What was the Castilian Tabernacle-Altarpiece in the Met Cloisters? Proposals for its Function and Context

Abstract

A set of three Castilian panel paintings of the late 13th century is usually on display in the Met Cloisters in New York. These paintings, of unknown provenance, have long been recognized as part of a tabernacle-altarpiece or tabernacle shrine, but in spite of this and their relatively good condition, they have attracted little attention in studies on Gothic painting in Castile. Recent scholarship on tabernacle shrines provides a new basis for their research. By analyzing the panels’ most unique feature (the depiction of small-scale scenes offering a cycle of the Passion, visible when the altarpiece was closed), and through comparison with other contemporary works, this article proposes a possible context and use for this important example of early Gothic painting in Castile.

Keywords:

• Castile
• Gothic painting
• tabernacle-altarpiece
• Wildenstein altarpiece
• Andachtsbild

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am very grateful to the Department of Medieval Art and the Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the assistance provided in studying this object over many years, especially Julien Chapuis (2000), at present Director of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst of the Bode-Museum (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), and Andrew Winslow (2013). I am also very grateful to the anonymous reviewers of my article for their helpful insights and suggestions and to the editor of the JBAA for his careful improvement of my text. Research for this article was partially supported by GIR IDINTAR of the Universidad de Valladolid, to which the author belongs. Reproduction of the Poldi Pezzoli tabernacle was made possible by the British Archaeological Association’s Foxon bequest.

Notes

1 Ch. R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, Volume VII: The Catalan School in the Late Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass. 1938), part 2, 733–34, fig. 276; Ch. R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, Volume VIII: The Aragonese School in the Late Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass. 1941), part 2, 547–50, fig. 253.

2 J. Gudiol, Spanish Painting (Toledo, Ohio 1941), 12, fig. 10.

3 Metropolitan Museum of Art Eighty-fifth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1954–1955, 14.

4 Spanish Medieval Art (New York 1954), n.p.

5 Metropolitan Museum of Art One Hundred Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July, 1, 1976 through June, 30, 1977, 59.

6 Von Kienbusch provided access to his panel when the Wildenstein panels, already in the Met, were restored in the 1960s: see the report by Mojmír Frinta kept in the curatorial files for acc. nos 55.62a, b & 1977.94 at Met Cloisters, Two Spanish Painted Panels (Accession No. 55.62a), 13–14.

7 F. Gutiérrez Baños, Aportación al estudio de la pintura de estilo gótico lineal en Castilla y León: precisiones cronológicas y corpus de pintura mural y sobre tabla, 2 vols (Madrid 2005), I, 476–84.

8 F. Gutiérrez Baños, ‘El retablo de San Cristóbal’, Boletín del Museo del Prado, 46 (2010), 6–21, at 16, fig. 9.

9 F. Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Pasear entre ruinas: retablos-tabernáculo castellanos de la Baja Edad Media’, BSAA arte, 84 (2018), 41–83, at 68.

10 J. Pijoán, Summa Artis, Volume XI: Arte gótico de la Europa Occidental. Siglos XIII, XIV y XV (Madrid 1948), 573, fig. 11; J. A. Gaya Nuño, La pintura española fuera de España (Madrid 1958), 88 (nos 14–15), fig. 11.

11 W. W. S. Cook and J. Gudiol Ricart, Ars Hispaniae, Volume VI: Pintura e imaginería románicas (Madrid 1950), 271, fig. 263. This is the only survey text to include the panels, which were omitted from the revised edition of 1980, perhaps because they were no longer on the market.

12 Internal communication dated 5 June 1992, kept in the curatorial files for acc. nos 55.62a, b & 1977.94 at Met Cloisters. It is just an indication to Katharine Baetjer to change the date of some works in the Cloisters, without further details.

13 K. Baetjer, European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue (New York 1995), 146. In the previous version of the catalogue, they were presented as ‘last quarter XIII century’: K. Baetjer, European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born in or before 1865: A Summary Catalogue, 3 vols (New York 1980), I, 175, and II, 189.

