The funeral chapel of the family of the Wings ( 14th century ) is located on the northern flank of the church of the Franciscan Fathers of Avilés (former parish of San Nicolás de Bari, in Asturias , Spain ). This area, adjacent to the medieval wall, was occupied by the town's cemetery until its transfer in 1813 to a meadow near the disappeared convent of La Merced. It was originally a free-standing and self-sufficient construction, and would rival in visual prominence from the estuarywith the own parish church of San Nicolás. In addition, its funerary destination, its spatial autonomy, its material ambition and, above all, the individual character of its promoter warn us of the appearance of a new mentality, less collective and more personal, that seeks the social consolidation of the client and his / her lineage.
Building
Chronology
Thanks to José María Quadrado we know that the chapel of Los Alas or Santa María, which is its traditional dedication, was promoted by Pedro Juan, resident in Avillés , family of D. Juan Pelaiz May God forgive and of Juana Alfonso , according to figure in his will made in 1346 . This document, the copy of which was consulted by Quadrado himself, also certifies that the building was already built by that date, since the promoter's wife, Sancha Pérez, had been buried in it, and he expected to lie in the grave arranged next to her. In addition, Pedro Juan authorized his successors and relatives to bury themselves in the chapel on flat ground., turning the work into an instrument of affirmation of the lineage and a means to achieve with greater guarantees the salvation of their souls.
Finally, his will provides another piece of information of interest that has given rise to all kinds of hypotheses, since in it a stonemason named Juan Alfonso de só la Iglesia appears as a witness , who has sometimes been identified as the true architect of the work and, on other occasions, only as its material author. However, if we take into account that the chapel could have been completed some time before the granting of this document - perhaps years - and that, in any case, it is not a contract related to a building activity, any hypothesis at the time is inconsistent. respect.
Structure
From a structural point of view, the Chapel of the Wings is an authentic novelty in the panorama of contemporary Asturian architecture . The building has a square plan, correct orientation and uses well-worked ashlar masonry on the walls. This quality of the material was very unusual and reveals an exceptional economic capacity of the promoter, who wants to show himself to his fellow citizens.
As for the roof, it is undoubtedly the distinctive element of the chapel and its existence largely conditions the rest of the structure. It is a domed vault reinforced by ribs . This type of roof , also known as Aquitaine , consists of a semi-spherical-looking frame arranged in concentric courses. The cross ribs start from very schematic faces located in the corners of the building and intersect on a key carved with the image of what appears to be the face of Christ . These ribs do not have a thrust transmission function as in the Gothic classic, but act only as a reinforcement to help withstand thrusts that rest directly on the walls.
As revealed by the investigations of Professor José María Azcárate , who published a fundamental study on Spanish proto-Gothic constructions , Aquitanian domed models arrived on the Peninsula during the second half of the 12th century through the construction of the Zamora Cathedral and spread then to Salamanca , Toro , Plasencia , Sahagún and areas of the Collegiate of Santillana of the Sea .
From this point of view, the Avilesian chapel presents a very original structure that allows it to be incorporated into the small group of proto-Gothic constructions in the region. These works are characterized by testing structural solutions different from Romanesque but also diverse from classical Gothic . They respond, therefore, to a moment of change, the exhaustion of a model and the experimentation of new solutions. However, the path traveled by these proto-Gothic examples did not have continuity and was exhausted with them, since in parallel the forms of classical Gothic were developed that became the hegemonic proposal in the following centuries.
In Asturias , from the study of the main chapel of Santa María de Piedeloro ( Carreño ), Professor Vidal de la Madrid has identified a small group of proto-Gothic constructions characterized by the novelty of the structural solutions of their vaults and their assignment to the Aquitanian type or Aquitanian-Spanish. Among them is the aforementioned main chapel of Piedeloro , the funerary chapel attached to the southern flank of the church of the Cornellana monastery ( Salas ), the hermitage of Santiago in the Monsacro ( Morcín ), the Oliva main chapel inVillaviciosa and the Chapel of the Alas de Avilés .
Cover
Access to the interior of the chapel is through a simple double archivolt portal framed by a dust cover and supported by four columns under a shield of the modern lineage . What appear to be winged seraphim heads are accommodated in the eardrum , suggesting a trilbee. On the capitals there are human heads in marked high reliefthat are projected towards the faithful who enter the enclosure. Given that bearded individuals are distinguished, it seems that they are male and female characters faced by couples. In all of them, a very ornamental treatment of the hair is carried out, which sometimes seems to be covered with feathers or enhanced by headbands.
The coat of arms on the façade is a reproduction of the original, which can be found inside the chapel. It is not medieval , but of modern times and exhibits the arms of the Alas family: a castle with three towers flanked by wings on waves of water and with an armed warrior at the door.
Burials
Precisely, the main function of the Chapel of the Wings is to serve as a worthy tomb for Pedro Juan and his family. The situation of the building, in the middle of the cemetery and close to the main chapel of the old Romanesque temple , already ensured certain religious benefits, which were rounded off by the promoter with the foundation of a chaplaincy and the provision of masses for their souls. Inside, two tombs were arranged under arcosolio on both sides of the chapel. The tombs of the epistle correspond to two other arches outside the enclosure.
