Romanesque capital; 12th-13th century.
Carved stone.
It shows signs of damage caused by the passage of time.
Measurements: 37 x 29 x 29 cm.
Architectural element made of stone whose structural design shows its function as a capital. The interior is hollowed out, a very unusual feature in this type of piece. Despite the faults caused by the passage of time, the work is in good condition, so that the entire design of the stone carving can be appreciated. The stonemason has designed the ornamentation of this piece in the form of a frieze, placing the figures that make up the scene along the entire perimeter of the capital. Each side is delimited, in its decoration, by a band, inside which there are scenes of figures in high relief. On one of the sides, a bearded figure can be seen crouching and leaning on what appears to be a bench. On another side, two figures are depicted, one standing and the other squatting. The third side has two other men, and finally the most detailed scene shows in the upper area the representation of the dove as the Holy Spirit, and in the lower area a half-relief that seems to simulate waves and above them a face, so that it can be intuited that the artist is reflecting a representation of baptism. Although it is difficult to identify the scenes, it is clear that they depict images from the Bible, or images of great moral and religious significance. It should not be forgotten that, during the Romanesque period, the majority of the population was uneducated, so that the ornamentation and architecture of religious spaces was designed to facilitate the didactic task of transmitting the Christian message to the faithful in an effective and direct manner.
Romanesque is the name given to the first great period of medieval art in Europe (the western part), but it is not a uniform aesthetic movement throughout the territory, neither in aesthetics nor in chronology. In the Iberian Peninsula, it is necessary to speak of Visigothic art (from the 5th century until the Muslim conquest, approximately), Asturian art (area of the Principality of Asturias, without Muslim domination, between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 10th century), Mozarabic art (of the Christians who lived in Muslim territory, from 711 to the end of the 11th century) and not forgetting Islamic Andalusian art, given that, chronologically, we are between the 5th or 5th centuries AD and the 10th or 11th centuries.