to iden-tify just what was actually the product of the patron’s mind.4 Of the four main roads that crossed France according to the Codex Calixti-nus – the via tolosana, the via podiensis, the via lemosina and the via turonensis –, Gelmírez fol-lowed the southernmost road, the tolosana, on both occasions: the first time, in 1100, he went directly to Rome,5 while on the second journey, in 1105, he visited Cluny, and therefore had to travel various stretches of the via podien sis and the via lemosina to cross inland France (fig. 1).6 Along these roads Gelmírez and his entourage, perhaps accompanied by an artist, were able to see at first-hand the great creative centers of Romanesque art in France, like Toulouse, Moissac, Conques and Cluny, which led to sig-nificant artistic exchanges with the workshops then busy in Compostela with the construction and decoration of the Cathedral of Santiago.

1 Arthur Kingsley porter, Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads, I, Boston 1923, p. 175, 177. 2 “Indeed, the roads to Rome and to the Holy Land were connected with that of Compostela, and were no less important

in transmitting artistic influence”, porter, Romanesque Sculpture (see note 1), p. 182. See also: Arturo Carlo quinta-Valle, “L’arte sulle vie del pellegrinaggio”, in: Mario D’Onofrio (ed.), Romei e Giubilei. Il Pellegrinaggio medievale a San Pietro (350–1350), Milano 1999, p. 165–186; Manuel caStiñeiraS, “Compostela, Bari y Jerusalén: tras las huellas de una cultura figurativa en los Caminos de Peregrinación”, in: Ad Limina. Revista de Investigación del Camino de San-tiago y de las Peregrinaciones I, 2010, p. 15–51.

3 Willibald Sauerländer, “Wiligelmo in Europa”, in: Lanfranco e Wiligelmo. Il Duomo di Modena, Modena 1984, p. 15–23, especially p. 15, 17, 21–22.

4 Manuel caStiñeiraS, “The Reason of a Travelling Exhibition. Diego Gelmírez, Genious and Travelling Spirit of Roman-esque” and “Didacus Gelmirius. Patron of the Arts. Compostela’s Long Journey: from the Periphery to the Center of Romanesque Art”, in: Manuel Castiñeiras (ed.), Compostela and Europe. The Story of Diego Gelmírez (Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, Roma, Santiago de Compostela, 16.3.–15.10 2010), Milano 2010, p. 16–29, 32–97.

5 Emma Falque rey (ed.), Historia Compostellana, I, 7, 1–2, Madrid 1994, p. 85–86 (HC). 6 HC, I, 16–17 (see note 5), p. 100–105.

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7 “Custodes qui altari basilicum sanctorum, Jacobi scilicet, Egidii, Leonardi, Martini Turonis, beate Marie Podii, Petri apostoli Rome observant et mali hospitis socii fraudis sunt […] Qui ex pueris suis fraudis didascolos efficere curant, aut Podium aut villam sancti Egidii aut Turoni aut Placentiam aut Lucam aut Romam aut Barium aut Barletum illos mittunt. His enim villis scola maxime solet esse tocius fraudis […] Veruntamen nisi conversi ab innumeris fraudibus vestris fueritis, ipsos sanctos Iacobum scilicet et Petrum, Egidium, Leonardum, ipsam Dei genitrecem Mariam Podiensem, Magdalenam, Martinum Turonensem, Johannem Baptistam Angliacensem, Michaelem Marinum, Bar-tholomeum Boneventinum, Nicholaum Bariensem acussatores coram Deo habebitis, quorum peregrinos defraudas-tis”, Códice Calixtino, I, 17, fol. 86r and 88v, in: Archive of the Cathedral of Santiago; Klaus herBerS and Manuel SantoS noia (eds.), Liber Sancti Jacobi. Codex Calixtinus, Santiago 1999, p. 97, 99–100 (LSI). Translation in English: “The guards who protect the altars in the churches of Santiago, Saint-Gilles [Nîmes], St. Leonard [of Limoges], St. Martin [of Tours], St. Mary [of Puy-de-Dôme] and St. Peter of Rome are also partakers in the evil of innkeepers […]. There are some who try to get their serfs to learn such fraud, sending them to Puy, Saint-Gilles, Tours, Piacenza, Lucca, Rome, Bari and Barletta, as these cities are used to training for all kind of swindling […]. But if you do not regret your numerous deceit of the saints themselves, i.e. James, Peter Gil, Leonard, the Virgin Mary herself, St. Mary of Pui, St. Magdalene [of Vézelay], St. Martin of Tours, St. John the Baptist of Angély, St. Michael Marine [of Monte Gargano], St. Bartholomew of Benevento, St. Nicholas of Bari, you will meet them as judges before the Lord, as you took advan-tage of their pilgrims.”, cf. caStiñeiraS, Compostela (see note 2), p. 24.

8 Debra Birch, Pilgrimage to Rome in the Middle Ages. Continuity and Change, Woodbridge 1998, p. 115, 150–186.9 Manuel caStiñeiraS, “‘Lignum Crucis’ de Carboeiro”, in: J. Mª Díaz Fernández, J. I. Cabano (eds.), Facies Deitatis. Los

rostros de Dios, Santiago de Compostela 2000, p. 364; Manuel caStiñeiraS, “Topographie sacrée, liturgie pascale et reliques dans les grands centres de pèlerinage: Saint-Jacques de Compostelle, Saint Isidore de León et Saint Étienne de Ribas de Sil”, in: Cahiers de Saint-Michel de Cuxa XXXIV, 2003, p. 26–49, especially p. 38–39; Manuel caStiñei-raS, “Puertas y metas de la peregrinación: Roma, Jerusalén y Santiago hasta el siglo XIII”, in: Paolo Caucci (ed.), Peregrino, ruta y meta en las peregrinationes maiores (Actas del VIII Congreso Internacional de Estudios Jacobeos), Santiago 2012, p. 327–377, especially p. 340–341.

10 “Erant autem tunc temporis due Canonici B. Jacobi, P. Astrarides, et Pelagius Joannides in partibus illis, qui in Apuliam et in Siciliam bienio jam transacto profecti fuerant, auxilium ad opus Ecclesiae B. Jacobi a fidelibus perituri”, Historia Compostellana, II, 64, in: H. Flórez, España Sagrada, XX, Madrid 1765, p. 401. See also HC, II, 64, 6 (see note 5), p. 429.

11 “Super porticum etiam Ecclesiae S. Jacobi, per quam itur in Villare Miluorum, aedificavit altare in honore Beati Bene-dicti, Beato quoque Paulo, quoniam raro in Ecclesiis Hispaniae ejus memoria habebatur, et B. Antonino, et B. Nicolao”, see Flórez, España Sagrada (see note 10), p. 372. See also HC, II, 55 (see note 5), p. 402.

Similarly, the route along the Italian Via Franci-gena toward Rome and the visit to the Eternal City are essential for understanding other pecu-liarities of the art of Compostela in the first dec-ade of the twelfth century. Following his return, between 1100 and 1122, the Cathedral of Compostela became in-corporated within this monumental landscape. The focus of Gelmirez’ journeys was to make the Cathedral of St. James a great church of pilgrimage on a par with its main rivals: Rome and Jerusalem. For this reason Gelmírez and his entourage engaged in a rich intertextual dia logue between the compostelan monument and those of the two holy cities. The homily Veneranda dies, which was read on the feast day of the translation of St. James (30 De-cember), was an attempt to emphasize the su-periority of the Apostle and his church over prominent foreign competition.7 Likewise, the decoration of the main altar and the façades of the huge transept used architectural and icono-graphic citations to emulate the most important sanctuaries of Christianity. Debra Birch has analysed the element of competition that was generated between the

three great centres of Christianity – Santiago, Jerusalem and Rome – and the strategies that each of them employed in order to increase their appeal.8 It was logical that when faced with the impact of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem following the conquest in 1099, the European sanctuaries sought to augment their treasuries with relics of Christ. In Rome, these had existed since Early Christian times, but this wasn’t the case in Santiago, thus accounting for Gelmírez’ preoccupation with establishing links with the patriarch of Jerusalem and acquiring relics from the Holy Land.9 In fact, over the years Gelmírez turned his interest to the distant ports of southern Italy and the Holy Land. We know he sent two canons from Compostela, Pedro Astrúariz and Pelayo Yánez, to Apulia and Sicily in search of donations for the completion of the church of Compostela from 1122 and 1124.10 In my opinion, this southern connection would ex-plain some of the Apulian references in the dedication of altars in Compostela – more spe-cifically the altar of Saint Nicholas in the south transept gallery, made in 1122 for the bishop’s private use11 – and the external crowning of the


