Page of Christ in Majesty and Apostles by UNKNOWN MASTER, Spanish in the Web Gallery of Art, a searchable image collection and database of European paintings and sculptures (1100-1850)

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Christ in Majesty and Apostles

1200-20
Polychromed wood, 135 x 98 cm
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

The picture shows an altar frontal from Santa Maria de Tahull, from a local workshop.

In Spain the early Romanesque tradition of gold or silver altar frontals was carried through to the 13th century in the frontals of polychromed stucco or wood. The wood frontals are of higher quality than those mass-produced in stucco. The individuality of the Tahull school asserts itself in details of the execution. Each figure is a small statue, in which accurate anatomical observation and a firm sense of relief alternate with a schematized ornament. But in a final analysis the decorative spirit is stronger than the narrative realism.