Chapel of the Los Alas

The Los Alas Chapel , a grave family chapel of Los Alas (14th c.), Located on the north side of the Franciscan Church of Avilés in Asturias (old parish chapel of Saint Nicholas of Bari).

Adjacent to the medieval city wall, the city cemetery used to be located here, which was moved in 1813 to a site near the now defunct Convento de la Merced . Originally, the former church dedicated to St.  Nicholas of Bari was a free-standing building.

In 1991 the chapel was declared a BIC (Bien de Interés Cultural / German: Good cultural interest).

building

chronology

The old Nikolauskirche

The founder of the Chapel of Los Alas or the Virgin Mary , to which it was consecrated, was Pedro Juan. In his will of 1346 it is noted that the building had already been built at that time, as the client's wife, Sancha Pérez, was already buried there. Pedro Juan allowed his descendants and relatives to be buried “on the ground floor” in the chapel. The chapel was thus a family grave, which should secure the memory (= memoria ) of the family in posterity . With the help of foundations that financed masses and prayer, a greater guarantee for the salvation of souls was hoped for.

A statement in the will gives the research cause for all kinds of hypotheses , since a stonemason with the name Juan Alfonso “de só la iglesia” appears in him as a witness, who is supposed either as the authentic artist of the work or only as the builder involved.

architecture

Architecturally, the Los Alas Chapel is a novelty in the Asturian architecture of the time. The building has a square plan, correct orientation, and uses well-crafted stalls in the walls. This quality of the material was very unusual and reveals an extraordinary economic capacity of the developer who wanted to show himself to his fellow citizens. The roofing is undoubtedly the distinguishing element of the chapel and its presence determines the rest of the structure to a greater extent. It is a cup-shaped vault reinforced with ribs. This type of roofing, also known as Aquitana, consists of a framework that appears to be hemispherical and is arranged in concentric layers.

The ribs of the transept start from some very schematic corners of the building and cross on a machined keystone. The picture on it appears to be the face of Christ. These ribs do not function as a thrust, as was common in classical Gothic, but only serve as reinforcement to help support the thrusts, which rest directly on the walls.

As the research of Professor José Maria Azcárate shows, the cup-shaped Aquitaine models came to the peninsula during the second half of the 12th century with the construction of the Cathedral of Zamora and later spread to Salamanca , Toro , Plasencia , Sahagún and the area of ​​the Collegiate Church from Santillana del Mar.

From this point of view, the Avilés Chapel presents a very original structure that allows it to be integrated into the reduced group of proto-Gothic buildings in the region. These works are characterized by the attempt to use structural solutions that differ from the Romanesque, but also from those of the classical Gothic. As a result, they are the answer to a moment of change, exhaustion of a model and experimentation with new solutions. However, the path taken through these buildings did not last and was exhausted with them, as the forms of classical Gothic developed in parallel, which were transformed into the hegemonic offer of the next centuries.

In Asturias, with the study of the main chapel of Saint Maria De Piedeloro (Carreño) by Profesor Vidal De La Madrid, a reduced group of proto-Gothic buildings was identified, which are characterized by the novelty of the structural solutions of their vaults and their allocation to the Aquitaine or Spanish Aquitaine type. Among them is the aforementioned main chapel of Piedeloro, the funerary chapel (Salas) on the south side of the church of the Monastery of Cornellana, the pilgrimage chapel of Santiago en el Monsacro (Morcín), the main chapel of Oliva in Villaviciosa and the chapel of the Alas in Avilés.

portal

Pointed arch portal

Access to the interior of the chapel is through a simple double archivolt portal, framed by a cover and supported by four pillars under a coat of arms of modern design.

In the tympanum , a shamrock suggests something that looks like the winged heads of seraphs. In the capitals, human heads are depicted in a pronounced high relief, which are projected onto the believer who enters the room. Since bearded individuals can be distinguished, it appears that male and female personalities face each other as couples. In all of them, the hair is very embellished, so it sometimes appears to be covered with feathers or highlighted by means of tiaras.

