Romanesque Spanish Mural Painting (I)

Abstract

UNTIL a comparatively recent date the existence of important, Romanesque schools of mural painting in Spain was hardly recognised. The frescoes in the Panteón de los Reyes at S. Isidoro, Leon, and the mural decoration in S. Cristo de la Luz at Toledo were the only Romanesque examples which were considered worthy of notice by the authors of Museo español de antigüedades. Although occasional - notices had appeared of wall paintings in the province of Catalonia, these attracted little attention until the publication by Pijoan in 1907 of the frescoed apse in the small church of S. Quirse at Pedret. Such interest was aroused by this publication which appeared in the first fascicule of Pintures murals catalanes, issued with color plates by the newly founded Institut d'Estudis Catalans at Barcelona,¹ that a systematic search on the part of archaeologists and excursionistas followed.² Many of the small churches in the region of La Seu de Urgell and the Pyrenean valleys of Andorra, Aneu, Bohí, and Ribera de Cardós were examined, and within a comparatively short time remnants of more than fifteen mural paintings, all in a more or less damaged condition, were discovered.