Page 156 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

Countries and Italy. As the monarch]/ of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella developed into the Empire of
Charles v, the Italian Renaissance emerged as
the dominant influence in Spanish art.
Columbus' unexpected landing in the Ameri-
cas gave Spain the opportunity to develop the
greatest empire of early modern times, eclips-
ing the wealth of the Far Eastern powers, word
of which had inspired his journey.

33

Workshop of Pieter van Aelst
Brussels
CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN

Tapestry from the series called Triumph of the
Mother of God or Panos de Oro
c. 1500-1502
warp: wool; weft: wool, silk, silver and go
7
5
332 x 375 (ijo /s x i47 /sj
reference: Madrid 1986
Patrimonio Nacional, Palacio Real de Madrid 34
usually associated with the Coronation of the Master of the Older Prayerbook of
The series of four tapestries of the Triumph of the Virgin but all apparently related to royal or Maximilian i (Alexander Bening)
Mother of God, also known as the Panos de Oro courtly marriages. In the upper left, the betrothal
because of the vast quantity of gold thread used in of David and Abigail, as told in Samuel 25:40-42, CRUCIFIXION and DEPOSITION
their manufacture, is the earliest set of its kind is pictured. The marriage of Solomon is in the
still in the Spanish royal collection. upper right. The scenes in the lower corners from the Book of Hours of
The author of the designs for the Panos de Oro show the coronation of a young woman and a Queen Isabella of Castile
is unknown, but the sale of the tapestries from the young woman presented with the portrait of a c. 1496-1504
tempera and gold
shop of Pieter van Aelst in Brussels on 10 August young man. manuscript, (8 /sx6) on vellum, 279 fols.
7
22.6x15.2
1502 is documented. They were bought by Juana The biblical stories and the image of the woman references: de Winter 1981
la loca (Joanna the Mad), second daughter of Fer- presented with the portrait may refer to Juana's
dinand and Isabella and wife of Philip the Hand- own marriage in 1496 to Philip, son of Maximil- The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase, Leonard
some. Juana gave the set, along with another, ian i and Mary of Burgundy. The coronation scene C. Hanna Jr. Fund, fols. 7217-73r
similarly rich tapestry, The Mass of Saint Gregory at the lower left, which reflects the subject of the
(also preserved in the Spanish royal collection), to Coronation of the Virgin, may refer to the his- Isabella inherited from her father a substantial,
Isabella, who on her death in 1504 bequeathed torical event that took place in 1501, when Juana for her time, library to which she added books and
them back to Juana. and Philip journeyed from Flanders to Spain to be illuminated manuscripts throughout her lifetime.
Juana's life was tragically marred by the death recognized officially by the Cortes of Castile and The monastery of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo
of her young husband in 1506 and by a severe Aragon as inheritors of the Spanish crown was to include a library that would be the reposi-
mental illness that led to her gradual deteriora- (Madrid 1986, 5). Ferdinand and Isabella's older tory of Isabella's and Ferdinand's collection, though
tion. After Philip's death Juana took the tapestries children, Juan and Isabel, had already died, in that plan was never implemented. This Book of
with her to Tordesillas, where she lived in isola- 1497 and 1498 respectively. If this interpretation Hours is a particularly fine example of the illumi-
tion and died in 1555 at the age of 75. is correct, it would strongly suggest that Juana not nated prayerbooks in the Ghent-Bruges style
The Panos de Oro represent four key events in only purchased the Panos de Oro but specifically favored by Isabella; others that once belonged to
the life of the Virgin: God Sending the Angel commissioned them to celebrate her own mar- her may be found in the Spanish national collec-
Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, the Annunciation, riage and coronation. tions and elsewhere, including a breviary in the
the Nativity and the Coronation of the Virgin Pieter van Aelst, from whom the tapestries British Library, London (Add. MS 18851).
exhibited here. In the center of the Coronation, were bought, held the title of tapestry master to The shield on the armorial page of the Cleve-
the Virgin Mary is crowned by the Trinity (in Emperor Maximilian i. These tapestries are land Book of Hours includes the pomegranate
which the Holy Spirit is, unusually, pictured as an typical of the finest Brussels weaving of the (granada), a symbol that Isabella and Ferdinand
angel). They are surrounded by a choir of musical 14905, the period in which, under the aegis of added to their heraldry after they expelled the
angels, saints, and representations of the Virtues Maximilian, painters and weavers in Brussels col- Moors from Granada in 1492. The book therefore
with their attributes. In the four corners of the laborated to create this new style of luxury must have been commissioned afterward. Other
tapestry are scenes that represent subjects not tapestries. s.s. inclusions indicate that the book was intended

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 155