Parish Church of Santa María

Description

Incoado Monumento 08 / 02 / 1983. Santa María, built in the southern part of the historic centre and close to the remains of the castle of But Gil, is a Gothic temple built throughout much of the 16th century. It has a one-way, high-bodied plant with chapels divided into three large sections separated by pointed arches that are used in semi-pillars, these being counterarrested to the outside with powerful contrasts. The vaults are of tercelets, highlighting that of the major chapel because of its beautiful shape adapted to the polygonal design of the header.

The works were probably started under the mandate of the prelate Don Esteban Gabriel and Merino (1523-1535); during the period that he was in charge of the Diocese, a series of covers were worked with his heraldic, associated with Gothic temples, in which the new stylems of the protorrenaissance or plateresque are introduced. In Santa María, and attached to this style, two interesting covers with the Merino shield are preserved, which have traditionally been attributed to Diego de Alcaraz, an important active bartender in the Loma de Ubeda during the first half of the 16th century.

The constructive process of this temple did not end with Bishop Merino, but was extended for much of the century. Andrés de Vandelvira, master of the Cathedral of Jaén since 1553, was also required to review, assess or give designs for the works planned by the diocese. In Santa María he intervened twice, according to V. M. Ruiz Fuentes; on September 15, 1570, to give the traces for the chapel founded by Dta. Marina Ortega, located next to the tower; in 1571 he dictated the conditions to finish the bell tower, taking charge of the work the local bartender Diego de Ávila.

The chapel only remains the cover, with a simple half-point arch, with mirrors in the gears, flanked by cramped pilasters and topped with a moulded cornice. The first body is original from the tower, the rest being the result of a reconstruction of the mid-20th century.

On the side of the Epistola is opened a monumental chapel, which according to G. Torres Navarrete was costed by Alonso del Villar and his wife Maria Ximénez. Architecically, it responds to a vandelvirian composition, made up of a large, triumphant, half-point arch, with the typical alternating batons used by the Master, in double and highlighted key pilastras, framed to the extremes by semi-columns Corinthian and backpilastras, with the typical alternating sticks used by the Master; raised on the bases on which it appoints an emplement decorated with tacos in the cornisa, in which it is raised in the center a hornadina of a classic molding duration, with an acclaimed image of St. Mary, with an acclaimed image of the other, with an acclaimed image of the same.

The production of Andrés de Vandelvira has traditionally included the petreo altarpiece of the Descence of the Cross, which, although mutilated, is preserved on the side of the Epistle. It is a burial chapel founded by Fra Miguel de Síles Martínez, Comendador de Alcántara and prior to the convent of Santo Domingo of the same city, in the opinion of G. Torres Navarrete.

In 1571, the date of the foundation of a chaplaincy in that burial, the whole was probably completed. To the sculptors Luis de Aguilar or Juan de Reolid have been attributed the sculptural tasks: the beautiful relief of the Descession (partially mutilated), the four missing sculptures of St. Peter, St. Paul, Saint Benito and Santo Domingo of the lateral hornazas and the crucified Christ, held by two angels, with which this unique Renaissance funeral altarpiece is overcome.

OTHER ARTISTICAL MANIFESTIONS

The Major Chapel of Santa Maria was embellished with two great interventions planned in the 16th century, which still look in it. Its Gothic vault was decorated with a pictorial program based on Virtues inserted in tongs and various motifs imitating marbles, all done at the temple on plaster.

The main altarpiece, made up of three streets, two floors and attic, has come to our days somewhat retouched, but it retains a large part of its original structure worked during the 16th and 17th centuries, being golden in the 18th century by the painter ubetense José García de Espareón.

In the sacristy are of beautiful bill the drawers and table of marble (S. XVIII). The Yacente Christ (S. XX), by Victor of the Ríos, and a Crucified (S. XX), by Francisco Palma Burgos are remarkable from his imagination.