Portuguese Medieval Art

Unlike the international historiographic production, the art historiography in
Portugal has not yet focused profoundly on the iconographic theme generally known as
green man, despite its presence being substantial in Portuguese medieval art. With this
dissertation we aim to analyze this theme, starting from the most global methodology
possible in terms of chronology within the limits of the Late Middle Ages, and
geography within the border of the national territory of Portugal. Firstly, we felt the
need to illustrate the typological plurality of this big family, constituted by the theme of
the green man, since it raises many issues and is still being discussed and defined. As
such, the present iconography ends up adopting a diversity of names according to what
is represented and how it is represented.
We chose to guide our investigation in a way that would enable us to produce a
chronological evolution of the mentioned iconography, in the territory that is today
considered Portugal, through the collection of samples throughout the whole country.
The former task was guided by the purpose of understanding the genesis of the theme of
the green man in this territory, and to understand if we can see if there was an
importation, or not, and if there was, from which geographical areas, monastic orders or
aesthetic movements. With this exercise we attempted to establish what were the places
in which the green man was represented more frequently: within the sacred space or
within the available space in the media in which it was imprinted, and what symbolic
implications these diverse locations have in the multiple contexts where the green man
was represented. We came to the conclusion that the foliate mask, as it is also called, is
not so much a marginal iconography as one would possibly consider at first glance. A
posteriori, by observing this built diachrony, we easily notice the divergence between
typologies of representation in the transition between the epitome of the Romanesque
art and the beginning of the gothic art, as well as the new locations within the sacred
space, and in other media, in the years of the Gothic. We concluded, with this spatial
examination, that the green man behaves in a slightly different manner in the symbolic
field, between the chronologies that we usually call the Romanesque and the Gothic.
We tried, in an equal manner, to apprehend the difference operated in these two
artistic phases in the international conjuncture, and with this contextual perspective we
propose to find the distinctions between the Portuguese examples and the foreign ones,
in terms of preferences, regionalisms, chronological differences, and eventually,
specific innovations of the territory where we decided to site our work. To reach the
goal, we opted for restricting our analysis of the iconography in six paradigmatic cases
of study, which enabled us to better explore the various questions we proposed to
answer in a more practical manner. Finally, we concluded, through these case studies,
that the foliate head in Portugal ‘wears’ a very particular presence and expression,
ending up adapting itself to the specificities of the art and architecture in this country.
Keywords: green man, green beast, monster, iconography, symbology of space,
architectonic sculpture

In a world closely dependent on Nature, the Wild Man and the Green Man played important and seemingly opposite roles in the art, literature and imagination of the Middle Ages. The irrationality and violence of the animal force, destructive when untamed, collides and simultaneously complements the mainly benevolent yet dark presence of the vegetable life, in its ever-renewed transience.

What are, then, the real differences and similarities between these two figures, both offspring of Nature and of the medieval mind, and what is their importance?

Working in the context of the present historiographical concerns about marginalization and margins, we aim to explore the conceptual and visual relation between the Wild Man and the Green Man, from a broader, European context, to the detailed analysis of the Portuguese example(s).

Os conceitos de "marginalia" e "imaginário" aplicados à arte medieval portuguesa são tão ou mais elusivos do que em contexto historiográfico internacional. Para compreender e avaliar a sua aplicabilidade a domínios iconográficos que, quase instintivamente, identificamos hoje como "marginais", quer pelo seu enquadramento físico, quer pelo seu referente semântico, há que reconstituir todo um conjunto de etapas historiográficas e, simultaneamente, filtrar todo um universo de manifestações iconográficas de modo a consubstanciar propostas e fundamentar possibilidades de análise.

Ao tentar construir uma "historiografia das margens" para a primeira metade do século XX surgem, desde logo, autores e obras que nos confrontam com a relativa indefinição de um corpo iconográfico que se entende como "não oficial" mas, sobretudo, como heteróclito e heterogéneo e cujas influências (que lhe fundamentam, então, a existência) oscilam entre um fundo cultural autóctone, uma filtragem do legado clássico de feição romana e uma proveniência oriental multiforme. Começando por questionar esta viagem das formas pela perspectiva de autores como Joaquim de Vasconcelos (Arte Românica em Portugal, 1918) e Aarão de Lacerda (O Fenómeno Religioso e a Simbólica, 1922), em Portugal, e Goblet d'Alviella (La Migration des Symboles, 1891) e Jurgis Baltrusaitis (Le Moyen-Âge fantastique. Antiquités et exotismes dans l'art gothique 1955), em contexto internacional, abre-se à discussão todo um conjunto de hipóteses para a conformação de um imaginário entre influências, permanências, resistências e essências.

The book contains 17 contributions by scholars from various countries -Portugal, Spain, France, Finland, Italy and Greece- and differing backgrounds: art historians, byzantinists, historians, curators and conservators. The articles are presented in this volume in three main sections corresponding to the three thematic sessions of the seminar: I. The choice of devotional images, devotions circulation and iconographic hybridization between the two sides of the Mediterranean. II. The creation of new sacred images in the medieval West. III. Representation and circulation in space between walls.

The cult of Saint George is a global phenomenon, and
not only Mediterranean. His figure and motifs flowed from East
to West and vice-versa in a double-way journey. In this process,
especially after the First Crusade, his image embodied new contents
and features, which made him the patron saint of the Crusaders,
the ideal of knighthood as well as a symbol to strengthen cultural
or national identities in struggle. To his extent, the study of the use
and function of his iconography in the second half of the 14th century
is particularly appealing, from Greece during the Latinokratia
to some Western kingdoms, such as Aragon, England and Portugal.

El siglo XV trae a la escultura funeraria una innovación hasta la fecha no verificada: la utilización de yacentes conyugales en los monumentos funerarios. Los sepulcros, como última morada de los finados, son también la forma de perpetuación de la imagen junto a los que se quedan. A esta voluntad de planear el espacio conyugal en el lecho de la muerte, se agrega también la importancia de la eternización de la imagen de los sepultados como pareja. En las estrategias que pasan por la utilización de la heráldica, inscripciones epigráficas o indumentarias de aparato, verificamos en esta tipología una fuente esencial de investigación, para la compresión del arte funerario, de la propia evolución del concepto de muerte y de sus reflejos a nivel cultural. Los objetivos de este estudio se someten a analizar las tumbas con yacentes conyugales portugueses del siglo XV. A partir del análisis de las arcas funerarias, con especial enfoque en sus estatuas yacente y en la indumentaria que visten, se buscará entender cuáles son las tipologías de vestuario más utilizadas por ambos géneros y también, qué accesorios éstos transportan consigo, en su última representación. Esto será tratado a continuación un estudio comparativo sobre la base de diferentes representaciones de la ropa y, por otro lado, a través de los rasgos estilísticos, tratando de entender lo que hace que este modelo tumbas tan interesantes y categorizar el caso portugués en esta área.