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| Musicians from a Beatus of Liébana ms. from the first half of the tenth century. Wikimedia Commons |
The complexity of the
Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages has led to many different terms to refer
to the distinct sectors of its multireligious, multicultural society.
“Mozarabic” originally referred to the Christians who were allowed to continue
practicing their faith under Muslim government, and later expanded to include
the Iberian Christians who lived outside those territories as well. The time
frame remains strict: it describes Moorish political dominance, from the
seventh through the eleventh centuries.
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| Christ in Majesty from a Moralia in Job completed in Valeranica, 945. Wikimedia Commons |
This time frame sets the
characters from my Seven Noble Knights,
which takes place in 974 and 990, squarely within the Mozarabic culture. I’m
fascinated with the distinctive art of this culture because it’s the aesthetic
my characters would have been surrounded by.
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| From a Beatus of Liébana completed in Osma. Wikimedia Commons |
In the most abundant type
of art, manuscript illumination, bright colors, almond-shaped eyes, elongated
hands, and disregard for realism are the characteristics that most stand out
for me. Perhaps the colors, bright enough to burn modern eyes, are the result
of dim lighting in buildings with small windows. The lack of realism may have
come about in part because the most popular work of literature at the time was
a commentary on the Apocalypse, with all its fantastic creatures and events, by
a monk called Beatus of Liébana.
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| The Monastery "de Suso" at San Millán de la Cogolla is a rare example of Mozarabic architecture. Jessica Knauss |
It’s assumed that the driving
force of Mozarabic art is a blending of older, revered Visigothic styles with
adaptations from Arabic sources. However, it’s hard to trace the continuance of
Visigothic style due to a general lack of surviving Visigothic sources. Much
important architecture constructed during the Visigothic and Mozarabic periods
no longer exists because in later generations it was demolished to make way for
new styles. Although the Arabic inspirations in Mozarabic art are more obvious,
they’re not easy to interpret. Some see a criticism of these borrowings
embedded in the borrowings themselves because of the frontier nature of this
art and the antagonism between the religions. Others prefer to think Mozarabic
artists admired Arabic styles for their elegance as much as they admired
Visigothic styles for their heritage.
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| The Ark of the Covenant in the San Isidoro Bible, 960. Wikimedia Commons |
In The Art of
Medieval Spain, O. K.
Werkmeister illustrates that the Mozarabic attitude toward Arabic art sources
seems to reflect the current state of the prolonged conflict. These monks were
often working on the front lines and witnessed skirmishes and battles
firsthand. The San Isidoro Bible of 960 illustrates Philistines riding in a
style probably copied from Islamic art. In this way, the Bible story of intense
fighting against frightening enemies became an allegory for the conflict the
monks and lay people saw all around them.
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| From the Beatus of Liébana of Girona, 975. Wikimedia Commons |
Fifty years later, the
attitude seems to have flipped. A decorative casket Caliph Hisham II gave to
his Sword of the Realm as part of a reward for conquering León was looted in a
raid and brought back to a Christian church to serve as a reliquary for the
bones of two Mozarabic martyrs. This reappropriation is the ultimate form of
adaptation from Arabic sources. The casket could only be accepted as Christian
at this exact moment in history, when the Caliphate of Córdoba was in decay and
the enemy forces didn’t seem as threatening as before.
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| The Whore of Babylon in the Girona Beatus. Wikimedia Commons |
Unique among European
manuscript illumination of this period, the frontier monks nearly always left
detailed colophons signing their work and stating the reasons and patrons for
which it was made. Such signatures likely imitated the way artists claimed
their work in the Muslim-governed territories, where artists had considerable
social standing. It seems reasonable that the Mozarabic monks had similar
artistic and cultural aspirations. Historians thank them for leaving such
accurately self-conscious records.
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| From "Facundus" ms. of Fernando I and Sancha of Castile, mid-eleventh century. Wikimedia Commons |
The Mozarabic monastic
tradition wouldn’t last long after the rise of the Romanesque artistic style. The
only example of work attempting to bridge the styles or to absorb Mozarabic
sensibilities into international Romanesque are the manuscripts patronized by
Fernando I and Sancha of Castile in the mid-eleventh century. For me, these
manuscripts happily combine the old surrealism with a new, more complex control
of contours. But there were no monastic centers that could juggle the two styles
for long.
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| Noah's ark, painted in Urgell. Wikimedia Commons |
Nevertheless, Mozarabic
art was no flash in the pan. Something essential about it, perhaps its severity
or its emotional impact, has remained in Spanish art. Many commentators draw a
straight line between the San Isidoro Bible of 960 and Picasso’s Guernica.
Jessica Knauss earned her PhD in medieval Spanish with a
dissertation on the portrayal of Alfonso X’s laws in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which has been
published as the five-star-rated Law and
Order in Medieval Spain. Look for her book of stories based on the Cantigas, coming 2021. A driven fiction writer, Jessica Knauss has
edited many fine historical novels and is a bilingual freelance editor. Her
historical epic, Seven NobleKnights, will be published in December 2020 by Encircle Publications. Her contemporary paranormal Awash in Talent is now available from Kindle Press.
Find out more about her writing and bookish activities here. Follow her
on Facebook and Twitter, too!
