Art of Medieval Iberia

Iberia’s medieval history has traditionally been understood in relation to a series of key events: 711–714, when Muslim forces from North Africa began their conquest of most of the Iberian Peninsula; 1031, when the Cordoban caliphate finally collapsed, and 1085, when Alfonso VI captured Islamic Toledo (Tulaytula), marking a significant shift in the balance of power in the peninsula; 1128–1179, when the kingdom of Portugal was founded and officially recognized; 1282, when Peter III of Aragon was crowned king of Sicily, cementing the political and mercantile power of Aragon-Catalonia in the Mediterranean; 1492, when Columbus first landed in the Americas, when Jews were expelled from Spain (and from Portugal in 1496), and when Ferdinand and Isabella of Aragon and Castile captured Nasrid Granada, Iberia’s last Islamic polity; and 1497–1499, when Vasco da Gama made his first sea voyage to India. In terms of its arts, however, Iberia’s medieval period may be pushed back to the 6th century, to the earliest Visigothic metalwork and architecture, and moved forward well into the 16th century, when gothic traditions mingled with Italianate motifs in Lisbon, Salamanca, and Palma, while Nasrid marquetry techniques (taracea) continued to flourish in Andalucia. Political, linguistic, and cultural borders shifted significantly in this period, and they continue to condition modern art-historical scholarship, whether divisions among Jewish, Islamic, and Christian/ “Western” art histories or the intense regionalism – reinforced by modern political and institutional structures—that has atomized art-historical studies on medieval Iberia. Insofar as the scholarship allows—and partly to complement it—this article thus deliberately resists traditional classifications by geography, confession, period, and medium. More focused bibliographies can be found in the Oxford Bibliographies in Art History articles, “Jewish Art, Medieval to Early Modern” and “Islamic Art and Architecture in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula”; and Oxford Bibliographies in Renaissance and Reformation article “Spanish Art.” This article, therefore, focuses broadly on resources rather than specific studies, with a preference for sources in English, when available.