Iconography and Literature

8/12/2019 Iconography and Literature

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Iconography and Literature: Alfonso Himself in Cantiga 209

Author(s): John E. Keller and Richard P. KinkadeReviewed work(s):Source: Hispania, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Sep., 1983), pp. 348-352Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and PortugueseStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/342307.

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ICONOGRAPHYAND LITERATURE:ALFONSO HIMSELFIN CANTIGA209JOHN E. KELLERUniversity of Kentucky

RICHARD P. KINKADEUniversity of ArizonaINour studies of iconography and narra-tive art, supported by a generous grantfrom the National Endowment for theHumanities, we have photographed and re-searched various art genres which tellstories. We believe that the importance ofthis sphere of study is increasingly beingrecognized and that it can contribute enor-mously to our knowledge of medievalman's perception of literature and the finearts. Most interesting parallels and con-trasts between the written word and itsvisualization occur, for frequently minia-tures may supply details lacking in the text.It should be noted that in the miniaturesof Cantiga 209, iconography and text close-ly parallel each other and that contrast ishardly present except for the fact thatscene, not specifically developed in thepoem, is detailed in visualized form. Thepresent article took its inspiration in thefirst of several books which we hope topublish about the interdisciplinary ties be-tween literature and the fine arts.'Among some 400-odd Cantigas de SantaMaria of King Alfonso X, el Sabio, sometwenty-eight are concerned with the kinghimself or with members of his family whowere benefited by Our Lady's miraculousintervention in their lives. This is a remark-able phenomenon, for no other patron ofliteratureand art in medieval times, insofaras we have been able to discover, includedhimself to so great a degree and so person-ally in a work sponsored by him. The notedBritish historian, the late Evelyn Procter,was singularly attracted by the personaltouch accorded the Cantigas by the LearnedKing, and today Joseph Snow and PhilipVandrey have brought to light even moreof the king's personal touch.2 But neitherProctor nor Snow approached the matterthrough the visualization of miracles inwhich Alfonso appears depicted by his art-ists as they characterized him visually, andin the process, developed facets of themonarch omitted in the verbalization.Frequent reference to the color plate

that accompanies this article will help thereader to follow our treatment of Alfon-sine illumination because it enables one tosee the royal character in pictorial form.The page of miniatures comes from theFlorentine manuscript, and this illuminatedpage is lacking in the most lavishly illumi-nated of all the manuscriptsof the Cantigasde Santa Maria, that is, Ms. Escorial T.I.J.We believe that this page has never beforebeen reproduced in color facsimile.3The personal quality of this cantiga isintense and unique in "biographical art."Both the artist and the poet, who may wellhave been the poetically gifted Alfonsohimself, have produced a remarkablysensi-tive work of literary and graphic art; andif, indeed, King Alfonso composed thepoem, as we believe he did, then Cantiga209 might be called an example of "auto-biographical writing." As one reads Can-tiga 209 today and studies its miniatures hefeels that he is actually experiencing muchof the king's own suffering as he fightsfor his life. It is interesting to discover, dueto the efforts of Procter, that Alfonso wasflat on his back in Victoria suffering froma mortal illness, a fact which explains whythere is no entry of his whereabouts andactivities in that time in the chronicle.'It is probable that in Alfonso's time fewwere privileged to peruse the illuminatedmanuscripts of the Cantigas, but those whowere so fortunate could receive the impactof miracles presented to them in threemedia-the written word, musical nota-tion, and truly fabulous miniatures. Toread these poems, to follow their contentin the illuminations, and to hear them sungto musical accompaniment, must have beena very moving experience. And today, inthe recently published complete and au-thentic facsimile of the Escorial manu-script,' one is now able to read, view andhear, on the discs which accompany thevolume, some of the songs edited by mod-ern musicologists. The Florentine manu-script contained no musical notation, but