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Fig. 2: Sphinx, Cathedral of Santiago, acroterion of the chapel of Saint John, c. 1122.

chapels of Saint John (fig. 2) and Saint Faith in the ambulatory, made between 1117 and 1122, with acroteria that seem to be borrowed from the repertoire of Apulian Romanesque. Even though the subjects of the acroteria (a half-naked woman riding a lion and a long-haired sphinx) have some precedent among the works on the Pilgrims’ Road to Santiago, their typology as free-standing sculptures is unique. As I have pointed out elsewhere, their closest models and parallels date back to Apulian Romanesque, both in miniatures and monumental sculpture (fig. 3).12

In fact, the Compostela curia’s familiarity with Apulia seems to be confirmed by the journey to Jerusalem made a few years earlier, in 1118, by

canons Pedro Díaz and Pedro Anayaz, cardinal and treasurer respectively of the Church of San-tiago.13 In all probability, they embarked for the Holy Land from one of the Apulian ports. Some years later, in 1129, the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent Gelmírez a letter in which he thanked him for his donations, proposed the creation of a con-fraternitas between the two churches, and re-quested to receive a certain Aymerico, canon of the Holy Sepulchre, and give him the Church of Santa Maria de Nogueiras (Cambados, Ponte-vedra), which at the time belonged to the dio - cese of Compostela,14 but which had been grant-ed to the Holy Sepulchre in the papal privi lege of 1128.15 In all likelihood, as I have pointed out in previous studies, the erroneously named Lig-

Fig. 3: Sphinx, Basilica of Saint Nicholas at Bari, western façade, acroterion of the central protiro, ca. 1105–1123.

12 Manuel caStiñeiraS, “La catedral románica: tipología arquitectónica y narración visual”, in: M. Núñez, Santiago, la Catedral y la memoria del arte, Santiago 2000, p. 39–96; CaStiñeiraS, Compostela (see note 2), p. 29–37.

13 HC, II, 3, 4 (see note 5), p. 302–303.14 HC, III, 16 (see note 5), p. 537; Nikolas JaSpert, “‘Pro nobis, qui pro vobis oramus, orate’. Die Kathedralkapitel von

Compostela und Jerusalem in der ersten Hälfte des 12. Jahrhunderts”, in: Paolo Caucci (ed.), Santiago, Roma, Je-rusalén (Actas del III Congreso Internacional de Estudios Jacobeos), Santiago 1999, p. 187–212.

15 Geneviève BreSc-Bautier (ed.), Le Cartulaire du Chapitre du Saint-Sépulchre de Jérusalem, Paris 1984, doc. n. 6, p. 39–44, especially p. 43.


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num Crucis “de Carboeiro” came from Je ru-salem to Galicia with this canon (fig. 4).16 In fact, the stylistic and typological characteristics of the reliquary are similar to the crosses of Denken-dorf (1128) and Kaisheim (1134).17 Both the orna-mental and iconographic motifs of the piece sug-gest these dates. Thus, the simple de corative bands which end in rosettes, and the four-lobed elements at the back of the Compostela piece are also evident on the crosses of Denkendorf, Kaisheim, Conques and the Cathedral of Agri-gento; the three latter ones also have the icono-graphic motif of the ciborium, with the lamp and

the tomb of Christ with the three oculi. This is also found in Santiago, although seriously damaged, at the bottom of the front part of the vertical arm.18

So Rome and Jerusalem became a point of reference in the construction of the symbo - lic decoration and topography of St. James’ Cathedral. This evidence allows us to revisit Porter’s notion of an agonistic culture, of com-petition and exchange through pilgrimage. Never-theless this exciting hypothesis must be re-formulated in new terms that address the priority of the ideological pattern and the impor-tance of the patron’s choice.19

16 See supra note 9.17 Cf. Heribert Meuer, “Zu den Staurotheken der Kreuz fahrer”, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 1985, p. 65–76, espe-

cially p. 67–69, fig. 2–3, 6–7. Antonio cadei, “Gli Ordini di Terrasanta e il culto per la Vera Croce e il sepulcro di Cristo in Europa nel XII secolo”, in: Arte Medievale I (Nuova Serie), 2002, p. 51–59) carried out a detailed revision of this set of cross reliquaries, although he proposes a later date for the one in Compostela, c. 1150. I cannot share this date after the arguments expressed in my previous studies.

18 Serafín MoraleJo, “‘Lignum Crucis’ de Carboeiro”, in: Serafín Moralejo, Fernando López Alsina, Santiago, Camino de Europa. Culto y cultura en la peregrinación a Santiago, Madrid 1993, p. 351–352.

19 I had recently developed this topic in: Manuel caStiñeiraS, “Diego Gelmírez, un committente viaggiatore: dalla Porta Francigena all’altare maggiore della cattedrale di Santiago”, in: Arturo Carlo Quintavalle (ed.), Medioevo: i commit-tenti (XIII Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Parma, 21–26 settembre 2010), Parma-Milano, 2011, p. 268–280.

Fig. 4: Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Chapel of the Reliquary, Lignum Crucis “from Carboeiro”, ca. 1129.


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Rome as model

On both his visits to Rome, in 1100 and in 1105, Gelmírez took the Italian Via Francigena, the route taken by pilgrims traveling to Rome and which connected, via the Via Tolosana, with the pilgrim road to Santiago. This gave him the op-portunity to experience first hand the rebirth in Italy of monumental art promoted by the ideo-logy of the Gregorian Reform which drew on Early Christian models in its quest to return to the origins of the Church and to teach the dog-mas of the faith by means of images in a sort of ”writing for the illiterate.” The completion of the gigantic transept in 1122 and the erection, in 1101 and 1111, at its ends of two sculptured portals of unprecedented monumentality, the Porta Francigena and the Platerías Portal, represented the apogee of Gelmirian art, which was directly indebted to the artistic experience of the Way of Saint James.20 There is no clearer proof of the building’s sym-

bolic intentions than these two big entrances which, on the one hand, received the pilgrims (Porta Francigena) (fig. 5), and, on the other, served as a backdrop for the political exploits of the Compostelan prelacy (Platerías) (Fig. 18). Thousands of pilgrims were able to contemplate these portals by carrying in their capes the scal-lop shell (vieira), which in around 1100 had been consecrated as the insignia par excellence of the pilgrimage to Compostela,21 and in whose interior was a magnificently decorated altar (fig. 6), including a silver canopy and a silver and gold altar frontal (1105–1106), in the manner of Saint Peter’s of the Vatican, which extolled the Basilica of Santiago as an apostolic tomb.22

Once there, they could reach the place clos-est to the sancta sanctorum – the Apostle’s tomb – via a confessio, situated behind the altar, es-pecially conceived for them: the Chapel of Mary Magdalene (fig. 7). Here they were permitted to pray next to the wall of the room that housed the body, following, as we shall see, a prominent solu-tion that was characteristic of Roman churches.

20 caStiñeiraS, Didacus Gelmirius (see note 4), p. 63–97.21 Manuel caStiñeiraS, The scallop shell in Compostela: the badge of the Jacobean Pilgrimage, Santiago 2007, p. 32.22 Serafín MoraleJo, “La imagen arquitectónica de la Catedral de Santiago”, in: G. Scalia (ed.), Il Pellegrinaggio a San-

tiago e la letteratura jacopea (Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Perugia 1983), Perugia 1985, p. 37–61.

Fig. 5: Cathedral of Santiago: Porta Francigena (3D Virtual Reconstruction), 2010. Scientific adviser: Manuel Castiñeiras. Technical production: Tomas Guerrero-Magneto Studio Ó S. A. de Xestión do Plan Xacobeo. Santiago de Compostela.


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Fig. 6: Cathedral of Santiago, Main Altar in Gelmírez’s period (3D Virtual Reconstruction). 2010. Scientific adviser: Manuel Castiñeiras. Technical production: Tomas Guerrero-Magneto Studio Ó S. A. de Xestión do Plan Xacobeo. Santiago de Compostela.

Fig. 7: Cathedral of Santiago, Confessio or Chapel of Mary Magdalene in Gelmírez’s period (3D Virtual Reconstruction). 2010. Scientific adviser: Manuel Castiñeiras. Technical production: Tomas Guerrero-Magneto Studio Ó S. A. de Xestión do Plan Xacobeo. Santiago de Compostela.


