Painted ceiling, Teruel
Type:
Churches
Date:
Late thirteenth century
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Spain
Dimensions:
32 x 7.8 m
Description:
The church (now cathedral) of Santa María de Mediavilla in Teruel, in Aragón, was begun in 1171 but completely renovated in the thirteenth century. At the end of that century, its 32-meter-long nave was covered with a ceiling made of pine wood, with beams supported on carved corbels. The wood was then covered with canvas and gesso, smoothed to support tempera paintings. These well-preserved paintings depict Christian religious scenes, but also secular figures, fantastic creatures, animals, faces, and many other subjects. Of special interest is the series of nine carpenters shown making this very ceiling: the fourth from the left shows one craftsman carving an eagle, a figure that decorates several beam ends. At the center of the row, a man offers drinks to the busy woodworkers.
The ceiling and its paintings reveal features associated with both Islamicate and European medieval art. Its style has often been called mudéjar, meaning "Islamic-looking" art made for non-Muslim patrons in formerly Islamicate lands, but this problematic nineteenth-century term has limited, rather than stimulated, analysis of the complexity of late medieval art in the Iberian Peninsula.
The ceiling and its paintings reveal features associated with both Islamicate and European medieval art. Its style has often been called mudéjar, meaning "Islamic-looking" art made for non-Muslim patrons in formerly Islamicate lands, but this problematic nineteenth-century term has limited, rather than stimulated, analysis of the complexity of late medieval art in the Iberian Peninsula.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
9
Repository and Online Resources:
• Teruel Cathedral is part of the Mudejar Architecture of Aragon UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Learn more about the painted ceiling here (in Spanish).
Image Credits:
Flickr, Wikimedia Commons
