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The Origin and Development of Stone Retables in Fourteenth-Century Catalonia

Rosa Terés i Tomás

Catalonia’s Rich Retable Heritage

New liturgical practices issued by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 are traditionally believed to have prompted the victory of the retable or altarpiece over the frontal or antependium. New evi-dence, however, suggests that the picture of the one being ousted by the other is too simple, and that the exact reasons for the spectacular success of the retable in late medieval art cannot be indicated so clearly. First, it should be noted that neither a frontal nor a retable is indispensable for the celebration of mass, and that binding prescriptions for either one of them are lacking.1 Evidence for a sudden change in the position of the priest at the altar, which, as some believe, suddenly created the need for the erection of a retable, is equally unconvincing. The fact that the retable came to be considered an essential accessory to the altar from about 1300 on may, rather, be explained by its role as a decorative and devotional object.

The high altar in Girona Cathedral, among other Iberian examples, may serve to show that in some churches, frontals and retables decorated the same altar until well into the late Middle Ages (see fig. 3 in the essay by Español in this volume).2 While the frontal disappeared in the nineteenth century, the retable still survives. Even at the peak of the retable, during the late Gothic period, the fronts of many altars were draped with painted or embroidered cloths in the manner of antependia.3

The florescence of the altarpiece—both painted and sculpted, of wood and of stone—largely coincided with the era of Gothic architecture.4 Its spread was strongly stimulated by the increasing number of side altars placed in side chapels. These were particularly numerous in Catalonia thanks to the typical regional architectural formula of Gothic churches, which have interior buttresses and room for chapels in the spaces between them. The creation of chapels and retables reflects the increasingly private nature of religious sentiment, which prompted lay founders to provide the necessary financial backing.5

The production of Gothic retables carved in stone (including alabaster) in Catalonia must be described as exceptional in terms of both quantity and quality. Fourteenth-century stone retables

1 Julian Gardner, “Altars, Altarpieces and Art History: Legislation and Usage,” in Italian Altarpieces 1250-1550. Function and Design, ed. by Eve Borsook and Fiorella Superbi Gioffredi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), pp. 5-19, esp. 6-10. Numerous liturgical texts from the thirteenth century, including Guillaume Durand’s Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, do require the altar to be equipped with a cross and two candles.2 Examples from other parts of Europe are discussed by Victor M. Schmidt in his essay in this volume. 3 When Martin I “the Humane,” King of Aragón, died in 1410, his widow, Margarita de Prades, had an inventory taken of all his worldly goods. The long list of possessions includes references to painted or embroidered altar frontals. For example: “Item un frontal de altar de fil d’aur brodat ab letres morisques” (a gold-embroidered frontal with

Moresque letters). In another instance, mention is made of “un frontal brodat d’aur on es la Cena e la Passió de Jhesu Christ e resurreccio” (a gold-embroidered frontal depicting the Last Supper, the Passion of Christ, and the Resurrection). Cf. Josep Massó Torrents, “Inventari dels bens mobles del rey Martí d’Aragó,” Revue Hispanique XII (1905), pp. 513-90, esp. 460 and 462.4 On the development of the medieval altarpiece in the Iberian Peninsula, see Justin E.A. Kroesen, Staging the Liturgy. The Medieval Altarpiece in the Iberian Peninsula, Liturgia Condenda 22 (Leuven: Peeters, 2009).5 For more information on private patronage of chapels and retables by individuals, brotherhoods, and guilds in the Catalan capital, see Cristina Borau, Els promotors de capelles i de retaules a la Barcelona del segle XIV (Barcelona: Fundación Noguera, 2003), esp. pp. 79-146.

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preserved in Catalonia outnumber by far all other parts of Spain and even large parts of Europe. Most surviving retables in other parts of Europe where retable making flourished, including Germany and the Low Countries, are made of wood and generally originated at a later date.6 Most Catalan examples are carved in limestone, but the most delicate ones are made of alabaster.7 After being carved, the retables were polychromed and sometimes gilded, too. The finest examples have blue glass added to the backgrounds in some scenes.

The first historian whose studies focused attention on the unique character of Catalan retables was Agustí Duran i Sanpere, who published his fundamental book on the subject in 1932.8 The study consists of a compilation and analysis of a large number of stone retables and retable fragments divided among churches, museums, and private collections. The fact that the book was published a few years

1. Tarragona Cathedral, high altar frontal in the shape of a sculpted marble slab, ca. 1215 (photo: Luciano Pedicini)

6 Cf. Lynn F. Jacobs, Early Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces, 1380-1550. Medieval Tastes and Mass Marketing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 238-44, and Rainer Kahsnitz and Achim Bunz, Carved Splendor: Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria and South Tirol (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2006).

7 Most of the materials came from the quarries at Beuda, near Girona. 8 Agustí Duran i Sanpere, Els retaules de pedra, 2 vols., Monumenta Cataloniae (Barcelona: Ed. Alpha, 1932).

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prior to the Spanish Civil War further increases its importance, since it presents some important works that, unfortunately, were destroyed shortly afterward.

Even though many studies have followed since the publication of Duran i Sanpere’s standard work, the large number of stone retables in Catalonia still prompts many questions, most of which are difficult to answer: why was the production of these objects so prolific in Catalonia in the fourteenth century, yet basically nonexistent elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula during the same period? Why are they distributed so unevenly in the region, with large concentrations in and around Lleida and Tar-ragona, and so few in the area of Barcelona and Girona? The availability of stone in certain parts of Catalonia may have played a role, but other factors, such as financial costs and the aesthetic preferences of commissioning patrons, cannot be discarded.

Thirteenth-century Forerunners

For the better part of the thirteenth century, Catalan art remained faithful to Romanesque principles. Since the end of the eleventh century, figurative sculpture had been adopted as a comple-ment to the architecture on capitals and in decorations around church portals. Likewise, some altar fronts also began to feature sculpted figures, as is the case in Tarragona Cathedral, for example. There, a rectangular slab of marble—showing images of Saint Paul and Saint Thecla in the middle and various scenes depicting the martyrdom of Saint Thecla arranged in two levels on the sides—was added to the high altar in about 1215 (fig. 1).9 The structure of this frontal is clearly related to that of most early retables, which usually had a rectangular format and combined a central depiction of the patron saint with narrative scenes on the sides.

The frontal in Tarragona Cathedral is as illustrative as a forerunner to the later retables as it is exceptional, since most Catalan frontals were carried out in wood. The visual effect of some of these panels was enhanced, however, by applying stucco reliefs to their wooden surface. An important ex-ample of this type of frontal originated in the monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallés, near Barcelona, in about 1275.10 It is a wooden panel, decorated with polychromy and stucco reliefs showing scenes from the life of the Virgin and the childhood of Christ. Compared to other frontals, the proportions of the panel from Sant Cugat are large (98 x 217 cm) and its iconography, in spite of its Romanesque forms, shows close similarities to Gothic retables such as the Anglesola retable (fig. 5) and the retable of Santa María la Blanca in Sant Joan de les Abadesses (fig. 7; both works are discussed below).

