ALLEGORIES

Eucharistic allusions are frequent in the figure of the Monstrance displaying the body of Christ, represented by the host, inside the sun, from which sunrays symbolizing the Eternal Father radiate light on the universe.

The cross of the Crucifixion, the symbol of the Redemption, has given rise, whether as a main or secondary subject, to a significant number of representations.

The skull and crossbones allude to Adam's sin; according to the legend, the cross was made from the wood of a tree that grew from a seed of Paradise that an angel had planted in the mouth of the deceased Adam. The Cross was raised in the same spot where Adam had been buried on the Golgotha, which has come to be known as the place of the skull.

Following the legend, a pelican pricks its breast over the Cross to feed its young with its blood. Christ is thus symbolized in the Sacrament of the Eucharist as the nourishment of life.

The paiting is in the Mannerist style as evidenced by the treatment of the figures. It can be related to works from the workshop of Lorenzo Pardo Lagos.

This painting, with its clear theological and religious theme, is divided in two sections.

In the lower part, a holy bishop holds before Christ´s parents the great monstrance made for the final triumph.

The monstrance joins the lower part of the painting with the upper part, where the Holy Trinity is represented in three identical figures, without any of the attributes that would allow to individualize them.

The Church had been since long represented as a vessel. In the late medieval ages, the boat of Saint Peter with his apostles going to meet with Jesus was a widely used subject.

The central line of the composition is the mast of the vessel, crowned by Christ as King of Kings, with his mother at his side and the figures of six big angels carrying the instruments of the Passion.

Saint Peter appears on the side of the stern carrying the rudder and showing the keys, while in a banner it is proclaimed that he is the cornerstone.

A barge protecting the vessel is seen sailing in front of it with the Ecclesiae doctors who with their oars are about to reach the vessels of the heretics and schismatic commanded by the Demon himself, who is at the rudder.

Unable to resist the attack, the more significant personages flee; Luther, Beza, Arius, Sabelius, Calvin are seen swimming away.

This canvas represents Saint Ferdinand III, King of Castile and Leon, whom Clement X canonized in 1671.

The subject is the young Moor handing over the keys of Cordoba after the King's victorious campaign over the Moorish invaders on June 29, 1236.

The Virgin purportedly appeared to the King as Our Lady of Kings, encouranging him with the phrase "soon they will be handed over to you and your work will come to and end".