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The Compostelan confessio would involve a lower chamber, situated in the hemicycle behind the altar, “infra duas altaris columnas, quae Ci-borium sustinent”, [beneath the columns of the canopy] and the remains of the edicule dragged and buried there by Gelmírez in 1105.23 This type of architecture – with its rear access for pilgrims to an oratory-confessio beneath a canopy-altar – can be traced back to Old Saint Peter’s at the Vatican (590–604), where the an-nular crypt was connected to a subterranean edicule by a straight corridor. This plan was also imitated in the lower church of San Crisogono in Rome (731–741). In any case, the liturgical-ritual function of all the oratories beside the high altar was similar: to satisfy the pilgrims’ need to pray in a space beside the tomb.24 Moreover, the location of a Magdalene Chapel next to the Apostle’s tomb could also be an al-lusion to the famous rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, in which the edicule is also associated with the altar dedi-cated to Saint Mary Magdalene in the nearby Chapel of the Apparition.25 Once again Gelmírez entered in competition with the two holy cities.

The Paradise of the Porta Francigena: Gelmírez’s firm adhesion to the art of the Gregorian Reform and the master sculptors

The French Portal – Porta Francigena – or original north door, was situated at the culmi-nation of the Via Francigena, where the Aza-bachería portal stands today, and was the final

destination of the said route. Pilgrims entered the cathedral through the portal having traveled long distances from far-off lands. Al-though it is highly likely that it was built at the same time as the Platerías Door – between 1101 and 1111 – there are certain differences between them. In the case of the former, the terrain was 1.5 m higher than on the southern side, so that the north facade must have pre-sented a bulkier and more cluttered aspect. In fact, in contrast with the eleven columns of the modern-day Platerías, the north door had thir-teen columns, allowing for a greater separa-tion between the arches of the mullioned door, perhaps in a similar manner to the Porte des Comtes of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. More-over, the columns were also shorter: at ap-proximately 2.4 m. Some years ago Alberto Fernández had access to a plan designed by the master builder Simón Rodríguez in 1735 that is kept in Santiago Cathedral Archives, which throws light on the original Ro ma-nesque plan layout.26 The drawing shows a certain similarity with the Porte des Comtes of Saint-Sernin of Toulouse (c. 1080–1090). For instance, there was a mullioned door with a counterfort pillar in the central buttress that separated the two entrances. Each opening was arranged into two trumpet-shaped archi-volts, one external and one internal, resting on paired columns, as occurs on the western por-tal of Conques. This reduction of the trumpet shape with respect to what we see in the pre-sent-day Platerías door ensured that the en-trances were not only similar in width but also presented a more harmonious aspect within the pure form of the mullioned door. Thanks to the description given in the Codex Calixtinus (LSI, I, 9), the archeological remains and

23 HC I, 17 (see note 5), p. 108; Flórez, España Sagrada (see note 10), p. 52.24 caStiñeiraS, Topographie (see note 9), p. 33–34, figs. 6–7. Manuel caStiñeiraS and Victoriano nodar, “Para una

reconstruc ción del altar de Gelmírez: cien años después de López Ferreiro”, in: Compostellanum 55, 3–4 (2010), p. 575–640.

25 The altar dedicated to Mary Magdalene in the Crusader’s Holy Sepulchre is near to the location of the Compass (Om-phalos). In fact, according to the description made by the Anglo-Saxon traveller, Saewulf, around 1101–1103, in the eleventh-century Bizantine Anastasis the omphalos was identified as the place of the Apparition of Christ to Mary Magdalene (John, 20, 15): “Ad caput autem aecclesiae Sancti Sepulchri in muro forisencus, non longe a loco Calva-riae, est locus qui ‘Compas’ vocatur, ubi ipse Dominus noster Iesus Christus medium mundi propia manu esse signavit atque misuravit […]; sed quidam in illo loco dominum Iesum Christum dicunt apparuisse primo Mariae Magadalenae, dum ipsa flendo eum quaesivit et putavit eum hortolanum fuiste, sicut evangelista narrat”, in: R. B. C. huygenS and John H. prior (eds.), Peregrinationes tres. Saewulf. John of Würzburg. Theodoricus (CCCM 139), Turnholti 1994, p. 66.

26 Alberto Fernández gonzález, “Un viejo plano olvidado en el Archivo de la Catedral de Santiago: la Porta Francigena, su atrio y la Corticela en el año 1739”, in: Compostellanum XLVIII, 1–4, 2003, p. 701–742, especially figs. 1–2, 9.


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the help of the new 3D digital technologies (fig. 8), it has been possible to recreate the general structure of the facade and many decorative de-tails for the exhibition Compostelle and Europe. The Story of Diego Gelmírez.27 In addition to its double-entrance door structure was a host of sculptured reliefs, most of which can be attrib-uted to four principal master masons. The first, and most gifted, was a man whom we will hence-forth refer to as the “Master of the Porta Fran-cigena”, already nicknamed by Moralejo, in his day, as the “Master of Platerías” and all too often identified, totally erroneously, by conventional historiography as Master Stephen. On the one

hand, the “Master of the Porta Francigena”, with its figurines with jowly faces, stocky build and contrastingly sculpted robes (the Creation of Adam, David, Woman with the Lion, Grape Woman, Man riding a rooster, etc.), was un-doubtedly a follower of the penchant for Anti - quity favored by the Master of Jaca. On the other hand, he was also directly familiar with the immense skill of the workshop that was re-sponsible for the Porte Miègeville of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse, the reliefs of which were probably begun around 1100, as recent research by Quitterie and Daniel Cazes suggests.28 It is quite possibly thanks to the journey, along the Via

Fig. 8: Cathedral of Santiago, Porta Francigena, detail of the frontispiece (3D Virtual Reconstruccion). 2010. Scientific adviser: Manuel Castiñeiras. Technical production: Tomas Guerrero-Magneto Studio Ó S. A. de Xestión do Plan Xacobeo. Santiago de Compostela,

27 Compostela e Europa. A historia de Diego Xelmírez: Castelo de Torres de Oeste, Os tempos do bispo Diego Peláez, As Viaxes de Diego Xelmírez, A Porta Francigena da Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, O Altar Maior da Catedral de Santiago de Compostela (Xacobeo 2010), Santiago de Compostela 2010 (DVD in Galician, Spanish, Italian and French Languages). For this 3D reconstruction of the Porta Francigena, see: Manuel caStiñeiraS and Victoriano nodar, “Reconstruyendo la Porta Francigena de la Catedral de Santiago: materiales multimedia para una exposición de arte romanico”, in: Románico. Revista de arte de amigos del románico 10, 2010, p. 83–10. Manuel caStiñeiraS, “La Porta Francigena: una encrucijada en el nacimiento del gran portal románico”, Anales de Historia del Arte, volumen extrordinario, 2011, p. 93–122 (Alfonso VI y el arte de su época, J. Martínez de Aguirre, M. Poza Yagüe (eds.), Madrid, 2011); Manuel caStiñeiraS, “Las portadas del crucero de la Catedral de Santiago (1101–1111)”, in: Alfonso VI y su le-gado, Actas del Congreso Internacional celebrado en Sahagún, C. Estepa, E. Fernández, J. Rivera (eds), León, 2012, p. 215–241; Manuel caStiñeiraS, “Jaca, Toulouse, Conques y Roma: las huellas de los viajes de Diego Gelmírez enel arte románico compostelano”, in: F. López Alsina, H. Monteagudo, R. Yzquierdo Perrín (eds.), O Século de Xelmírez (Actas del Congreso Internacional, Santiago, 18–20 novembro 2010, Consello da Cultura Galega), Santiago de Com-postela, 2013, pp. 245–298. With regards to this destroyed portal, there is a classic study written by Serafín Mo-raleJo, “La Primitiva Fachada Norte de la Catedral de Santiago”, in: Compostellanum XIV, 3–4, 1969, p. 623–668.