14 M. S. Frinta, ‘The Closing Tabernacle: A Fanciful Innovation of Medieval Design’, The Art Quarterly, 30 (1967), 102–17. Frinta’s article was a major landmark in the historiography of tabernacle-altarpieces, as it was the first where this type of early altarpiece was considered a European phenomenon instead of a Scandinavian particularism. Frinta’s reconstruction is precise in the position of the panels, but the design of the canopy of the baldachin does not conform to what we know now about Castilian tabernacle-altarpieces: gables should not rest directly on the columns, but above arches resting on the columns, and should not be linked by roofs. In the same way, the spandrels of the arches framing the figures and scenes of the interior should not display quatrefoils, but micro-architecture. See also C. Lapaire, ‘Les retables à baldaquin gothiques’, Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte, 26/4 (1969), 169–90, at 187; K. Krüger, Der frühe Bildkult des Franziskus in Italien. Gestalt- und Funktionswandel des Tafelbildes im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert (Berlin 1992), 19, figs 170–71.

15 E. Andersen, ‘Madonna Tabernacles in Scandinavia c. 1150–c. 1350’, JBAA, 168 (2015), 165–85, at 166, 171 and 172, fig. 15; Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Pasear entre ruinas’, 45, 54, 56, 68, 75 and 79 (no. 28); E. Andersen, ‘Closing the Tabernacle: European Madonna Tabernacles c. 1150–c. 1350’, Medievalia, 23/i (2020), 59–100, at 68, 75 and 81, figs 7 and 19; F. Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Minor or Major? Castilian Tabernacle-altarpieces and the Monumental Arts’, Medievalia, 23/i (2020), 231–74, at 233, 237, 241, 248, 249 and 256 (no. 31); J. Kroesen and P. Tångeberg, Helgonskåp: Medieval Tabernacle Shrines in Sweden and Europe (Petersberg 2021), 72–73 and 218, fig. 2.51; F. M. Morillo Rodríguez and F. Gutiérrez Baños, Retablo Wildenstein (retablos-tabernáculo de la Baja Edad Media en la Corona de Castilla, 31/38) (Valladolid 2021), available at http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/46163.

16 Kroesen and Tångeberg, Helgonskåp, 10.

17 F. Gutiérrez Baños, J. Kroesen and E. Andersen, ‘Tabernacle-altarpieces: Variety within Unity’ Medievalia, 23/i (2020), 9–11.

18 Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Minor or Major?’, 252–56, lists 38, but since then a new one, coming from El Sotillo (Guadalajara), has been brought to light. See J. A. Salgado Pantoja, ‘Un fragmento de retablo-tabernáculo del siglo XIII procedente de El Sotillo (Guadalajara)’, Laboratorio de Arte, 33 (2021), 21–44.

19 Kroesen and Tångeberg, Helgonskåp, 10.

20 Ibid., 25–27, figs 1.1–1.2.

21 For Castile, see F. Gutiérrez Baños , ‘El retablo-tabernáculo en Castilla: aproximación a su dimensión funcional a partir del análisis de su materialidad’, in Imagens e liturgia na Idade Média—Images and Liturgy in the Middle Ages, ed. C. V. Fernandes and M. A. Castiñeiras González (n.p. 2021), 305–36.

22 Other examples are found in the panels from two different Castilian tabernacle-altarpieces of unknown provenance named the ‘Suma altarpieces’, kept in the Museo Cerralbo of Madrid (inv. no. 31051), see Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Pasear entre ruinas’, 68–74 and 79 (nos 26–27). Further examples include the surviving panels from the Castilian tabernacle-altarpieces of Arana, Astudillo, Jócano, León, Logroño, Los Balbases, Medrano, Olano, Pangua and Zuazo de Cuartango, and also the surviving panels from the Castilian tabernacle-altarpiece of unknown provenance named the ‘Haupt I atarpiece’, kept in Poland, in the Muzeum Narodowe of Warsaw (inv. no. Śr. 218).

