To commemorate the month of October, the Museum of the Ways of the Gaudí Palace proposes a sculptural ensemble that offers one of the iconographic varieties with which the apostle St. James is represented: praying before the Virgin of Pilar. On the occasion of the Compostelan Holy Year, the Museum offers each month a piece of the Jacobean tradition of the Diocese of Astorga. The carvings come from the parish of Santa Marta de Astorga and date from the second half of the 18th century. Accompanying this exhibit in the Museum’s permanent collection is a cartouche of indulgences by Bishop Juan Manuel Merino y Lumbreras (in the episcopal chair between 1767 and 1782).
This iconography corresponds to the oldest Marian apparition recognized by the Church. The Virgin Mary appeared to James the Greater and his disciples in the year 40 A.D. in the lands of the Ebro to encourage the apostle in his discouragement about the evangelizing task he was carrying out in Hispania. The miraculous apparition to the group on a column justifies its artistic representation. The column that tradition assumes as the one that served the Virgin in her apparition is preserved in the Basilica del Pilar in Zaragoza.
In the work presented this October at the Gaudí Palace, Santiago appears genuflected (only one knee touches the earth) and with his hands together in a prayerful attitude. The pilgrim attributes present here are the staff, the bag hanging from the belt, tunic and a showy sash in which he shows carved four scallops that are gilded like the top of the same. His serene face fixes his gaze on the Virgin Mary and shows short ark and long hair finely wavy.
The Virgin, on a marbled column that serves as a reliquary, is shown in a red dress, girded with a golden belt and a starry blue mantle finished with crochet thread.
The late eighteenth century was a high point in the production of pieces of Jacobean iconography. This group, as well as others exhibited at the Museo de los Caminos, may be related to the encouragement given to this iconographic variant by the chapel in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela that Archbishop Monroy erected in honor of the Virgin of Pilar.
The Provisorato, the room where the pieces of Jacobean iconography are exhibited, can be visited, as well as the Gaudí Palace, every day from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm in the mornings and from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm in the afternoons.