20 May

lecture series
LESSER-KNOWN IMAGES OF NAVARRESE MEDIEVAL ART

The Royal Couple in Early Medieval Hispanic Art: Navarre and other examples

Ms. Soledad de Silva y Verástegui
University of the Basque Country

With the exception of the portraits of Justinian and Theodora in the sixth-century Byzantine mosaics in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, the marriage portrait was not a genre that was lavished on us in the early Middle Ages average. We have to wait until the Carolingian and Ottonian periods to find portraits of marriages, generally of the imperial couple, in European art. In the Peninsula, the earliest examples are the portraits of the kings Sancho II Abarca and Queen Urraca of the kingdom of Pamplona, which appear in two famous manuscripts from the end of the 10th century that inaugurated court portraiture. However, it was not until the mid-11th century, with the arrival of the first European Romanesque trends, that portraits of the royal couple and the nobility began to be depicted in miniatures and other arts. These portraits continued to be depicted throughout the 12th century. This lecture analyses the various factors that led to the introduction of these portraits and their artistic peculiarities, which gave rise to a rich and varied typology, the most widespread being, in addition to the court portrait, the portrait of the patrons, the effigies of the donors, the Dedication scene, the devotional portrait, the ceremony of the donatio and the scene of presentation, among others.
 

Photo 1. King Sancho II Abarca and Queen Urraca.
Codex Albeldense. Late 10th century