Francis Wormald’s research on the libellus (libelli in plural) introduced scholars to the illustrated lives of saints produced in pre-Romanesque France and Germany.
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The Federico Marés Museum has among its rich collection a work that is representative of Gothic sculpture in Toledo from the last quarter of the 14th century. This is the sepulchral monument of Don Pedro Suárez de Toledo, a member of two of the most powerful families who played an important role in the political life of the 14th and 15th centuries.
The concern to find means to make evident that which is not evident can be considered one of the historical constants of human thought. In pursuit of this aspiration, man has always striven to reach the unperceivable by means of what is manifest, and in this way he has come to elaborate complex systems of signs whose primary purpose is the communication of ideas and feelings.
Among the several hundred specimens that make up the MAN’s Sigillography Collection, and which are still under study, we highlight the set of papal bulls, which, numbering seventy-seven, made it advisable to publish them as a monograph.
These coins were campaign coinage, possibly issued as a result of the first entry of Alfonso the Battler into Toledo as King of Castile.
The ARQUA collections house an interesting steatite carving of Shou Lao or the Elder of the South Pole, the Chinese god of longevity, found in Cartagena in the 1920s. Very popular in China during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties, this deity usually forms part of a triad of stellar gods of luck. In this case it is a simple piece which, unlike other representations of this divinity in Spanish museums, speaks of everyday life and allows us to glimpse the area’s relations with East Asia through the mystery of its origin.
Antonio de Alloytiz was the most outstanding architect of the altarpiece during the 17th century in Vizcaya, to which his knowledge of the sculptural style of Gregorio Fernández and his contacts with the altarpiece architect Pedro de la Torre contributed. We study his relationship with Torre and other court architects such as Bernabé Cordero and the Jesuit Francisco Bautista, his numerous trips to the court, where his business dealings led him to buy and sell a chapel in the convent of Santo Domingo el Real, acting as an intermediary in the context of a complex lawsuit. We also attribute to him two works conserved in museums and related to Madrid for different reasons, a monstrance from the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art in Bilbao, which belonged to the disappeared main altarpiece of the parish church of Ochandiano, and an Immaculate Conception in the National Archaeological Museum, possibly from an altar in the church of Gordejuela.
This article deals, with a didactic intention, with the evolutionary study of writing during the medieval centuries in Christian Spain, up to the Modern Age, with reference to some pieces preserved in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum, analysing their essential characteristics, from a palaeographic point of view, and explaining the different cycles that developed, the historical and social context in which they arose, the causes that influenced the different forms of writing, including the writing materials, giving an overall view of the use of writing in the Middle Ages, and explaining the different cycles that developed, the historical and social context in which they arose, the causes that influenced the different forms of writing, including the written materials, giving an overall view of the use of writing in this period, as a cultural expression and testimony of human activity.
Sometimes the titles of styles lend themselves to confusion and lead to errors that are difficult to eradicate. This is the case of the treasure of San Isidoro de León, which, although it has come down to us in a much diminished state, originally represented a collection of artistic works of great quality and beauty. It was donated by King Ferdinand I and Doña Sancha to San Isidoro in 1063, that is, when the Hispanic liturgy, linked to tradition, was in full force.
The art should not be ascribed to the Romanesque style, which in the Hispanic kingdoms is fundamentally related to works after 1080, the year of the Council of Burgos, which imposed the use of the Roman liturgy. The Oviedo treasure, like the Asturian monarchy itself, refers back to the ancient Visigothic monarchy. The Visigothic kingdom of Toledo was a constant point of reference in the artistic and political projects emanating from the court of Oviedo. The survival of iconographic types, such as the Greek cross with pawed arms, in the most varied arts, as well as the continuity of certain offerings, is nothing more than a manifestation of respect for tradition rather than an interest in introducing new fashions. The custom of donating votive wreaths of the type found in the Guarrazar treasure survives during the reign of Fernando I.
The commissioning of a Beatus by the same monarch, which is the most genuine manifestation of Hispanic monastic liturgy, must also be considered to have survived. Romanesque art is reflected in some later, particularly important works, such as the Holy Ark in Oviedo Cathedral.
In al-Andalus, the workings of the mines were highly complex, as they often involved a series of processes at the mouth of the mine, which were not part of the mining system itself, but which were essential for the use of the metals that were to be extracted essential for the exploitation of the metals to be extracted. In this sense, this article aims to study the work carried out at the bottom of the mine in Andalusian gold and silver mines. To this end, we use the information provided by medieval documentary sources, the results obtained by Experimental Archaeology and the conclusions drawn from fieldwork in silver and gold mines.
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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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