:Paintings from Arlanza
{{Short description|13th-century Spanish paintings}}
File:(Barcelona) Griu de San Pedro de Arlanza - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.jpg, fresco transferred to canvas, 189.5 × 322 cm, c. 1210, MNAC, Barcelona]]
The paintings from Arlanza are a set of frescos belonging to the mural decoration of a Benedictine monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza, in the Province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain, dating to around 1210, and now dispersed among a number of collections. The Spanish government began to detach and sell sections of the frescos in the 19th century, though less exciting sections remain in situ. In 1943, the largest group of six major fragments was moved to the National Art Museum of Catalonia of Barcelona. Most of the Romanesque mural painting that has survived is of religious subjects. There was also fine decorations of a courtly or profane nature in large monastic centres, such as Arlanza in Castile, and these fragments represent especially rare survivals.[http://art.mnac.cat/fitxatecnica.html;jsessionid=1e5b501d514ceac21bf35f4a14523af9fd0144abc5a1f3ed10e00fa78c2c9cbd?inventoryNumber=040142-000Catalog entry at the MNAC website] According to C. R. Dodwell, the "imposing" Arlanza paintings are "endowed with all the power and grandeur of Romanesque at its best".Dodwell, 268
Description
The ten very large animals and other subjects from the world of heraldryDodwell describes them as "over life-size", somewhat begging the question in the case of the dragon and other mythical beasts come from the chapter house or a room above,Sources are oddly variable on this on the lowest floor of the so-called Torre del Tesoro (Treasury Tower), and are inspired by illuminated bestiaries, with the basic landscape backgrounds that are often seen in these. The Barcelona group includes a gryphon, a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, in a watchful pose. The MNAC has 5 more fragments from the same decorative group. There are other panels of a lion and a dragon, now at The Cloisters in New York,[http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/70011540 Cloisters lion] one at the Harvard University Fogg Art Museum,[http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collection/detail.dot?objectid=1938.124&globalSearchText=Arlanza Fogg Art Museum fragment]{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and another in a private collection.
The style of the paintings in Arlanza is generally related to other Spanish works of around 1200, especially the frescos from the Monastery of Santa María de Sigena (also in MNAC, Barcelona), which are clearly influenced by English illuminated manuscript miniature painting, something that can be seen in the refinement and the precision of the motifs, combined with their monumental nature.[http://art.mnac.cat/fitxatecnica.html;jsessionid=1e5b501d514ceac21bf35f4a14523af9fd0144abc5a1f3ed10e00fa78c2c9cbd?inventoryNumber=040142-000Catalog entry at the MNAC website]; also see Cloisters The Sigena frescos, which are probably actually largely by English artists, namely some of the team who illuminated the Winchester Bible,Dodwell, 372-373, and Oakeshott throughout also contain a very similar gryphon and lion,Oakeshott: Gryphon, figures 207 (Arlanza) and 208 (Sigena), Sigena lion figure 42; the Sigena gryphon, after fire damage, can be seen at right in this photo. and are possibly by the same principal artist.Dodwell, 268 The Arlanza fragments in New York still include their section of the black and white frieze with more figures including fabulous beasts running below the large polychrome animals.
(Barcelona) Motiu arquitectonic de San Pedro de Arlanza - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.jpg|Emblem of Castile, MNAC
Dragon passant, burgos, post 1300.JPG|Dragon in New York
Lion passant, burgos, post 1300.JPG|Old emblem of León in New York
San Pedro de Arlanza - Pintura.jpg|A figure with crozier, still at Arlanza; later period
San Pedro de Arlanza - Interior torre - Planta baja.jpg|The room in the tower from which(?) the paintings were removed
(Barcelona) Couple of bird sirens de San Pedro de Arlanza - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.jpg|Bird-mermaids, MNAC
Notes
{{commons category|Monasterio de San Pedro de Arlanza}}
{{reflist|2}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last1=Castiñeiras |first1=Manuel |last2=Camps |first2=Jordi |title=Romanesque art in the MNAC collections|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vE_qAAAAMAAJ|access-date=3 September 2012|year=2008|publisher=MNAC|isbn=978-84-8043-196-5}}
- {{cite book|title=Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCxcQwAACAAJ|access-date=3 September 2012|date=1 March 2009|publisher=MNAC|isbn=978-84-8043-200-9}}
- {{cite book|last1=Carbonell |first1=Eduard |last2=Pagès |first2=Montserrat |last3=Camps |first3=Jordi |last4=Marot |first4=Teresa |title=Romanesque Art Guide: Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya|url=https://archive.org/details/romanesqueartgui00vv|url-access=registration |access-date=3 September 2012|year=1998|publisher=Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya|isbn=978-84-8043-039-5 }}
- {{cite book |last1=Carbonell |first1=Eduard |last2=Sureda i Pons |first2=Joan |title=The Medieval Treasures of the Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAdEcgAACAAJ|access-date=3 September 2012|year=1997|publisher=Lunwerg}}
- Dodwell, C.R.; The Pictorial arts of the West, 800-1200, 1993, Yale UP, {{ISBN|0300064934}}
- Oakeshott, Walter, Sigena: Romanesque Painting in Spain & the Winchester Bible Artists, London, 1972, Harvey, Miller and Medcalf. {{ISBN|0-8212-0497-1}}
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Category:13th-century paintings
Category:Paintings in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Category:Fresco paintings in Spain