28 Quitterie and Daniel cazeS, Saint-Sernin de Toulouse. De Saturnin au chef d’oeuvre de l’art roman, Toulouse 2008.


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Tolosana, which Gelmírez made to Rome in 1100 with members of his curia to be ordained subdeacon that the incipient Compostelan work-shop came into contact with the sculptors of Tolosa and, as we shall see, with Roman mar-blers. I tend to believe that it is more than likely that the “Master of the Porta Francigena” joined Compostella from Toulouse after this long jour-ney to Rome. The second master, responsible for the magnificent twisted columns – the “Master of the Twisted Columns”, whom F. Prado-Vilar has recently called Ulysses’ Master29 – was also trained in the tradition of Jaca, but he distin-guished himself for remaining more faithful to the Classicism that characterized this work-shop and enriching it with the novelties of the contemporary Roman experience. Added to these two masters is the epigonal “Master of the Puerta del Cordero” (Portal of the Lamb), who favored geometrical volumes, smooth sur-faces, timeless faces, bulging eyes, and a ten-dency to frontality (the Christ Pantocrator of the left-hand counterfort of Platerías, Sign of Mat-thew, Creation of Eve). He was a local sculptor, familiar with the Jaca tradition and the work of the “Master of the Porta Francigena”, but inca-pable of articulating an artistic monumental language of sophistication. Lastly, also working on the Porta Francigena was a fourth artist, who came from a very different professional background: the “Master of the Betrayal” (Maestro de la Traición). He was a follower of the “Master of the Temptations” or “of Conques” – active only in Platerías – and was an expert inthe art of narration, typically portraying figures in three-quarter profile, with naïve expressions, dug-out pupils filled with glass paste, large moustaches, thick folds around the lower half of their bodies and a marked bulkiness (Repri-manding and Expulsion of Adam and Eve).30

Extraordinarily for such dates, the reliefs ex-ecuted by these four masters covered – as they did in Platerías – the entire surface of the fa-cade: jambs with Apostles, ox-headed corbels, lion-topped outer spandrels, the tympanum of

the left-hand entrance showing the Annuncia-tion, and the profusely decorated frontispiece. Sitting directly over the portal’s arches, the lat-ter consisted of two friezes made of small stone panels showing, on the left, profane reliefs of the months of the year, and, on the right, those depicting personifications of sin in the form of the Centaur, the Siren, the Crossbowman, and the Man riding a rooster (fig. 9). These last four reliefs, each similarly quadrangular in shape originally formed part of the series of images of “saints, beasts, men, angels, women, flowers and other creatures” that decorated the original portal and which, in the eighteenth century, were moved to Platerías.31 Although we do not

29 Francisco prado-Vilar, “Nostos: Ulysses, Compostela and the Ineluctable Modality for the Visible”, in: caStiñeiraS, Compostela and Europe (see note 4), p. 260–269.

30 Manuel caStiñeiraS, “Da Conques a Compostella: retorica e performance nell’era dei portali parlanti”, in: Arturo Carlo Quintavalle (ed.), Medievo: Immagine e Memoria (Atti del XI Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Parma, 23–28 settembre 2008), Milano/Parma 2009, p. 233–251.

31 “multe immagines sanctorum, bestiarum, hominum, angelorum, feminarum, florum ceterarumque creaturum sculpun-tur”, LSI, V, 9 (see note 7), p. 253.

Fig. 9: Master of the Porta Francigena, Man riding a Rooster, 1101–1111. Cathedral of Santiago, Platerías Portal.


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rectly inspired by the original configuration of the latter. From a topological point of view, the frontispiece of the north door of San Quirce is totally covered in square and rectangular re-liefs, as were the Francigena and Platerías doors, and the eaves are decorated with fig-ured corbels, like the southern door of the Com-postelan Cathedral. Iconographically, many of the themes that are depicted on the facades of the transept in Compostela are also recreated in San Quirce: the Christ in Majesty surrounded by a Tetramorph and the Annunciation of the Burgalese facade occupied, on the Porta Fran-cigena, the center and one of the tympanums, while the apostolate decorating the eaves was located on the Platerías frontispiece.

32 “Sed tamen super portam que est ad sinistram, cum basilicam intramus, in ciborio scilicet, beate Marie Virginis an-nunciacio sculpitur; loquitur etiam ibi angelus Gabriel ad eam; ad levam vero super portas in laterali introitu, menses anni et alia multa opera pulcra sculptuntur”, LSI, V, 9 (see note 7), p. 253.

33 caStiñeiraS, Didacus Gelmirius (see note 4), p. 66–67. Regarding the church of San Quirce in Burgos, see the study of D. rico caMpS, Las voces del Románico. Arte y epigrafía en San Quirce de Burgos, Murcia 2008, p. 89.

Fig. 10: San Quirce de Burgos, Northern Portal, c. 1125–1150.

know their exact location on the original facade, some indications suggest that they had previ-ously occupied the frieze above the right-hand door, in perfect symmetry with that of the Months, situated, according to the “Guidebook”, over the left-hand door.32 A possible echo of this arrangement of square reliefs on the frieze can be found on the north door of San Quirce in Burgos (fig. 10), which dates from the second quarter of the twelfth century, where stone pan-els depicting a Centaur, a Crossbowman, and Samson and the Lion, decorate the frieze above the left-hand entrance.33

Surprisingly, the Burgos portal presents fur-ther similarities with the portals of the transept in Santiago, suggesting that the former was di-


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All the parts of the profane repertory of the original north door in Santiago, believed to be the work of the “Master of the Porta Francige-na,” alluded to the consequences of the Origi-nal Sin, the story of which was related on the contiguous upper frieze. The music of the Siren’s voice, ever since the Odyssey was a sign of the enchantment of destructive seduc-tion, is here synonymous with the deceit and bewitchment of worldly pleasures. The figure is wounded by the Centaur’s arrows in an allegory of the fight against evil. The stone panels would have served as metaphorical references to Eve’s greed and to the seductive power of the Devil. The Crossbowman – an image of discord – magnifies the effects of the Original Sin. One ought not to forget that the crossbow was not only execrated at that time for its capacity to kill but it was also considered to be a weapon of the Devil, and its use was made punishable by the Second Lateran Council.34 Finally, the Man Riding a Rooster could be an allusion to male lubricity or even a medieval version of the legend of Faustus’ Superbia or Vainglory.35 This particular group of carnal vic-es – Siren and Man Riding a Rooster as Luxu-ria or Libido – and spiritual vices – Crossbow-man as Ira or Discord – are all descendants of Superbia,36 the sin of Adam and Eve in Para-dise. For this reason, I have recently suggested that the mysterious Woman with the Skull (fig. 11), which is now situated on the left-hand tympanum of the South Portal (Platerías), was originally planned to be on the right-hand tym-panum of the Porta Francigena, for its profane and moralizing contents. This relief is an exem-plum libidinis and has also been attributed to the “Master of the Porta Francigena”. Most probably it was meant to match with the subject of the frieze showing the consequences of the Original Sin at the North Portal, and its anti-

34 Manuel caStiñeiraS, “A poética das marxes no románico galego: bestiario, fábulas e mundo o revés”, in: Semata. Ciencias sociais e humanidades 14, 2002, p. 294–334, especially p. 310; Manuel caStiñeiraS and Fátima díez plataS (eds), Profano y pagano en el arte gallego, Santiago 2003.

35 In fact, in Romanesque iconography the depiction of men riding birds or winged-quadrupeds used to be a reference to diabolic alliances, in which those participated in the witches’s Sabbath, such as the two figures riding the savage beasts – the lion and the Griffin – represented in the blessed water font from Museu Civico at Modena. Cf. Victoriano nodar, “The Modena Blessed Water Font”, in: caStiñeiraS, Compostela and Europe (see note 4), p. 340. With regards to the Faustus’ flights into magical realms and all over the world riding a struthiocamelus, see: Juan José del Solar, Historia del doctor Johann Fausto, Madrid 1994, p. 101–106 (25–26).

36 As it happened in Prudence’s Psychomachia, cf. Adolf KatzenellenBogen, Allegories of the Virtues and Vices in Me-dieval Art. From Early Christian Times to the Thirteenth Century, [1st edition 1939], Toronto/Buffalo/London 1989, p. 11.

Fig. 11: Master of the Porta Francigena: Woman with the Skull, 1101–1111. Cathedral of Santiago, Platerías Porta, left-hand tympanum.


