Medieval painted panels found beneath Toledo house

A group of polychrome wood panels discovered under the floorboards of a house in Toledo in 2018 are going on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid. They were found during construction of a hotel planned to go up over several buildings in the Bajada del Pozo Amargo street next to Toldeo’s Cathedral. They had been stripped from their original location on the upper part of the walls of a quadrangular hall and reused as raw carpentry material in the house’s subfloor.

The panels date to the 13th and 14th centuries and depict courtly scenes of ladies, kings and knights, warfare, hunting and allegories of wisdom with images of books and philosophers. Courtly scenes include: a royal, bearded man with a crown and purple mantle with castle elements in the background; two crowned figures, one bearded, one youthful, flanked by ladies in headdresses; a man wearing a purple cloak with an ermine trim backed by courtiers wearing gloves and tunics.

Several of the people depicted in the panels are identifiable thanks to inscriptions and heraldry, among them: Jofré de Loaysa, royal notary, historian, diplomat, Archdeacon of Toledo, Gonzalo Pétrez, Archbishop of Toledo from 1280 to 1298 and owner of one of the greatest collection of codices of the period.

A representation of cavalry in war is the most complex surviving scene. It depicts men armed for battle mounted on horses. They carry banners and the horses are draped with trappings. Another panel shows an array of arms and armor: helmets, axes, maces, chainmail gloves, greaves, arm guards, shields, swords. There are wounds and blood in this scene, suggesting it’s alluding to real events.

Philosophy and science are present on several panels. One depicts Plato and Aristotle being breastfed by Sophia, goddess of wisdom, surrounded by books. Another panel features what looks like a library with cabinets containing codices. Astronomy is represented in two tables, one in which the word is carved into an archway of a library; the other depicting a starry sky with an astrolabe on the table.

During this period, Spain was ruled by Ferdinand III the Saint, Alfonso X the Wise, and Sancho IV of the Castilian dynasty and Toledo was the cultural and administrative hub of the expanding centralized monarchy. There was a flourishing of art, philosophy and science, especially under Alfonso X, and the iconography of the panels is very much in keeping with the illuminations in the Cantigas de Santa María codices commissioned by Alfonso.

Now part of the collection of the Santa Cruz Museum of Toledo, the panels have traveled to Madrid where they are a thematic centerpiece of the What the City Hides: Images of the Medieval Court of Toledo exhibition. Other pieces from the royal court during the transition from the 13th to the 14th century are on display with the panels, including rare surviving wooden elements like a carved beam from the long-gone Toledo palace of the Dukes of Arjona and a whole section of decorated coffered ceiling from the royal chamber of King Alfonso XI in Cordoba.

* This article was originally published here