This exhibition examines the importance of artistic exchange in the medieval Iberian Peninsula in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. During this pivotal era al-Andalus, or Muslim-ruled Spain, constituted the vast southern portion of the peninsula and was home to communities of Muslims, Christians, and Jews who lived and worked side by side. A major political, economic, and cultural presence in the Mediterranean region, al-Andalus was also a haven for the visual arts, bringing together skilled craftspeople of all faiths who created glorious sacred and secular art-works.
In the eleventh century the rulers of al-Andalus began to lose territory to the Christian-ruled kingdoms of the northern peninsula, displacing the frontiers, or border regions, between Muslim and Christian sovereignties, which were important sites of connection and exchange. Looking across the frontiers, northern Christian artists and patrons engaged as never before with the cosmopolitan arts of al-Andalus, emulating, adapting, and appropriating the colorful silks, delicately carved ivories, and fine metalwork they encountered, even as they embraced the Romanesque style of Christian Western Europe. For the first time at The Cloisters, this exhibition brings together a range of diverse works that attest to the complexity of Spanish art during this period and demonstrate the fluidity with which objects and ideas transcended religious difference.
Laying Claim to the Land
In the early eleventh century the Umayyad caliphate—the centralized Andalusi state based in Cordoba—collapsed, fragmenting into smaller kingdoms known as the taifas. The taifa kings ruled from cities such as Seville, Granada, and Valencia and were known for their patronage of the visual arts, literature, and scholarship. Their exquisite palaces featured fine furnishings, opulent textiles, and other objects crafted from precious materials, similar to those on view in this gallery. In the late eleventh century the Almoravids, a dynasty from the Maghrib in North Africa, overtook the taifas and ruled until the mid-twelfth century, when they were deposed by another Maghribi faction, the Almohads. Though court culture changed under these dynasties, their rulers continued to commission magnificent works of art and architecture.
Emboldened by Andalusi political turmoil, the armies of northern, Christian-ruled kingdoms overtook key cities in al-Andalus, including Toledo, subdued by León and Castile in 1085, and Zaragoza, conquered by Aragon in 1118. At the same time, Christian kings battled each other for control of the land, as did Muslim sovereigns, prompting alliances between rulers of different faiths. As a way to assert territorial control, Christian patrons built monuments such as the church of San Martín de Fuentidueña. On display in this gallery since 1961, the Fuentidueña apse was built in the Romanesque style, a choice that would have asserted the town’s Christian identity.