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thesis was represented on the left-hand tym-panun depicting the Annunciation. However, as I stated in a recent publication, it has never been put in the place which had originally been assigned it and thus had to be incorpo-rated between 1103 and 1111 in the decoration of Platerias due to a change in plan for this lat-ter portal.37 The frontispiece was presided, just above the profane cycles, by a large historiated frieze depicting Biblical themes and made up of a great many pieces narrating the story of the Creation and the Fall of Adam and Eve, follow-ing the illustration models of the Carolingian Bibles and is reminiscent of the coeval Gene-sis cycle on the western façade of the Cathe-dral of Modena (1099–1106).38 In the center of the frieze depicting the history of Adam and Eve there was the figure of the Pantocrator with the four symbols of the Evangelists.39 Very probably, the Genesis cycle was flanked by rectangular stone panels depicting the promise of Redemption: David the musician defeating the Devil, the sacrifice of Isaac, the Woman with the Lion, the Woman bearing the bunch of grapes. The mysterious content of these two immagenes feminarum, referred to in the “Guide” (LSI, V, 9), should be interpreted christologically, as an allegory of the two na-tures – divine and human – of Christ: the lion as vanquisher but also as the sacrificial vic-tim.40 From a formal perspective, the untidy hair, violent movements and enormous plastic-ity of both figures point to a synthesis of the traditions of Jaca and Toulouse on the part of the “Master of the Porta Francigena”. In con-clusion, if the early monumental association

between an episode from Genesis and the Months offered the possibility of redemption of sin through work, hope for the Second Advent of the Messiah was expressed through its pre-figuration in David and Isaac, and in the femi-nine attributes of the Lion of Judah and of the Vine of the Eucharistic sacrifice. Lastly, the content of this message of redemption was rendered explicit in the relief of the Annuncia-tion. Like some grand stage decoration, the icon-ographic program of the primitive north door partook fully of the functional and symbolic character of the urban space it defined. The “plaza”, denominated paradisus, was not only an emulation of the Paradise of the Old Saint Peter’s in Rome, but also an attempt to evoke the aspect of the Biblical Eden. This locus amoenus was signified by a fountain – the fons vitae – crowned by four lions that spouted water in the manner of the Rivers of Paradise (fig. 5), and by the presence, in the frontispiece of the facade, of finely carved stone panels showing vegetal decoration beside historiated reliefs of the Fall of Adam and Eve. All of these depictions composed a perfect backdrop for the celebration of the penitential rites of Ash Wednesday befitting a pilgrim center.41 Added to this was the novel reformist influence evident in the facade’s iconography, which associated for the first time the friezes of Genesis and the Months in a truly optimistic vision of the history of mankind through the redemption of work. Although unfortunately destroyed between 1757 and 1758, numerous pieces of the orna-mentation of the original Porta Francigena have survived, some of which are kept in the Cathe-

37 caStiñeiraS, Conques (see note 30); caStiñeiraS, Didacus Gelmirius (see note 4), p. 76–80; caStiñeiraS, “La Porta Francigena” (as in note 27); caStiñeiraS, “Las portadas del crucero” (as in note 27); caStiñeiraS, “Jaca, Toulouse, Conques y Roma” (as in note 27).

38 With regards to this Italian Genesis cycle, see: Arturo Carlo quintaValle, Wiligelmo e Matilde. L’Officina romanica, Milano 1991, and Dorothy glaSS, Leggendo il Genesi nelle sculture della Cattedrale di Modena, in: Arturo Calzona (ed.), Matilde e il tesoro di Canossa: tra castelli, monasteri e città, Milano 2008, p. 176–187.

39 “Super vero columpnam que est inter duos portales deforis in pariete, residet Dominus in sede maiestatis et manu dextera benedictionem inuit et in sinistra librum tenet. Et in circuitu troni eius sunt quattuor evangeliste quasi tronum sustientes, et ad dexteram eius, paradisus est insculptus in quo ipse Dominus est in alia effigie, Adam et Evam cor-ripiens de peccato; et ad levam est similiter in alia persona, eiciens eos a paradiso”, LSI, V, 9 (see note 7), p. 253.

40 MoraleJo, Fachada (See note 27). As I have recently suggested the presence at the beginning of the 12th century of the allegories of the Woman bearing the Lion, the Ram and the Bunch of Grapes in monumental contexts such as Compostela (Porta Francigena) or Toulouse (Porte Miègeville) must be interpreted as a dogmatic statement promoted by the Gregorian Reform in the fight against the Berengarius of Tours‘ ideas on Eucharistic. The images run in San - tiago and Toulouse as a symbolic bestiary or horoscope of Christ. See: Manuel caStiñeiraS, La Cruz “pintada” de Bagergue: Cristo, Serpiente, Cordero y León“, in: L. Carletti, C. Giometti (eds.), Progettare le arti. Studi in onore di Clara Baracchini, Pisa, 2013, p. 21–30.

41 MoraleJo, Imagen arquitectónica (see note 22).


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42 Ibíd.43 Manuel caStiñeiraS, “Roma e il programma riformatore di Gelmírez”, in: Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, Medioevo: Im-

magini e Ideologie (I convegni di Parma, 5), Milano 2005, S. 211–226. With regards to the datation and context of the solomonic columns from Trinità dei Monti and Cave, see Petrus Cornelius clauSSen, Römische Skulptur aus der zweiten Hälfte des 11. Jahrhunderts, in: Patrimonio artístico de Galicia y otros estudios. Homenaje al Prof. Dr. Serafín Moralejo Álvarez, vol. 3, Santiago de Compostela 2004, p. 71–80; Petrus Cornelius clauSSen, “Un nuovo campo della storia dell’arte. Il secolo XI a Roma”, en: Roma e la Riforma gregoriana. Tradizione e innovazione artistiche (XI-XII secolo), Roma 2007, p. 61–71; Victoriano nodar, “Solomonic Columns at Santissima Trinità dei Monti and San Carlo a Cave”, in: caStiñeiraS, Compostela and Europe (see note 4), p. 346–348. See also the very intersting analysis made by Stefan Trinks on the topic. For this author, the columns are related to the Roman Dyonisiac repertoire and the Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Nevertheless, we cannot agree with his dating in 1117, Stefan trinKS, Antike und Avant-garde. Skulptur am Jacobsweg im 11. Jahrhundert: Jaca – Leon – Santiago, Berlin 2012, p. 252–267, 332–344,

copies, rather than the lofty 5 m columns of the Vatican’s pergola. This fact suggests the exist-ence of a model that circulated around the workshops of Roman marblers at the end of the eleventh century and which became known to Gelmírez’s entourage during his two visits to Rome.43 In fact, there is an evident similarity between the compositional and ornamental de-signs of the Roman medieval columns and those of Santiago. Examples of this are the vin-tager Cupid beside a bird, the putti eating a bunch of grapes, the pests biting the vine, and the birds pecking at the grapes. In either case, in the choice and repetition of the motifs, whether in Rome or in Compostela, it seems that these copies or serial imitations of the columns of the pergola of Saint Peter’s all sought to highlight an ecclesiological signi fi-cance that reflected the ideals of the art of the Gregorian Reform. It is worth noting the “Master of Twisted Columns” was an outstanding follower of the “Master of Jaca”, from which he learnt his unusual interest with regard to antiquity. However, it’s likely that the “Master of Twisted Columns” was given the opportunity to improve his knowledge of classical sculpture during Gelmírez’ first visit to Rome in 1100. In fact, his splendid work at Compostela would appear to confirm that he had direct access to the rich repertoire of the fore-mentioned medieval rein-terpretations of the Saint Peter’s pergola. Both Cave and Trinità dei Monti columns are deco-rated by a series of motifs to highlight the ideals of the Roman Church at the end of the 11th cen-tury. It explains the clear opposition between Good (grape pickers) and Evil (beasts, birds, serpents, lizards) in order to become the wine harvest an allegory of the Church fighting against heresy and vices. This symbolism is especially obvious in one of the Solomonic shafts of Trinità dei Monti where one grape picker is depicting with the Christian cross tattooed on his right shoulder.


dral Museum: the Twisted Columns, Month of February, Woman of the Bunch of Grapes, The Reprimanding of Adam and Eve. Many others were reused in the frontispiece (Annunciation, Sign of Matthew, Expulsion of Adam and Eve, Eve Suckling Cain), jambs (Crossbowman, Man Riding a Rooster, Lion Woman), and coun-terforts of Platerías (David, Creation of Adam, Creation of Eve, Sacrifice of Isaac). Due to their exceptional quality, it is particularly worth not-ing the six twisted marble columns preserved in the Cathedral Museum in Santiago. They were originally part of the decoration of the mullioned door of the facade that opened onto the plaza called paradisus. Moralejo was right to see in the systematization of this urban space an evocation of Old Saint Peter’s in Rome, where there was also a paradisus in front of the basilica as well as an apostolic per-gola on the main altar with helical shafts deco-rated with wine harvesting putti .42

The motifs recreating these themes on the Compostelan shafts (fig. 12), however, refer more to the interpretations of Roman marblers working on the columns of Saint Peter’s at the end of the eleventh century – such as those of Santa Trinità dei Monti and San Carlo in Cave (c. 1093) (figs. 14–15) – than to the Vatican model. Indeed, the columns in Santiago were made probably not long after 1100, following Gelmírez’s first journey to Rome to receive the dignity of subdeacon, before the pergola of Saint Peter’s in the Vatican. Four of the six frag-ments of shaft measure 1.85 m high and it is clear from looking at them that they had a fourth decorated bundle that is missing today. This suggests that originally the shafts would have reached 2 m in length, as do those of Cave and Trinità dei Monti in Rome. In addition to this, there would originally have been a base and a capital, thus raising the height even further to at least the 2.4 m height cited in Roman medieval

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Fig. 12: Master of the Twisted Columns, Shaft of the Porta Francigena, 1101–1111. Museo de la Catedral, Santiago de Compostela.