The coat of arms on the facade is a modern copy of the original that can be found inside the chapel. It shows the coat of arms of the Alas family: a castle with three towers flanked by wings on waves of water and with an armed warrior on the door.

Funerals

Arcosols

The main function of the Alas Chapel was precisely to serve as a dignified burial place for Pedro Juan and his family. The location of the building, in the middle of the cemetery and close to the main chapel of the former Romanesque church, already secured some religious advantages, which the founder rounded off with the establishment of a chaplaincy and the anticipation of masses for his souls. Inside, two tombs were arranged under arcosolia on both sides of the chapel .

The damage to the graves sustained during the last civil war makes it difficult to identify them. On the other hand, despite their advanced decay, the tombs in the ground still allow something of the text and parts of the heraldic motifs to be recognized. They were copied by Gaspar Melchor De Jovellanos who read:

1. “Number 1º“ Sepultura del honrado e mucho bueno Juan Estévanez de las Alas, que Dios haya, vecino de esta villa, el cual finó en el año de 1467 ”
2. Number 3º “Aquí yace Esteban Pérez de las Alas, que Dios perdone, que finó viernes a 10 días de noviembre, era de 1407 años”
3. Number 4º “Aquí yace Alonso Estévanez de las Alas, que Dios haya, el que pasó de este mundo a 4 días del mes de setiembre de 1475”

Planimetry

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  Restoration plan.

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  Restoration plan.

The missing altarpiece

The interior of the chapel currently appears bare and empty, but until the last civil war it was equipped with an altarpiece made of alabaster from the English school, which Fortunato De Selgas reproduced in his article on the monuments of Avilés (1907) and Aurelio De Llano for his book “Bellezas de Asturias” (Beauties of Asturias) (1928) photographed. There are also two photographs of the object in the Institut Amatller de Arte Hispánico (Archivo Mas), which allow an approach to the work.

The altarpiece consisted of seven panels of alabaster , dedicated to the joys of Mary. They represent the following scenes in bas-relief and from left to right: Saint Catalina of Siena, the Annunciation , the Epiphany (Adoration of the Magi), the Resurrection of Christ, Saint Thomas' doubts about the Resurrection, the Coronation of Mary and Saint Margarita .

From: libro Bellezas de Asturias. De Oriente a Occidente. Oviedo, 1928. Aurelio de LLANO ROZA DE AMPUDIA

The individual parts were put together with wooden frames and form the front, which is thematically linked to the foundation of the chapel. These altarpieces were mass-produced in England in workshops in London, York and Nottingham since the 14th century. The industrial character of an overall summary version was covered by a colored version. Series production reduced costs and allowed them to be sold at a lower price. As a result, English alabaster panels quickly spread across Western Europe. The small dimensions of the objects made it easier to transport and made it possible to combine the panels more or less arbitrarily and to spread them in the Cantabrian north, with its lack of works from the region.

The scenes of the Chapel of the Alas, already examined by Pedro Paniagua, show the same formal execution and the tendency towards an arrangement which characterizes the English alabaster and which facilitates the understanding of some aspects. The Avilés altarpiece seems to be closely related to a piece by Miudes (Franco) from the parish church, kept in the Museum of the Church of Oviedo , depicting the Coronation of Mary and the doubts of Saint Thomas. In the wings, the Thomas scene shows contrary to the chronology of the events after the coronation of Mary. All works could be dated between 1420 and 1460 (Garnder). During this time, the massive castle-like closings of the previous stages had disappeared and the tracery , which also characterizes the altarpiece in the work of Avilés, had prevailed.

