La cultura secular y las artes suntuarias en Portugal (siglos XII-XIV)

Abstract

Ornamental artworks from the Middle Ages are scarce in Portugal, and the vast majority of medieval artefactsthat have survived to this day are religious in nature. However, there is evidence that puts this reality into a newlight and reveals the extent to which ornamental arts spread in Portugal between 1100 and 1400 and howdeeply rooted secular culture was in the country at that time. This paper begins by analysing a small number ofluxury objects representing widely differing heroes such as Alexander the Great, the Knight of the Swan and thewarriors of the Trojan Cycle. Analysis is then made of documentary information relating to the production anduse of certain types of ornamental objects that are not found in today’s medieval Portuguese collections, namelysilver altarpieces and tables, ivory objects and cameos. In both cases, these lost works reveal an artistic worldthat differs greatly to the one constructed by art history, a world based merely on surviving works, promptingus to revise many of the ideas formulated with regard to medieval Portuguese art.