Fig. 13: Solomonic Colum at Santissima Trinità dei Monti (Rome), 1090–1100.

Fig. 14: Solomonic Colum at San Carlo a Cave (Lacio), 1093–1100.


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This message is perfectly clear in Santiago, for in the Liber Sancti Jacobi, in the Sermon of the Passion of the Apostle (25th July), mention is made of the barbarae ferae and the vulpes he-reticae, represented in Cave, Trinità dei Monti and Santiago, as enemies of the apostolic vintager of the Church’s vine. The same can be said of the representation of the birds on an-other shaft, which, as in the Roman examples, wickedly peck away at the vine. However, in the case of Compostela, one of the shafts portrays a Cupid gripping a dove by its neck in an attempt to protect his hard work. This refers directly to the contents of the verses of a hymn by San Fortunato, contained in the same sermon of the Codex Calixtinus: “Thanks to this guardian, the vintner has not lost the ripe grapes of the vine to the birds”.44 The original Porta Francigena thus adhered to the ideal of art promoted by the Gregorian Reform and which could be seen emerging in monumental sculpture beyond Rome, both in the Porte Miègeville and in the western façade of the Cathedral of Modena. This Roman lesson is crucial in order to be able to understand the art in Compostela dur-ing Gelmírez’s era, particularly at its apogee, between 1100 and 1122. It is therefore wrong to talk of a “Gelmirian art” prior to 1100–1101. Only when Diego Gelmírez fully embarked on his ecclesiastical career, obtaining the dignity of subdeacon and later that of Bishop, was he able to develop in Compostela a perfectly co-herent and avant-garde figurative program. As Moralejo observed, Rome became, as a result of the two journeys Gelmírez undertook, an ideological point of reference in the eccle-siarch’s decorative program. This is borne out by the twisted columns and the systematization of the silver altar and baldachin echoing the style of the liturgical objects of Roman basili-cas45 in 1105–1106. All this of course had re-percussions on the development of monumen-

tal sculpture: if the journey of 1100 yielded the magnificent work by the “Master of the Twisted Columns”, the visit of 1105 to Saint Lawrence outside the Walls, to receive the pallium, un-questionably influenced the evolution of the “Master of the Porta Francigena”, whose stone tablets showing the Man riding a Rooster and the Horn Blower on a lion were the result of having had recourse to a Dionysian repertoire belonging to a late-Antiquity, third century, sar-cophagus that was reused as a tomb for Pope Damasus (†1048) in the aforementioned Ro-man basilica.46

Evoking the Holy Cities: Rome and Jerusalem

As previously stated more than once, in the con-struction of the south face of the cathedral, Gelmírez was possibly attempting to imitate a prestigious Roman source, namely the Patri-archium, the Roman Episcopal see, located di-rectly alongside the north gate of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. In front of this gate, there was also a platea on which justice was ad-ministered.47 Gelmírez was inspired by Roman models, and copied and adapted them in his see so as to construct a huge complex as witness to the power befitting a place where reposed the body of an Apostle. For, according to the Histo-ria Compostelana, such were the appurtenanc-es befitting “either the Papacy, a Patriarchy or at least an Archbishopric, except in the case of the Church of Santiago”.48 Therefore, once the Archbishopric and the Papal Legacy had been acquired in 1120, Gelmírez did not conceal his pleasure at this achievement, causing his rivals to accuse him of “shamelessly acting as if he were the Pope”.49

44 “Palmitis uva temens, avium laceranda rapinis,/ hoc custode bono non peritura lacu”, LSI I, 6 (Sermo Beati Calixti Pape in Passione sancti Iacobi Apostoli que VIII Kalendas Augusti celebratur, see note 7), p. 36.

45 Serafín MoraleJo, “Ars sacra et sculpture romane monumentale: le trésor et le chantier de Compostelle”, in: Les Cahiers de Saint-Michel de Cuxa 11, 1980, p. 189–238.

46 caStiñeiraS, Roma (see note 43).47 Manuel caStiñeiraS, “Un adro para un bispo: modelos e intencións na fachada de Praterías”, in: A. Vigo Trasancos

(ed.), Cultura, poder y mecenazgo (Semata, 10), Santiago 1999, p. 231–264.48 HC II, 3 (see note 5), p. 300–301.49 “eum in suis indumentis et oblationibus peregrinorum recipiendis Apostolico more uti imprudenter astruentes”, Flórez,

España Sagrada (see note 10), p. 489. See also, HC III, 10 (see note 5), p. 507.


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It has become customary to interpret the icon-ographical program of the Compostelan tran-sept façades as an ordered biblical narrative: while on the north door the Fall and the prom-ise of Redemption were related, on the south the theme of the fulfillment of this promise was expounded in the life of Christ in the tympa-nums – incarnation, ministry and passion – and in the “mission” of the Apostles in the frieze. However, the exposition of the Platerías scenes is highly complex indeed, since two projects were imposed upon it in the time frame of a decade, two projects that served the same end: Gelmírez’s promotion of and adhesion to the Roman program of Gregorian reform. I have previously noted with delight the correspondence of the decoration of the mar-ble columns of the Platerías with the return to Ecclesiae primitivae forma, popular in Rome at that time, and visible in the use of themes and motifs of Roman painting of c. 1100–1120, such as angels with palm-leaves, birds drink-ing from chalices, the Chrismon, fleurons, twisted columns, and velaria. This imitation

clearly reflects Gel mírez’s two visits to Rome, but also the collection of canon law called Polycarpus which Cardinal Gregory of Saint Chrisogon (1109–1111) personally dedicated to the Bishop of Compostela for the governance of his diocese, the artistic consequences of which I have dealt with elsewhere.50 A copy of this compilation of Canon Law, now in the Vat-ican Library (Ms. Lat. 1354) must have been transcribed in the scriptorium of Santiago Ca-thedral in about 1140–1160, for the hand and the historiated capitals appear to have been written by the same scribes as those of the Codex Calixtinus. Roman is also the focus on the arma Christi in the frieze of the Passion above the right-hand door of the Platerías (fig. 15). In particular, the representation of the column of flagellation is surprisingly detailed. If we discount the plinth, it is the same height as the figure of Jesus, at-tempting thereby to reproduce or evoke the relic with the mensura Christi preserved in Rome in the Middle Ages in the Council Hall of Pope Leo III in the Lateran Palace (Fig. 16).51

50 caStiñeiraS, Adro (see note 47); caStiñeiraS, Roma (see note 43).51 caStiñeiraS, Adro (see note 47), p. 264, figs. 32, 24. The so-called mensura Christi relic, which is now preserved in

the cloister of St. John Lateran, consists of a tall table (mensa) over four columns that came to be taken as the mesure (mensura) of Christ, Herbert L. KeSSler and Johanna zachariaS, Rome 1300. On the path of the pilgrim, New Haven/London 2000, p. 34–36, especially figs. 29 and 32.


Fig. 15: Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, right-hand tympanum, 1101/1103–1111.

