A dual study by the University of Granada reveals how the Carthusian religious order used images, paintings, or altarpieces, and even secondary architectural elements, to impose discipline and establish its controversial hierarchy
The research, by the historian José Antonio Díaz Gómez, reveals the relaxed customs of the Carthusians in Granada, which led the hermetic religious order to suspend autonomous activities at the monastery on several occasions
Two studies conducted by a researcher at the University of Granada (UGR) have, for the first time, laid the foundation for understanding the meaning of all the elements of that great treasure of Spain’s History of Art: the artistic facet of Granada’s Charterhouse of the Assumption (Cartuja de la Asunción), whose variety of styles ranges from Gothic to Neo-classical.
In these two studies (one of which is strictly historical and the other historical–artistic), José Antonio Díaz Gómez of the UGR’s Department of History of Art reveals numerous facts—unpublished, until now—including photographs, drawings, and plans of great interest. The scale of the work emphasises the enormous significance of this monastery, which, from early times, enjoyed international renown. To this very day, the few remaining Carthusians hold it to be the most notable charterhouse in Spain, despite the fact that the project itself remained unfinished.
The research details the identities of those who led the monastery until the 19th Century, their sources of funding, and key aspects of daily life among the Carthusian community, such as their incomparable wealth, their crucial role in the control of water supplies in the city of Granada, or their relaxed approach to certain customs that led to interventions being made by the head monastery (grande chartreuse) in France.
Hidden messages
The study also examined the artistic discourse of Granada’s Carthusian monastery, which was full of hidden messages. Today this heritage is only partially preserved and disseminated. For the purposes of the research, the layout of the physical spaces in which the monks lived and worked was reconstructed, highlighting those important figures who contributed to the original, including architects such as Covarrubias, Ledesma or Hurtado Izquierdo, and artists such as Cotán, Bocanegra, Mora or Duque Cornejo. The research unearthed invaluable information on dates and payments.
Likewise, Díaz Gómez’s research has revealed how elements that, at first glance, may seem banal, such as the ground plan or a simple window, were used by the Order to render its rigid internal hierarchy visible. It was precisely against this hierarchy that its members ultimately rebelled; and, in the process, the Granada charterhouse would establish the ideological impulse that finally led to a genuine schism among Spanish monasteries within this Order in the 18th Century.
José Antonio Díaz Gómez is a Doctor (with International Mention) in History and the Arts and is a member of various research teams and projects at the UGR devoted to the study of the culture of the early Modern period and contemporary times in Andalusia.
Bibliography:
The following publications on the Charterhouse can be consulted freely online:
La Cartuja de la Asunción (Granada): Datos inéditos para la revisión de su historia: http://sl.ugr.es/0aJg
El proyecto artístico de la Cartuja de Granada: Revisión y nuevas aportaciones documentales en torno a su patrimonio y discurso iconográfico: http://sl.ugr.es/0aJh
Image captions:
“View of the Granada Charterhouse,” from the “Maisons de l’Ordre des Chartreux” collection
Sacristy of the Granada Charterhouse
The UGR researcher José Antonio Díaz Gómez, author of this work
Media enquiries:
José Antonio Díaz Gómez
Research Group HUM-36, Department of History of Art, University of Granada
Email: joadiaz@ugr.es