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Iconography and Literature:Alfonso Himself in Cantiga 209 349Higinio Angles' definitive musical tran-scription of the most complete of themanuscripts of the Cantigas does containthe music of Cantiga 209.6This particular cantiga, then, is an un-usual piece: not only is it a fine short poemand a moving melody, which we think har-monizes with the miracle's subject matter,'

but it also contains one of the most bril-liant of illuminations to be found in eitherof the narrative codices of the Cantigas.Since Number 209 is brief, we offer it inthe original Galician-Portuguese from theedition of Walter Mettmann and in thetranslation by Kathleen Kulp-Hill whichhas not yet been published.8[C]omo el Rey Don Affonso de Castela adoeqeu en Bitoriae ouv' hiTadoor tan grande, que coidaron que morresse ende,e poseron-lle de suso o livro das Cantigas de Santa Maria, e foi guarido.

5 Muito faz grand' erro, e en torto jaz,a Deus quen lie nega o ben que lie faz.Mas en este torto per ren non jareique non cont' o ben que del recebud' eiper ssa Madre Virgen, a que sempr' amei.10 e de a loar mais d'outra ren me praz.Muito faz grand' erro, en en torto jaz . . .E, como non devo aver gran saboren loar os feitos daquesta Sennorque me val nas coitas e tolle door15 e faz-m' outras mercees muitas assaz?Muito faz grand' erro, e en torto jaz . ..Poren vos direi o que passou per mi,jazend' en Bitoira enfermo assique todos cuidavan que morress' ali20 e non atendian de mi bon solaz.Muito faz grand' erro, e en torto jaz . . .Ca hia door me fillou [y] atalque en ben cuidava que era mortal,e braadava:


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350 John E. Keller and Richard P. Kinkade Hispania66 (September 1983)intricacy of design. This is truly a royal il-lumination, sparing nothing in its conspic-uous attempt to be unique among the can-tigas miniatures.Since we present it in translation in toto,there is no need to discuss the details of aplot whose essential scheme and contentare summarized by its somewhat lengthytitle. The truly interesting aspects of hismiraculous event lie in the iconography andthe revelation of the monarch's most inti-mate feelings as he expresses them in thefirst person in verse and pictorially. Nowhere have we encountered a similar ac-count of a king's description of how he feltin the midst of the misery of an illness orhow he prayed in the depths of his despair.,He calls the Virgin his Divine Mother, andrelates: "I cried out, 'Holy Mother, helpme, and with your power dispel this mala-dy '" The caption of the appropriate panelreads, "How King Alfonso suffered a painso great that all thought he would die."In panel 1 the visualization parallelsand greatly strengthens Alfonso's actionsat the height of his illness. He lies supinein his royal four-poster with its pink coun-terpane drawn up around his body, leavingone arm limply exposed. His head ispropped up on a pillow striped in gold andblue, and since he is the king, he wears hisgolden crown even in bed, for he must beeasily recognized by the viewer. The gleam-ing golden arches, one large romanesqueat the left, the center and far right Gothic,frame the action. The first and larger archfocuses attention upon the monarch. At hisright physicians consult. Alfonso's facereveals pain, insofar as the artists wereable to capture and depict it.Alfonso in panel 2 has grown worse.The caption reads, "How the physiciansordered hot cloths placed on him but herefused." In the miniature he turns hisface away from them as they proffer thecloths and regally waves them back with hishand. Behind the doctors stand two cour-tiers or members of the royal family, whocover their heads and weep in gesturesoften seen in medieval paintings and sculp-tures depicting funerary scenes. At theking's left, and just behind the head of thebed, stands a servant wielding a peacockplumed fan. This personage is, of course,part of the panoply of kingship, but at thesame time provides an aesthetic touch of