It was in the art of painting that the retable first came to great fruition in Catalonia. Toward the end of the thirteenth century, a number of panels were produced of which there can be no doubt as to their use as altarpieces. However, it is not always easy to determine if a painted wooden panel was originally a frontal or a retable, since both usually have a rectangular format, are of modest pro-portions, and show a similar distibution of figures and/or scenes. Some painted wooden panels, such as the example from Soriguerola11 (fig. 2) and the altarpiece of Saint Christopher from Toses,12 are now considered retables despite the fact that the oldest bibliography describes them as altar frontals.13

By contrast, no stone or alabaster retables executed prior to the fourteenth century survive in Catalonia today. This does not imply that they did not exist at the time, however, and we have written

9 Francesca Español, “El mestre del frontal de Santa Tecla i l’escultura romànica tardana a la Catalunya nova,” Quaderns d’Estudis Medievals 23-24 (1988), pp. 81-103, esp. 82-84.10 It is now preserved in the Museo Civico, Turin.11 Now preserved in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona (MNAC) (inv. no. 3901).

12 Preserved in the MNAC (inv. no. 4370).13 The Soriguerola panel is of exceptional size (95 x 235 cm) and has been dated to between 1270 and 1290; the Saint Christopher piece originated slightly later; cf. L’art gòtic a Catalunya. Pintura I: De l’inici a l’italianisme, ed. by Rosa Alcoy (Barcelona: Fundación Enciclopedia Catalana, 2005), pp. 50-72.

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evidence of a small number of destroyed examples. Thus, the bishop of Vic, Ramon de Anglesola (1265-1298), had a stone retable erected on the high altar of his cathedral in about 1270.14 Another stone retable seems to have been created before the end of the thirteenth century for the high altar in Tar-ragona Cathedral. The predecessor of the monumental fifteenth-century retable by Pere Joan, which still stands today, it must have been a companion piece to the altar frontal dedicated to Saint Thecla mentioned earlier (fig. 1).15

With regard to thirteenth-century stone retables, France offers quite a different picture.16 Ex-amples are preserved in different parts of the country; the abbey church of Saint-Denis preserves seven retables, all in the horizontal, rectangular format, of modest height, and carved from a single block. Most of them must have belonged to altars in side chapels, according to their current presentation. The Saint-Denis retables are similar to later Catalan examples in their use of material (limestone) and polychromy, whereas they differ from them in their format and iconography. Four retables depict hagiographic cycles, as is the case, for example, in the Saint Eustache retable (see fig. 8 in the essay by Fabienne Joubert in this volume), while the programs of three others are limited to the Crucifix-ion.17

Another contemporary stone retable, which originally was in the abbey church of Saint-Germer-de-Fly (Oise) and now in the Musée National du Moyen Âge (Musée des Thermes), Paris, fits the same pattern. Originally located on the altar in the Lady Chapel, it was probably executed between 1259 and 1267. Although partially defaced, the iconographic program can still be recognized, with a Crucifixion in the center flanked by Saint John and the Virgin Mary, Ecclesia and Synagogue, Saints Peter and Paul, and the Annunciation and Visitation.18 Although the use of limestone and its low rectangular format are similar to the Saint-Denis altarpieces, it is the iconography of this piece that

14 Cf. Agustí Duran i Sanpere, Els retaules de pedra, vol. 1, pp. 23-24.15 María Rosa Manote, “El retaule major de la catedral de Tarragona,” Cau. Revista de Cultura 1 (1999), pp. 61-68.16 For a survey of this subject, see the exhibition catalogue Les premiers retables (XIIe-début du XVe siècle). Une mise en scène du sacré (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2009), ed. by Pierre-Yves Le Pogam and Christine Vivet-Peclet.

17 For more details on these altarpieces and their timing in relation to the enlargement and liturgical reform of the abbey of Saint-Denis in the thirteenth century, see Fabienne Joubert, “Les retables du milieu du XIIIe siècle à l’abbatiale de Saint-Denis,” Bulletin monumental 131 (1973), pp. 17-27, and the contribution by the same author in this volume.18 Willibald Sauerländer, La sculpture gothique en France, 1140-1270 (Paris: Flammarion, 1972), p. 176 and fig. 281.

2. Retable from Soriguerola, ca. 1270-90. Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona (photo: Archivo Mas, Barcelona)

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differs both from them and from later Catalan retables.

The church of Notre-Dame at Rouvres (Calvados) possesses a stone retable that is re-markably large and morphologically evolved in spite of its early dating in the thirteenth century. Its high relief was carved from a single block and portrays Marian scenes distributed in three su-perimposed registers flanking a central image of the Virgin under a trefoil arch. The composition of its programme in three registers and its loca-tion in Normandy lend this piece particular sig-nificance in terms of our understanding of the formal development of Catalan retables in the subsequent century. This is especially true if we take into account the fact that a number of sculp-tors active in Catalonia in the fourteenth century were originally from northern France.19

Inspiration for most thirteenth-century retables in France seems to have been taken from the art of precious metals and, to an even greater extent, from objects carved in ivory, such as de-votional diptychs, triptychs, and polyptychs (fig. 3).20 These folding panels share with fixed stone retables a number of similarities in mor-phology, style, and iconography. More specifi-cally, the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century French ivory works, mainly produced in work-shops in Paris or even farther north, are usually divided into two or more superimposed registers showing scenes under pointed arches that were initially quite simple. Traditional subject matter were the life of the Virgin Mary, the childhood of Christ, and scenes from the Passion. They were also functionally similar to retables but, unlike al-tarpieces, the ivory panels were clearly portable and, thus, were primarily intended for personal devo-tion. Their exquisite quality made these objects highly valued among the privileged classes of society, and their circulation was further enhanced by their portable nature. Ivory panels helped a number of narrative schemes and compositional models gain wide currency in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, thus exercising great influence on other arts, such as altarpieces in stone.

From 1300 on, French sculptors strongly concentrated on the production of retables, thereby developing the altarpiece into a rich iconographic support that, in the course of time, could be designed

19 Claire Étienne-Steiner, “Le retable de Rouvres (Calvados),” Le Grand Retable de Narbonne. Le décor sculpté de la chapelle de Bethléem à la cathédrale de Narbonne et le retable en pierre du XIVe siècle en France et en Catalogne, Actes du 1er colloque d’Histoire de l’Art méridional au Moyen-Age, Narbonne, December 2–3, 1988 (Narbonne: Ville de Narbonne, 1990), pp. 131-37.

20 For these Gothic ivory pieces, the essential reference work remains R. Koechlin, Les ivoires gothiques français, 3 vols. (Paris: Picard, 1924; repr. 1968). The more recent exhibition catalogue Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997) contains important articles by Peter Barnet and Richard H. Randall.

