Choir Stalls. Walnut Wood. Spanish School, 16th Century.

Choir stalls. Walnut wood. Spanish school, 16th century.
Fragment of a choir stall, carved from solid walnut, comprising three seats with their respective folding misericords, decorated with geometrically arranged plant sculptures. The relief decoration focuses on a series of moldings and figurative motifs found mainly on the armrests or sides of the seats. Starting from the top, a wide molding with a relatively complex outline (reminiscent, for example, of some Lego choir stalls in the Cartuja de Granada, or of the "cor adl dormitori de la Canònica" in the Tortosa Cathedral Museum, or of the choir stalls in the Cathedral of Huesca, the choir stalls in the Cathedral of Ávila, etc.) gives way to a "C" shape beginning with a volute and ending with a figurative element (a lion's head and two seated male figures alternating with a kneeling figure facing the stalls). This in turn contrasts with another curve enhanced by a molding ending in a hairy paw finished in a lion's claw, above another flat molding. In the space left by the first "C" shape mentioned above, figurative sculptures also appear: a total of eight monstrous figures with a certain classicist reminiscence (especially noteworthy is the one resembling a harpy with goat's legs, located on the same façade as a winged faun). The choir stalls of the Fathers of the Church of La Cartuja in Granada and those of the Cathedral of Calahorra in La Rioja rest on a lion's claw (much more pronounced than the current one). The "gathering" of the sculptures on the sides is visible in the "cadirat del cor al dormitori de la Canònica" in the Tortosa Cathedral Museum (where the lines are also formed from moldings, but not in the same way as here, and where the misericords have vegetal sculptures divided into two parts by a band that serves as an axis of symmetry). Also worth mentioning are the unpainted walnut carved stalls in the Church of San Esteban de Sos del Rey Católico (Zaragoza), installed in 1556 and made by the Frenchman Medardo de Picardia (also known as Picat Carpentier) and his assistant Domingo de Segura.
Dimensions: 229 x 57 x 116 cm