Description
Monument of the Historical-Artistic Complex. Declared 02/04/1955. San Isidoro was built outside the walls, near the Plaza de Toledo, in the Gothic-Mudejar style. Of that three-nave temple, built in the 14th century, only its two façades have been preserved: the South or Sun façade, late Gothic, with a scheme similar to those of the churches of San Pablo y San Nicolás de Bari; and the North, where along with the late Gothic elements, it also has a tight Plateresque decoration of candlesticks. Both were carved in the times of prelate Alonso Suárez of the Fuente el Sauce around 1510-1515.In the middle of the 16th century, a complete renovation of the old medieval factory was planned to accommodate an increasingly large congregation, which reached almost five thousand souls in 1575. Documentally we have evidence that in 1553 Andrés Vandelvira, in the company of his surveyor Alonso Barba, was in Úbeda to grant a general power of attorney for lawsuits, a fact that makes V. M. Ruiz Fuentes think of a more than probable intervention by the master in this great project, which contemplated the construction of a colossal temple with a Latin cross plan with three naves separated by pillars. However, of that ambitious project, only its apse and transept were built in the 16th century, leaving the three naves reduced to one, which was built throughout the 17th century. The elevation of this nave, covered with a half-barrel with niche chapels marked by Corinthian pilasters, does not clash with the rest of the factory. However, the most clearly Vandelvirian architectural ensemble is located in the main chapel and the transept, although much of its material execution was carried out after Vandelvira died in 1575. V. M. Ruiz Fuentes has documented that the work was contracted to Pedro de Mazuecos and Juanes de la Carrera, master stonemasons who created the chapels on the Gospel side of the transept; Years later, during the visit of Bishop Sarmiento de Mendoza in 1578, it was ordered to continue the work on the chapels on the Epistle side, the main chapel and the tower. In 1589 this same prelate, accompanied by the sculptor Sebastián de Solís, visitor and overseer of the works of the Bishopric, once again ordered the construction to continue, so that by 1604 the main chapel was already covered. In any case, the course of the works on the chevet and transept, directed in the beginning in all probability by Andrés de Vandelvira, and then - after his death by his disciple Alonso Barba until his death in 1595 - shows the architectural repertoire used by both stonemasonry masters. In San Isidoro the scheme used by Vandelvira in the Cathedral of Jaén of double chapels-niches paired by section is reproduced with great beauty, which in this case are completed with beautiful sculptural reliefs that remind us of those used by the Master in part in the main chapel of S. Francisco de Baeza, highlighting among them those of the Virtues reclining in the classical manner on the arch of the chapels of the siloesque tradition. In the rest of the elevation of the body of the transept, the Vandelvira brand is equally evident in the superb Corinthian semi-pillars in the corners, which remind us of those used in the Dominican church of La Guardia and in the Cathedral of Jaén. The Iglesia de San Isidoro is a place that Muñoz Molina sometimes recreates in his novels, as he does in El Jinete Polaco, where in addition to capturing the “ambiance” of Mágina, he uses it to locate some of his peculiar characters, such as his bullfighting priest. (…) He remembered that there was no light in that narrow street, which led to the San Isidoro clearing, where there was a fountain whose flow he heard at the same time as the splashing of a horse's hooves in the mud, which when shaking its head made the harnesses of a car rattle]”(…) The Iglesia de San Isidoro, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries and built on the ancient remains of a mosque, is of extraordinary interest as one of the few Gothic buildings in a city famous for its Renaissance art. In fact, although the exterior has two Gothic facades in the Flamboyant Gothic style -represented especially in the pinnacles-, the interior is Renaissance. OTHER NON-ARCHITECTURAL ARTISTIC MANIFESTATIONS This parish does not preserve valuable movable property, since the conversion of its old Gothic factory for a Renaissance one exhausted the funds of its factory. However, it had a major altarpiece of interest, which around 1584 was inspected by Sebastián de Solís to recompose it according to a new layout designed by him. Destroyed all its movable heritage in 1936, currently it is worth highlighting within its imagery the Christ of the Column (1942) and María Santísima de la Caridad (1960); Both images were commissioned by the Brotherhood of the Column to the sculptor Francisco Palma Burgos, who also designed their respective thrones as well as the ornamentation of the Chapel in which they are venerated, open to the nave of the church on its Gospel side. By the sculptor Nicolás Prados it is the image for procession of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias (1943).
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