Apse from San Martín at Fuentidueña

The Fuentidueña Apse, Spanish, c 1175–1200. 29ft 8.5in (905.5 cm) height, 22ft 0.5in (672cm) wide at max

The Apse from San Martín at Fuentidueña (or simply The Fuentidueña Apse) is a reconstructed apse, or semicircular space at the end of a church will normally contains the altar, was built around 1175–1200 for the San Martín church in Segovia, Castile-León, Spain. It has been in the collection of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art's Cloisters since 1958, when it was transferred as part of an exchange loan with the Spanish government.^[1]

The church was basically abandoned at the time, and the exchange involved the gifting (or returning) to Spain of six frescoes also from the same period and style. It was built in the Romanesque style, but little is known about the buildings commission, design or early history.

Apse

The apse is built with of over 3,300 stone blocks, mostly sandstone and limestone.^[2] It was such a major and large installation into the Closters, that it necessetated the knocking of the former "Special Exhibition Room". It was shipped in 839 individual crates^[3] It was opening to the public in 1961, seven years after the transfer, its re-instillation was a major and groundbreaking innovative undertaking. The new space seeks to emulate a single aisle nave.^[4]

The apse is covered by a barrel vault and a half dome. The exterior wall holds three small windows.^[1] It measures 919.5 × 749.3 × 843.3 cm. The supporting piers show three large figures. Saint Martin of Tours (c. 316–397), patron saint of the church is on the left. On the right is the angel Gabriel, in the act of Annunciation to the Virgin. The capital above the Annunciation shows a scene from the Nativity.^[5] Below the triumphal arch are two columns whose capitals depict scenes from the Adoration of the Magi on the left, and Daniel in the lions' den to the right.^[6]

Crucifix

Crucifix, c 1150-1200. Spanish. White oak, polychrome, gilding and applied stones.

It is displayed with a c 1150-1200 white oak, red paint, pine and gilding and monumental Crucifix suspended before it.^[7] This object is 178 cm high and 260 cm wide, and believed to originate from the convent of St Clara at Astudillo, near Palencia, in north-western Spain, though records are unclear and that is contested.^[8] The cross seems to have been designed specifically to have high above an altarpiece. Its reverse contains a depiction of the Agnus Dei ("lamb of God"). Red and blue foliage decorates its frames. Christs expression is somewhat contradicted by his wide open eyes, as it expresses profound pathos.

Gallery

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Notes

1. Wixom, 36
2. Barnet, 36
3. "Monumental Moving Job". New York: Life Magazine, 20 Oct 1961.
4. Barnet, 38
5. "Apse from San Martín at Fuentidueña". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2 May 2016
6. Wixom, 38
7. "Crucifix". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2 May 2016
8. Wixom, 39

Sources

• Barnet, Peter. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-1-5883-9176-6
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. p 203
• Medieval monuments at the Cloisters as they were and as they are. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972. ISBN 978-0-8709-9027-4
• Wixom, William. "Medieval Sculpture at The Cloisters". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, volume 46, no. 3, Winter, 1988–1989