Bear in the Cathedral of Tudela, Spain

Bear

Detail of the bear in the cloister of the Cathedral of Tudela, Spain. End of the 12th century.

Bear hunt
Cloister of the cathedral of Tudela, end of the 12th century.
Carved stone
Navarre (Spain)

Description

The capital shows a bear attacked by two hunters armed with a spear and an axe. A hunting dog bites the bear’s ear while the prey breaks the spear with its jaws. The bear is depicted smaller than natural size, but the artist captured the robustness of the animal, emphasized by its short canon. The capital belongs to the cloister’s west gallery, whose iconography has been characterized as mainly exemplary and allegorical. In this sense, the hunting scene could be interpreted as a psychomachic combat against evil or sin represented by the bear.

Bibliography

• Egry, Anne de, “La escultura del claustro de la catedral de Tudela (Navarra)”, in Príncipe de Viana, 74-75, 1959, pp. 63-107.
• Melero Moneo, María Luisa, Escultura románica y del primer gótico de Tudela. (Segunda mitad del siglo XII y primer cuarto del XIII), Tudela, Centro Cultural Castel Ruiz, 1997.
• Melero Moneo, María Luisa, “Escultura monumental. Portadas y claustro”, in La catedral de Tudela, Pamplona, Gobierno de Navarra, 2006, pp. 191-223.

Author

Francisco de Asís García García