3. Ivory triptych from a Paris workshop, 13th century, from the church of Saint-Sulpice (Tarn). Musée de Cluny (Musée des Thermes), Paris (photo: Justin Kroesen)

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according to a wide range of narrative schemes. The scenes, distributed in one or more registers, were increasingly separated by architecturally designed frames and arches. It was at this point in the rapid development of French altarpieces that Catalonia saw a true explosion in retable making. The proxim-ity of France clearly made itself felt in early Catalan altarpieces, where French influences ruled supreme. This was further favored by the fact that political relations between the French and the Catalan-Ara-gonese monarchies greatly improved after the marriage of King James II, King of Aragón, to Blanche d’Anjou, the daughter of Charles II, King of Naples, in 1296. The move of the papal court to Avignon at the beginning of the fourteenth century and the ensuing proximity of this political and artistic center provided additional circumstances favorable to artistic exchange between either side of the Pyrenees.

The Impact of France and Italy on Retable Design in Fourteenth-century Catalonia

The surge in the production of retables in thirteenth-century France and the absence of such pieces in Catalonia until the fourteenth century induces us to search for precursors in French territory. We need to bear in mind, however, the close political and economic ties that the Catalans established with Italy from the early fourteenth century on, which also had far-reaching effects in the arts. In fact, Italian influences became so strong in Catalonia that any account of Catalan art in the fourteenth century, particularly sculpture, must necessarily turn to both French and Italian sources of inspira-tion.

In other parts of Europe, stone retables remained relatively uncommon. Elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula, for example, almost no examples from the fourteenth century are known. Most surviving retables from the period are made of wood, to which the alabaster altarpieces imported from England were added only after about 1400.21 English alabaster sculpture in the Iberian Peninsula re-mained a matter of importation, however, and exerted little influence on Spanish retables; in terms of their style, iconography, and format, they seem to bear no relation whatsoever to Catalan altarpieces. In England itself, some examples of stone retables can be mentioned, such as the fragmented altarpiece from the church of Sutton Valence (Kent), now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, although they must be viewed as exceptional.22 The vast output of English alabaster retables did not take place before the end of the fourteenth century, peaking only in the course of the fifteenth.

In Italy, painted polyptychs were produced in great numbers in the fourteenth century, while carved stone and marble altarpieces were significantly less widespread. Although some examples of such retables survive, and accepting the fact that they are likely to have once been more numerous, Italian production of carved retables was undoubtedly lower than in France or Catalonia. Among the oldest known examples is the once-splendid marble polyptych by Giovanni di Balduccio, executed between 1332 and 1334, at the behest of the cardinal-legate Bertrand du Pouget, a nephew of Pope John XXII, for the chapel of the castle at Porta Galliera in Bologna, which was to become the papal see. The project came to an abrupt end when the Bolognese expelled the cardinal-legate in March 1334 and

21 Clementina Julia Ara Gil, “El retablo gótico en Castilla,” in Retablos esculpidos en Aragon: del gótico al barroco, ed. by María Carmen Lacarra Ducay (Zaragoza: Institución “Fernando el Católico,” 2002), pp. 10-14 and 19. On the production of English alabaster altarpieces, which were produced more or less in series, see Francis W. Cheetham, English Medieval Alabasters. With a Catalogue of the

Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Oxford: Phaidon; London: Christie’s, 1984).22 Age of Chivalry. Art in Plantagenet England, 1200-1400, ed. by Jonathan Alexander and Paul Binski (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1987), p. 511. Originally it had five panels, of which only three now remain, and they are highly fragmentary.

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razed the castle to the ground. The marble polyptych was then given to the Dominicans of Bologna.23 Although it only survives in fragments, it is very likely that the work shared many points in common with a number of Catalan pieces produced in the first half of the fourteenth century, including the presence of a predella and triangular gables, and the application of polychromy, gilding, and glass.

Interestingly, three other major Italian marble altarpieces also came from mendicant churches. The high altarpiece of San Francesco in Pisa, a work by Tomasso Pisano datable to the 1360s, is close to Giovanni di Balduccio’s polyptych in style and format.24 Of a more northern European style is the marble altarpiece on the high altar in the church of San Francesco in Bologna, executed between 1388 and 1392 by Pierpaolo and Iacobello dalle Massegne.25 Notably, all of its images are canopied, and it features a row of crowning pinnacles, a design different from the approach followed in earlier examples. Instead, it connects more closely to designs from central and northern Europe, such as the ivory pieces of the Embriachi workshop. In relation to Catalan altarpieces, the San Francesco retable is particularly interesting because the Catalans would similarly adopt preferences for architectural designs in the latter half of the fourteenth century, using canopies, pinnacles, and moldings.26 Of a completely dif-ferent typology is the high altarpiece in the Dominican church of Sant’Eustorgio in Milan. Realized in at least three campaigns by an anonymous Lombard artist, Jacopino da Tradate, and others between about 1385 and about 1410, it has a rectangular format, with the Crucifixion at the center and four Pas-sion scenes on either side.27

The comparison of Catalan stone retables to French ones from the fourteenth century is seri-ously hampered by the fact that so few examples survive of what must have been a vast heritage.28 Occasional outbursts of iconoclasm during the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution as well as aesthetic developments have resulted in tremendous losses in church furnishings across the country. Among all fourteenth-century stone retables, moreover, by far most of the extant works date from the last decades before 1400. In spite of these difficulties, analysis of most sculpted retables, preserved either wholly or in fragments, confirms a close relationship to Catalan works, be it not always in a stylistic and iconographic sense.

In this context, the sizable retable of Narbonne from about 1360 (fig. 4) deserves special discus-sion. Hidden beneath neoclassical decorations in the Bethlehem chapel of Narbonne Cathedral, it was finally rediscovered in 1981. Following the completion of its restoration in 2000, the retable once again occupies its original location and, despite having suffered losses and damages, continues to cause quite a stir. Ironically, the fact that it was hidden for centuries has helped to preserve a significant part of its

23 Thanks to the surviving fragments and the description given in the 1568 edition of Vasari’s Lives of the Artists, we know that the polyptych was made of Carrara marble and boasted polychromy, gilding, and glass, and that the center was occupied by an image of the Virgin and Child that is now in the Detroit Institute of Arts. On either side of the central image were six full-length statues of saints, of which those of Saint Peter Martyr, Saint Dominic, and Saint Petronius survive. There were also triangular gables with images of the prophets, and a predella of which a fragment showing the Nativity survives in a private Italian collection. See Massimo Medica, “Giotto e Giovanni di Balduccio: due artisti toscani per la sede papale di Bologna,” in Giotto e le arti a Bologna all’epoca di Bertrando del Poggetto, ed. by Massimo Medica (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana, 2005), pp. 37-53, esp. 47-50 and 141-57, cat. nos. 14-17.24 See Andrea, Nino e Tomasso Pisano scultori pisani, ed. by Marigiulia Burresi (Milan: Electa, 1983), p. 191, no. 47.

