Pre-Romanesque As The Asturian Monarchy's Artistic Expression
Asturian Pre-Romanesque is a singular feature in all Spain, which, while combining elements from other styles (Visigothic, Mozarabic and local traditions), created and developed its own personality and characteristics, reaching a considerable level of refinement, not only as regards construction, but also in terms of decoration and gold ornamentation. This last aspect can be seen in such relevant works as the Cross of the Angels, the Victory Cross, the agate Box (housed in the Holy Chamber of Oviedo Cathedral), the Reliquary in Astorga Cathedral and the Cross of Santiago. As court architecture, the situation of Pre-Romanesque monuments followed in the wake of the various locations of the kingdom's capital; from its original site in Cangas de Onís (Eastern Asturias), through Pravia (west of the central coast), to its final location in Oviedo, the region's geographical centre.
As regards its evolution, from its appearance, Asturian Pre-Romanesque followed a "stylistic sequence closely associated with the kingdom's political evolution, its stages clearly outlined". Five stages are distinguished; a first period (737–791) belonging to the reigns of the kings Fáfila, Alfonso I, Fruela I, Aurelio, Silo, Mauregato and Vermudo I. A second stage comprises the reign of Alfonso II (791–842), entering a stage of stylistic definition, and third comprises the reigns of Ramiro I (842–850) and Ordoño I (850–866); a fourth belongs to the reign of Alfonso III (866–910) and a fifth and last which coincides with the transfer of the court to León, the disappearance of the kingdom of Asturias, and simultaneously, of Asturian Pre-Romanesque.
Read more about this topic: Asturian Architecture
Famous quotes containing the words monarchy, artistic and/or expression:
“People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)
“Life! Life! Don’t let us go to life for our fulfilment or our experience. It is a thing narrowed by circumstances, incoherent in its utterance, and without that fine correspondence of form and spirit which is the only thing that can satisfy the artistic and critical temperament. It makes us pay too high a price for its wares, and we purchase the meanest of its secrets at a cost that is monstrous and infinite.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The American adolescent, then, is faced, as are the adolescents of all countries who have entered or are entering the machine age, with the question: freedom from what and at what price? The American feels so rich in his opportunities for free expression that he often no longer knows what it is he is free from. Neither does he know where he is not free; he does not recognize his native autocrats when he sees them.”
—Erik H. Erikson (1904–1994)