ALTARPIECE OF THE LIFE OF THE HOLY VIRGIN

HISTORY 

These reliefs dedicated to the Life of the Holy Virgin from the parish church of Our Lady of Itziar were incorporated into the Diocesan Museum of the Dioceses of San Sebastian when it was founded in 1991.

Given the fact their iconography corresponds to the saint worshipped at this particular church, we may assume that they originally made up the main altarpiece. The current building dates from the XVI century. However, it stands on the same site on which a Gothic church previously stood. Indeed, traces of several blind arches and the remains of a saddle roof that used to cover the church may still be seen on the building's façade where the moulding runs along the lower part of the buttresses. It is thought the church was built around the beginning of the XIV century to replace a Roman style temple. The figure of the church's patron saint has been executed in the same Roman style.

The modest altarpiece, quite possibly donated by a merchant from the town of Deba, was replaced mid-XVI century by another, more monumental altarpiece partially attributed to Andrés de Araoz.