Anita Fiderer Moskowitz, The Sculpture of Andrea and Nino Pisano (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 163-64 and figs. 328-37. 25 See Wolfgang Wolters, La scultura veneziana gotica (1300-1460), 2 vols. (Venice: Alfieri, 1976), I, pp. 216-19, cat. no. 138; II, figs. 400-18, 422-25, 454. See also John Pope-Hennessy, Italian Gothic Sculpture, 4th edn. (London: Phaidon, 1996), pp. 141-42.26 Cf. the retable dedicated to Saint Laurence in the church of Santa Coloma de Queralt, produced by Jordi de Déu in 1386, described below.27 Laura Cavazzini, Il crepusculo della scultura medievale in Lombardia (Florence: Leo S. Olshki, 2004), pp. 88-90 and figs. 119-21, 123. 28 The exhibition catalogue Les Fastes du Gothique. Le siè-cle de Charles V (Paris: Édition de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1981), esp. pp. 75-76, 84-87, and 114, provides

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original polychromy. Its geographic location just north of Catalonia makes it particularly relevant to the Catalan retable tradition, although stylis-tic or iconographic ties to specific Catalan reta-bles cannot be established. However, the altarpiece does confirm the existence of a sig-nificant tradition in stone retable making that extended across both sides of the Pyrenees.29

For other apparently important retables we have only written information on which to rely, since no trace of the works themselves re-mains. This is true, for example, of the stone re-table that once adorned the high altar of the magnificent funeral chapel of Jean de Tissandier (d. 1348), bishop of Rieux-Volvestre. The chapel was built onto the apse of the church of the Cord-eliers in Toulouse between 1324 and 1343. As-suming that the altarpiece would have been executed immediately after, it must have been one of the oldest examples of a monumental

stone retable in Languedoc.30 In addition to the retable, numerous other statues completed the chapel’s decoration. Attributed to the same so-called Rieux workshop, most of them are now in the Musée des Augustins at Toulouse. In a context of close cultural and artistic contacts between Catalonia and Languedoc in the fourteenth century, these works clearly influenced contemporary Catalan retable sculpture in Catalonia.31 It is known that many sculptors from Languedoc were active in Catalonia, among them Jacques de Faveran, a native of Narbonne who worked in Perpignan and Girona, and Alouns de Carcassonne, who worked in Puigcerdà in Cerdagne.

Finally, in northern France, too, there were some areas, such as Hainaut, with a strong, long-standing tradition of stone sculpture. Any census of sculptors’ names in fourteenth-century Catalonia would necessarily include several names indicating origins from these northern latitudes.32 Thus, for example, the Hainaut sculptors Joan de Tournai, Guillem de Tournai, and Nicolas de Tournai were all active in Catalonia at some point during the first half of the fourteenth century, as were Pere de Guines, who came from the region of Artois, and Aloi de Montbray, who came from Normandy. Additional names from the end of the fourteenth century would lead us beyond the scope of this article.

The First Stone Retables in Catalonia

In 1326, mention is made of Alouns de Carcassonne working on the high altar retable in the church of Santa María in Puigcerdà (Girona), which coincides with the definitive arrival of the new

indications that the production of stone altarpieces must have been equally widespread in France and Catalonia.29 The aforementioned volume Le grand retable de Nar-bonne contains articles by various specialists dedicated to this altarpiece, in particular its rediscovery, technical aspects, iconography, and restoration.30 Michele Pradalier-Schlumberger, Toulouse et le Languedoc. La sculpture gothique aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles (Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 1998), p. 212 and ff.

31 On the influence of the Rieux workshop on a number of Catalan works from the fourteenth century, see Francesca Español, “El ressó de Rieux a les catedrals catalanes,” Lambard. Estudis d’art medieval 9 (1997), pp. 257-77.32 Michele Beaulieu and Victor Beyer, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs français du Moyen Âge (Paris: Picard, 1992), pp. 20, 34, 44-45, 259, and 278. See also Marcel Durliat, “Sculpteurs français en Catalogne dans la première moitié du XIVe siècle,” Pallas 8 (1959), pp. 92-103.

4. Narbonne Cathedral, retable in the Bethlehem chapel (photo: Rosa Terés) op CD

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Gothic style in Catalonia. Although the work was lost in a fire in 1785, the carved stone retable is mentioned in a sixteenth-century chronicle written by a notary who mentions the sculptor’s name, along with the contract and a time sched-ule for the work. An account from 1603 describes the impressive scale of the work, its dedication to the Virgin, whose image presides over the al-tarpiece, and the existence of a predella dedi-cated to Saint Peter. Since the piece must have been quite elaborate and was created at an early date by a sculptor of French nationality, the Puigcerdà altarpiece raises particular interest.33

Another early stone retable that, sadly enough, has also been destroyed was the piece on the high altar in the parish church of Santa Coloma de Queralt, near Tarragona. In 1337, the sculp-tor Guillem Ginebrer reached agreement with several craftsmen to carry out the retable according to a drawing he had sent them. The terms and conditions of this contract suggest that the retable was large and highly elaborate. It was dedicated to the patron saint of the church and featured no fewer than eighteen richly polychromed scenes. These data, together with the remarkably early date, seem to confirm that this type of altarpiece quickly gained ground in Catalonia.34

The oldest stone altarpiece from Catalonia that survives to date originated in about 1330 and is now preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Historiography of the piece situates its origin in the village of Anglesola, near Lleida, in western Catalonia. It cannot be described as a transitional work, nor does it reflect the first tentative steps in a new form, but, on the contrary, this highly elabo-rate altarpiece exhibits a maturity that appears to encompass the full weight of tradition (fig. 5). The lack of earlier works in Catalonia itself and the existence of a deeply rooted tradition on French soil must lead to the conclusion that it was the work of a French artist or, at least, of an artist who was intimately familiar with developments in French sculpture at the time.35

Carved from a single block of stone, the Anglesola retable is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Her full-length image in the center compartment is executed in high relief, flanked by scenes from her life and the childhood of Christ in two superimposed registers beneath trefoil arches. The narrative has been restricted to its essential core elements, which fit comfortably in the space available. Striking is the fine tracery between the columns separating the fields and the small imaginary creatures carved in their capitals. The delicacy of the work is reminiscent of manuscript illumination and seems to be grafted in the earlier described ivory panels, with which it bears strong iconographic resemblances. Notable, in this context, is the fact that the central figure of the Virgin is crowned by two angels, one of whom is swinging a censer, details that were very common in French ivory carvings.36

33 Marcel Durliat, L’art en el regne de Mallorca, 2nd edn. (Palma de Mallorca: Moll, 1964), pp. 238-39.34 For the entire text of the contract, see Joan Segura Valls, Aplech de documents curiosos e inedits fahents per la historia de las costums de Catalunya (Barcelona: La Renaixensa, 1885), pp. 190-91. The original document has since disappeared.

