Portugal Medieval Arts Part II

The decorative elements of São Pedro in Balsemão (Beira Alta) have recently been related to those of Lourosa, moving their chronology back to the 10th century. 10th (Ferreira de Almeida, 1986). In Beja (Mus. Rainha D. Leonor, Mus. Regional), in the Alentejo (v.), Is preserved the most important collection of sculptural pieces of Portuguese Visigothic art (pillars, capitals, friezes, fences), almost all of them in marble from San Brissos, which by style and technique are part of the artistic group of Badajoz-Mérida (de Almeida, 1962; Ferreira de Almeida, 1986). which form the od. Portugal underwent continuous fluctuations up to the century. 13th forwarded. Under the emirate of Córdova the Muslim provinces of Beja were created (including all of Alentejo) and Ossonoba (including the Algarve), while the cities of Lisbon (v.), Santarém (Ribatejo) and Coimbra (Beira Litoral) became part of the Lower March; this situation lasted until 912. In the second half of the century. 9th, Alfonso III of Asturias (866-912) reconquered the western strip of the north of the Portugal up to the Mondego river. Thus began a new political, administrative and military organization, based on the presuria and the repopulation of lands and cities.

In contemporary documents mention is made of three territories: Braga, Porto (Portucale) and Coimbra. In 878 there was the first conquest of Coimbra by Count Hermenegildo. In 914, with the expansion of the Asturian kingdom and therefore of its borders, the court from Oviedo moved to León (Spain). The territory between the Lima river and the Duero was entrusted to a governor who, from the middle of the century. 10th, received the title of dux. This political-administrative unit was based in the nucleus of Portucale. It was then that the name of Portugal changed from designating a center located on the banks of the Duero to indicating the whole region with the name of the province Portugalensis (Peres, 1959⁵; Merêa, 1967). The devastating campaigns (981-1002) led by al-Manṣūr bi᾽llāh (Almanzor) interrupted the Christian advance, once again fixing the frontier on the Duero (de Azevedo, 1973). After the crises suffered by the Christian kingdoms at the beginning of the century. 11th and after the splitting of the Caliphate of Córdova into the kingdoms of Taifas (the kingdom of Badajoz practically included the ancient Lusitania, where the Banū᾽l-Afṭas dynasty maintained strong opposition until the end of the century. 11 ° against the Christian kingdoms of the North), King Ferdinand I of Castile (1035-1065) fixed the frontier again in Mondego, conquering Coimbra in 1064. 8th and 12th in the Christian kingdoms of the North was characterized by the return to classical Antiquity and the adoption of models imported from Al-Andalus. The Muslim influence was felt above all from the reign of Alfonso III, when the migration of the Mozarabs played an important role, in the mid-century. 9th and in the first quarter of the 10th (Mattoso, 1985).

According to Healthinclude, the church of São João in Nazaré (Extremadura), which was classified by Schlunk (1970) as Visigothic due to the presence of an iconostasis and an elevated choir, however, it has some peculiarities that currently delay its dating to the 13th century. 9 ° -10 ° (Real, 1995). One of the most important Mozarab centers of the Portugal was the city of Coimbra, together with Lisbon and some communities of the Algarve (Mattoso, 1985). Of the small complex of buildings and ornamental elements that are preserved in Portugal relative to the art of this period, the basilica of São Pedro in Lourosa (912), the church of São Torcato in Guimarães (Minho), a key building, deserve to be mentioned. for the dating of the São Frutuoso mausoleum in Montélios given the parallels that some sculptural pieces present, and the ancient cathedral of Egitania-Idanha-a-Velha. According to recent studies by Real (1995), this group of buildings reflects a return to classical models within the Asturian court, which emulated what happened in the Carolingian court (Ferreira de Almeida, 1986; Torres, 1992). Some pre-Romanesque architectural remains of the castles of Santa Maria da Feira (Beira Litoral), Lanhoso, Mons Latio near Guimarães, Trancoso (Beira Alta), Soure and Penela (Beira Litoral), built on the initiative of the noble countrymen (Barroca) also belong to this period. Romanesque art was born and developed in Portugal parallel to the appearance of the county of Portugal, with the government of the French count Henry of Burgundy (d. 1114) and his wife Teresa, and his subsequent transformation into an independent kingdom with his son Alfonso I Henriques (1128-1185). The military occupation of the country took place in distinct phases, starting in 1064 with the conquest of Coimbra and ending with the taking of possession of Algarve, between 1230 and 1249. Between 1080 and 1130, the Benedictines occupied a large part of the monasteries of the regula mixta, settling in the N and in the Duero valley, in the mountains of Paiva and Vouga and near Coimbra.

The three Cluniac abbeys of São Pedro in Rates (Douro Litoral), Vimieiro (Alentejo) and Santa Justa in Coimbra are isolated examples in the Portuguese religious context (Bishko, 1965). Augustine, who had as their main foundations the monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra (1131), whose placement of the first stone coincided approximately with the transfer of the court from Guimarães to Coimbra, and that of São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon (1147), occupied ancient monasteries in the North that probably had never adopted the Rule of St. Blessed; their participation in the colonization of frontier lands should also be noted, which led them to possess numerous priories in cities and rural areas (Mattoso, 1982a).

Portugal Medieval Arts 2