We don’t know their names. We don’t know where they were born or where they died or, even remotely, the story of their lives. We only know that we have been seduced, hypnotized, enthralled.
Bordering on obsession, we have spent hours contemplating them, we have eaten in their presence and also slept under their gaze. Always the same. Unchangeable, self-confident, successful. And is not for less. They have managed to stay beyond their times.
A must visit when we were in the area and even express, to be able to see their faces again. We call them the “masters of Irache” because no one to date has yet revealed their names to us.
The tradition of annotating the names of the artisans next to their portrait or that of their creations has been, and is, a common practice. However, in the Middle Ages, this custom was diluted little by little until it almost disappeared.
Many times the promoters appeared as if they were the material executors of the works, when these were not “miraculously” elaborated by means of a supernatural hand, since the custom of pious people prevailed who carried out their orders not for personal recognition but for the greater glory of God. especially if they were monastic artists, whose original goal was the removal of any sense of individuality.
Thus, in the cases that the artist, in his honor, wished to immortalize himself along with his creation without being accused of arrogance and vanity, he could resort to something that, in addition to beautifying the house of God, allowed him to go unnoticed in the eyes of gossips. : the imaginative embodiment in stone, being able to include personifications of themselves or allegorical images with which they identified themselves.
And here they are, with their signs of identity, one and the other.
THE ONE:
The use of humorous names with double meanings that were incomprehensible to the uninitiated was a common practice in the world of medieval builders and in that world, the dog was the image of the stonemason.
Everyone knows that identical words with similar phonetics but different meanings -polysemic and homonymous- are today, just like yesterday, a quarry (pun intended) for jokes and various subtleties.
And although it seems strange to us today to associate a stonecutter with a dog, the truth is that it is the most popularly known rhetorical association because of how obvious it is. The word “dog” did not exist until well into the 15th century.
The play on words “canto=cantero=can” together with the life habits of the stone workers, favored this mutual identification.
Un can, Apart from being man’s best friend, it is also a pebble or a piece of stone.
a carved dog, is the most outstanding part of the molding that carries a cornice. It is a carved stone or a trained dog.
When a barrel or piece of stone fell on top of another by accident and damaged one of the extremities of the stonecutter, it was said that it had bitten hand or foot.
The dog lived out in the open all day without leashes or muzzles, roaming freely, barking for game or competing for prey but always with a sharp eye, glimpsing and prioritizing the orders of the leader.
It is easy to see the similarity with the life of the medieval stonemason, working in the open air, always awaiting the orders of the master and, protected by the crew, making a fuss when they had fun both outside and inside the tavern during their breaks.
a set of dogs (dogs) was formerly called scoundrel, Where does that word come from that today designates “low people or people with bad behaviors”.
For all this and more things that surely escape us, the stonecutter agreed to identify himself with the figure of the dog, precisely because they took this animal as a symbol of their model of life.
If the dog appears scratching its head, it is the master builder, since more reason is attributed to it than intuition.
If twisting on himself or licking his behind, he is the master sculptor, who is capable of reaching any corner to capture it with his imagination.
If the canine has a stone in its mouth, it is the apprentice, it is the raw stone that the master has made it pick up so that it can be polished with his work.
 |
| There are those who say that the spiral mark represents the trade of builder. |
On the other hand, the word “magister”, present in numerous factory documents and books, always accompanied the name of the architect and was normally used to designate him in relation to a commission or contract. That is to say, that this name never alludes to the office, but to a position or ministry. So that, “Major Magister” It was used to name the head and director of the teachers involved in the work.
On the other hand, the medieval terminology that alludes to artists and construction craftsmen has a highly variable meaning depending on the place and time. In general, an artist identifies with “artist” and worker with “worker”, although they are often used interchangeably. (1)
Therefore, in the cases in which the stonecutter is subject to figuration, he is always recognized by the instruments with which he is portrayed: chisel, pointer, pick, pot, etc., without being able to discern whether it is the teacher worker: technical manager of the work, of the master artist: in charge of the sculpture, or of the picapedrero per se.
Playing with the imagination, we are pleased to see the portraits of each one of them in these carvings, always assailing us with the doubt that if they sculpted themselves or was among them a fourth “portraitist” magister.
THE OTHERS:
If something has surprised us in the documentation that we have consulted related to the monastic area of Irache, it is the labyrinthine interweaving of family ties and powerful and influential lineages that held prominent positions among the high Navarrese nobility and whose donations or testamentary legacies made to said monastery , are consistent with the high lineage in their lineages: castles, vineyards, estates, entire towns, etc.
Families with great relevance at the court of the ancient kingdoms of Navarra, Aragon and Bearne appear constantly intertwining with each other, agreeing on marriages between their offspring who, to our confusion, receive exact names that are repeated throughout the dynasties.
Among them, it is obligatory to mention, due to their repeated appearance in the place and time that concerns us, the lineages of the Lópe Garcés, Peres de Azagra and the López de Haro.
 | ||
| Emblem of the Lopes de Haro lineage, sculpted on several sarcophagi of said lineage, in the Monastery Santa María la Real de Nájera |
We defend that the dawn of heraldry arose from embryonic corbels, where the subjects personified themselves in what identified their ancestry.
That is why we intuit that the woman with the sweet smile and the sober man with thick lips are next to their corresponding corbels: the bovine that sticks out its tongue and the dog carrying the prey in its mouth. We believe that these representations were an identifying sign of the family to which these characters belonged.
If we imagined a name for them, we would like to call them Toda Lopes (Garcés) de Alagón and Rodrigo (Pérez) de Azagra, as a tribute to a couple, among others, who contributed with their faith and generous donations so that Iratxe would grow in splendor and who chose Iratxe for their burial. Everything fits in the imagination
Conclusion: Beyond the simple embellishing ornament, the images sculpted on the Romanesque corbels and corbels are, most of the time, the gateway to an imaginary and real world at the same time. Real, because in its day that image was a receptacle for the way of being and thinking of an era that today we can only delve into with our imagination.
(1) The arts on the Camino de Santiago
(2) Holy Spain. (D. Diego López de Haro, formerly Lord of Vizcaya, changed his name from Vizcaya to de Haro when he managed to win Navarre from the Moors)
(3) Memory and present of the stonecutters of Cantabria