English

Apse from San Martín at Fuentidueña

ca. 1175–1200
On view at The Met Cloisters in Gallery 02
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.
The church of San Martin at Fuentidueña probably functioned as the chapel for an adjacent castle. The plan, a long nave without projecting transepts or side aisles, is common for small Romanesque churches in Segovia. Also typical of the Romanesque period is the sober thick wall construction, interrupted only by small windows, and the rounded arches. An unusual feature of this apse is the large scale of the figures on piers. Saint Martin, patron of this church, is seen on the left, and the angel Gabriel’s Annunciation to the Virgin is depicted on the right. On a capital above the Annunciation is a scene representing the Nativity. The large capitals supporting the triumphant arch show, on the left, the Adoration of the Magi, and on the right, Daniel in the Lions’ Den. The niches in the wall probably were used in the Mass to hold bread and wine.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Apse from San Martín at Fuentidueña
  • Date: ca. 1175–1200
  • Geography: Made in Segovia, Castile-León, Spain
  • Culture: Spanish
  • Medium: Limestone
  • Dimensions: Apse interior: 30 ft. 2 in. × 24 ft. 7 in. × 27 ft. 8 in. (919.5 × 749.3 × 843.3 cm)
    b: (lion capital): 14 1/8 × 20 1/4 × 17 1/4 in. (35.9 × 51.4 × 43.8 cm)
    f: (pier with acrobat): 60 × 12 1/4 × 12 1/2 in. (152.4 × 31.1 × 31.8 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture-Architectural
  • Credit Line: Exchange Loan from the Government of Spain
  • Object Number: L.58.86a–f

Audio

Cover Image for Fuentidueña Chapel

Fuentidueña Chapel

Gallery 2

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NARRATOR: Walk the length of this expansive room, and you get a sense of the space and acoustics of a twelfth-century church in the Romanesque style. We're fortunate to have a real example of Romanesque construction: the apse at the far end of the room. An apse is a rounded projection usually at the east end of a church, where the altar stands. This apse was part of a church built at a place called Fuentidueña, on a high ridge in a mountainous part of Spain. Over fifty years ago, the government of Spain agreed to lend it to the Cloisters permanently, and it was carefully dismantled stone by stone and reconstructed here.

The Fuentidueña apse displays several distinctive features of Romanesque architecture. Its basic element is the rounded arch, which defines the structure overall and repeats in the three small windows. But the clean geometric forms are also embellished with delicate details. Look at the ornament around the window openings: the small columns with their sculpted capitals, and the textured molding. These sculptural effects embellish the stone blocks of the walls; notice how neatly cut they are, and how perfectly they fit together.

The fresco painting in the half-dome of the apse and the magnificent crucifix, made of painted wood, come from other sites in Spain. Though they are not original to this structure, they're also fine examples of Romanesque art.