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We should keep in mind that the iconographic programs of the Church of the Gregorian Re-forms aimed to revive the Ecclesiae primitivae forma. Indeed the scheme, composition and certain themes in the frieze of the Platerías Passion evoke, to a certain degree, the compo-sition of the front of an Early Christian sarcoph-agus of the late fourth or beginning of the fifth centuries, such as that in the Necropolis of Toulouse. There we find examples of the scenes of the healing of the blind man, or the same arrangement of a person seated in the left corner holding his hand out to the front, who, in the Platerías depiction is undoubtedly that of Christ at the moment of the crowning of thorns. These same motifs – the Crown of Thorns or the Cyrenean – appear in other sar-cophagi of the fourth century with the Resur-rection as their theme; the Domitilla Sarco-phagus in Rome is an example thereof. In any

case, I am sure that the visit of Gelmírez and his Compostelan retinue to Rome in 1100 was key to these creations and the choice of other clearly Early Christian themes. One ought not to forget that the company would have de-scended to the subterranean semicircle which enclosed the confessio of Saint Peter. From this vantage point, they would have been able to see the magnificent fourth-century sarcoph-agus of Junius Bassius, with its Christological reliefs at the front, and scenes of grape-har-vesting putti on the sides; two themes which were omnipresent in the Compostelan work-shops at the beginning of the twelfth century.52

On the other hand, the reference to the relics underlies the entire layout of the right-hand lin-tel of the Platerías archway, being a faithful ex-position of the arma Christi – Crown of Thorns, scourges, column, the cross borne by the Cyre-nean – whereby the so-called “Master of Con-ques” anticipated by seventy years what would later be produced under the direction of Master Mateo on the west portal of the cathedral, in the famous Pórtico da Gloria (1168–1188). This rev-erence for relics was undoubtedly one of the defining features of what has become known as the Art of the Pilgrim Routes, in which their ac-quisition and their representation as images became symbols of identity in many of these great places of worship. Debra Birch has stud-ied the competition that arose in the twelfth cen-tury between the three great centers of Christi-anity – Santiago, Jerusalem and Rome – and the strategies used by each city to increase its appeal. Faced with the attraction of the pilgrim-age to Jerusalem, it was natural that the west-ern sanctuaries should have sought to comple-ment their treasures with Christ’s relics.53 Rome already had these in the early Christian period, but the same could not be said of Compostela, where practically none existed at that time. Hence Gelmírez’s desire to forge links with the Patriarchy of Jerusalem and procure relics from the Holy Land. Four such relics were donated by Queen Urraca to the Bishop of Compostela, according to the Historia Compostelana (II, 57): Saint James’ head, Saint Stephen’s bones, a

52 With regards to the question of the relationship between Passion lintel of Platerías and the Early Christian sarcophagi, see my contributions: caStiñeiraS, “La catedral de Santiago de Compostela (1075–1122: obra maestra del románico europeo”, in: Pedro Luis Huerta (ed.), Siete Maravillas del Románico Español, Aguilar de Campoo 2009, p. 227–289; caStiñeiraS, Didacus Gelmirius (see note 4), p. 85–87.

53 Birch, Pilgrimage (see note 8), p. 115, 150–186.


Fig. 16: Mensura Christi. Cloister of St. John Lateran. Photo: Manuel Castiñeiras.

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piece of Christ’s tomb and a relic of the Holy Cross set in silver.54 As I have already explained elsewhere, one would have to add to these the so-called Lignum Crucis de Carboeiro, which was very possibly a gift to Gelmírez from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, brought in 1129 by Ay-merich, canon of the Church of the Holy Sepul-cher, as witness to the bond of confraternity between the two Chapters and as a token of gratitude for the grants of land made to the Pa-triarch in the diocese of Santiago.55

The depiction of images of the instruments of the Passion on a door opening on to the arm of the transept containing the baptistery is a common feature of Christian art. It is found in the mosaic in the apse of the atrium of the fifth-

century Lateran baptistery, where the lancea Domini is depicted, or on the door of the so-called Tomba di Rotari,56 which is actually a baptistery dedicated to Saint John – San Gio-vanni Battista del Sepulcro –, on the crusader route to the Holy Land. Its architecture is remi-niscent of Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre. In these reliefs the story of the Passion and Resurrec-tion of Christ is narrated (fig. 17). According to the recent theory of Paolo Piva,57 these stone reliefs would have been part of the doors of a tomb-monument inside the building whose in-tention was to make a stone copy of the mosa-ics which adorn the crusader aedicule of the Resurrection in the Anastasis in Jerusalem, the ante-chamber to which was possibly decorated

Fig. 17: San Giovanni Battista del Se-polcro, Monte Sant’Angelo (Apulia): portal, second quarter 12th Century.

54 “Tatum igitur thesaurum, scilicet caput Beati Jacobi, et frustrum Dominici Sepulchri, et quoddam os S. Stephani, cet-erasque reliquias cum vase argenteo, contulit preadicto Beati Jacobi Episcopo”, year 1116, (“Quando Regina dedit caput Beati Jacobi Episcopo”, HC I, 112 (see note 5)); “Lignum Domini argentum quod dedit ei Regina U(rracha) Regis Adef(onsis) filia”, year 1122, (“Notitia vestimentorum, librorum, aliorumque oramentorum Ecclesiae quae fecit Archie-piscopus”, HC, II, 57 (see note 5)); Flórez, España Sagrada (see note 10), p. 223, 380. See also: Manuel caStiñeiraS, “Platerías: función y decoración de un ‘lugar sagrado’”, in: Paolo Caucci (ed.), Santiago de Compostela: ciudad y peregrino (Actas del V Congreso Internacional de Estudios Jacobeos), Santiago de Compostela 2000, p. 289–331, especially p. 330–331.

55 caStiñeiraS, Topographie (see note 9); caStiñeiraS, Compostela, Bari (see note 2); caStiñeiraS, Puertas y metas de la Peregrinación (as in note 16).

56 caStiñeiraS, Adro (see note 47), p. 264; caStiñeiraS, Platerías (see note 54), p. 331, fig. 300.57 Paolo piVa, “San Giovanni Battista del Sepolcro (a proposito di Civate e Monte Sant’Angelo)”, in: Arte Medievale 5,1,

2006, p. 49–82.


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58 The mosaic depicting the three Marys in the Crusader’s aedicule is described by Theodoricus around 1160–1170: “De-nique super os ipsius spelunce, quod retro ipsum altare situm est, ab eisdem per picturam musivi operis corpus domini sepulture mandatur, astante domina Nostra eius matre et tribus Mariis bene ex evangelio notis cum aromatum vasculis, supersedante etiam angelo ipsi sepulcro et lapidem revolvente atque dicente: ecce locus ubi posuerunt eum. Inter ipsum quoque foramen et ipsum sepulchrum linea per emiciclum in longum porrigitur hos continens versus: CHRISTO SUR-GENTI LOCUS ET CUSTOS MONUMENTI/ ANGELUS ET VESTIS FUIT ATQUE REDEMPTIO TESTIS/ Hec omnia mu - sivo opere preciosísimo sunt depicta, quo opere tota illa domuncula est decorata”, huygenS/prior, Peregrinationes (see note 25), p. 147–148. See also: Jaroslav Folda, The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. 1098-1187, Cambridge 1995, p. 230–232; I. Shagrir, “‘The Visitatio Sepulchri’ in the Latin Church of the Holy Sepulchre”, in: Al-Masaq 22,1, 2010, p. 69.

59 Antonio JacoBini, “Lancea domini. Nuove hipótesis sul mosaico absidale nell’atrio del Battistero Lateranense”, in: Antonio Cadei, Marina Righetti, Anna Segnani and Alessandro Tomei (eds.): Arte d’Occidente. Temi e Metodi. Studi in onore di Angiola Maria Romanini, Vol. 2, Roma 1999, p. 727–742.

60 caStiñeiraS, Platerías (see note 54), p. 330–332; caStiñeiraS, Didacus Gelmirius (see note 4), p. 86–87.61 caStiñeiraS, Compostela, Bari (see note 2), p. 44–51.62 Adrian J. BoaS, Crusader Archeology. The Material Culture of the Latin East, London/New York 1999, p. 125–127.63 This date was questioned by Jaroslav Folda and Martin Biddle with the latter taking the date for the finishing of the

work back to 1169; Folda, Crusaders (see note 58); Martin Biddle, The Tomb of Christ, Hong Kong 1999, p. 92–98.64 The originality of Santiago resides, nevertheless, in the fact that the series of openings are also alternated on high,

with one open and higher in comparison with the groups of two covered openings; Serafin MoraleJo, “Notas para una revisión de la obra de K. J. Conant”, in: Kenneth J. Conant, Arquitectura románica da Catedral de Santiago de Com-postela, Santiago de Compostela 1983, p. 225, fig. 8. Curiously, the alternate height of the openings can also be seen in the outer decoration of the Norman cathedral nave at Santa María de Taranto (Apulia), built under bishop Drogone from 1070 to 1082, Pina Belli d’elia, Pouilles romanes, Yonne 1987, p. 50; Vincenzo Velati, Le cattedrali romaniche pugliesi, Roma/Bari 2001, p. 88–89, fig. 81.

