When, from the Oficina de Gestió de Monuments of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere de Manuel contacted me to commission a new altar for the Collegiate Church of Sant Vicenç de Cardona, the idea of constructing an altar had already been on my mind for years—although not one tied to religious worship, but rather connected to my sculptural work inspired by sacred art. Moreover, the concept itself wasn’t new, since the altar had been a recurring element in my artistic practice since 1988: explicitly in a series of paintings from the late eighties, and implicitly in various later pieces and installations, such as The Water and the Silence (1991) or Refuge for Walkers (1993).
The main purpose of the commission was to provide greater versatility to the interior space of the Collegiate Church of Sant Vicenç de Cardona. Consequently, the first requirement was that the altar be movable from its usual location by means of a hidden wheel system, as that area—normally reserved for worship—would also be used by musicians for concerts and recordings of early music.
The second requirement was that the proposal exhibit aesthetic austerity, so as to harmonize with the architecture of this early Romanesque monument.
Finally, the third requirement was that the side panels make reference to the martyrdom of Saint Vincent.
1. Front Panel
Given the architectural significance of the Collegiate Church of Sant Vicenç de Cardona, I found it appropriate to design the front panel with references to two well-known architectural elements described in the Bible, both of which symbolize a clear connection between heaven and earth: Jacob’s ladder, in Genesis, and the Heavenly Jerusalem, in the Book of Revelation. This last book is essential when working for a Romanesque church.
The front of the altar is a wooden panel clad in lead sheeting. At its center is a form alluding to the Heavenly Jerusalem (inspired by miniatures from various Beatus manuscripts and, to some extent, by Romanesque church plans), pressed inward as if by the weight of an external object. It is the imprint—or, from another perspective, the témenos—of the City of God upon the earth.
At the core of this figure, Christ’s message radiates outward to the four cardinal points through the arms of an imaginary cross made up of elements drawn from revelatory dreams in both the Old and New Testaments: Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:10–22), coiling around the axis mundi—the nexus between heaven and earth—forms the vertical arm of the cross. The Alpha and Omega (Rev. 21:9–27), two other “extreme points” revealed to John, form the horizontal plane: the capital Alpha, evoking a compass; and the lowercase Omega, associated with fire, as prescribed by Romanesque tradition. This spiritual synthesis extends to the twelve gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem, representing the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of Christ.
In addition to the symbolism of the ladder, it's worth recalling Jacob’s relevance to altars. According to Genesis 35:1–15, years after his dream and by God’s command, Jacob built an altar in Bethel (see note 1), the place of his vision and where God first appeared to him. Let us not forget that Jacob’s dream occurs in a place that functions as a "center"—a point of connection with the transcendent. Throughout history, such sacred sites have housed sanctuaries of the world’s great religions; in Christianity, they have been conceived as recreations of the Heavenly Jerusalem. If the church is the axis that channels the spirituality of the faithful, the altar is ultimately its theological and ceremonial core: the place where the priest enacts the transcendent link between heaven and earth through liturgical rites.
2. Side Panels
At the center of each side panel appear, as imprints, the most iconic elements of Saint Vincent’s martyrdom: on the right panel, the grill with nails; on the left, the millstone.
3. Rear Panel
To resolve this panel, I chose to inscribe Psalm 43, which, prior to the Second Vatican Council, was part of the Mass introits: “Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me, let them bring me to your holy mountain and to your dwelling place. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy.”
4. Final Note
Sometime after designing the front panel, while rereading the section on altars in Le monde des symboles, I discovered that the church consecration ritual prominently includes the three elements featured on it:
1) Jacob (see note 2), when the bishop intones—while tracing a cross with water and washing the floor—the words spoken by the patriarch upon awakening from his dream: “This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven.”
2) The Alpha and Omega, when the bishop draws a St. Andrew’s cross with sand or ash on the church floor and, using his crozier, inscribes the Greek and Latin alphabets (from Alpha to Omega, and from A to Z), again repeating Jacob’s words.
3) The Heavenly Jerusalem, when the officiant anoints the church walls in twelve places, while the Schola sings the liturgical mystery being performed: “This is Jerusalem, the great celestial city, adorned like the bride of the Lamb, for she has become the Tabernacle.”
[Note 1]
According to Jewish tradition, the stone Jacob used as a pillow during his dream—and which he anointed with oil upon awakening after recognizing the sanctity of the place, naming it Bethel, or “House of God”—was transferred to the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple.
[Note 2]
Note that Jacob also appears in the rituals for altar consecration: in the prayer the bishop recites when anointing the five crosses of the altar with holy water for the first time, he alludes to Jacob’s gesture of erecting and anointing the stone where he had laid his head, turning it into both a sacrificial site and a marker of the gateway to heaven.
References
Cirlot, J. E., A Dictionary of Symbols (1981)
Champeaux, G. de & Sterckx, D. Sébastien, Le monde des symboles (1972)
Eliade, M., The Sacred and the Profane (1957)
Eliade, M., Images and Symbols (1955)
Lundquist, J. M., The Temple (1993)
