Medieval art at the MNAC museum

What is special controversial paintings of Sijena?

MNAC museum Barcelona

Pieces of art of great pictorial importance have been the protagonists in recent weeks in a dispute over ownership of the same between Aragon and Catalonia and culminating in a trial that started this week. The judge will determine the final ownership of some paintings that carry more than 70 years in Barcelona whose origin is in the Monastery of Sijena, a small village in the province of Huesca.

The works of Byzantine influence, are an important iconographic significance. “They are the masterpiece of Spanish style painting 1200, an advanced period is between the end of the Romanesque and early Gothic art,” says Jordi Camps, head curator of Medieval Art National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), where these frescoes are exposed today.

Fall of Man and Sin

The frescoes were located in the arches of the monastery, explained the Old Testament, with the representation of man’s fall and sin. On the inside you can see very accurate of the ancestors of Christ as “a link between the old and new testament” portraits, Camps said, recalling that there is a tendency of this medieval art movement to the “individualization of the characters “where the drama is the protagonist.

Due to the fire that devastated the religious building in August 1936, during the Civil War, most of wall paintings were lost, although it has been partially preserved wall on the south side, where the flagellation of Christ is represented, His crucifixion and resurrection of the same. Also noteworthy is the presence of animals and monsters in different fresh. “They act as margins of manuscript illumination and no links with the English model that prevailed at that time”

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Oldest olive tree of…….

The oldest olive tree in Spain has 1701 years and is in Ulldecona (Tarragona)

Oldest olive tree-Ulldecona-Tarragona

A study by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) has determined that the olive tree known as ‘the Farga de Arion’ in Ulldecona (Tarragona), has an estimated age of 1701 years and would have planted therefore, in 314, in the reign of Emperor Constantine I (306-337 AD.).

The study was led by Professor of Mensuration of the School of Forestry, Forestry and Environment of the UPM, Antonio Prieto.

The study results show that olive Ulldecona monumental is the oldest dated tree Peninsula and is also among the oldest in the world.

Prieto also worked on dating the ‘Farga del Pou Mas’, which is in La Jana (Castellón), and in this case the estimated age is 1,182 years old and was planted in 833, during the Emirate of Abderramán II (822-852 AD.).

Dating works have focused on studying the perimeter of tree trunks 50 centimeters of soil and laser telemetry, has lifted the section has allowed for specific calculations to determine the age of the tree.

A method that has been used as an alternative to other methods such as carbon 14 or measuring the growth rings, not been possible to implement this project.

The work was sponsored by the Bank Santander Foundation at the request of the Commonwealth of the Taula del Sénia.

Senia Territory, made up of 27 people Valencia, Catalonia and Aragon, retains the highest concentration of monumental olive trees in the world: 4,798 over 3.50 meters in trunk circumference at 1.30 meters above the ground, spread across 22 villages.

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