El obispo Juan Rena mediador y mecenas artístico de la catedral de Pamplona [The bishop Juan Rena, mediator and artistic patron of the Cathedral of Pamplona]

Abstract

The venetian priest Juan Rena entered Navarre in 1512 with the Castilian troops who conquered the kingdom. He was paymaster of the military buildings and the army until he died. He combined his career at the administration as a right-hand man of king Fernando the Catholic and emperor Carlos V, with his ecclesiastical career. Since 1526 he was a clergyman of the Cathedral of Pamplona. In 1534 he was appointed bishop of Alguer (Cerdeña) and finally bishop of Pamplona (1538- 1539). This work studies his artistic contribution to the Cathedral of Pamplona. Firstly, as a mediator in the acquisition of a brocade wool and an altar frontal, with Fernando´s the Catholic emblem embroided on them. Secondly, he was the patron of Saint Ursula’s reliquary and the stained-glass window made by Francisco Morel which depicts the adoration of the Three Kings. He moved the codex of Valdonsella from Rome to Pamplona.