Acts of Rebellion

Abstract

If you walk down from the Hospital Real towards the Puerta de Elvira in the city of Granada, you will see a beautiful monument 50–60 feet high in the Plaza del Triunfo, an elegant pillar standing on a plinth with two tiers. The pillar has an elaborately decorated capital upon which a statue of the Virgin Immaculate [Virgen del Triunfo] stands, with the crescent moon at her feet, and a reliquary below her hands containing a piece of the True Cross given to the Jesuits of Granada by Cardinal Baronius. A broad cornice separates the base from the plinth, at each angle of which are carved angels holding banners inscribed with the words ‘MARIA CONCEBIDO SIN PECADO ORIGINAL’ [MARY CONCEIVED WITHOUT ORIGINAL SIN]. The plinth above shows a coat of arms and three carved figures, while the column itself is carved and gilded, and records the 22 attributes of the Virgin (Figure 9.1). It was a pioneer work of its kind in Spain,¹ a paradigm of the Baroque in western Christendom, echoing the monumental commemorative columns of Classical Rome, such as the Column of Trajan. But the inscriptions on the base are not as they were originally created. The truth is that the Inquisition ordered three of these inscriptions to be deleted as the result of an extraordinary dispute over the sculpture, the evidence of which remains visible today.