35 The anonymous Master of the Anglesola retable has received an ever-growing number of attributed works, beginning with initial suggestions made in Duran i Sanpere, Els retaules de pedra, vol. 1, pp. 24-26.36 Koechlin, Les ivoires gothiques français, vol. 1, pp. 220-22.

5. Retable from Anglesola. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (photo: Joaquim Garriga)

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The Workshop at Sant Joan de les Abadesses and Its Output

As noted above, important ties were established between Catalonia and Italy in the fourteenth century, and these contacts had a strong impact in the field of artistic production. A number of Italian artists were active in Catalonia (albeit fewer than the French), among them Lupo di Francesco, who created the sepulchre-cum-shrine of Saint Eulalia in the crypt of Barcelona Cathedral.37 Beyond these direct contacts, Italian influences were also felt in local artistic production. Italian leanings reigned supreme primarily in the art of painting, as shown by the work of many Catalan masters including Ferrer and Arnau Bassa.38

Italian influence also manifested itself in Catalan sculpture, although less strongly than in painting. The fact that Italy itself never appears to have produced anything comparable to the Catalan stone retables seems to rule out very close links between the two lands. In retable making, the painted polyptych was much more common than the sculpted one. In Italian sculpture, moreover, extensive narrative programs were applied to pulpits, ciboria, and tombs rather than to altarpieces. Those stone and marble retables that do exist, however, share some important points in common with a number of Catalan works.

The impact of Italian sculpture is clearly manifest in a group of alabaster retables produced in a confined geographic area concentrated around Sant Joan de les Abadesses. In and around the local

37 This sculptor worked with Giovanni Pisano and later with Tino di Camaino. He was commissioned to create the shrine of Saint Eulalia in 1327 during a stay in Barcelona. See Josep Bracons, “Lupo di Francesco, mestre pisà, autor del sepulcre de Santa Eulàlia,” D’Art 19 (1993), pp. 43-52.

38 On Italian influence on Catalan painting, see, most recently, Rosa Alcoy, “Introducció i vitalitat del primer italianisme,” in L’art gòtic a Catalunya. Pintura, vol. 1, pp. 134-205.

6. Bernat Saulet, Passion retable from Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Sant Pol church, ca. 1341. Museu Episcopal, Vic (photo: Justin Kroesen and Regnerus Steensma)

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Augustinian monastery, during the fifth decade of the fourteenth century, a highly consistent re-table production arose that was ended suddenly by the outbreak of the Black Death in 1348, van-ishing as quickly as it had emerged. The driving force behind the Sant Joan retables was Abbot Ramon de Bianya and the leading artist Bernat Saulet, who undoubtedly headed the workshop. Ramon de Bianya, reformer of the Augustinian monasteries, maintained close contacts to Pope Benedict XII and he even spent six years at the papal court in Avignon. Likewise, Saulet may have paid a visit to southern France, which would explain his clear acquaintance with the Italian art works that were produced there. Several aspects of Saulet’s style are similar to those of works by Sienese sculptors, such as Giovanni d’Agostino or the Pisan sculptor Giovanni di Balduccio.39

In 1341, Saulet signed the contract for a new high altar retable in the parish church of Sant Pol in Sant Joan de les Abadesses (fig. 6). Currently preserved in the Museu Episcopal, Vic, it seems to be the first of the group of altarpieces from Sant Joan and can be seen as the most significant. Its icono-graphic program features twenty Passion scenes, from the Entry into Jerusalem to the Ascension. Except for the fact that it lacks a central image, the Sant Pol retable shares some important features with other retables in the Sant Joan group, such as the use of alabaster, double trefoil arches surround-ing the scenes in relief, and the rectangular format, with no projections except for a row of triangular gables.40 The pediments of these gables show strong similarities with some Italian models, such as the previously described marble retable from the chapel of Galliera Castle. Furthermore, this marble polyptych contains traces of polychromy, gilding, and glass, characteristics that are also present in the Sant Pol retable. The subject matter as well as the style of the scenes also allude to contemporary ivory carvings.41

The second important piece from Saulet’s workshop, the retable of Santa María la Blanca (the White Virgin), still stands in its original location in the abbey church at Sant Joan de les Abadesses (fig. 7).42 It was executed, in all likelihood, about 1343. Showing the coat of arms of Canon Ramon de Palol, it probably alludes to its commissioner although, in general terms, it seems to be part of the

39 For more details regarding the key role played by Saulet in the workshop of Sant Joan de les Abadesses as well as information on the relevance of the contacts with Avignon in the workshop’s output, see Josep Bracons, “Bernat Saulet i el taller de Sant Joan de les Abadesses,” in L’art gòtic a Catalunya. Escultura I: La configuració de l’estil, ed. by Maria Rosa Manote and Maria Rosa Terés (Barcelona: Fun-dación Enciclopedia Catalana, 2007), pp. 139-54.40 The museum of Vic has recently chosen to display the scenes that consitute the altarpiece vertically, with five superimposed registers of four scenes each (292 x 192 cm). The previous, horizontal display had three superimposed registers. See Josep Bracons, “Le retable de Sant Pol au Musée Episcopal de Vich et les prémieres retables gothiques de pierre en Catalogne,” in Le grand retable de Narbonne, pp. 91-97.

41 The altarpiece is very similar, for example, to some Parisian pieces from the end of the thirteenth century, such as the so-called Soissons Diptych, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, which features eighteen Passion scenes; see The Medieval Treasury. The Art of the Middle Ages in the Victoria and Albert Museum, ed. by Paul Williamson (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986; repr. 1995), pp. 188-89. Another related example, now in the Saint Louis Art Museum, contains the same number of scenes; see Richard H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory. Gothic Carvings in North American Collections (New York: Hudson Hill Press, 1993), p. 62.42 It was removed, however, from its original position in the central apse.

7. Sant Joan de les Abadesses, abbey church, Santa María la Blanca retable (photo: Montserrat Aymerich)

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mentioned reform program instituted by Abbot Ramon de Bianya. Dedicated to the life of the Virgin and the childhood of Christ, it also con-tains figures of sibyls and prophets heralding the gospel. Its structure comprises three superim-posed registers flanking the central image of the Virgin, who is crowned by a soaring pinnacle.43 It evokes associations with contemporary taber-nacles in wood, ivory, or metalwork with the shutters completely opened. At the same time, it also approaches the typology adopted in some painted polyptychs by Joan Loert on Mallorca (Museo de Mallorca and Museo de la Catedral, Palma de Mallorca). As the retable of Sant Pol, the Santa María la Blanca altarpiece corresponds to a simple rectangular format with projecting gables and rectangular compartments and showed important traces of polychromy, which were, unfortunately, destroyed.

