Artesonado

Transcription

The carved wooden ceiling provides the key note in this new gallery devoted to the Várez Fisa donation. It covers the space and creates a light that gives a distinctive appearance to the gallery and the works in this collection. No other comparable museum of the level of the Prado has such a ceiling. This type of carved, wooden ceiling is characteristically Spanish. It is made so that it can be taken apart and all its elements numbered in order to reassemble it. This is undoubtedly what happened when it was taken down in the family home, moved, and then assembled again here in the Museum. Made of wood, it measures approximately 12 metres long by 6 metres wide and weighs around 6,000 kilos. Painted directly on the wood, it has been cleaned to remove the pollution and contamination that had accumulated over the paint layers. It was also retouched to fill in paint losses. This provided an outstanding opportunity to work on the ceiling when it was on the floor, before it was lifted into its permanent position. The restorers were able to work among this world of dragons, this fantastical universe that also has religious scenes but is essentially a medieval world of dragons, which is truly impressive when seen from close up given the figures’ expressivity. This gallery in the Prado is vaulted rather than having lintels and we have had to support the new ceiling in relation to the vault while installing it like a museum object. We need to be able to appreciate and see each of the scenes. The restoration process has aimed to make the ceiling visible as a whole. This is not "Las Meninas" nor is it a miniature or an Early Flemish painting, it is an object to be taken as a whole. What the viewer needs to be able to appreciate is the overall effect. Then, of course, we need to be able to linger over the different animals, monsters and fantastical beings that fill this entire universe suspended above us. Nor have we attempted to fill in all the small cracks and clefts in the wood. They are the result of time, which gives the ceiling its medieval character and its nature as a more than 600-year-old object. The ceiling dates from 1350. Its original function was to hold up the choir of the church of Santa Marina in Valencia de Don Juan, a village in León that belonged to the diocese of Asturias. The church was abandoned in 1876 and the neighbours officially reported the Town Council as it was at risk of collapse. The church finally fell down in 1926 but this did not affect the main ceiling, which was a carved Moorish one, as was the one in the presbytery, nor the under-choir ceiling that we see here. From what we know it would seem that a junk dealer took the ceiling away in an ox cart and kept it in storage until someone purchased it. When analysing the different scenes I realised that the figures’ clothing and the coats-of-arms date it to around 1400. All the scenes are complex and varied. They are of a courtly type frequently found at this period. They include depictions of combat, hunting, jousts, gallantry and dancing. Religious scenes are less often found on ceilings of this type but here we have a large number, including “The Massacre of the Innocents” as well as scenes from the Passion, including “The Last Supper” with the tablecloth and fish perfectly depicted. Also very characteristic is the way of depicting “The Descent into Limbo” and other episodes such as the “Noli me tangere”. We also see numerous imaginary beasts, some on a very large scale, as well as a man fighting a lion. This ceiling is extremely complex. It is now the subject of subsequent study as we have just installed it in the gallery and we need to analyse all its elements in more depth.