I do my best to accurately credit the images I post here; however, if you see an image belonging to you that is either improperly credited or you simply do not want it on the blog, please feel free to contact me and I will edit/remove it. I don’t claim ownership of any of these images unless stated otherwise. Images may have text captions which credit the source or they may have click-through links.
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-On posting hiatus-
La Pieta, by Niccolo dell’Arca, in the Santuario di Santa Maria della Vita di Bologna, Bologna, Italy, mid-late fifteenth century. Painted terracotta figures. The figures surrounding the dead Christ are, from left to right, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Salome (mother of John), the Virgin Mary, John, Mary Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. Image taken from ARTstor and figural description taken from here.
Compianto sul Cristo Morto di Niccolò dell’Arca,
Santuario di Santa Maria della Vita di Bologna
(via brightwork)
Good luck to everyone taking/writing finals!
Detail of the Batllo Crucifix (Majesty/Majestat). Polychromed wood, from Gerona, Catalonia, mid-twelfth century. Currently in the collections of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. Source.
![Map of Asia from the Atlas Catalan, likely by Cresque Abraham, c. 1375. Currently in the collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Image taken from ARTstor.
“In the late fourteenth century, Barcelona was highly regarded as a center of mapmaking. The Atlas Catalan, likely produced by a Jewish cartographer from Mallorca [a Balearic island in the Mediterranean Sea] named Cresque Abraham, is a traditional mappa mundi [‘map of the world’], with Jerusalem in its center. The twelve-paneled map unfolds like a screen, providing information about various locations, including their geographical placement as well as their historical and mythological significance. The atlas also delineates portolan charts or sailing directions. In 1381, Pere IV of Aragon gave the work to an envoy of Charles V of France. Although the map indicates navigational directions, it was not intended for daily use. On the contrary, the atlas served as a luxurious collector’s item housed in a royal library. The section of the map displayed here represents Southeast Asia and China. Although the accuracy of the map wanes as one leaves the Mediterranean basin, it is one of the first maps to indicate the international travels of Marco Polo.” (Snyder, Art of the Middle Ages, 414)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6tmegzW8m1qbljvvo1_1280.jpg)
Map of Asia from the Atlas Catalan, likely by Cresque Abraham, c. 1375. Currently in the collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Image taken from ARTstor.
“In the late fourteenth century, Barcelona was highly regarded as a center of mapmaking. The Atlas Catalan, likely produced by a Jewish cartographer from Mallorca [a Balearic island in the Mediterranean Sea] named Cresque Abraham, is a traditional mappa mundi [‘map of the world’], with Jerusalem in its center. The twelve-paneled map unfolds like a screen, providing information about various locations, including their geographical placement as well as their historical and mythological significance. The atlas also delineates portolan charts or sailing directions. In 1381, Pere IV of Aragon gave the work to an envoy of Charles V of France. Although the map indicates navigational directions, it was not intended for daily use. On the contrary, the atlas served as a luxurious collector’s item housed in a royal library. The section of the map displayed here represents Southeast Asia and China. Although the accuracy of the map wanes as one leaves the Mediterranean basin, it is one of the first maps to indicate the international travels of Marco Polo.” (Snyder, Art of the Middle Ages, 414)
Creation Tapestry, c. 1100. Embroidered in wool and linen on a wool background, 12’ x 15’ 8”. Currently in the Gerona Cathedral Treasury in Spain. Source.
“In Gerona, the Creation Tapestry, made with linen thread against a wool background, depicts a beardless Christ as Pantocrator in the center of a compositional wheel, filled with scenes from Genesis, including the Days of Creation, the Creation of Eve, and Adam Naming the Animals. In the corners, symbols of the four winds turn the wheel, suggesting the movement of the days. On three sides, marginal representations of the labors of the months and emblems of the annum and solstices continue to convey the passage of time. Curiously, in the bottom margin, the legend of the Discovery of the True Cross is shown. Although it is not certain where or how the tapestry was originally displayed, its complex iconography reveals a belief in the enduring lordship of Christ from the beginning to the end of Creation.” (Snyder, Art of the Middle Ages, 258)
Bifolio illustrating a scene from Revelation 12- including the woman clothed in the sun (upper left), the multi-headed dragon who pulled down a third of the stars from heaven (center), and Satan bound in hell (bottom right)- from the Silos Beatus, c. 1091-1109. Image taken from ARTstor.
Folio depicting the adoration of Christ enthroned and the lifting up of St. John from the Spanish Silos Beatus, c. 1091-1109. Image taken from ARTstor.
Folio illustrating the combat of the bird and serpent from the Spanish Gerona Beatus, c. 970. Image taken from ARTstor.
This scene is characteristic of the mozarabic style, which makes use of bold, primary color palettes and stylized, patterned, and linear imagery which is influenced by Islamic artistic tradition in the Iberian peninsula.
Cordoba Mosque, Andalucia, Spain.
Dome with ceiling mosaics in front of the mihrab, c. 965.
(via screaming-suffragette)
Four arrested in Spain over Codex Calixtinus theft
A medieval text stolen from the cathedral in the north-western Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela was found in a nearby garage on Wednesday after police arrested a handyman – fired after 25 years working at the cathedral – and three others.