The third and last altarpiece in the Sant Joan group is a retable dedicated to Saint Augus-tine, which also survives in the local abbey

church (fig. 8). Written sources reveal the existence of a number of other, now-lost retables in the same church, including retables dedicated to Saint Catherine and Saint Laurence. Furthermore, there are strong indications that the small retable dedicated to the Virgin in the parish church of Beget (Girona) also formed part of the same group. As small as 76 x 114 centimeters, it closely resembles the White Virgin altarpiece.44 Its twelve scenes are organized into two superimposed registers that originally must have flanked an image of the Virgin, which is now preserved separately in the same church.

Royal Sculptors and the Consolidation of the Model

In the course of the fourteenth century, the sculpted retable evolved from the early, rectangu-lar, and sparsely ornamented models to much more elaborate forms toward the end of the century characterized by projecting angles, gables, and pinnacles. Of great importance in terms of the appear-ance of retables was the increasingly narrative character of their programmes, which manifested itself in the rising number of scenes and a growing interest in anecdotal detail.

One of the most prominent sculptors, and a favorite of King Peter IV “the Ceremonious,” was Jaume Cascalls. He specialized in funerary sculpture and became one of the leading artists working at the royal pantheon in Poblet monastery. Outside Poblet, Cascalls was responsible for numerous other works, among them one of the most celebrated alabaster retables, preserved in situ in the church of Sainte-Marie in Corneilla-de-Conflent collegiate church in French Catalonia (fig. 9).45 Originally on the high altar of this collegiate church, it was later transferred to the north wall of the nave.

8. Sant Joan de les Abadesses, abbey church, Sant Agustí retable (photo: Rosa Terés)

43 Some of the scenes were added during restoration in 1952 according to its original program.44 For example, both retables include references to the Resurrection (“Noli me tangere”), the Ascension, and Pentecost.

45 At the time the retable was created, this region resided under the kingdom of Catalonia-Aragón and would not become part of France until the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees.

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The Corneilla retable is made of alabaster from the quarries at Beuda, near Garrotxa (Girona), one of the most utilized in Catalonia during the Gothic period. Although somewhat larger than previ-ous examples, the retable is devoid of crenellations and pinnacles and retains a fairly simple rectangu-lar appearance. The overall state of the retable is good, although of the original thirteen alabaster panels two were transferred to private collections at the end of the nineteenth century.46 Its base is inscribed with the name of the sculptor, mentioning the Catalan town of Berga as his hometown and including the date of execution, which has been transcribed by some as 1345 and by others, more re-cently, as 1341. Noteworthy in the Corneilla altarpiece is its decorative richness, especially above the arches that frame the scenes. Rampant imaginary animals are portrayed there, which were clearly inspired by manuscript marginalia as well as by contemporary ivory carvings and choir stalls.47

The iconographic program concentrates on the Virgin and the Passion, as was common in the period. However, the coexistence of two independent cycles in one retable was rather innovative. The retable comprises three registers, of which the lowest is the predella, or “bancal.” This feature, nonex-istent in previous examples, would be regarded as an indispensable element in retables from that mo-ment on. It features a series of half-length figures of saints carved in relief and framed in quatrefoil

46 It is likely that the Flagellation scene was recently acquired by the Frederic Marès Museum (Museu Marès), Barcelona. It was attributed to Cascalls by Francesca Español in “Jaume Cascalls revisado: nuevas consideraciones y obras,” Locus Amoenus 2 (1996), pp. 65-84, esp. 71-72.

47 Regarding the plentiful appearance of such masks in diverse areas of medieval figurative art, see Claude Gaignebet and Dominique Lajoux, Art profane et religion populaire au Moyen Âge (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1985), pp. 72-75.

9. Corneilla-de-Conflent, Sainte-Marie, retable, 1341 or 1345. Jaume Cascalls (photo: Justin Kroesen and Reg-nerus Steensma)

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medallions. The spaces in between are filled with delicate leaf masks. The second register is dedi-cated to the life of the Virgin and the childhood of Christ. All of the scenes are of outstanding artistic merit, but the depiction of the Pentecost is without doubt the most celebrated. In order to avoid the duplication of figures, the Epiphany scene also includes the central statue of the Vir-gin, thus continuing a solution already applied in Romanesque altar frontals and in the de-scribed Anglesola retable, for example. This titu-lar image was very delicately executed, showing no trace of the stiffness still visible in earlier pieces, such as the retable of the White Virgin in Sant Joan de les Abadesses. Finally, the upper register features a series of Passion scenes.

Realism and narrative skills reached their provisional peak in the retables of Jaume Cascalls, and it proves difficult to make any as-sertions regarding the potential stylistic or icon-ographic precursors, whether French or Italian. Cascalls’s work reflects his debts to a range of outstanding artists; at the same time, he man-aged to develop his own style, which is also rec-ognizable, for example, in some retable fragments from Poblet.48

Sculpted stone retables were also pro-duced by other artists in the service of Peter IV, such as the previously mentioned Frenchman Aloi de Montbray and the Greek Jordi de Déu. Their works, most of which were carried out in the third quarter of fourteenth century, deter-

mined the future evolution of the Catalan sculpted retable, transforming the initial models into more elaborate structures. In 1368, the French master, Aloi, was commissioned to create the retable in the Tailors’ chapel in Tarragona Cathedral, north of the presbytery (fig. 10).49 It is executed in limestone and, in keeping with the majority of retables from the same period, is dedicated to the life of the Vir-gin and to the Passion. Although the quality of the scenes is quite uneven, the program includes some

48 Cf. Ángela Franco Mata, “Un resto de retablo en el Museo Sorolla, atribuible a Jaume Cascalls,” Goya. Revista de arte 143 (1978), pp. 266-71. See also Emma Liaño Martínez, “Jaume Cascalls, escultor en Tarragona y Poblet,” Reales Sitios 71 (1982), pp. 65-72. Another alabaster altarpiece, of small proportions (48 x 158 cm), carved from a single block and showing significant traces of polychromy, also appears to be somehow related to the art of Jaume Cascalls. Originally belonging to Santa Pau Castle (Girona), it now forms part of a private Barcelona collection. The perfectly legible inscription records that it was executed in 1340 by a master called Ramon, identified in recent

historiography as Ramon Cascalls, who might have been related to the master of the Corneilla retable. Duran i Sanpere (Els retaules de pedra, vol. 1, pp. 27-30) mentions potential connections between the Santa Pau altarpiece and others of somewhat greater size—but of similar format and age—kept in Paris in the Musée National du Moyen Âge (Musée des Thermes) (inv. cl. 11494), which would seem to strengthen the presumed ties between French and Catalan production.49 Several studies focus on Aloi de Montbray and his sculptural output, most recently Pere Beseran, “Aloi de Montbrai,” in L’art gòtic a Catalunya. Escultura I.

