The Iron Gates of the Assumption Church in Barco de Ávila

Abstract

The four monumental iron screens of the parish church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Barco de Ávila are a very good example of wrought iron screens of the transition period to the Renaissance (1490- 1535). They share the shapes and typologies of the architectural iron work of the Late Middle Ages, integrating an ornamental repertoire of Plateresque sensitivity. The three iron screens of the apse of the church, which were forged at the time of the second Duke of Alba, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo Enríquez, are decorated with a series of ornaments, particularly the rich ones of the crest, with the family’s heraldic emblems, a Holy Face and the Annunciation. The iron screen which closes the chapel of the inquisitor Hernán García del Barco, was wrought between 1506 and 1517. It seems to be the oldest one the four iron screens and, consequently, must have been the model for the others ones. The iron screen of the Chapel of the Gospel was signed by Florencio de Ávila, and the opposite chapel was signed by Juan de Osorno. The remaining ones should be studied under a double perspective: the Toletan one, with Juan Francés, and the one of Salamanca, with Fray Francisco de Salamanca.