Apse of Santa Maria de Mur
Type:
Churches,
Wall paintings
Date:
ca. 1150–1200
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Spain
Dimensions:
max. 645 × 382 × 282 cm
Description:
In the mid-eleventh century, local counts commissioned a triple-apsed stone basilica in Catalonia to serve a community of Augustinian canons near their castle. About a century later, the apses were decorated in the fresco secco (dry fresco) technique. In the early twentieth century, the paintings of the central apse were stripped by the local parish and sold to an American antiquarian, who then sold them to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (a digital copy of the paintings can be seen in Santa Maria de Mur's apse today). The bright colors, pronounced linearity, and emphatic hand gestures are characteristic of twelfth-century paintings in Catalonia.
The apse depicts the Maiestas Domini in the conch, with Christ holding a Gospel book with the Latin text of John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me." He is surrounded by evangelist symbols and seven oil lamps that evoke those in the book of Revelation (Rev. 1:12, 4:5). The evangelists are accompanied by Latin inscriptions drawn from a fifth-century text that clarifies how the symbols are linked to their respective Gospels.
Pairs of standing apostles occupy the register below, with Peter and Paul in the center. In the deep window embrasures between them are images of two men gesturing upward (left) and Cain and Abel (center and right). At the bottom of the apse are scenes from the infancy of Christ, with the Nativity in the center below the offerings of Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:1–7); Abel, who offers a lamb, is a type for Christ. The central axis of the apse thus emphasizes themes of incarnation, sacrifice, and judgment. The lower scenes can also be read as references to Mary, to whom the church was dedicated: the Annunciation was on the left, then the Visitation, Nativity, and probably the Adoration of the Magi.
The apse depicts the Maiestas Domini in the conch, with Christ holding a Gospel book with the Latin text of John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me." He is surrounded by evangelist symbols and seven oil lamps that evoke those in the book of Revelation (Rev. 1:12, 4:5). The evangelists are accompanied by Latin inscriptions drawn from a fifth-century text that clarifies how the symbols are linked to their respective Gospels.
Pairs of standing apostles occupy the register below, with Peter and Paul in the center. In the deep window embrasures between them are images of two men gesturing upward (left) and Cain and Abel (center and right). At the bottom of the apse are scenes from the infancy of Christ, with the Nativity in the center below the offerings of Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:1–7); Abel, who offers a lamb, is a type for Christ. The central axis of the apse thus emphasizes themes of incarnation, sacrifice, and judgment. The lower scenes can also be read as references to Mary, to whom the church was dedicated: the Annunciation was on the left, then the Visitation, Nativity, and probably the Adoration of the Magi.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
7,
8
Repository and Online Resources:
• The apse is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Maria Antoinette Evans Fund, acc. no. 21.1285).
Image Credits:
Linda Safran; Wikimedia Commons
