Masterpieces of Art: Maestà and Mosque of Córdoba

Maestà

Author: Duccio di Buoninsegna

Date: 1308-11

Museum: Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena

Features: 214 x 412 cm.

Material: Painting on canvas

Style: Gothic Italian

Without a doubt, we are facing one of the most important achievements of medieval Italian art and, arguably, the highlight of Duccio di Buoninsegna. Having been dismantled and its tables dispersed, determining its original structure has become one of the greatest efforts of historians. It was painted on both sides, and it is evident in both the weight of the Byzantine tradition: the main face shows the Virgin enthroned, surrounded by angels and saints, and the back where it develops a series devoted to the Passion. The richness and variety of compositions in the latter area has been attributed to the successful collaboration of different teachers under the supervision of Duccio.

Mosque of Cordoba

The first mosque of Cordoba was built in the year 786, on behalf of Hisham I. One hundred and thirty columns sustained ten ships, to which a rectangular court 74 meters long is attached. In 833, Abd al-Rahman II added a colonnaded courtyard, while the ships will run and a new mihrab will be built.

Between 945 and 961, in the heyday era of the Caliphate, Abd al-Rahman III extended the courtyard and the minaret. His son, Al-Hakam II, tore down the south wall and expanded the mosque, with more ships and 120 columns. Also, three splendid domes are built above the new mihrab.

In 987 the patio was re-extended to the east and the door of Forgiveness was decorated. Hisham II decided to add eight new ships to the Mosque, to welcome the faithful in a city that had more and more people.

In 1492, just after the Reconquista was completed, the church council ordered the city to demolish the center of the Mosque to build a massive late Gothic chapel, a work completed in 1523, in the time of Charles V.

Center for the religious life of Muslim Cordoba, the interior is organized by a new system of arches. The Cordovan architect introduced an important novelty: the use of two overlapping supports, a column top-down and a pillar and two arches, one lower, Horseshoe, and an upper, semicircular, which receives the timber roof. A total of 612 columns were used, almost all recovered from Roman buildings, topped with pilasters in the arches sobrapuestos born, both of the horseshoe, where stone and brick are combined to create a striking two-color.

All the luxury and the Baroque of the Mosque focus on the Maksura area and the mihrab. It stresses the game of lobed arches decorated with acanthus and intertwined, creating a patchwork network feature. The decor would have a symbolic function, related to the power of the Caliph of Cordoba and the Islamic taste for sumptuousness.