23 M. O’Donnell Morales, ‘A New Set of Polyptych Doors from Fourteenth-century Castile’, Medievalia, 21 (2018), 75–113; F. M. Morillo Rodríguez and F. Gutiérrez Baños, Retablo Chiale (retablos-tabernáculo de la Baja Edad Media en la Corona de Castilla, 34/38) (Valladolid 2021), available at http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/46168.

24 Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Pasear entre ruinas’, 58–63; Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Minor or Major?’, 248–51.

25 At present, the Chiale altarpiece is the property of the Montpascal Foundation and is kept in Ireland, in Killua Castle, near Clonmellon (Westmeath), see https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=VCvKUi6Zwe5&cloudEdit=1&sr=-3.13,-.36&ss=188 (accessed 18 April 2023).

26 For El Sotillo, see above note 18. For Contrasta, see Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Pasear entre ruinas’, 50, 60 and 78 (no. 8), fig. 5; Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Minor or Major?’, 233, 235–36 and 253 (no. 8), fig 4–5; F. M. Morillo Rodríguez and F. Gutiérrez Baños, Retablo de Contrasta (?) (retablos-tabernáculo de la Baja Edad Media en la Corona de Castilla, 8/38) (Valladolid 2021), available at http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/46018. For Marès I, kept in the Museu Frederic Marès of Barcelona (inv. no. 2225), see M. L. Melero Moneo, ‘433. Retaule (fragment)’, in Fons del Museu Frederic Marès, 1: Catàleg d’escultura i pintura medievals (Barcelona 1991), 432–33; Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Pasear entre ruinas’, 48–49, 60 and 79 (no. 24), fig. 2; Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Minor or Major?’, 255 (no. 27), fig. 12; F. M. Morillo Rodríguez and F. Gutiérrez Baños, Retablo Marès I (retablos-tabernáculo de la Baja Edad Media en la Corona de Castilla, 27/38) (Valladolid 2021), available at http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/46132. For Chiale, see above note 23.

27 Andersen, ‘Closing the Tabernacle’, 59–100.

28 Gutiérrez Baños, ‘El retablo-tabernáculo en Castilla’, 333, fig. 15, and 325, fig. 10.

29 Ibid., 325 and 335.

30 Most notably, the Arana altarpiece produced by the same workshop that created the Wildenstein altarpiece (right panel of the left wing: St John the Evangelist; left panel of the right wing: unidentified apostle; front: Sts Peter and Paul). Beyond Castile, examples include the Norwegian Fåberg altarpiece (right panel of the left wing: St Peter; no information about the front) and Urnes altarpiece (right panel of the left wing: St John the Evangelist?; no information about the front). See Andersen, ‘Closing the Tabernacle’, 64–68, figs 3–6.

31 F. Deuchler, ‘Le sens de la lecture. À propos du boustrophédon’, in Études d’art médiéval offertes à Louis Grodecki, ed. S. Mc K. Crosby et al. (Paris 1981), 251–58.

32 Frinta, ‘The Closing Tabernacle’, fig. 12, alternatively proposes the Agony in the Garden. Another possibility could be the Washing of the Feet.

33 Inscription above, ‘[C]APTUS EST IHESUS A IUDEIS’.

34 Post, A History, VIII, part 2, 547; Frinta, ‘The Closing Tabernacle’, 112. Frinta’s restoration report (see above note 6), 6. Frinta recorded analogous changes in the faces of the soldiers: ‘The soldier at the left was originally sketched as the malignant type used for other soldiers. We can recognize a bigger nose, lips, beard and little back-thrown chin. The painted face is a sort of compromise between the “bad” types of soldiers and a “good” types of apostles. The soldiers’ faces were first traced in an even more caricatural manner than in their final stage’. Frinta commented on these and other changes to highlight the liberty of the painter with respect to their own preliminary drawing, so characterizing their technique. We cannot ascertain whether there existed a supplementary intention in the portrayal of Judas.

