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The material legacy
In La Noguera
two important factors that marked the entry of a new architectonic style and its
influence on the landscape came together. On one hand, from the beginning of the
11th century the feudal pressure on the frontier with al-Àndalus was reactivated,
and on the other, this coincided with the beginning of the period that corresponds
historically to the formation of Catalonia and its progressive incorporation of the
European world, a period that would close with the definitive conquest of the Andalusian
cities of Tortosa (1148) and Lleida (1149). The conquest brought a new model of military
settlement: the castle, symbol of military power, always accompanied by the church,
symbol of ecclesiastic power. Good examples could be the site of the Barony of Sant
Oïsme and that of Àger.
On the other hand, the Romanesque style, already consolidated, would take shape in
La Noguera with a set of buildings that chronologically range from the mid 11th century
until well into the 18th century. On an artistic level they present first Italian
influences, specifically from Lombardy, with Sant Pere of Ponts as the most complete
and monumental Catalan example with the upper part with three apses and a cupola
over the transept. Later forms from the Roussillon, Languedoc and Toulouse become
noticeable, as well as influences that come from al-Àndalus, and which can
be seen in the architecture of the collegiate church of Sant Pere díÀger and
in its sculptural decoration, surely one of the best preserved sculptural monuments
from the second half of the 11th century in Catalonia.
The arrival of the monastic orders during the whole of the 12th century, protected
by the counts of Urgell, above all for the results they obtained in the organisation
of the rural space, left two great architectonic exponents in the county. Santa Maria
de Bellpuig de les Avellanes and the monastery of Santa Maria de les Franqueses,
both started at the end of the 12th century and which include characteristics of
the art which we frequently call the transition to the Gothic in the works created
throughout the 13th century.
The accession
to the throne of the Crown of Aragon of Jaume II (1291-1327), a king trained and
educated in Sicily, marked the beginning of one of the most brilliant periods in
the history of Catalonia when it was incorporated fully into the European cultural
movement. The 14th and 15th centuries are the golden centuries of Catalan medieval
art; nobles, the church and urban classes acquired an important function as artistic
patrons and promoters of the new formal language that we know of as the Gothic and
which arrived in Catalonia well into the 1200's. The Gothic style triumphed both
in the churches of the monasteries and in the lesser churches (Santa Maria de Balaguer,
Santa Maria de Castelló de Farfanya, and the monastery of Sant Domènec
in Balaguer). Important sculptors and altarpiece painters embellished these temples,
and the taste for funerary sculpture began. As well as the churches, important palaces
were built, either linked to the crown or the noble families with the greatest acquisitive
power. A great deal of civil engineering works were built and/or rebuilt in this
period, like the bridges at Balaguer, Camarasa and Alentorn.
It was Ermengol X, between 1298 and 1313, who created a following in funerary sculpture,
with the construction of the pantheon of the Cabrera family in the church of Santa
Maria de Bellpuig de les Avellanes. The sarcophagi of his parents, Àlvar II
and Cecília de Foix, that of his brother Àlvar, viscount of Àger,
and his own are works without equal in interior Catalonia, and unfortunately were
sold in 1906 and today they are exhibited in The Cloisters Collection in New York.
We can still contemplate some examples of what emerged from the school of Les Avellanes.
The Museum of La Noguera conserves two fragments of the tombs of two of the children
of Alfons d'Urgell and Teresa d'Entença who were buried in a chapel of the
church of Sant Domènec.
During the whole of the 14th century Lleida was a great centre of sculptural activity,
to the point that the great production of altarpieces in polychromatic stone reached
the point of almost completely annulling the work of paint on wood. The imagery dedicated
to the Virgin is also important in this period, frequently as a complement to the
altarpieces. We can see them in Santa Maria d'Albesa, in Sant Miquel de Castelló
de Farfanya, in Alós de Balaguer, while examples of the painted Mother of
God are in Les Avellanes, Cubells, Balaguer and Camarasa. |
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