San Pedro de la Nave sculpture
Date:
Seventh to eighth century
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Spain
Description:
Radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating suggests that San Pedro de la Nave is a Visigothic church build in the seventh or eighth century, although some scholars think it may be two centuries later. In the 1930s it was moved stone by stone to its current location to avoid being submerged by a new reservoir. It is notable for its abundant architectural sculpture, both inside and out, which is unusual in churches at this date.
Two artists may have carved its capitals and impost blocks with geometric, vegetal, and figural forms in flat relief. Two of these, at the crossing of the nave and transept, are scenes of salvation: Abraham offering Isaac and Daniel in the lions' den, both flanked by images of single saints on the short ends of the basket-shaped capitals. Daniel stands centrally in the orant position, and the Latin text at the top says, "Ubi Daniel missus est in lacum leonum" (Where Daniel is thrown into the pit of lions; Dan. 6:16). A capital with birds pecking at pinecones on a stylized tree may also have salvific implications. The pinecone was an ancient symbol of rebirth, associated especially with the cult of Dionysos/Bacchus, and a huge bronze pinecone at the Church of St. Peter in Rome was at the center of a courtyard called, by the late eighth century, Paradise.
Two artists may have carved its capitals and impost blocks with geometric, vegetal, and figural forms in flat relief. Two of these, at the crossing of the nave and transept, are scenes of salvation: Abraham offering Isaac and Daniel in the lions' den, both flanked by images of single saints on the short ends of the basket-shaped capitals. Daniel stands centrally in the orant position, and the Latin text at the top says, "Ubi Daniel missus est in lacum leonum" (Where Daniel is thrown into the pit of lions; Dan. 6:16). A capital with birds pecking at pinecones on a stylized tree may also have salvific implications. The pinecone was an ancient symbol of rebirth, associated especially with the cult of Dionysos/Bacchus, and a huge bronze pinecone at the Church of St. Peter in Rome was at the center of a courtyard called, by the late eighth century, Paradise.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
4
Image Credits:
Wikimedia Commons
