Escenarios para el juicio y la liturgia en el sepulcro de santa Eulalia de la catedral de Barcelona

Abstract

The extraordinary masterpiece of Lupo di Francesco’s workshop, located in the crypt of Saint Eulalia in the Barcelona Cathedral, has already been analysed on other occasions. The study of the work is not completely exhausted, and for this reason we start from this base to propose a new reading of the monument. We are interested in reviewing the program’s approaches and remarking the significant physiognomy of the Pisanrooted work, preferably paying attention to the installation, chronologies, function and communication framework in which it is integrated. This space, both liturgical and ceremonial but also symbolic and associated with the preservation and worship of relics, is based on a theme in which justice and injustice collide. At the same time, it reveals the routes between different historical times. The Gothic-style construction of the new building and the iconic and figurative surroundings that emerge from the project executed between 1326 and July 1339, distinguish the organization of the east end of the cathedral. These coordinates will be pertinent points of support to visualize a reading of the sepulchre as a self-referential liturgical installation, in which human judgment is rectified by the divine.