Tarragona Cathedral Spain Mausoleum

Title

Tarragona Cathedral Spain Mausoleum

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Photography And Digital Art

Description

Evidently my architectural education was lacking, as I definitely missed the fine points of the architecture of this mausoleum until I was home with a dictionary! During my visit to the cathedral in Tarragona Spain I discovered: that the mausoleum was was located to the right of the chancel (hmm….where is that? I guess I’ll just wander around until I find it). It is a segmented arcosolium (an arched recess used as a place of entombment) with ornate polylobed decoration and crockets (hook-shaped decorative elements common in Gothic architecture, so named due to resemblance of crockets to a bishop’s crosier [the hooked staff]) on the reverse. The mausoleum is that of the archbishop and patriarch of Alexandria, the Infante John of Aragon, who consecrated the cathedral in 1331. This recumbent image in white marble is regarded as a towering work of Spanish Gothic sculpture carved around 1337. The figure of the deceased, wearing a peaceful, benign and serene expression, is surrounded by a cortege of guardian saints, including members of his own family: St. Fructuosus and St. Thecla, St. Isabella of Portugal, St. Louis, King of France, and St. Louis, bishop of Toulouse. On top of the mausoleum (out of the frame of the photo) under a pointed gablet (a small gable or canopy) is a mullioned niche (a mullion being a vertical or horizontal element that forms a division between units of a window or screen) which prior to the siege of the cathedral by the Napoleonic troops contained the original reliquary with the arm of St. Thecla. Next time I’m taking a dictionary with me.

Joan carroll, black and white, bishop

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October 18th, 2018

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