TWO MUDEJAR POLYCHROME-PAINTED WOODEN BEAMS WITH SPANISH COATS OF ARMS
Possibly Toledo, Castilla province or Valencia, Post-Nasrid Spain, 16th century

TWO MUDEJAR POLYCHROME-PAINTED WOODEN BEAMS WITH SPANISH COATS OF ARMS
Possibly Toledo, Castilla province or Valencia, Post-Nasrid Spain, 16th century

Comprising two rectangular Hispano-Moresque mudejar polychrome-painted wooden beams, each presenting their complex decorative program in horizontal format including Spanish noble families' heraldic achievements amidst various vegetal motifs and knotwork bands, painted on three sides (two long and one short) and plain on the fourth side in correspondence of their fitting to the ceiling, the larger beam showcasing on the two wider sides three Spanish coats of arms amidst diamond-shaped gridworks with scalloped floral medallions filled with a stylised fleur-de-lis alternating vertical rows of blue and red rosette heads, all against bright red ground, the coats of arms featuring alternating yellow and red bars gu and two spotted white dogs passant with a starry bordure charged with eight mullets of eight points, the narrower side (jaldeta or correa in Spanish) with polychrome zig-zag and fretwork bands, 352cm x 19cm x 12.8cm; and the smaller beam with two impaled Spanish coats of arms indicating marriage on one side, the first related to the coats of arms in the larger beam and the latter featuring five wolves heads coupled and vert, ten linden leaves, set amidst lush vegetal scrollwork consisting of intertwined split palmettes and trellis of jagged green leaves, possibly laurel or butcher's broom, the decoration on the other side very worn and darkened, 335cm x 18cm x 9.5cm.

In Spanish architecture, during both the Islamic and post-Islamic periods, ceilings were more than mere functional and structural necessities. Especially under the Almoravids (1085 - 1145) and the Nasrids (1230 - 1492), ceilings became complex wooden structures embellished with intricate gridwork and gilt and polychrome-painted geometric patterns, heraldic symbols, and figural decorations. In this regard, a notable example is the group of four carved, gilded, and painted monumental wooden ceilings from the Palacio de Altamira in Torrijos, near Toledo, in the V&A Museum collection in London (acc. no. 407-1905). As Mariam Rosser-Owen points out, "Mudejar was used to create rich interior spaces, and some of the most spectacular of all Mudejar creations are marquetry ceilings" (M. Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, 2010, pp. 85 - 87). The term Mudéjar originally referred to the group of Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late Medieval period post-Reconquista, but it has also been loosely applied to 16th and 17th-century Spanish artistic and architectural productions which show a strong degree of influence from the arts, traditions and patterns of the Islamic lands. These creations were at first produced by Muslim craftsmen and then, later on, continued by Christian craftsmen working on special commissions for Christian patrons looking to recreate a Moorish flare in their abodes.

Among the several mesmerising architectural solutions characterising this period, the Spanish ceiling or artesonado is probably the most iconic. Artesonado is a type of intricately joined wooden ceiling in which supplementary laths are interlaced into the rafters supporting the roof to form decorative geometric patterns. The ceiling usually presents regular recesses between the rafter beams and the woodwork is gilded and painted in polychromes. The opposite alternative, which is also quite popular, was to leave the architectural framework in its natural wooden state ('en blanco'), deprived of any painting or gilding. A third option was to paint and add gilding to the beams, avoiding the structural complexity of the artesonado but still adding character to the interior delivering at once a utilitarian and decorative function. The use of colour became quite prominent in Spanish wooden ceilings, especially those produced in the medieval period and throughout the 16th century (Ana Carrassón López de Letona, Painting and Polychromy on Medieval Wooden Ceilings in Spain, 26 May 2022, V&A Museum blog, https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/projects/painting-and-polychromy-on-medieval-wooden-ceilings-in-spain, last accessed: 17/09/2022).

The dating of the present lot to the 16th century is supported by both its decorative motifs and the arrangement of its coats of arms. As far as the decoration is concerned, the presence of Spanish family's blazons (instead of Arabic calligraphy), lush laurel sprays, and eight-pointed stars against blue ground in the blazon's bordure, and the use of bright oil colours, especially crimson red, are all quintessential features of late 15th and 16th-century Spanish beams. For further reference, please see the rafters of the former Convent of Santa Fe (now Museum of Santa Cruz), Toledo, 1480 – 95 (Ibidem, IPCE Archive), and the ones on the second floor of the Museo Nacional de Cerámica y de las Artes Suntuarias González Martí, Valencia, a Gothic building built by the Rabassa de Perellós family in the 15th century. These creations were almost certainly inspired by earlier Andalusian examples in use in Islamic Spain as evident from the beams in Alfonso XI of Castile's palace in Cordoba (1350 - 1360), now housed at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid. That said, in 16th-century examples Arabic calligraphic bands were usually replaced with vegetal motifs and geometric fretwork bands, and the Moorish blazons with Kufic inscriptions were lost in favour of Spanish heraldry. In fact, our larger beam features a coat of arms with alternating yellow and red bars gu. This was the distinctive heraldic achievement of Diego Fernández de Córdoba y Carrillo (1355-1435), Mariscal de Castilla, first Señor de Baena and plenipotentiary Spanish ambassador at the Portuguese court. His shield is accompanied by another with two silver talbots or wolves. The smaller beam presents two impalements, a form of heraldic combination or marshalling of two coats of arms side by side in one divided heraldic shield or escutcheon denoting marriage (groom to the left; bride to the right), and one of them shows the shield of Fernández de Córdoba y Carrillo together with the two wolves' shield. This coat of arms could therefore symbolise the union of the two families represented on the larger beam, but it could also act as the heraldic shield of their male progeny, linking the two beams together in terms of provenance and dating.

Dimensions: the largest 352cm x 19cm x 12.8cm