Welcome to the first online exhibition of medieval art to be hosted by the ICMA. Our new gallery welcomes Kirk Ambrose’s images of Portuguese art from the thirteenth century - an area that is relatively unknown to most of us.

Kirk, Chair of the Programs and Lectures Committee of the ICMA, is an associate professor in art history at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has published numerous articles in various books and journals, including the Gazette des Beaux Arts, Source, Traditio, and Word & Image. His first book, The Nave Sculpture of Vézelay: The Art of Monastic Viewing (Toronto, 2006), examines the capitals of this celebrated twelfth-century site in relation to various aspects of cenobitic culture. He is currently at work writing a book that examines the uses of pagan mythology in eleventh- and twelfth-century art. Over the last few years he has been particularly interested in Portuguese art.

Many thanks to Kirk for sharing this collection with us and to Gerry (Guest) our web ditor for making it possible.

Colum
Colum Hourihane
President, ICMA

Some Romanesque Monuments of Northern Portugal

The Romanesque monuments of Portugal remain largely unknown to scholars outside of that country. To be sure, generations of Portuguese scholars have made significant contributions and, more recently, there have been significant collaborations between Galician and Portuguese scholars. Even so, much work remains to be done. Beginning with a trip in the summer of 2007, I embarked on a project of studying these works. Several specialists, including Rosário Machado and Jorge Rodrígues, have offered me welcome help with my initial forays into this material.

The following small set of images presents a handful of notable works in the area north of Porto and south of the Spanish border. This region receives far fewer foreign visitors than, say, the region around Lisbon and many of the monuments featured here are accessible by small, often poorly marked roads. Local governmental organizations, including the tourism office of the Vale do Sousa, are working hard to change this situation. Study of the archeology of Portuguese sites is complicated by the fact that from the seventeenth century onward most buildings have been subjected to multiple, often harsh, “restorations.”

Several of the monuments here date partly or entirely to the thirteenth century, beyond the chronological limits of what is traditionally designated as “Romanesque” in other parts of Europe. This obviously raises questions about the utility of the term, but here I follow the traditional classification of these monuments.







São Pedro de Rates
This monument has garnered the attention of a number of French scholars, most notably Raymond Oursel, because of a posited Burgundian imprint in its architecture and sculpture, including the Christ in Majesty tympanum on the west façade and the agnus Dei portal on the south transept. (It should be added that other scholars have identified additional sources of inspiration, from Italian to Islamic.) These artistic similarities perhaps communicate something of a political alliance: Count Hugh of Burgundy, for example, was a patron of Rates and the father of Afonso Henrique, the first king of Portugal. In 1100, Henry donated this church and its revenues to La-Charité-sur-Loire and helped to introduce Cluniac customs to Rates. Dates of the various building campaigns at Rates are stridently contested, though most scholars agree that work was well underway in the early decades of the twelfth century. Many of the motifs featured here—including the maiestas Domini and agnus Dei—became staples of sculptors in Portugal.









Rio Mau
Among the five surviving tympana in Portugal that feature human figures, this is the only example that does not represent the maiestas Domini. (A badly worn tympanum of affronted griffins on the south side is one of many examples in the region that feature only animals.) The central bishop has typically been identified as Augustine, since this church, like so many in Portugal, observed that saint’s Rule. Yet this is only speculation, for the carved figure lacks any attributes that would warrant a specific identification. The identity of the deacons, if any, to either side of the bishop likewise remains obscure. This may simply be a scene of generalized ecclesiastical figures. Arthur Kingsley Porter believed that the style here indicated an eleventh-century work, but epigraphic and archeological evidence points to the turn of the thirteenth century. As with other examples in the region, the reverse side of the tympanum is carved, in this case with an agnus Dei.



São Pedro de Abragão
This carving of addorsed men grasping fleshy leaves is among four capitals in the sanctuary: two feature palmettes and the fourth features entwined birds whose necks are bitten by monsters. The unusually well preserved sanctuary of Abragão is typically dated to ca. 1200 (with a drastic renovation of the nave in 1688). Yet, on stylistic grounds, it could be argued that these capitals were reemployed from an earlier campaign, for such confidently plastic articulation of forms is rarely found in Portuguese sculpture at the turn of the thirteenth century. A donation that was made to Abragão in 1107 suggests the presence of an earlier structure. What is more, the sanctuary capitals share much in their conception with works at earlier twelfth-century sites, including Braga and the sanctuary of Rio Mau.





Boehle
This is a relatively well-preserved church from the twelfth century. Characteristic features for churches from this period include the small scale, narrow windows, sculptured corbels along the exterior walls of the nave and east end, and a rather elaborately decorated portal on the west end. The bell tower is an obvious later addition and the window above the portal was likely introduced around the turn of the thirteenth century. The absence of a rose window, a common feature of thirteenth-century Portuguese facades, further suggests a date prior to 1200. Several of the decorative motifs in the sculpture here likewise feature at Rates.



Marmorial do Sobrado
The precise function of this work remains obscure, though on stylistic grounds it likely dates to the thirteenth century. This work is unusual when compared to other similar works in the region, including the Hermitage Memorial, because it does not incorporate an arch.



Torre de Vilar
Probably dating to the thirteenth or fourteenth century, this tower probably did not serve a practical military function. More likely, it primarily functioned as a marker of land ownership. Beginning in the twelfth century, the Portuguese monarchy systematically used land gifts as a way of currying favor with noble families. In many cases, these gifts resulted in the displacement of existing landed families. This tower, and other monuments like it in the region, may attest to this obviously turbulent social situation.