Arenys de Mar - The baroque style of Pau Costa

The church is Arenys de Mar's second parish church. The foundation stone was laid in 1584, by Joan de Tours, and the church was completed by his sons Joan and Dionís Torres in 1628.
The contract stipulated that the building would be carried out in the Renaissance style, known at that time as "Roman style", though the layout of both the nave and the chapels still followed the gothic style. In addition, a curious feature may be observed: the ribs of the gothic arches rise out from perfectly Dorian brackets.

The Renaissance style of the panels and the mouldings on the one hand, and the Gothic keystones, arches and ribs on the other, far from striking one as a clashing contradiction (as one might expect of the juxtaposition of such divergent styles) blend together beautifully. As soon as the new church was completed, the earlier parish church, a chapel round which the new building was erected, was demolished.

Arenys de Mar el Retaule. Voltes de Creueria de la Nau Central

The belltower has a square base, and it becomes octagonal as from the second floor. At the beginning of this century a weird turret of an indefinite style was built at the top.
The dormitory, built into what were formerly the board rooms of the Insigne Comunitat de Preveres (or Priory) and its archives, offers one an unmistakable outline which is perhaps one of the most original features of the whole monument.
Ilengthened at the entrance where a new n 1755 the church building was porch was built, in baroque style, by Fabià Anglada.

Between 1777 and 1789 the church was widened laterally to become cruciform; the sacristies on both sides of the presbytery were removed, and a new one was built behind the absyss. This work was directed by arquitect Joan Mas. The whole project was never completed'," however, for the work on the left side began only beyond the chapel of "el Roser" -dedicated today to "la Mercè"- and a dome shaped like half an orange, which was included in the plans, was left out. Shortly afterwards the chapel of "la Mare de Déu dels Dolors" ("Our Lady of Dolours") was completed at the end of the left cross, and this chapel led an independent existence, in the hands of the Congregation of the same name. The chapel of the Sacred Sacrament was built in the mid-nineteenth century.

The main altar-piece

Sculptor Antoni-Joan Riera, bom in Arenys de Mar, spent many years working in the Kingdom of Castile as a sculptor and arquitect. In 1636, shortly after returning, he planned the base and pedestal of the main altar-piece, with geometric motifs, using jasper from Tortosa and including two fins reliefs of the city arms, worked in marble, possibly from Italy. Riera directed the project, which was carried out by two craftmen, Cebrià and Bordoi, and completed in 1638.

For many years, the so-called Universitat (City Council) and the "Obra", or city, strived to keep work going on the altar-piece, though it seemed unlikely ever to be finished. In 1706 the powerful Comunitat de Preveres of Santa Maria d'Arenys de Mar took charge of the affair, and sought the help of another Catalan sculptor, Pau Costa of Vic.

Arenys de Mar el Retaule. Medallo del Naixement de la Verge Maria

The section of the altarpiece that had until then been completed was dismantled.
Pau Costa was one of the most famous baroque artists in Catalonia. He was responsible for the altarpieces of the Assumption and St. Antony in Torelló, the main one in Cassà de la Selva, the Assumption altar-piece at Girona Cathedral, the St. Benedict altar-piece at Vic Cathedral, those of the Thereses and of Sant Libori at another Vic church (la Pietat), the Roser altar-piece at Otot, the Sant Isidre one at Sant Vicenç de Montalt, the Holy Christ at Seva, the altar-piece at Corbera and the one at the Sanctuary of la Portella. At Cadaqués, assisted by Jacint Morató and Joan Torras, he copied what he himself had carried out at Arenys de Mar in the Nativity relief and the Presentation of Mary relief. The one he built shortly after his work at Arenys, for the Palafrugell parish church, followed the same architectural pattern, and he maintained basically the same positioning of the figures, changing only the scenes and the images.In 1711 the Barcelona craftman Erasme Vinyals was given the task of carrying out the polychromy, the gilding and completing the altarpiece, and this work was finished the following year with the help of his son Fèlix.

The Baroque style normally tends to complicate structures, and to lader them with profuse ornamentation. The style tends to clash with the architectural and sculptural qualities of the structures, which thus become scenographic. But Pau Costa, in the Arenys de Mar altar-piece, though it is a prototype of the work of its time, affords us a monumental whole which is both orderly and harmonious.
The profusion of ornments here is not a pretext for covering up the lack of architectural ideas; but rather a complementary aspect of the admirable traits of a logically designed pattern. One can see the unmistakable hand of Pau Costa, as in all his work, but at the same time it displays the specific traits of the architectural movement of the period; the pseudo-salomonic columns and those bearing helicoidal foliage are to be seen. The earliest columns by Costa are pure salomonic, whilst the later columns are engarlanded and cylindrical.

Pau Costa based the images of both the Assumption of Mary and those of the Nativity, the Presentation, the Visitation and the Epiphany, on the etchings of Carlo Maratta, the pontifical painter. One cannot but confess that in many ways Costa's work in superior to the sources of inspiration he drew on. One of the points in Pau Costa's favour is that he managed to take advantage the pre-existing base and pedestal of the altar-piece;

though in the process of maintaining it in its former state the carved work originally planned, with the great reredos, had to be abandoned before it was completed. But the austerity of Antoni-Joan Riera's renaissance style blends perfectly with Pau Costa's altar-piece, to such an extent that the Baroque

Angels sobre l'Assumpció de Maria . Retaule d'Arenys de Mar