The following text is a resume of the Context, Iconography and Technique sections of the Identification Passport which goes with every masterwork.
CONTEXT
The Medieval Agricultural Calendar have been inspired by the mural ensemble of what is known within scholarly circles as “The Sistine Chapel of Romanesque Art”, the Royal Pantheon of the Colegiata of San Isidoro in León (Spain) dated 1180. There, the Calendar in question with its twelve medallions decorates the lower wall of one of the arches that join the columns supporting the vault.
Each medallion presents one character in the act of performing some agricultural activity corresponding to each month of the year. All duties of the medieval peasant towards his master, be they agricultural or stock-breeding, were strictly regulated either following the natural course of the year, or following the agricultural cycle.
To get a more complete idea about the significance and the meaning of the Agricultural Calendar, we have to note that by the fourteenth century about 80 per cent of the European population were peasants, and their field duties were an irrevocable part of everyday life. Thus, in contemplating the beauty of the Kingly Pantheon and decoding its message, the medieval man found his own place within eternity and saw Salvation as the most significant event.
The theme of the months of the year has its roots in Greek and Roman antiquity. If the symbolic signs of the zodiac in those periods placed an emphasis on the mystic side of time and its course, during the Middle Ages this topic was approached realistically. Monuments exist, however, where these two aspects of time, mystical and realistic, harmoniously merge.
The motifs that can be encountered in the greater part of the known Agricultural Calendars from the Romanesque period are generally similar. The differences in some of the composition schemes for the months are either due to indirect Byzantine influence, or to the direct use of models from the Greek and Roman era, or to the various climate conditions determining a different rhythm in measuring agricultural time.
This Contemporary Antique Masterwork, (20,5 cm. of diameter approx.), is inspired by the medallion for the month of May (MAGIUS) from the Leon Agricultural Calendar which presents a horseman with a shield dressed in a white tunic who leads his horse by the rein, probably called by his master and now on his way for military service.
To understand the meaning of this illustration we should mark that during the Middle Ages, time for battling was closely connected with seasons. Military operations started in the beginning of summer and finished with its end. Armies gathered in May when pastures had enough greenery to sustain the horses.
According to Castiñeiras (1) the Leon Calendar iconographic scheme for May finds its analogue in the miniature cycle from Saint Mesmin de Micy (Orleans, France) where a horseman feeding his horse could be seen.
The contemporary author presents his own stylistic interpretation of the scenes from the Agricultural Calendar in the Royal Pantheon of the Colegiata of San Isidoro in Leon, which is fully adapted to the chosen technique. Familiar with and skillfully using the possibilities of ceramics, he includes low relief and adds ingenuity to his distinctive work. It is handmade, without the intervention of any industrial processes.
For each of the twelve medallions, referring to the twelve months of the year, a negative mold was made, using a handmade block which interprets the pictorial motif on the protruding relief. The molds allow for pressing and thus for multiple reproduction of positive relief depictions.
Detached from the molds, each series of medallions dries up in the air, after which it is fired at 800 Celsius degrees approx. Once out of the furnace, the medallions are covered in angobe which not only ensures the better attachment of pigments but it also adds a lighter and softer pink-ochre nuance to the reddish colour of the base, typical of silicone clay.
The prepared relief medallions are coloured in distemper after cooling, and the palette used is as close as possible to the original one. The piece´s weight is apromoximatley 0,41 kg.
1) CASTIÑEIRAS G., M.A. (2003): El Labora: los trabajos y los días en la iconografía románica. En Vida y muerte en el Monasterio románico. Aguilar de Campoo. Fundación de Santa María la Real.