Consideraciones sobre la imagen bélica en la Edad Media: los ejemplos de las Cantigas de Santa María y de las pinturas murales de los palacios de Barcelona

Abstract

This article studies the representation of warfare in thirteen-century Spanish kingdoms and in two specific fields: that of illuminated manuscripts, exemplified by Alfonso X the Wise’s Cantigas de Santa María, and the depictions rendered in the cycles of mural paintings at the Royal Palace of Barcelona and the Caldes’s palace. In the Cantigas, warfare is but a pretext to offer a Marian miracle, which links this codex to past religious observances. Troops are presented in a plastic conventional fashion, which also accounts for the absence of the figure of the king himself. In contrast, the mural cycles at Barcelona deal with historical painting with quite a different narrative style, lay and more modern, which tries to depict concrete events and to exalt the role of the monarch, probably James I’s exploits.