10. Tarragona Cathedral, retable in the Tailors’ chapel, 1368. Aloi de Montbrai (photo: Justin Kroesen and Regnerus Steensma)

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unusual depictions, such as the Annunciation of the Death of the Virgin. Still in its original loca-tion, this retable shows how, over the course of time, altarpieces were adapted increasingly to the architectural space for which they were in-tended. The high, rectangular form of the retable, only interrupted by a soaring pinnacle at center, fits perfectly against the central wall of the po-lygonal chapel. Overall, the ensemble is charac-terized by uneven quality, but it is of great iconographic interest because of the uncommon scenes.

Another stone retable with polychrome decorations is found in the church of Santa María de Montblanc, in the vicinity of Tarragona. Ded-icated to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and to Saint Bartholomew, the piece has recently undergone restoration (fig. 11). As with Aloi de Montbray’s retable in Tarragona, this retable, although much smaller in size, decorates a side chapel, and both pieces share some typological resemblance. In a number of decorative details, such as the form of the predella and the rampant animals in the spandrels, the Montblanc retable also recalls Cascalls’s Cor-neilla altarpiece, despite the considerably poorer quality of its execution.50

A few years later, Jordi de Déu, who had begun his career as a slave to Jaume Cascalls, appeared on the scene. After the death of his master, in 1379, he took over as director of the workshop at the royal pantheon in Poblet. During his long career as a stone sculptor he went farther afield: to Lleida, Cervera, and Tarragona, among other places. He received numerous commissions, including sepul-chres and, more frequently, retables, mostly as decorations in funerary chapels. In the church of Santa María at Cervera he was commissioned to create a sepulchre for the donor of the chapel of Saint Mar-tin, together with a retable of which only some remains survive. Around Tarragona, Jordi de Déu was responsible for various stone and alabaster altarpieces, including examples in Vallfogona de Riucorb and Forés. The work that best defines his style and confirms his status as one of the greatest sculptors of medieval Catalonia is the alabaster retable dedicated to Saint Laurence in the church of Santa Co-loma de Queralt, created about 1386 (fig. 12).

Compared to the retables from the workshop of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, created some forty years earlier, the Santa Coloma altarpiece shows an increased complexity in all respects, which reflects not only its later genesis but also the keenness of its sculptor to innovate. The altarpiece has two side sections, each containing two scenes dedicated to the life and martyrdom of Saint Laurence, crowned by gables showing the Annunciation. New is the inclusion of small-size figures of saints on brackets that are attached to the frame supporting the retable scenes. The central part of the predella projects and shows the Imago Pietatis between the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evan-gelist. This iconographic feature, with clear eucharistic connotations, does not seem to have been introduced before in any other carved altarpiece. Jordi de Déu must have included the scene fre-quently, since it also appears in the Cervera altarpiece and in the one in Vallfogona de Riucorb. Finally, his inclination toward greater decorative richness is evident in the soaring canopy-cum-

50 For more information about this altarpiece and its pos-sible attribution to the sculptor Guillem Timor, active in Montblanc in the mid-fourteenth century, see Emma Liaño

Martínez, “Guillem Timor i l’escultura trescentista a Mon-tblanc,” in L’art gòtic a Catalunya. Escultura I, pp. 132-38.

11. Santa María de Montblanc, retable, 1360-70. Guillem Timor (photo: Ramon Fuguet)

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pinnacle above the image of the titular saint amid a row of smaller pinnacles crowning the side sections.51

The Lleida Retables

At the beginning of this article, the exis-tence of a certain geographic imbalance in the distribution of stone and alabaster retables in Catalonia was mentioned. This form of retable barely took root, for example, in the city of Bar-celona and its surroundings, which may be the result of a strong preference for painted altar-pieces there. In the Catalan capital, painters of great reputation abounded, including Ferran and Arnau Bassa, the Serra brothers, and Lluis Bor-rassà. They had their workshops there and re-ceived commissions from a select clientele of wealthy nobility and bourgeoisie. Another factor may have been the scarcity of limestone and ala-baster, although the local quarries of Montjuic provided stone of good quality that was success-fully used for sculptural works.

Of all parts of Catalonia, the region around Lleida saw by far the most spectacular production of stone retables during the second half of the fourteenth century as well as in the first decades of the fifteenth century. From 1360 on, Bartomeu Robio, a practically unknown sculptor before that time, directed the creation of a new retable for the high altar in Lleida Ca-thedral (called the “Seu Vella”). Unfortunately,

this altarpiece was dismantled in the eighteenth century, so that nowadays only a small number of fragments can be found dispersed in the Museu Diocesà in Lleida, and in a number of private collec-tions. Historical accounts prove that the retable was dedicated to the Virgin and comprised a total of twelve scenes.52 Robio completed the first phase about 1362, but it was not until the middle of the fif-teenth century that the predella, featuring a series of Passion scenes, was completed. Among the extant reliefs from this retable, all of which are carved in alabaster, the Pentecost scene stands out. The ex-ceptional quality of its execution testifies to the skills of Robio, and connections to the work of Nino and Andrea Pisano have been suggested repeatedly. In spite of these undeniable stylistic links to Italy, the Italian influence in the Lleida altarpiece does not seem to pertain to its structure.53

51 Pere Beseran, Jordi de Déu i l’italianisme en l’escultura catalana del segle XIV (Tarragona: Diputación de Tarragona, 2003), pp. 158-91.52 Jaime de Villanueva, Viage literario a las iglesias de España, 22 vols. (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1803-6; Valencia:

Imprenta Olivéres, 1821; Madrid: Academia de la Historia, 1850-52), XVI: Viaje a Lérida [1851]), p. 86.53 Two of the earlier reliefs, one showing the Pentecost and another with four presumed prophets, are preserved in the Museu Diocesà at Lleida. The same museum possesses two

12. Santa Coloma de Queralt, retable, ca. 1386. Jordi de Déu (photo: Joseph Braun, Der christliche Altar in seiner geschichtlichen Entwick-lung [München: Karl Widmann, 1924], pl. 219)

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Although the exact appearance of the altarpiece remains unknown, it must have been quite impressive and of considerable size, partly as a result of its location in the main apse of the cathedral. Recent architectural studies have shown that the altarpiece was part of a wider screen that spanned the entire width of the cen-tral apse. Thus, two spaces were created, namely the sanctuary itself with the altar in front and the semicircular apse behind, which served as a sac-risty. The same solution, of even greater monu-mentality, would be adopted in Tarragona Cathedral in the fifteenth century.54

Some of the most spectacular examples among the Lleida retables can still be found in situ in the local parish church of Sant Llorenç. No fewer than four altarpieces survive there; each was carved in limestone that retains impor-tant traces of polychromy, was executed during the second half of the fourteenth century, and remains in its original location. Three of these works have been attributed to Bartomeu Robio and his workshop. The retable on the high altar, dedicated to Saint Laurence, has a complex structure that incorporates crenellations, gables, and steep pinnacles (fig. 13). It contains twelve scenes narrating the life and martyrdom of Saint Laurence, which are set in richly decorated arches. The supports carry figures of prophets and saints, in keeping with the formula adopted earlier by Jordi de Déu in the Santa Coloma de Queralt retable, but here they are even more pro-nounced. The central image of the titular saint is supported by a projecting polygonal socle showing the Imago Pietatis (fig. 14). The lower part of this socle contains a tabernacle for the Reservation of the Host. This solution was to become widespread in fifteenth-century altarpieces in Catalonia.55

