ALTARPIECE OF OUR LADY OF BETHLEHEM

ALTERATIONS 

This Gothic altarpiece has undergone many alterations in the course of its existence. The most important, perhaps, was the work carried out in the XVIII century when the original frame and reliefs were replaced by the Baroque altarpiece that currently contains the reliefs and figures. At some later date, reiterated relocations and moves have resulted in certain incoherencies regarding the distribution of the smaller-sized scenarios (some 26 in total), both iconographically and technically.

Four of the statues of the Evangelists on the plinth were made in 1989 by sculptor Luciano Gutiérrez and, more recently, the compartment containing the figure of the Holy Virgin was also transformed into a niche.

As far as colour was concerned, Baroque re-polychrome decoration with its new techniques and different decorative motifs (Sgrafitto, the imitation of sumptuous fabrics, polished flesh tones, etc.) represented a very important change of style, on top of which numerous interventions in the XX century (in the years 1919, 1965, 1980, 1997, 2000 and 2012) were further added, resulting in distorted volumes and confusion regarding the polychrome decoration itself.