Ancien proffesions. The parchment and its manufacture.
San Millán de la Cogolla. Los Marfiles de su arca-relicario.

Maiestas Domini de San Clemente de Taüll

The romanesque Catalan painting represents one of the most important contribution to the Spanish and European painting of its period. The oldest can be dated to the end of X century till XIII century. It went on until the gothic period. The most acceptable explanation about the existence of such high quality paintings in such isolated places such as the Bohí valley, must be due to the nomadic nature of the painters, sculptors and architects. This let them work everywhere. Whereas stonemasons needed a big workshop to work. The painter could travel on his own or accompanied by an assistant. His work could be done in a big temple or in the tiniest and most isolated church. That is the reason why paintings by Saint Isidoro of Leon are neither better nor worse than the ones there are in a remote olace like Saint Clemente of Taül, where one of the most important artist of Hispanic Romanesque worked.
It is a linear and completely timeless art. Thereis a close relation between the meanisng of the painting and its form.Most frescos are in the apse with a similar purpose to the big carved porticos. In these the Theophany is painted, that is, the appearanceofGod. This way of representing what is basically ethereal demanded the separation from the realism and consequently all its features such as spacial elements physical realism,materials, narrative posibilities and so on. For this reason ,for the Maiestas in the apse, they endeavored to achieve a lineal image of enormous dimensions beyond any emotion ro feeling, dehumanised to establish the essential difference from the human being.They share the same features ass the tetramorphs or cherubs or archangels that surround them and the scenes taha accompany them. In all of this the reference, to specific factors of the life of the Man- God is to be understood less than the symbol invonved.
Technically good frescos are seldom found. These demanded fast work with the surface that was going to be painted wet. The chromatic range is not very wide or vivid because with this tecnique the wall absobs the colours.some of the pigments, such as blue and green and especially blue, were more expensive or they deteriotated with time so they were not used so often; that is why the image or painting of Saint Clemente is so outstanding, because of the wonderful blues.
The painter of Saint Clemente is one of the most impresive and highest public figure within the Spanish Romasque field. The solidity of his drawings, the quality of colours used and the wide range of them aswell as the capability to make geometric shapes and the ability to create are signs of skill seldom equalled. Skills on service of a spiritual sensibility that allow him to reach the attainment of abstraction in its pure state. His maiestas Domini with magnifificence, with the harshness of the stroke, with his geometrical deshumanitation of his features establishes the essential distance between his divinity and the human being. He is neither a cruel nor a kindhearted godbut the essence of the Mystery of Divinity. In the central aps the image of Christ in majesty covers the vault in the mandorla shape, sitting on heaven’s arch with his feet on a halt sphere. He, with the attitude of giving a blessing, holds an open book on his left hand. On ot is written “EGO SUM LUX MUNDI”, that is “I`m the light of the world”. The ligh of good in opposition to the dark of evil. The ligh that reveals the greatness of god.