Photos of the Catalan Romanesque Altar Panel Painting – MNAC

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Photos of the Catalan Romanesque Altar Panel Painting Art from the MNAC ( National Museum of Catalan Art). Photos by photographer Paul E Williams.  (TIP – use the icons below the slideshow for thumbnail photos and info)

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Photos of the Catalan Romanesque Altar Panel Painting from the MNAC

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Photos Romanesque Altar Panel Paintings housed at the MNAC, Nation Museum of Catalonia Art ( Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) Barcelona.

Importance of MNAC Catalan Romanesque Paintings

The MNAC’s ( Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) 11th and T12th century collection of Romanesque altar panel painting is one of the most important in the world. It is a beautiful testimony to the importance of the production of polychrome liturgical furniture in medieval Catalonia.

Catalan Romanesque Altar Panels

The most significant works are the front of altar panels, which show the extensive range of Romanesque iconography. Painted beams enrich the range of Romanesque paintings in the collection.

In the 11th century painted altar fronts and liturgical furniture offered an affordable alternative to expensive furniture decorated with precious metals. The high quality of the Romanesque Catalan painters suggests that they may have been a trained in Cathedral or monastic scriptoria.

The wood panels and beams are painted with Tempera, also known as egg tempera, which is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium (usually a glutinous material such as egg yolk or some other size).

Romanesque Christ Pantocrator Depictions

The Romanesque altar fronts follow popular themes of the Middle ages. Christ Pantocrator, or In Majesty, is a popular icon based on the Byzantine Roman iconography. The image is known as a Theophany, in which Christ is revealed as God. He is surrounded by a vertical eye shaped aureola called a mandorla which also originated from Byzantium. The Theophany is usually surrounded by a Tetramorph with the four symbols of the Evangelists – Mathew depicted as a man, Mark as a lion, Luke as a Bull and John as an Eagle.

Catalan Virgin Hodegetria Painted Panels

On other Romanesque Catalan altar fronts the Virgin Mary and Child take centre stage. The iconography also follows the Byzantine rules known as the Virgin Hodegetria, which is an iconographic depiction of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to Him as the source of salvation for mankind. In the Western Church this type of icon is sometimes called Our Lady of the Way.

The Skill of Catalan Painters

The Romanesque Panel paintings from the MNAC show a high level of skill that was influenced directly by Byzantine Roman art and it is possible that some of the workshops of Catalonia were run by Greek Icon painters.

Many of the paintings were made before the final schism between the Orthodox Eastern and Roman Catholic churches so influences imported from the East would have been quite acceptable at the time.