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The Kingdom of Asturies
Art: Asturian pre-romanic art
Throughout its
existence, the kingdom of Asturies was to legitimise its ideal of the State
through an ideological programme whose fundamental base for the expression of a
concept of civility, of prestige and differential singularity was artistic. In
this way, between the seventh and tenth centuries, affirming itself in the
unity of the kingdom and in the firm willpower of its monarchs, the genesis and
splendour of an artistic production of rich variety within a characteristic
pattern saw the light; that which Jovellanos would later call Asturian Art, and
which would form an essential part of the complex world of western Pre-Romanic
art. Scholars have since identified four stages or periods in the evolution of
Asturian Pre-Romanic art:
a) The Paleoasturian (722-791), which coincided with the beginnings of the
Asturian monarchy;
b) The reign of Alfonso II (791842), a period of political and ideological
consolidation with the building of Oviedo as the Regia Sedes;
c) Ramirian art, which coincides with the reign of Ramiro I (842-850); and
d) The reign of Alfonso III El Magno(866-910), a period of expansion and
repopulation of the kingdom and of the founding of palacial buildings which
were to be the cause of a rich eclecticism in León, Palencia, Galicia
and the north of Portugal.
Within this blossoming of culture we may emphasise an architecture of
extraordinarily original beauty in its ornamental motifs and constructive
solutions to architectural connundrums, especially in its painted murals (the
church of San Julian de los Prados) and its very own architectonic decoration
achieved through a plasticity of structural elements (Palacio de Santa Maria
del Naranco, San Miguel de Lillo ... ), not forgetting work with jewels and
precious metals such as the Cruz de los Angeles(Alfonso II), or the Cruz de la
Victoria (Alfonso III), symbol of the kingdom of Asturias and the actual shield
and flag of the country, mounted on a wooden standard which tradition states
Pelayo carried into combat at the battle of Cuadonga.
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