35 Inscription above, ‘IHESUS’.

36 Frinta, ‘The Closing Tabernacle’, 111–12, fig. 12, suggests either the Road to Calvary or the Crucifixion. Other possibilities include the figure of Pilate or the scene of the Crowning with Thorns. One would expect the Crucifixion in a Passion cycle, and this is the only space available for it, but it seems too narrow and not significant enough for such a scene.

37 Inscription above, ‘IHESUS DICENDI CRUCIS’.

38 Gutiérrez Baños, ‘Pasear entre ruinas’, 66–67, fig. 7.

39 J. F. Hamburger, St. John the Divine: The Deified Evangelist in Medieval Art and Theology (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London 2002), 71–72, 128–30 and 165, figs 60–61 and 112–13.

40 B. Schälicke, Die Ikonographie der monumentalen Kreuzabnahmegruppen des Mittelalters in Spanien (Berlin 1975), quoted by M. J. Martínez Martínez, La imaginería gótica burgalesa de los siglos XIII y XIV al sur del Camino de Santiago: un rico y singular patrimonio escultórico (Burgos 2021), 89.

41 Martínez Martínez, La imaginería gótica burgalesa, 94–95.

42 Á. Aterido, ‘Anónimo leonés: Descendimiento’, in Colección Masaveu. Del románico a la Ilustración. Imagen y materia (Madrid 2013), 24–25. For the ensemble to which this portion of the ivory plaque belonged, see N. Álvarez da Silva, ‘El trabajo del marfil en la España del siglo XI’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Universidad de León, 2014), 289–303, figs 7–9, available at http://hdl.handle.net/10612/3545.

43 Martínez Martínez, La imaginería gótica burgalesa, 351–52 (no. 123). Only the figures of Christ and Joseph of Arimathea were preserved. They were robbed in 1993.

44 Needless to say, style completely differs between the Wildenstein altarpiece and the Italian examples: what they share is the emphasis on John’s feelings, which in Italy is underlined by John leaning his head towards Christ’s hand in order to caress it with his cheek.

45 Inscription above, ‘IHESUS’.

46 L. Réau, Iconographie de l’art chrétien, Tome II: Iconographie de la Bible (Paris 1956–57), part 2, 522.

47 M. P. Alonso Abad, Las vidrieras de la catedral de Burgos (Madrid 2016), 60; R. Abegg, Königs- und Bischofsmonumente. Die Skulpturen des 13. Jahrhunderts im Kreuzgang der Kathedrale von Burgos (Zürich 1999), 21. The anointing is also represented in the wall paintings of the church of Gaceo, in the area from which the Wildenstein altarpiece originated: R. Sáenz Pascual, La pintura gótica en Álava. Una contribución a su estudio (Vitoria 1997), 55–57.

48 Inscription above, ‘SEPULCRUM’.

49 I have no explanation for the angel’s similarity to St John the Evangelist or for the palm he holds. The apostle was occasionally regarded as an angel by St Augustine (Hamburger, St. John the Divine, 44–45 and 62), but there is little evidence that this notion became widespread, and why should he act in this role at the precise moment of Christ’s resurrection? The gospels unanimously say that the Holy Women preceded the apostles in reaching the empty tomb. Post, A History, VII, part 2, 733, noted the palm, and Frinta, in an unpublished paper kept in the curatorial files for acc. nos 55.62a, b & 1977.94 at Met Cloisters (Two Painted Spanish Panels, 3–4), found a parallel, held by an angel, on fol. 3v of vol. 1 of the Beaupré Antiphonary (Walters Art Museum, MS W.759), dated c. 1290, see https://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/W759/description.html (accessed 5 January 2023).