During the Spanish Civil War, the chapel was badly damaged and the altarpiece disappeared. José Maria Serrano, who carried out an extensive inventory of the churches and works of art that were destroyed during the conflict, wrote in his report, which is probably based on oral evidence:

"En el interior, completa y brutalmente destruido y deshecho, losas sepulcrales del siglo xv , a cuya centuria pertenecía también el hermosísimo retablo compuesto de menudos relieves de alabastro, dorado y policromado, distribuidos en siete, la Anunciac Catalina representón la Adoración de los Reyes Magos, la Ascensión, la Asunción, la Coronación y una imagen de un santo, que algún arqueólogo consideraba importación inglesa ha sido materialmente pulverizado a golpes ”(SERRANO, José María,“ Número y valor de los muse de arte destruidos. Iglesias, conventos y capillas destruidas ”)

However, some time later, Luis Menéndez Pidal was more skeptical about the hypothetical destruction of the work, since no fragments of it were found:

“La Capilla de los Alas fue profanada durante el dominio rojo, rompiendo las arcas de los sepulcros con otros detalles y labores de su interior, no habiendo sido incendiada por no tener materiales combustibles y estar cubierta con bóveda de crucería construida en piedra. El retablo, de alabastro, dicen que fue machacado, aunque no se ha podido comprobar tal supuesto, ya que no apareció en el interior de la Capilla resto alguno que viniera a justificar la explicación conocida. "( MENÉNDEZ PIDAL, Luis , Los monumentos de Asturias, p. 98).

Other authors, such as Ángel Garralda, Enrique Tessier, Francisco De Caso and Pedro Paniagua, insisted on the possibility that the work had been stolen.

The missing virgin

Before the last civil war, there was also an enthroned Virgin Mary with the Christ Child in the Alas chapel from the early Middle Ages. We know her thanks to the photographs taken in 1918 by the Institut Amatller de Arte Hispánico (Archivo Mas) . It looks like a carving out of colored wood and shows Mary sitting on her throne with the boy Jesus standing on his mother's left leg. The type and posture of the figure are already Gothic, it could be dated to the 15th century. The whereabouts of the sculpture and the alabaster altarpiece are not known.

References and comments

1. ↑ BOPA, 14-XI-1994.
2. ^ Quadro, JM, Recuerdos y Bellezas de España. Asturias y León, Salinas, Ayalga, 1977 (edición facsimilar de la de Madrid, 1855).
3. ↑ ( JOVELLANOS, Gaspar Melchor de , Diarios (memorias íntimas) 1790–1801, p.81). "
4. ↑ Planimetría elaborada por los arquitectos Cosme Cuenca y Jorge Hevia.

bibliography

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• ALONSO ÁLVAREZ, Raquel, “La clientela artística en el Avilés bajomedieval (see XIII and XIV). Obras para la vida. Obras para la muerte ”, en La nobleza peninsular en la Edad Media. VI Congreso de Estudios Medievales, León, 1999, pp. 493-598.
• ARIAS GARCÍA, David, Historia general de Avilés y de su concejo, Avilés, 1973.
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• GARCÍA SAN MIGUEL, Julián, Avilés. Noticias históricas, Avilés, 1897.
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• LAMPÉREZ, Vicente, Historia de la Arquitectura Cristiana Española, t. II, Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1930.
• LLANO ROZA DE AMPUDIA, Aurelio de, Bellezas de Asturias. De Oriente a Occidente. Oviedo, 1928.
• MADRID, Juan Carlos de la, Avilés, una historia de mil años, Avilés, Azucel, 1999.
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• MIGUEL VIGIL, Ciriaco, Asturias monumental, epigráfica y diplomática. Datos para la historia de la provincia, Oviedo, 1887.
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• QUADRADO, JM, Recuerdos y Bellezas de España. Asturias y León, Salinas, Ayalga, 1977 (edición facsimilar de la de Madrid, 1855).
• PANIAGUA FÉLIX, Pedro, “Retablo de alabastro”, en María Cruz MORALES SARO y Francisco Javier FERNÁNDEZ CONDE (coords.), Orígenes. Arte y cultura en Asturias. Siglos vii-xv, Lunwerg, 1993, pp. 455-456.
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• URÍA RÍU, Juan, “La urbanización y los monumentos del Avilés medieval, en su aspecto socioeconómico”, en Asturias Semanal, 23 agosto 1971.

Web links

• Official website of the Chapel of Wings

Coordinates: 43 ° 33 ′ 27 "  N , 5 ° 55 ′ 17"  W.