El sepulcro de la infanta doña Leonor, hija de Alfonso X el Sabio, en el Real Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Caleruega (Burgos)

Abstract

The daughter of Alfonso X “The Wise”, King of Castile, the Infanta Leonor died in 1275 while accompanying her father to a meeting of great importance with Pope Gregory X. Alfonso X ordered that she should be buried at the Real Monasterio de Santo Domingo in Caleruega, Burgos, which he had recently founded in honour of the birthplace of St Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order. In stipulating her burial there, he established a link between his familial and political aspirations and the prestige of the saint and the order. Though little of the tomb has survived to this day, the remains are nevertheless an important example of the art of the Alfonsine era. This article analyses the tomb in the context of the courtly and funerary art of the period, and highlights the way in which it expresses a fondness for an aesthetic based upon textiles, heraldry and the Andalusian tradition, which is highly unique in terms of European courtly art of the thirteenth century.