Romanesque Altar of Sant Serni de Tavèrnoles

Altar Frontal from St Serni de Tavèrnoles. Second half of 12th century. Tempera on wood. Image: Wikimedia.

This altar frontal, from a monastery, is different in several ways to other examples of the genre: instead of a hierarchical series, in which a central figure is flanked by lesser beings, we have a more democratic way of representing things. The figures are all the same size and occupy the same space. I like to see it as a procession - as if they are all walking in suitably stately fashion towards us, but flattened out, so we see two lines at either side of Saint Serni in the centre.

 

Sant Serni is better known by his French name of St Sernin or Saturnin. He was a martyred bishop of Toulouse, where he is honoured by the largest Romanesque church in Europe. The choice of image here is another unusual feature. Other representations show revolting pictures of the saint's martyrdom in the year 250: he refused to sacrifice to pagan deities, and was sentenced to be dragged by a maddened bull throught he city streets. But here he is surrounded by other bishops (note the mitres and croziers), and apparently presides over an episcopal assembly. To warm the hearts of bureaucrats everywhere, we have here a reverent image of the saint chairing a committee (the scrolls are the agenda, perhaps, or dreaded AOB). Anyway, everyone looks very calm and happy as the Saint blesses them, so the procession / meeting is probably nearing its close. The deep mellow colours add to this serene air.

 

It's a big piece, and it has been suggested that it might have served as a sarcophagus or reredos. But then the church it comes from is big too, and needed something on this scale to be the centre of processions.

 

It's interesting to compare the Barcelona Frontal with the much busier one dedicated to the same saint (under the name St Sadurní) in the Episcopal Museum of Vic, made in the twilight years of Romanesque:

 



Altar frontal from Sant Sadurní in Rotgers

First quarter of the 13th century
Tempera on poplar wood



 

 

Briefly, this shows Christ Pantocrator in the middle, surrounded by the Tetramorph. Top left: Saint Saturninus refuses to bow down to a pagan idol, in the form of a bull. Bottom left: he is dragged by a bull through the Capitol of Toulouse. Top right: the saint has just saved a bunch of people from drowning, and blesses them. The style is very different: Byzantine influence has led to smoother modelling of faces and bodies. This new Greek style was to become predominant in the thirteenth century. The source of all of this is the museum website entry, which you can read here.

 

Wikipedia entry

 

Wikipedia entry on St Saturnin

 

Links to many images of St Saturnin from JISCMail



 

Romanesque Altar Frontal: Frontal d'Ix

This is the 'Frontal d'Ix', a painted (tempera) wooden (pine) altar frontal (fancy word for this: antependium) from the small Romanesque Church (single nave, round apse) dedicated to St Martin, in the village of La Guingeta d'Ix. It was made sometime around the middle of the twelfth century, and presently adorns the first room of the Romanesque galleries in MNAC. It's in fact one of the oldest pieces in that collection, having been given by a private collector in 1889 (the first exploratory trip to the Pyrennean churches was undertaken in 1907).

St Martí, La Guingeta d'Ix. Wikimedia.

These wooden frontals are apparently unique to the Catalan territories, and were made between the tenth and twelfth centuries - the Romanesque period in short. They seem to have been made in three workshops - the Seu d'Urgell, Ripoll and Vic. Those made for the larger and richer churches and monasteries often have precious materials (gold, silver, ivory, jewels, enamels) inlaid into them. A smaller church like St Martin made do with painted wood (though remains of metal strips have been found in this one). Planks of wood were joined together with nails, then covered with a layer of plaster. The drawing was then made, often incised, and finally the whole area was painted. This one is typical in having the widest board in the centre - the logical place for the Saviour, or the Virgin, or the patron saint of the Church. Look at the corners of the frontal and you can see clearly the iron clasps - presumably used to link this to the side panels of the altar, which have disappeared.

The love of geometrical pattern and decoration is immediately apparent. It's interesting that the four sides around the iconographic images use different motifs. At the top there's a band of strikingly 3D-effect cubes, or interlocking zigzag straps, however you want to see them, picking up on the reds and blues in the middle. Going clockwise, we see vegetal motifs on the right, and at the bottom the so-called 'rinceaux' or foliage pattern. Up the left side, medallions, alternating vegetal and animal images. Behind them is a world of kells, mosaics, miniatures - the whole medieval vision of endless symmetrical patterns, stretching from Ireland to Byzantium.