50 Inscriptions above, ‘[I]HESUS INFERNUS’.

51 Frinta, ‘The Closing Tabernacle’, 112. Post, A History, VIII, part 2, 547, thought that this figure was an angel. The Magdalen’s pose is more suitable for the episode of the Supper in the House of Simon, but this pose was also employed when the saint was included in the Last Supper. Anyway, a similar pose for the Magdalen is employed in the aforementioned wall paintings of the church of Gaceo: Sáenz Pascual, La pintura gótica en Álava, 59–60.

52 Alonso Abad, Las vidrieras de la catedral de Burgos, 52–69.

53 The comprehensive survey by Kroesen and Tångeberg only identifies five tabernacle-altarpieces with Passion narrative cycles or scenes, always on the interior: two from the 14th century (Pale di Foligno and Fossa) and three from the 15th century (Kolochau, Puńców and Sättna): Kroesen and Tångeberg, Helgonskåp, 216–23.

54 S. Kemperdick, ‘Tabernacle-altarpieces in Central Europe: Examples, Types, Iconography’, Medievalia, 23/i (2020), 129–55, at 136–38, figs 7–11, with references to previous literature.

55 The oldest altarpiece shows a Crucifixion at the top of the left panel of the left wing. The panels closing the sides of the tabernacle show additional figures related to the passion of Christ, but not a proper cycle (see below). The more fully preserved St Clare altarpiece shows a scene of the life of St Clare at the top of the right panel of the right wing. The panels closing the sides of the tabernacle show decorative motifs. In both cases, no more fragments of the panels closing the front of the tabernacle are preserved.

56 Andersen, ‘Closing the Tabernacle’, 68, fig. 7, and 74–78.

57 Andersen, ‘Closing the Tabernacle’, 75, figs 18–19.

58 See R. Kahsnitz, Carved Altarpieces: Masterpieces of the Late Gothic (London 2006) for a lavishly illustrated survey on winged altarpieces.

59 See, for example, N. Wolf, Deutsche Schnitzretabel des 14. Jahrhunderts (Berlin 2002), 286–99 (from the perspective of winged altarpieces), or Kroesen and Tångeberg, Helgonskåp, 263–71 (from the perspective of tabernacle-altarpieces).

60 About Doberan, see Wolf, Deutsche Schnitzretabel, 22–39, figs 1–5 and 157–60. Regarding Altenberg and Schotten, see below note 62. About Tyrol Castle, see Wolf, Deutsche Schnitzretabel, 152–65, figs 92–98.

61 See, for example, the analysis of the Oberwesel altarpiece of c. 1340 by D. L. Ehresmann: ‘Medieval Theology of the Mass and the Iconography of the Oberwesel Altarpiece’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 60 (1997), 200–26.

62 Wolf, Deutsche Schnitzretabel, 122–29, figs 67–72 and 174–76; 203–07, figs 133–38 and 186–87; A. Kappeler-Meyer, Oberbiel, Ehem. Stiftskirche St. Maria und St. Michael—Altenberger Altar, 1320-1330—Heute Schloss Braunfels, Städel Museum Frankfurt am Main und Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (n.p. 2015), available at https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00003520; A. Kappeler-Meyer, Schotten, ev. Pfarrkirche—Schottener Altar, um 1385 (n.p. 2015), available at https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00004776.

63 The museum possessed the wings, but the corpus belonged to Braunfels Castle and the titular image to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. See J. Sander, S. Seeberg and F. Wolf ed., Aus der Nähe betracthet. Bilder am Hochaltar und ihre Funktionen im Mittelalter (Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich 2016), and J. Sander ed., Schaufenster des Himmels. Der Altenberger Altar und seine Bildausstatung—Heaven on Display: The Altenberg Altar and Its Imagery (Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich 2016).

64 Schaufenster des Himmels, 15–16.

65 The Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity of Christ, and Adoration of the Magi on the left wing; the Dormition of the Virgin and Coronation of the Virgin on the right wing, which also has St Michael and St Elisabeth of Thuringia.

