Puerta Del Obispo, Zamora a.k.a. The Bishop’s Door, Zamora

 

John Taylor Arms

  1887 - 1953 (biography)

1933 / 1938 

etching 

12 9/16 x 7 3/16" platemark 

pencil signed, lower right 

160 

pencil dated 1933 after the signature; dedicated in lower left: "To my dear friend, Samuel Chamberlain / John Taylor Arms -1934"; also titled by Arms in the lower left corner and further inscribed "Second and published state" 

Fletcher 266; Spanish Church series #9; Arms 270; LOC 271 

light cream laid 

ii/ii 

artist 

24622 

$600.00 

Zamora Cathedral is situated in the region of Zamora, Spain known as Castile and Leon, an autonomous community in the northwest. The church was built in the 12th century in the Spanish Romanesque style, with Gothic elements added later, and is noted for its Byzantine scale-tile dome and the stately Bishop’s Door, or “Puerta del Obispo”.

Here, John Talyor Arms shows the entryway at an angle best suited for emphasizing the long, straight lines of - and shadows cast by - the carved stone columns and arcades. Nearly half of the plate is left bare to contrast the grandeur of the door, which sits on the southside of the church facing the Bishop’s Palace. Fletcher notes that this is one of Arms’ “preferred plates”, number 9 from the Spanish Series.