Entre los siglos VIII y XI Calatayud fue una de las ciudades más importantes de la Marca Superior, debido a que todos los valles que convergen en ella, o en sus alrededores, sirven de comunicación natural entre la Meseta, el valle del Ebro, el levante y el norte peninsular. Pese a que su ubicación privilegiada le otorgó mucha riqueza en época musulmana, su posición geofísica conllevó asumir a sus habitantes la condición de puerta de acceso a distintas regiones y reinos. En cierto modo, se puede afirmar que, independientemente de quién la dominara, su salvaguarda siempre fue una prioridad para las élites en el poder. Esto explicaría el hecho de que esta ciudad poseyera un sistema defensivo único en Al-Ándalus, descrito por Ibn Abi Zar, en su libro Rawd al-Qirtas, como la plaza más fuerte del Este de al-Ándalus. Este trabajo pretende estudiar los conjuntos fortificados de Calatayud desde la doble perspectiva que aportan las fuentes escritas y el análisis de las evidencias materiales llegadas a nuestros días, a fin de poder fijar unas secuencias constructivas lo más claras y razonadas posibles.
From Antiquity, medieval architects and sculptors inherited various technical practices to create polychrome buildings and artworks, including polymateriality, the free and easy use of combining two or more materials of different colors, independent either by nature or expressive capabilities, to address a significant effect on the perception of architecture and architectural, liturgical, and in the round sculpture, both in stone, wood, or metal. Assuming that the use of a specific material in an artifact was never accidental but determined by conscious purposes, this paper will attempt to explain the necessity and intentionality of polymateriality in the context of the Middle Ages.
Rezension des Ausstellungskatalogs von Strehlke, Carl Brandon; Cascia, Stefano; Tartuferi, Angelo (Hrsg.), Beato Angelico. Ediz. a colori (Cataloghi). Florenz: Marsilio Arte; Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, 2025, 440 pp. ISBN: 979-1254632499.
This article examines the iconography of the palm tree in the Flight into Egypt as a meeting point between the symbolic tradition of the ancient world and its reformulation in medieval Christianity. In Greco-Roman antiquity, the palm was invested with meanings of permanence, strength, and indomitable verticality, closely connected to solar symbolism and the cult of Apollo. Medieval Christianity inherited this imagery and reshaped it through the apocryphal narrative of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. In this text, the palm tree bends voluntarily before the Christ Child, not only to offer its fruit but as a gesture of recognition and obedience to the Incarnation. Through a comparative analysis of textual and visual sources, this study demonstrates that the presence of the palm in the Flight into Egypt is not a universal iconographic feature. Rather, it functions as a selective marker whose role extends beyond the simple provision of dates to the Virgin. Its depiction—explicit, veiled, or condensed—reflects conscious choices made by workshops and patrons. These choices allow certain medieval images to be reinterpreted beyond a strictly literal narrative reading. The palm tree thus emerges as a symbol of transformed continuity. It articulates classical heritage with a medieval theology of grace, providence, and the obedience of creation