balance to the panel. The poem revealsthat Alfonso thought it was better to suf-fer, making clear his critical opinion ofmedical science as compared with thepower of Our Lady. The poem relates that"I ordered Her Book brought to me."Indeed, in panel 3, "How the Kingordered the Canticles of Holy Marybrought," Alfonso is still lying in bed,apparently waiting for the treasured vol-ume, bound in scarlet and silver, which atonsured priest presents ceremoniously.Doctors and courtiers stand behind thecleric, and the servant with the fan has notdeserted his post.Panel 4 shows Alfonso still supine, butseemingly relaxed with the book's openface resting over his heart. "They put iton me," he wrote in the poem, "and im-mediately I lay at peace." His body cer-tainly seems at rest. Several people in ex-pectation of the miraculous, or out ofrespect to the Virgin and Her wondrousBook, have gone to their knees, whileothers stand and stare in pious awe. Theking's palm now lies flat across the pages.In Panel 5, "How the King was instantlycured, felt no pain, and praised HolyMary," he sits up in bed, wearing a brightblue bedrobe over his samite gown. Heraises the volume in both hands and kissesit devoutly, while all kneel except the fan-bearer. "And," wrote Alfonso, "I didn'tscream nor did I feel pain at all, but feltinstantly quite well." His face has an ex-pression of devotion. The striped pillow,now that his head is no longer on it, re-

veals a square doily where it had rested,calling attention once more to artistic in-sistence upon the inclusion of the smallestdetail.Panel 6 depicts the king still sitting up inbed, the volume now face down upon hislap. All kneel, save the fan-bearer, as Al-fonso raises his hands in prayerful devo-tion. The caption reads, "How the Kingand the others who were there praised HolyMary." Indeed, the kneeling, weeping menlower their faces all the way to the floorand press against it, just as the verses recall.Gesture and facial expression play astrong role in this cantiga's illumination:the king's hand in panel 1, listless on hischest, his face strained; the royal headturned peevishly from the physicians inpanel 2, as his hand rejects their cloths;


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Iconography and Literature:Alfonso Himself in Cantiga 209 351the intense faces of the king and courtiersin panel 3 as the volume is presented; inpanel 4, the king's face at last calm, hisbody relaxed, his hand seeming to caressthe open pages, while the faces of theothers relax at last; the king's face ecstaticin panel 5 as he holds the book on high andpresses his lips to it; and in panel 6 hiscountenance in complete repose, as hegazes piously upward, his hands steepledin prayer.In this cantiga, perhaps more expressive-ly than in any other, can be found the ninecomponents of narrative in briefest formas well as in detailed and lavish pictorialrepresentation-plot, setting, conflict,characterization, theme, style, effect, pointof view, and mood or tone.The simple, unadulterated plot and itsconflict never falter and are constantlymanifest; scene certainly is gorgeous, ex-plicit in detail, laid on effectively againstthe oyster-white walls of the royal bed-chamber; characterization is primarilyAlfonso's, for the others are mere minorsupporting parts of the scene. The king'sdefinite character emerges: his disdain forworldly cures; his confidence in the divine;his belief in Our Lady's power and willing-ness to heal him; and his pious respectfor the wondrous book which he hadcaused to be written, set to music, and il-luminated in Her honor; even his deeplove for his patroness is apparent as hishands lift the volume so that he can kiss it.Iconography in these miniatures, as wellas style in the poem, is so direct, clear andunencumbered, even in the case of the lav-ish details of the scene, that without cap-tions the viewer can unravel most of theaction with little effort. Theme is obviouslyfaith and devotion and their rewards;effectis powerful and perhaps more complexthan meets the eye at first. Viewers mightwell have been so thrilled at the series ofscenes in the intimacy of the royal bed-chamber amid so much luxury and pompthat other effects might have been diffused.Point of view is most unusually personaland like no other found either in verbal orvisual form in the Cantigas. King Alfonsoallows the reader to hear him speak and,through the visualization and their cap-tions, lets the viewer see that he is speaking.The king has actually versified a vignettestraight from his own personal life and ex-

