The side covers
Dean Ortega, author of the iconographic programme
Unlike the main doorway, which has the Puerta del Perdón of the Cathedral of Granada as an express reference, for the design of the two side doorways no model is specified in the conditions, but their configuration is left to the discretion of the deán Ortega, "[...]. but we have to make two other doors in the bends of the church, communicating with the dean the size and ornamentation that he deems appropriate, in width and height.". Therefore, the role of the deán Ortega in the design of the iconographic programme is, this time, made explicit on both façades and is not a mere inference as in the rest of the chapel's iconography.
Although both façades have a typical triumphal arch structure, however, while the northern façade follows the usual Plateresque rules in its composition and ornamentation, [image 1] the southern façade is much more unique and lacks precedents in Spanish architecture.[image2] This singularity has earned it the proposal of very diverse references, from the altarpieces of Pedro Machuca to the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, the work of Francesco Colonia, which enjoyed extraordinary success in the 16th and 17th centuries, and which was read as a programme of architectural reconstitution of classical antiquity. The names of Alonso de Covarrubias, Esteban Jamete or, more recently, Pedro Galera Andreu, have been proposed for the authorship of its traces, suggesting that of an architect from Martos who worked in Malaga for the dean Ortega, Fray Martín de Santiago.
The Erasmist discourse of the southern front page
For Joaquín Montes Bardo, the person who has studied the iconography of El Salvador the most, both covers have dialectically complementary iconographic contentsHowever, once again, as in its composition, the southern doorway stands out for the unprecedented nature of the Judeo-Converso discourse it contains. The key to this interpretation lies in the figures that crown the triangular pediment of the doorway: the female figure embracing the cross is an allegory of the Christian religionat the opposite end, the figure holding the tablets of the Law personifies the Jewish religionin the centre a child of the Resurrection. [image 3] The novelty of this composition is that Jewish religion not to appear blindfoldedJesus is depicted with his eyes uncovered, as traditionally depicted to emphasise what was believed to be his stubborn blindness, but with his eyes uncovered, and, moreover, with his gaze turned towards the Easter child, who proclaims the triumph of the Resurrection. With this gesture, he reveals to the Jewish converts that Jesus was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. This interpretation is supported by the Judeo-Converso character of some of the founding clerics of the nearby University of Baeza, who also had a documented relationship with the Chapel of El Salvador and with Doña María de Mendoza.
In the statutes of the Chapel, drawn up in 1544, no requirement for chaplains to be clean of bloodthat is to say that they should be old Christians and not new converts. However, in those of the Hospital de Santiago, drawn up sixteen years later by Don Diego de los Cobos, Bishop of Jaén and nephew of the founder of this chapel, this requirement appears, which only serves to emphasise the ephemeral nature of the Erasmist experiment of a renewed Christian message, which sought to integrate the classical and Hebraic worlds of the Old Testament into a single story of salvation.. It is in this ephemeral intellectual context, which disappeared definitively with the Emperor's retirement to the monastery of Yuste, that the architecture and ideological discourse of this chapel were inserted, in such a way that, just a few years later, neither one nor the other would have been possible.
The evocation of the Commander Major of León
On both façades and throughout the church, there are continuous allusions to the Order of SantiagoThe most obvious of these is the staging on the semicircular tympanum of the doorway closest to his palace, the northern doorway, of the appearance of Santiago on a white horse at the battle of Clavijo. [image 4]