Palacio de Gelmírez and Exhibition St. Francis and His Time. Santiago de Compostela. Part 5.

We are still in the Salón de Fiestas. In this Part 5 we are going to see the panels and works of the exhibition that can be seen in this room.

We are at the same point where we started the visit in Part 4 (click Here for Part 4), beside the entrance of the stairs that bring us here from the Romanesque old kitchen of the Palacio and from Sala Manrique.

First panel of the Salón de Fiestas. Transcription:

The Way of Light.

The devotional stimulus of the Way of St. James and its symbolic path called St. Francis to follow the sacred route running between Rome and Santiago. The scallop shell, symbol of wood works, according to the Veneranda dies sermon in the Codex Calixtinus, is a constant presence along the pilgrimage route. Pilgrim contemporaries of the poverello would fasten this shell to their clothing, as an identifying symbol in this life and in the future one.

The popular devotion to the Virgin Mary was shared and disseminated by the Franciscans from the 13^th century onwards. One of these lesser brothers, kind and smiling, peers out from Bourges Cathedral. Another, this one more serious, with his aspersorium and aspergillum, forms part of a retinue carved for the Franciscan church at Santiago. The chest/reliquary from Lorvao (Coimbra) contained the relics of five Franciscans sent by the saint to preach in Muslim lands: Berard, Peter, Accursius, Adjutus and Otho. They departed from Assisi in 1219, were captured in Seville and martyred in Marrakech on 16 January 1220. Infante Don Pedro de Portugal ransomed their bodies and presented them to the regular canons at the Abbey of Santa Cruz in Coimbra. One of those Augustinians, moved by their example, decided to become a Franciscan: St. Anthony of Padua.

Saint Francis preaching to the birds (detail). Giotto and his workshop, late thirteenth century – early fourteenth. Upper Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi (Italy).

The works exhibited in this panel:

San Pedro. From the Church of Santiago de Gres, Vila de Cruces, Pontevedra. Author: Follower of Master Mateo. C.a. 1220-1230. Granite. Museo de Pontevedra. Diputación de Pontevedra.

From right to left:

1 Corbel. From the Cathedral of Santiago. Compostela atelier. 12^th-14^th centuries. Museo das Peregrinación e de Santiago. Santiago de Compostela.

2 Saint James the Pilgrim. From the Franciscan convent of Betanzos. Betanzos atelier. Last third of the 14^th century. Museo das Mariñas. Municipality of Betanzos.

3 Scallop Shell of a pilgrim. From a medieval tomb. 13^th century. Museo de León.

Right: Corbel from the Cathedral of Santiago.

Left: Saint James the Pilgrim from the Franciscan convent of Betanzos.

Scallop Shell of a pilgrim.

Franciscan friar. From a buttress of the south tower of the Cathedral of Bourges. Bourges atelier. C.a. 1250-1260. Limestone. Musée du Berry. Bourges (France).

Reliquary chest of the Martyrs of Morocco. From the Monastery of Santa María de Lorvao, Coimbra. Coimbra atelier. C.a. 1290-1320. Limestone. Museu Nacional Machado de Castro, Coimbra. Portugal.

Franciscan with aspergillum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergillum) and oil. Anonymous. 13^th century. Granite. Convento de San Francisco. Santiago de Compostela.

The Virgin and Child. Anonymous. 14th century. Painted wood. Museo Catedral Basílica de San Martiño de Ourense.

This is the second panel. Transcription:

The treasures of the spirit. Relics and hospitality.

The supra-earthly atmosphere of pilgrimage routes is to a large extent made up of the cult of relics and the exercise of hospitality. These relics include the Holy Thorn from Santiago Cathedral, guarded by angles, their tunics cinched with the Franciscan cord. There were hospitals like San Nicolás in Barcelona, a gift of the city to the saint of Assisi in 1214, next to which the monastery of the lesser brothers was built.

Stigmatization of St. Francis (detail). Giotto and his workshop, late thirteenth century – early fourteenth. Upper Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi (Italy).

From left to right:

1 Reliquary of Santa Espina. Aragonese atelier. C.a. 1425. Silver gilt, enamel and rock crystal. Museo de la Catedral de Santiago de Compostela.

2 Reliquary chest from the Monastery of Santa María de Nogales. 13th century. Lined wooden box, enamel, glass and fabric from Damascus.

3 Nativity of Jesus.

Opposite to these three works was a work of which unfortunately we do not have photo but we do have the description: Priest with a book. Capital from the Hospital of San Nicolás de Bari, Convento de San Francisco de Barcelona. Anonymous, ca. 1200-1220. Marble.


Third panel of the Salón de Fiestas. Transcription:

The word of God, spiritual sustenance of medieval culture.

13^th-century society could benefit from an encounter with the absolute in the Torah, the Bible and the Koran. The medieval codices in the exhibition containing sacred texts are the 12^th-century Koran from the Monastery of Santa María de la Vid (Burgos) and the 13^th-century Bible from Segovia Cathedral, bolstered by 19^th-century examples from Jerusalem, safeguarded by the Franciscans at Santiago. The pilgrimage route pervaded by the Word of God in thus set out explicitly in the sacred writings of Jews, Christians and Muslims, evoking the interreligious dialogue initiated by St. Francis, in his August 1219 meeting with Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil at Damietta.

Torah (detail). Anonymous, late nineteenth century. Rolled parchment with circular wooden cover.  Terra Santa Museum, Santiago de Compostela. Franciscan Province of Santiago.

From left to right:

1 Torah (detail). Anonymous, late nineteenth century. Rolled parchment with circular wooden cover.  Terra Santa Museum, Santiago de Compostela. Franciscan Province of Santiago.

2 The medieval codices in the exhibition containing sacred texts.

This is the fourth panel. Transcription:

The poverello of Assisi.

The example of St. Francis, of his life and legacy, is epitomized in the evangelical scene of The Washing of the Feet, a Gothic capital from Ourense Cathedral, with parchments from the 13^th and 14^th centuries that mention donations to the Franciscans at Compostela and the hope of the spiritual mediation of the alter Christus, and the image of the saint, together with St. James and other saints, accompanied by the Madonna. And so is the story of St. Francis and his time evoked in reflection and looking forward to the future.

Dream of Innocent III (detail). Giotto and his workshop, late thirteenth century – early fourteenth. Upper Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi (Italy).

From right to left:

1 Gothic capital from Ourense Cathedral with the evangelical scene of The Washing of the Feet. Ca. 1310-1320. Granite. Museo Arqueológico de Ourense.

2 Parchments from the 13^th and 14^th centuries.

3 The image of the Saint Francis, together with St. James and other saints, accompanied by the Madonna.

We will leave the Salón de Fiestas to move to the "modern" part of the Palacio, there is a gallery with windows facing the Plaza del Obradoiro. This is that part of the Palacio which was extended in the 18th century when the current Baroque façade was built.

Leaving the Salón de Fiestas we could contemplate one of the most important works in the exhibition, was not possible to photograph: the Virgin and Child, fresco painting from the Porta San Giacomo of Assisi, Italy. Author: Andrea d´Assisi, late 14th century (1484).

The Exhibition Saint Francis and His Time ends here.


We can see from the Salón de Fiestas the corridor in which this work was placed, the corbel 11 and the door and arch in which is situated the figure of an angel with a cartela we have seen in the end of Part 4. To the left we see the statue of San Pedro beside the first panel of the Salón.

We are now in the gallery and see the Palacio de Raxoi in the Plaza del Obradoiro from the windows of the Palacio de Gelmírez.

End of Part 5.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 6