The damage suffered by the tombs during the last Civil War makes their identification difficult. On the other hand, the paved tombs, despite their advanced state of deterioration, still make it possible to distinguish some of the text and part of the heraldic motifs. They were copied by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos who read the following:
Number 1 Burial of the honored and very good Juan Estévanez de las Alas , may God be, a neighbor of this town, which ended in the year 1467
Number 3 Here lies Esteban Pérez de las Alas , may God forgive, who ended Friday to the 10th day of November, he was 1407 years old.
Number 4 Here lies Alonso Estévanez de las Alas , may God be, the one who passed from this world on the 4th day of September 1475
( JOVELLANOS, Gaspar Melchor de , Diarios (intimate memories) 1790-1801, p.81).
Altarpiece disappeared
Today, inside the chapel appears naked and empty, but until last Civil War was furnished with an altar of alabaster of English School Fortunato de Selgas reproduced in his article on the monuments of Avilés (1907) and Aurelio of the Llano photographed for his Bellezas de Asturias (1928). In addition, for its study we also have two photographs taken in 1918 and kept in the Amatller Institute of Hispanic Art (Mas Archive) that allow a good approach to the work.
from the book Bellezas de Asturias. From East to West. Oviedo, 1928. Aurelio de LLANO ROZA DE AMPUDIA
The set consisted of seven alabaster panels dedicated to the Joys of Mary, where they were represented in bas-relief and from left to right: Saint Catherine, the Annunciation of the Virgin, the Epiphany (Adoration of the Magi), the Resurrection of Christ, the Assumptionist Incredulity of Santo Tomás, the Coronation of the Virgin and Santa Margarita. Each of the pieces was assembled with the adjacent one by means of wooden frames and together they formed a front thematically linked to the dedication of the chapel.
These altarpieces were made in England , where from the second half of the fourteenth century a serial production was achieved in workshops located in London , York and Nottingham . Its industrial character caused a summary invoice that was masked by paintingthat covered the entire surface of the pieces, but the multiplication of similar models reduced costs and allowed the sale at a lower price. Consequently, English alabaster panels spread rapidly throughout the Atlantic area, also supported by the reduced dimensions of the pieces that facilitated their transfer, the possibility of combining them in a more or less arbitrary way, and the scarcity of autochthonous carvings of a similar nature. commitment in the north of the Cantabrian Sea.
The scenes in the Chapel of the Wings, already studied by the researcher Pedro Paniagua, show the same formulaic execution and the tendency to order that characterizes English alabasters and that facilitates the understanding of various matters without difficulty. The Avilés altarpiece seems to be closely related to a piece from the parish of Miudes ( El Franco ) and kept in the Oviedo Church Museum , where the Coronation of the Virgin and the assumptionist incredulity of Santo Tomás are illustrated . In the Wings there is also an Assumptionist Disbelief, although the VirginIt is already crowned, and all the pieces could be dated, according to the periodization in four groups established by Gardner, in the third group spanning from 1420 to 1460. At this time industrialization had increased driven by increasing demand and had caused further simplification of the panels. In addition, it is the moment when the crenellated finishes of previous stages disappear and the openwork tracery that appears in the Avilesina work are adopted.
During the last Civil War the Chapel of the Wings suffered serious damage and its altarpiece disappeared. José María Serrano, who carried out an extensive inventory of the churches and works of art destroyed during the conflict, wrote in his report that the altarpiece had been destroyed, probably relying on oral testimonies:
Inside, completely and brutally destroyed and undone, sepulchral slabs from the 15th century , to whose century also belonged the most beautiful altarpiece composed of tiny alabaster, gilded and polychrome reliefs, distributed in seven paintings representing Saint Catherine, the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, the Ascension, the Assumption, the Coronation and an image of a saint, which some archaeologist considered an English import has been materially pulverized by blows ”(SERRANO, José María,“ Number and value of museums and works of destroyed art. Churches, convents and chapels destroyed).
However, some time later, Luis Menéndez Pidal was more skeptical about the hypothetical destruction of the work, since no fragment of it was found:
The Chapel of the Wings was desecrated during the Red domain, breaking the tombs with other details and works of its interior, not having been set on fire because it did not have combustible materials and it was covered with a ribbed vault built in stone. The alabaster altarpiece is said to have been crushed, although this assumption has not been verified, since no remains appeared inside the Chapel that would justify the known explanation. ( MENÉNDEZ PIDAL, Luis , The monuments of Asturias, p. 98).
Missing Virgin
Before the last Civil War in the Chapel of the Wings there was also a seated Virgin Mary with the Child from the late medieval period . We know it thanks to the photographs taken in 1918 and kept by the Amatller Institute of Hispanic Art (Mas Archive). It looks like a carving wood polychromed and shows Mary seated on her throne with her Son blessing and stood on the left leg of his Mother. The human type and its attitude are already Gothic and can be dated to the fourteenth century . At the same it happens to the altar of alabaster , thisVirgin with Child is missing.
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