66 From left to right and top to bottom, the Agony in the Garden, Arrest of Christ, Christ before Pilate and Flagellation in the upper register; Road to the Calvary, Crucifixion, Lamentation and Entombment in the middle register; Resurrection and Appearance of Christ to St Mary Magdalen (with a praying nun) flanking the four saints in the lower register (only St Catherine is recognizable).

67 Saints, largely unrecognizable, include a giant St Christopher in the middle of the back.

68 Unlike in the later Schotten altarpiece.

69 See J. Yarza Luaces, ‘384. Tabernacle’, in Fons del Museu Frederic Marès, 1: Catàleg d’escultura i pintura medievals 393–94; C. J. Ara Gil, ‘Los retablos de talla góticos en el territorio burgalés’, in El arte gótico en el territorio burgalés, dir. Emilio Jesús Rodríguez Pajares (Burgos 2006), 185–88, figs 4–5; F. M. Morillo Rodríguez et al., Retablo de Castildelgado (retablos-tabernáculo de la Baja Edad Media en la Corona de Castilla, 7/38) (Valladolid 2021), available at http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/46017.

70 Wolf, Deutsche Schnitzretabel, 55–56.

71 Identifikationsfiguren include the Virgin, dressed unusually in white (the colour of the Premonstratensian habit), and perhaps St Mary Magdalen and the praying nun in the last scene.

72 A. Kappeler, ‘Altarretabel un Andachtsbild. Die Gemälde der Flügelaußenseite des Altenberger Altarretabels’, in Aus der Nähe betracthet, 99 and 101–15.

73 Kappeler, ‘Altarretabel un Andachtsbild’, 99–101. The series of panels in the region of Cologne has been studied by P. Meschede, Bilderzählungen in der kölnischen Malerei des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts (Paderborn 1994).

74 Meschede, Bilderzählungen, 97–120.

75 G. Llompart, La pintura medieval mallorquina. Su entorno cultural y su iconografía, 4 vols (Palma 1978–80), III, 20–22 (no. 8).

76 A. De Marchi (2009), La pala d’altare. Dal paliotto al polittico gotico (Florence 2009), 92–95; E. Zappasodi, Sorores reclusae. Spazi di clausura e immagini dipinte in Umbria fra XIII e XIV secolo (Florence 2018), 92–95, figs 57–81. This fully painted tabernacoli are triptychs with the Virgin and Child in the middle accompanied by scenes of the life of Christ on the wings. Their relationship to the three-dimensional tabernacle-altarpieces with a sculpture in the middle must be explored.

77 Ch. Maggioni and A. Zanni, ‘16. Atelier orafo della Francia nord-orientale (area franco-fiamminga?): Altarolo di devozione privata a tabernacolo’, in Restituzioni 2011. Tesori d’arte restaurati, ed. C. Bertelli (Venice 2011), 134–40.

78 About the one in Seville Cathedral, see E. Steingräber, ‘Ein Reliquienaltar König Philipps V. und Königin Johannas von Frankreich’, Pantheon, 33/2 (1975), 91–99; M. J. Sanz, ‘Notas sobre el relicario de Felipe V de Francia y Juana de Borgoña de la catedral de Sevilla’, Goya, 229–30 (1992), 50–55. About the one in the Morgan Library and Museum, see M. Tomasi, ‘Luxe et devotion au XIVe siècle : autour du tabernacle de Thomas Basin’, Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 156/2 (2012), 999–1026; https://www.themorgan.org/objects/item/93252 (accessed 6 January 2023). About the one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see M. B. Freeman, ‘A Shrine for a Queen’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 21/10 (1963), 327–39; D. Gaborit-Chopin, ‘The Reliquary of Elizabeth of Hungary at The Cloisters’, in The Cloisters: Studies in Honor of the Fiftieth Anniversary, ed. E. C. Parker (New York 1992), 327–53; https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/470310 (accessed 6 January 2023).

