An unknown romanesque wall paintign in the Leva Collection

Abstract

The article unveils the existence of a hitherto unknown of mural painting belonging to a Spanish private collection. The paper first provides a thorough description of the painting and comments upon the maintenance state, then analyses its pictorial technique, style, iconography and finally displays the connections this mural painting may have with other pictorial works so as to put forward both an artistic relationship and a rough chronology. The subject matter portrayed is a Maiestas Mariae framed in a mystic almond which is carried out by two angels. Within the Romanesque style, the line drawing trait and chromatism are highlighted and emerge as two essential items. After tracing the formal affinities with other Romanesque collections, the article establishes a direct link with a stylistic circle comprising Catalonian and Castilian mural paintings from the first quarter of the XIIth century, especially with the work of the so-called Master of Maderuelo, if we want to suggest the authorship of a master who is close to him and who would guar- antee a widespread diffusion of an Italobyzantine stylistic current from Catalonia to the Castilian plateau. This master’s personality is completed with another two contacts related to the miniatures from León, inherited from the Mozarabic tradition and the contemporary Romanesque, and which also presents an ottonian substratum. It is this relationship with the circle from León together with the classicism of certain formal items (parallel to the Acquitainian French wall painting) that is considered to be this artist’s bond between the Italobyzantine and the classicist traditions. An iconographic study of the works which are close to the Maiestas Mariae theme, both in wall painting and on wood, with its background and evolution recorded, justifies the importance of this mural painting as a fortunate synthesis and resolution of a theme whose message is the fulfilment of the messianic prophecy.