Judgment, work, and social change: Reading a new spirituality in the sculpted laborers of santiago de carrión de los condes

Abstract

Copyright 2018 by the Board of Trustees of Western Michigan University. In the city center of Carrión de los Condes, the parish church of Santiago faces out to the plaza mayor, once a bustling medieval market. A commanding Christ in Majesty and apostolate dominate the church's screen fac?ade. Below the large, imposing heavenly court, a band of small stone townspeople encircles the doorway, each naturalisticaily rendered and fully engaged in a quotidian task or action. This article considers Santiago's carved archivolt within the context of the changing fabric of the city. At the time of Santiago's decoration, Carri6n was undergoing considerable economic, social, and physical transformations. A collection of miracles written at a local Carrionese monastery exemplifies the city's shifting social structure. Santiago's fac?ade- situating the inhabitants of the archivolt between Christ in Majesty above and damnation pictured below-visualizes regular citizens within a program of salvation, targeting an emerging spirituality focused on the common lay person.