79 On the left wing, Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity of Christ and Adoration of the Magi. On the right wing, Massacre of the Innocents, Flight into Egypt, Presentation of Christ in the Temple and Christ among the Doctors.

80 Of the four enamelled silver-gilt tabernacles known to this date this is the only one displaying the infancy of Christ on the interior and the Passion on the exterior. That in Seville Cathedral shows the kneeling donors accompanied by candle-bearing angels on the interior and heraldry on the exterior, the Morgan example shows apostles on the interior and the Last Judgement on the exterior, and the Met one shows the infancy of Christ, apostles, saints, and musician angels on the interior and apostles, saints, and musician angels on the exterior.

81 Significantly, the only praying nun depicted in the Altenberg altarpiece is included in the scene of the Appearance of Christ to St Mary Magdalen, see above, note 66.

82 Angela of Foligno, Complete Works, trans. P. Lachance (Mahwah 1993), 134. See also C. Jäggi, ‘Dialogar con Dios: el uso de las imágenes en los conventos femeninos de dominicas en la Teutonia bajomedieval’, Anuario de Estudios Medievales, 44 (2014), 241–76, at 261.

83 For Astudillo, see Ch. R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, Volume VI: The Valencian School in the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance (Cambridge, Mass. 1935), part 2, 504–05; Cook and Gudiol Ricart, Ars Hispaniae, VI, 272; Gutiérrez Baños, Aportación, II, 48–52 (no. 10), figs 162–63. For the Magdalen altarpieces from Astudillo and Nuremberg specifically, see F. M. Morillo Rodríguez and F. Gutiérrez Baños, Retablo de Astudillo I (retablos-tabernáculo de la Baja Edad Media en la Corona de Castilla, 4/38) (Valladolid 2021), available at http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/46013. For Nuremberg, see Kemperdick, ‘Tabernacle-altarpieces in Central Europe’, 137, fig. 11.

84 Jäggi, ‘Dialogar con Dios’, 248.

85 C. Jäggi, Frauenklöster im Spätmittelalter. Die Kirchen der Klarissen und Dominikanerinnen im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert (Petersberg 2006), 247–333.

86 Jäggi, ‘Dialogar con Dios’, 241–76.

87 Alfonso X el Sabio Cantigas de Santa María, ed. W. Mettmann, 3 vols (Madrid 1986–89), III, 102–03 (no. 303) and 232–33 (no. 361).

88 Scarcely too big in the case of Vileña. For the Virgin and Child of Cañas (1.68 m height), see C. Fernández-Ladreda Aguadé, ‘Virgen de Cañas’, in Alfonso X el Sabio (Murcia 2009), 330–31. For the Virgin and Child of Vileña (1.25 m height), see Martínez Martínez, La imaginería gótica burgalesa, 286–87 (no. 67), where the indicated 0.75 m height is a mistake, as kindly communicated by the author. There is an additional 13th-century Virgin and Child in Cañas, but its measures are not available.

89 The presence of royal heraldry—ubiquitous in 13th- and 14th-century Castile and León—does not necessarily imply royal patronage.

90 M. de Castro, ‘Monasterios hispánicos de clarisas desde el siglo XIII al XVI’, Archivo Ibero-Americano, 193–94 (1989), 79–122.

91 Arrest of Christ, Flagellation, and Road to the Calvary (left wing, from top to bottom). Descent from the Cross, Entombment, and Christ’s Descent into Limbo (right wing, from top to bottom). Five of the six scenes are coincident with those on the Wildenstein altarpiece, and the remaining one (Road to the Calvary) has been hypothetically proposed for the missing left panel of the left wing. For the Passion triptych from Quejana, see A. Velasco Gonzàlez, ‘Un tríptico flamenco de hacia 1400 procedente del monasterio de San Juan Bautista de Quejana (Álava, España)’, Temas medievales, 29/1 (2021), 1–39.