ABSTRACT
This paper examines the role that kings and bishops played in three fundamental works of Romanesque art and architecture in Navarre and Aragon: the monastery of Leire and the cathedrals of Jaca and Pamplona. Both documentary evidence and the historical context show that royal intervention was limited to promotion and funding, and to the churches’ monumental character. The role of the bishops was significantly more direct and determining. It is very likely that Sancho, abbot-bishop of Leire, visited Cluny, where he befriended Abbot Odilo; Pedro de Rodez, bishop of Pamplona, had been a monk at Conques and later visited Toulouse and Santiago de Compostela. In all three cases, it is clear that construction was intended as a monumental manifesto for the new direction taken by their respective institutions under the banner of ecclesiastical reform. As regards Jaca Cathedral, the author proposes certain new considerations that help us understand the overall configuration of the building. The two portal programmes, and the more legible and intentional facets of the building’s architecture, were probably conceived by Bishop Pedro (1086–99), a former monk of San Juan de la Peña. They reflect a spirituality with monastic roots, enhanced by political allegories that might have been addressed to King Sancho Ramírez.