Now to the subject matter, starting in the centre with the Maiestas Domini - the Majesty of the Lord, the motif of the Saviour enthroned. The figure is very similar to the one in the Seu d'Urgell frontal (see below): elongated face, long thin nose and wide-open eyes, beard and treatment of hair, and taches or red spots on cheeks and forehead all match up. The Christ of Ix does look rather less grim and more cheerful, though. He is seated at the intersection of two coloured circles, which make up the globe mandorla, a motif we can trace back to Carolingian times. He is wearing a red tunic, with a fringed blue mantle. Heavy linear folds following the logic of pattern rather than anatomy. Again, the nimbus bears a crucifer, which goes slightly over the edges and above the mandorla. Left hand rests on the Book, right hand raised in blessing. Unlike Urgell, this right hand is also carrying a small round object. Very likely it symbolises the world (some manuscripts helpfully name it, 'mundus'), but it could also be the Host (suitable to have the symbol of the Eucharist on an altar) - and I don't see why the interpreting viewer couldn't flip between these two significations. The Alpha and Omega letters remind us of the Saviour's rule over the beginning and end of the world. No tetramorph (as in Vézelay etc.) but a deep red background decorated with floral motifs - another similarity to the Seu d'Urgell frontal.

Now we can look at the sides, starting with the right. The equivalent space in the Seu d'Urgell frontal is a single plane, but here it is divided into four frames, each containing two figures. We can spot St Peter at once with his gigantic key (I like the way this breaks out of his space into the frame, forming a parallel with the two blessing hands and the codex if we read across to the left). Next frame along in the top row is St Martin, in his iconic act of dividing his robe with a beggar. This scene has the scholars vexed, though: St Martin (of Tours) is usually shown on horseback when he does this, not standing; the 'beggar' doesn't exactly look in need of more wardrobe here; and the staff linked to a chain over his right shoulder suggests he is a captive, which points to stories in other saints' lives but not St Martin. A conflation of some kind? The precise coherence of the elements seems to have become obscured by time. Also obscure, if they were ever known, are the identities of any of the other figures. They are obviously apostles, but who is who seems to be anyone's guess. As with the Urgell frontal, they all look towards Christ (though not with the same pronounced tilt); again, they're differentiated by being bearded and beardless, and have the same rather block-like faces. Notice too the pearl-like decoration around the edges.

The left side has the same four images. Second from the right on the top is St Martin again. No mysteries here - he is clearly depicted as a bishop with a crozier. I take it that what looks like a sore spot on his crown is the tonsure - the same detail distinguishes St Peter in the Urgell piece. And he gets his name in red letters, to the left of his halo. All the other figures are anonymous apostles. One detail I find oddly delightful is that St Martin is the only one in the whole work wearing shoes! The separate scenes are unified by the geometrical format, underlined by the simple alternation of red and yellow backgrounds. across the middle is an inscription - partial erasure, intricate letter decoration and shorthand abbreviations make it a challenge, but it has been deciophered as 'Sol et Lux Sanctorum Maneo in Praeclara Honorum' which I think means something like 'I dwell in the bright sun and the light of the beautiful saints' but gentle correction welcomed.

There's a strong feeling among experts that this Frontal and the one from Seu d'Urgell came from the same workshop. Parallels to many of the motifs have been found in manuscripts, and there are close similarities to sculptures in the monastery of Ripoll. These details are explored in humbling detail by Walter Cook in his 1923 article. Cook didn't have absolutely all the details to hand when he wrote, as the provenance of the piece only came to light in 1944  - but the article is a model of detailed description and iconographic research.



Seu d'Urgell Frontal

Sources.
Mostly plundered from the Catalan Viquipedia entry

The Earliest Painted Panels of Catalonia (II)

Walter W. S. Cook, 'The Earliest Painted Panels of Catalonia (II)', The Art Bulletin , Vol. 6, No. 2 (Dec., 1923), pp. 31-60 (especially 32-38). 

Blog entry on Seu d'Urgell Frontal

                  

Romanesque Altar Frontal from Seu d'Urgell

Another wonderful Romanesque altar frontal in MNAC, showing Christ surrounded by the apostles. Dated about 1150, tempera on wood. From a church in the old dicese of Urgell.  Heavy linearity and symmetry (look at the feet!) tending - physical details like garments and bodies all become the occasion for abstract patterning, as if the pattern is the reality, and the physical object just a brief configuration as the play of line and colour goes on for ever. This play, or pull, between concrete and abstract gives much of Romanesque art itrs animating tension. I like the tilted heads - impossible not to follow the gaze from side to centre.

Video introduction produced by MNAC:


Short entry on Spain is Culture

Wikipedia entry (note: 'lack of funds' in the description is a mistranslation and should read 'lack of background')

Article: Walter W. S. Cook, 'The Earliest Painted Panels of Catalonia (II)', The Art Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 2  (Dec, 1923), pp. 31-60 on JSTOR. Article begins with a detailed account of this frontal, pages 30-32. It's a great example of detailed visual description - how pausing, looking and putting into words what we see leads to a much sharper awareness of what is happening. The eye wants to skim - particularly in a musem where there is so much to see - so sketching or describing like this is an essential discipline for slowing down and focussing.

Some lovely illustrations, and a good section on Geometrical Forms, in MNAC's excellent Guia Visual Art Romanic.