UCLA

The fourteenth-century ashlar refectory that makes up part of Pamplona’s cathedral complex stands apart from other medieval refectories because of its elaborate interior decoration. While medieval refectories tend to be austere, Pamplona’s boasts extensive ornamentation; of particular interest are a series of fourteen corbels that depict imagery common in marginal sculpture. Scholars have often sought to apply allegorical or didactic meanings to such marginal forms, while overlooking both physical and functional contexts. In my thesis, I engage with recent scholarship on medieval aesthetics and sensory perception to recontextualize the fourteen corbels found in Pamplona’s refectory.

The refectory and the sculptural decoration within it challenge the misconception of a strict division between the sacred and the secular in the Middle Ages. Pamplona’s refectory merits further analysis because of its multivalent use as a dining room for the religious order of Augustinian canons that resided on the property as well as its secular function as a banquet hall for coronation celebrations and signing of political treaties. Looking beyond traditional scholarship that understands Pamplona’s corbels only as symbolic didactic images, I argue that they were integral to both religious and secular functions of the refectory especially through their visual aesthetic properties such as light and color, proportion and contrasts, and varietas. I explore the refectory as a multipurpose and secular location and outline the way in which the senses were appealed to for successful promotion of religious and secular goals. Before now, Pamplona’s fourteen corbels have never been the primary focus of an art historical study.