Of the three other retables in the same church, the one one dedicated to Saint Peter is small and recalls the previously described tradition of ivory panels as well as certain wooden altarpieces

other reliefs, featuring the Crucifixion and the Deposition, which relate to the fifteenth-century enlargement; see Maria Rosa Terés, “Grup de la Pentecosta i quatre profetes” and “Grup de la Crucifixió i Davallament,” in Pulchra. Catàleg del Museu Diocesà de Lleida, ed. by Ximo Company, Isidre Puig, and Jesus Tarragona (Lleida: Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat, 1993), pp. 156-58 and 169-70.54 Francesca Español Bertrán, El escultor Bartomeu de Robió y Lleida. Eco de la plástica toscana en Cataluña (Lleida: Estudi General, 1995), p. 54. For further information on the same question, addressing the supporting

architectural evidence, see Josep Gallart, Immaculada Lorés, Montserrat Macià, and Josep Lluis Ribes, “L’arquitectura de la Seu Vella de Lleida. L’evolució de la capçalera,” Lambard. Estudis d’art medieval 8 (1996), pp. 127-28.55 For more details on the ecclesiastic dispositions favoring the inclusion of eucharistic tabernacles in altarpieces as well as the success of the Imago Pietatis, see Francesca Español, El gòtic català (Manresa: Angle editorial, 2002), pp. 183-88. An essay by the same author in the present volume discusses the same subject.

13. Lleida, Sant Llorenç, high altar retable, ca. 1390. Bartomeu de Robio and workshop (photo: Justin Kroesen and Regnerus Steensma)

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14. Tabernacle in Lleida, Sant Llorenç, high altar retable, ca. 1390. Bartomeu de Robio and workshop (photo: Rosa Terés)

15. Lleida, Sant Llorenç, retable of Sant Pere, ca. 1390. Bartomeu de Robio and workshop (photo: Rosa Terés)

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(fig. 15). The other two are located against the side walls and are dedicated to Saint Lucia (fig. 16) and Saint Ursula (fig. 17), respectively. The iconography of all four retables reflects the spread of hagiographic motifs resulting from a growing taste for narration and anecdotal detail. These aspects were characteristic of Gothic art in general but are especially typical for Italian Gothic sculpture.

The production of retables in and around Lleida greatly exceeds the picture painted thus far. Many examples, created throughout the fif-teenth century, followed the general lines set out by Robio and his workshop. Being the output of a semi-industrialized production, they generally do not approach the level of quality achieved by Robio himself.56 Leaving many details aside, a list of extant examples would include the follow-ing, largely fragmentary retables: the remains of the retable in the collegiate church of Àger (now in the Museu Diocesà in Lleida and the MNAC in Barcelona), the Cubells retable (now in the Museu Diocesà in La Seu d’Urgell), the remains of the retable from the church of San Salvador de Balaguer, and the remains of the retable from Sunyer (all now in the Museu Diocesà in Lleida and the MNAC in Barcelona). Farther west, over the border with Aragón, we find yet another ex-ample: the altarpiece of Albalate de Cinca (now partly in the MNAC, Barcelona).57 More recent evidence has also revealed a southward spread of stone and alabaster retables toward parts of the region of Valencia, such as Castellón and San Mateo.58

56 Duran i Sanpere (Els retaules de pedra, vol. 1, pp. 47-50) was the first to define this group of altarpieces, all of which are related to the retable in the parish church of Albesa.57 The controversy surrounding the Lleida altarpieces has flared up again recently; see Montserrat Macià and Josep Lluís Ribes, “Desmembraments i reutilitzacions: notes per a la història dels fragments dels retaules de pedra del Museu Diocesà de Lleida,” Ilerda 51 (1994), pp. 75-82.58 Miguel Ángel Fumanal and David Montolio, “L’influx dels tallers reials d’escultura durant la segona meitat del segle XIV al nord del regne de València i el Baix Aragó: el taller de Pere Moragues i els retaules de Rubiols i Mosquerola,” Boletín de la Sociedad Castellonense de Cultura 79 (2003), pp. 77-99.

16. Lleida, Sant Llorenç, retable of Santa Lucía, ca. 1390. Bartomeu de Robio and workshop (photo: Rosa Terés)

17. Lleida, Sant Llorenç, retable of Santa Úrsula, ca. 1390. Bartomeu de Robio and workshop (photo: Rosa Terés)

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It is useful to take a brief look at some of the developments in the subsequent century even though such developments are beyond the time scope of this volume. The evolution of the carved stone retable in Catalonia, which began about 1300, culminated in the first half of the fifteenth century—from 1426 on, more specifically—in the high altar retable of Tarragona Cathedral. This grandly pro-portioned retable demonstrates the mastery of Pere Joan, who was undoubtedly the greatest sculptor of the late Gothic period in Catalonia. Although the production of such spectacular liturgical furnish-ings continued well into the fifteenth century, the intensity of the previous century was never equalled.59

Conclusions

The examples discussed in the present essay show that in the course of the fourteenth century, Catalonia was the scene of a prolific production of stone and alabaster retables. These altar furnishings were most abundant in the periphery of Catalonia, including the Lleida area in the west, the region around Girona in the northeast, and Tarragona in the south. In and around the Catalan capital of Barcelona, the painted altarpiece prevailed. In spite of vast losses, a considerable number of retables carved in stone or alabaster has survived, and more information is provided by written sources pre-served in archives, such as contracts and invoices. The production of altarpieces was greatly stimulated by the proliferation of side chapels in Gothic church architecture, involving large-scale patronage by individuals, guilds, and brotherhoods in the context of an economically prosperous Catalonia.

Precursors of these fourteenth-century retables are mainly found in France, a country with which the Catalans maintained close political and cultural ties. In addition to these strong stylistic and iconographic similarities, an influx of French sculptors working in Catalonia greatly contributed to the spread of French models. However, over the course of the century, close connections with Italy were also established, and stylistic influence from that country, too, manifested itself in Catalan sculp-ture.

In comparison with the simple rectangular format of the earliest examples originating from Anglesola and Sant Joan de les Abadesses, the late fourteenth-century Lleida retables show a vastly increased complexity in all aspects, including crenellations, triangular gables, and slender pinnacles. The growing complexity also manifested itself in iconography, as narrative cycles, mainly depicting the life of the Virgin and the childhood of Christ, the Passion, and, to a lesser extent, the life of saints, grew into more elaborate programs.

59 See Maria Rosa Terés, “La producción de retablos de piedra en Cataluña durante el período gótico,” in Retablos esculpidos en Aragón, pp. 213-58.

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The Origin and Development of Stone Retables

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