La iconografía del sagrario de la catedral de Ávila

Abstract

The tabernacle on the main altar of the cathedral of Ávila constitutes one of the masterpieces of the Ávila artist Vasco de la Zarza. It was started between 1518 and 1519 and concluded in 1522. The exceptionality of this artwork is due to its artistic and iconographic value and to the fact that it constitutes an outstanding testimony of its historical context. In addition, it has a singular character for constituting a unique tabernacle model in the Spain of its time, which refers us directly to Italian pieces of the same type. The symbology and iconography of the tabernacle present extraordinary levels of erudition and theological knowledge. But the value of his iconographic program doesn’t lie only in this matter, but also in the ability to encode its complicated religious contents in images and in Vasco de la Zarza’s ability to represent them in alabaster in an outstanding way. Due to the importance of this aspect, we will dedicate this work to its study.