with images of the taking of Christ, and the chamber itself with the deposition and visita-tion.58 So, in Monte Sant’Angelo, as in the Platerías, in the lower section, within a synthe tic depiction of the taking of Christ, there are images of people bearing the arma Christi – scourge, lance, cross and nails. The whole is completed in the upper section by a series of depictions of the deposition, the burial and the visitation of the tomb, and another set of arma Christi carried by various characters – Ste-phaton, Longinus, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea – and the image of Christ’s tomb with three holes, typical of the crusader period. It is worth noting the appropriateness of the representation of these instruments of the Pas-sion on the door of a martyrial baptistry-sepul-chre, as they all refer to the symbolism of the blood spilled by Christ that washes the sin of the world away like baptismal water.59 It is very ap-propriate for the rites of Holy Saturday, which combine the Baptism with the celebration of the Resurrection. For this reason the placement of these reliefs decorating the right-hand entrance in Platerías does not seem fortuitous, as it is through there that access is gained, even today, to the cathedral baptistery, which was probably originally located in an adjacent place: the now destroyed chapel of Saint John the Baptist on the far side of the southern transept.60

Jerusalem, a return journey

As I stated elsewhere, many Spanish-Toulouse references can be also found on the Middle Eastern side of the Mediterranean, in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.61 As pointed out by A. J. Boas, when the architectural complex of the old Anastasis was renovated in the twelfth century, the Crusaders chose the characteristic layout of the so-called “group of pilgrimage churches” as a model that was so successful between the end of eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth (St. Foy of Conques, St. Martial of Limoges, St. Martin of Tours, St. Saturnin of Toulouse and Santiago de Com-postela)62. An imitation of the ambulatory of this group of churches, with a large transept and a kind of choir-ambulatory (chorus domico-rum) with tribunes and radial chapels thus sprang up in the east of the temple. The most significant pilgrimage church in the Latin Kingdom, consecrated on 15 July 1149,63 acquired the aspect of the old and pres-tigious Romanesque Franco-Spanish pilgrim-age churches, both in their layout and eleva-tion. There is an example in the external view of the ambulatory of the Holy Sepulchre, which alternates covered and pierced openings/ windows along the drum of the ambulatory, vaguely recalling the monumental east wall in Santiago de Compostela or that in Conques.64


405Santiago – Rome – Jerusalem: Old Issues, New Proposals

Fig. 18: Cathedral of Santiago, southern transept façade: Portal of Platerías, 1101/1103–1111.

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At this point it should be underlined that the church in Santiago was already a model for Eu-ropean Romanesque, given that in the Codex Calixtinus Aimeric Picaud pointed out in 1137 that the church of St. Martin of Tours was built “ad similitudinem ecclesie Sancti Iacobi” (“fol-lowing the example of the Cathedral of San-tiago”).65 At this point, it warrants mention that a brother hood joined the chapters of the Holy Sepulchre and Santiago de Compostela from 1129 and most likely, the Lignum Crucis “of Carboeiro” arrived at this point in Galicia from Jerusalem as a Patriarch’s gift (fig. 4). This di-rect contact between Santiago and Jerusalem should come as no surprise since exactly dur-ing that period, between 1118 and 1138, a se-ries of documentary reports concerning jour-neys made by canons from Compostela and the Galician nobility to the Holy Land have been conserved.66 Among the latter the names of Juan Díaz67 and Rodrigo Pérez de Traba stand out prominently; both gave numerous dona-tions to the Holy Sepulchre in 1128 and 1138. Rodrigo was the Count of Traba68 and his do-nation is particularly significant; apart from the hamlet of Pasarelos with thirty-one houses, lo-cated near the city of Santiago, in Oroso (La Coruña), he endowed the Holy Sepulchre a yearly income of two silver marks:

Proinde ego Rodericus Petri, licet indignus terre que vicina est ecclesie Beati Jacobi comes, ob anime mee parentumque meorum atque uxoris mee sa lutem sive remedium, tam sancte tamque gloriose Sepulcri

65 LSI, V, 8 (see note 7), p. 539.66 Ángel gonzález rodríguez, “Galicia y los Santos Lugares en el Medievo”, in: Compostellanum II, 2, 1957, p 207–217;

José Ignacio Fernández de Viana y VieiteS, “Documentos sobre peregrinos gallegos a Jerusalem en la Edad Media”, in: Estudios Mindonienses 7, 1991, p. 405–421.

67 Galician noble Juan Díaz, who went to the Holy Land as a pilgrim, donated the area of Cusanca (O Irixo, Ourense) to the Holy Sepulchre on 8 October 1128; N.A.L. 2592, n. 1627, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, quoted in JaSpert, Pro nobis (see note 14), p. 197, n. 57.

68 Rodrigo Pérez was one of Pedro Fróilaz’ children, an attendant of King Alfonso VII. His brother, Fernando Pérez, made two pilgrimages to Jerusalem: gonzález rodríguez, Galicia (see note 66), p. 212. Concerning the family tree of the Trabas in the twelfth century, cf. Maria Carmen pallareS and Ermelindo portela, “Aristocracia y sistema de parentesco en la Galicia en los siglos centrales de la Edad Media. El grupo de los Traba”, in: Hispania LIII, 185, 1993, p. 823–840.

69 BreSc-Bautier, Cartulaire (see note 15), doc. n. 72, p. 170–171.70 Antonio lópez Ferreiro, Historia de la Santa A. M. Iglesia de Santiago de Compostela, Vol. IV, Santiago 1901, ap. 17,

p. 107; gonzález rodríguez, Galicia (see note 66), p. 830; José M. Sánchez Sánchez, “Privilege Granted by EmperorAlfonso VII to those Involved in the Building of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela”, in: caStiñeiraS, Composte-la and Europe (see note 4), p. 384–385.

71 Rorgo Fretellus de Nazareth et sa description de la Terre Sainte. Histoire et Edition du texte, P. C. Boeren (ed.), Amsterdam-Oxford-New York, 1980, p. XIX, XXI, 53. With regard to the consequences of this dedicatory for the ar-tistic exchanges between Santiago and Jerusalem, see: Manuel caStiñeiraS, „Puertas y metas de la peregrinacion“, p. 349–350 (as in note 9).

Domini ecclesie, villam nomine Passerel, in terminis castelli cujusdam quod Trava dicitur sitam, cum XXXª et uno casalibus eorumque pertinentiis perpetualiter et sine calumpniam possidendam concedo, tali vide-licet conditione ut, quoad vixero, predictas mansiones cum suis habitatoribus que, ut dictum, apud nos casalia nuncupantur, quiete possideam, duasque argenti marcas ad conservandam hujus doni mei stabilitatem et memoriam Sepulcri Domini canonicis annis singulis mittam.69

Only a few years before, in 1131, this same count confirmed a significant privilege of King Alfonso VII to the foremen at the building site of the church of Santiago.70 His presence at both pilgrimage shrines confirms their relationship and suggests a probable mutual flow of ex-change. Besides, his name appears in the ded-ication of Holy Land written by Rorgo Fretellus of Nazareth in 1148: “Domino suo venerabile et fratri in Domino R(odrico) Dei gratia Toletano comiti, Fretellus eadem gratia archidiaconus Antiochie, sub spiritu consili et fortitudinis Deo militare”.71 To this extent, the old comparison between the new façade of the Holy Sepulchre, a church consacrated on 5 July 1149, and the Compostelan facades should be revisited. In this web of artistic exchange, it should be underlined the fact that in Jerusalem the privi-leged entrance to the basilica was, just as in Toulouse and Compostela, on the southern side (fig. 19). The structure of the front facade in Je-rusalem imitated, however, even in its details, the prestigious (at the time) Platerías model, in the Cathedral of Santiago, with a double- entrance and embrasure, the archivolts of which


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Fig. 19: Jerusalem, Holy Sepulchre, south door, ca. 1149.

intertwine in the centre with two architraves con-taining figures and an upper floor with a double window under embrased arches. This compari-son between the Platerías front (1103–1122) (fig. 19) and that of the Holy Sepulchre could even be the product of reciprocal influence, given that in Santiago the embrasure over the columns on the first floor was built after the in-tervention in Jerusalem, following a renovation and remonumentalisation programme for the

complex, developed by the Maestro Mateo workshop between 1188 and 1211, when Com-postela cathedral was consecrated.72 It could therefore be deduced that, initially, Jerusalem evoked Santiago, the best-known sanctuary in the West, just as some years later Compostela made allusion to the memory of Jerusalem. This is therefore additional proof of the contact exist-ing between two holy cities, which shared a com-mon figurative culture, namely: Pilgrimage.

72 Manuel caStiñeiraS, “El Maestro Mateo o la unidad de las artes”, in: Pedro Luis Huerta, Maestros del románico en el Camino de Santiago, Aguilar de Campoo 2010, p. 187–239, especially, p. 200–201.


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