The Apostles from Àger is a painting created in the late 11th century or early 12th century, currently exhibited at the
National Art Museum of Catalonia
The (; ), abbreviated as MNAC (), is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya, the museum is especially notable for it ...
in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
Àger
Àger (; ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Noguera in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the north-west of the ''comarca'', and the territory of the municipality stretches between the Noguera Ribagorçana and Noguera Pallaresa rive ...
from the
Saracens
file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens
''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...
, was the see of a regular
canonry
Canon () is a Christian title usually used to refer to a member of certain bodies in subject to an canon law, ecclesiastical rule.
Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, in one of the houses within the p ...
exempt from ordinary jurisdictions (in other words, it did not depend on the
Bishop of Urgell
The Diocese of Urgell (; ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Catalonia (Spain) and the Principality of Andorra in the historical County of Urgell,
Of the paintings that once decorated it, only scattered fragments remain of the main and southern apses, of which the most outstanding and complete is that of the two apostles, Thaddeus and James, from the firs arcosolium in the central apse. The two monumental apostles of Àger are presented in a face-on, hieratic position, with scrolls or volumes in their hands, which they are holding in alternating positions, at the same time as the colour of their nimbuses and their clothing also differs.
The beardless one on the left is Thaddeus and the one on the right, with a beard, is James, as the inscriptions indicate. The pictorial style belongs to the Lombardic influenced Pedret Cercle and shows a close relationship with that in the paintings
in the cathedral of Saint-Lizier in Couserans (in situ, France).
As in Saint-Lizier, in each of the niches in the apse of Sant Pere in Àger there must have been a pair of apostles. All together they must have made up the Apostolic College,SCHEEBEN, Manual of Catholic Theology, tr. WILHELM AND SCANNEL (London, 1906), 1, 8, 9, 11. whose representation was fully meaningful in Augustinian chapter houses like that of Àger, who, in keeping with the Gregorian reform, wanted to strengthen the independence of the Church as an institution in the face of secular power.
References
Sources
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*“Apse.” ''Oxford Art Online'', 2003. ''EBSCOhost'', https://doi-org.proxy.ulib.csuohio.edu/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T003476.
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*Fernández, Jaume. "Arnau Mir de Tost: El Cid de les Terres de Lleida." ''Personatges'' (2006), pp. 79–84.
*Master of Pedret. (2011). ''Benezit Dictionary of Artists''. https://doi-org.proxy.ulib.csuohio.edu/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00114751
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*SCHEEBEN, Manual of Catholic Theology, tr. WILHELM AND SCANNEL (London, 1906), 1, 8, 9, 11.
*Schulte, A.J. (1907). Altar (in Liturgy). In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01346a.htm
*Viladecans, Baldiri B. -. “Canónica de Sant Pere de Àger.” ''Sant Pere de Àger - Monasterios'', www.monestirs.cat/monst/nogue/cno01pere.htm. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.