perience and from the depths of his suffer-ing. Mood or tone is one of deep religiosi-ty. Of all the cantigas in which Alfonsoappears none is more deeply intimate.AT LEAST FIVE OTHER AUTHORS of note inMedieval Spanish letters are remarkablefor the revelation of their personal feelingsand opinions. Contemporary with AlfonsoX was Gonzalo de Berceo, who frequentlypresented interesting statements of how hefelt and what he thought, but without vis-ual representation. The fourteenth centuryproduced three authors, two of the highestliterary quality: Juan Ruiz frequently andoften daringly exposed his most intimatefeelings; Don Juan Manuel, nephew ofAlfonso X, though far less direct, none-theless expressed his thoughts, especially inhis masterpiece, El Conde Lucanor; andtoward the end of that century one findsstrong personal admissions in Pero L6pezde Ayala, especially in Rimado de palacio.A century later one can read very personalconfessions in the Sacramentalof ClementeSanchez de Vercial, Archdeacon of Val-deras, although some claim his confessionsto be contrived, with which we disagree.But no author equaled the very precise,emotional, and intimately personal dis-closures found in those Cantigas de SantaMaria in which King Alfonso plays a rolein both verbalization and visualization.

NOTES'"Iconography and Narrative Art in MedievalSpanish Fiction" is the title of the first book resultingfrom the grant from the National Endowment forthe Humanities; the second book will treat iconogra-phy and narrative in tapestries; the third in frescoesand other paintings; and the fourth will concernitself with various kinds of carvings and sculpture.2Evelyn S. Proctor, Alfonso X of Castile, Patronof Literature and Learning (Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1951), 32 ff; Joseph Snow, "A Chapter inAlfonso's Personal Narrative: the Puerto de SantaMaria Poems in the Cantigas de Santa Maria," LaCor6nica 8 (1979), 10-21 and "Self-Conscious Refer-ence and the Organic Narrative Pattern of the Can-

tigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X," Medieval,Renaissance and Folklore Studies in Honor of JohnEsten Keller (Newark, Delaware: Juan de la CuestaPress, 1980), 53-66; and Philip L. Vandrey, "A Stylis-tic Approach to the Authorship Problem of the CSMof Alfonso el Sabio," unpubl. diss. NorthwesternUniv., 1972, 113 pp, of which an abstract appears inDAI, xxxiii (1972-73), 5753A.3This manuscript of the Cantigas is richly illumi-


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352 John E. Keller and Richard P. Kinkade Hispania66 (September1983)nated, but it is incomplete, since not only have tenpages probably been removed at the beginning, butalso many pages of miniatures have vacant panels,lack titles, or are otherwise defective. The best de-scription of it is that of Antonio Garcia Solalinde,"El c6dice florentino de las Cantigas y su relaci6ncon los demis manuscritos," Revista de Filologia,v (1918), 143-79. This codex is known as BibliotecaNazionale, MS Banco Rari 20, formerly 11.1.2.3.'Procter, p. 40.'Alfonso X el Sabio, Cantigas de Santa Maria:Edici6n facsi'mil del Codice T. J. de la Bibliotecade San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Siglo XIII (Madrid:Editora Internacional de Libros Antiguos, 1979), 2vols. See the reviews by John E. Keller, Hispania,63 (September, 1980), 605 and by Kathleen Kulp-Hill, Kentucky Romance Quarterly, 28, No. 2 (1981),213-15.

6Higinio Angles, La mz'sica de las Cantigas deSanta Maria del Rey Alfonso el Sabio. Facsimil,transcripci6ny estudio critico (Barcelona: Diputaci6nProvincial de Barcelona, Biblioteca Central, 1943)and the edition, based upon that of Angl6s, but re-worked by Jos6 Maria Llorens Cister6 in the volumeof text, transcription, etc. which accompanies thefacsimile volume, pp. 341-90.'Not all scholars believe that the melodies andthe stories of the miracles are in any way connected.In our opinions sad miracles are set to sad melodies,warlike subjects to lively melodies, etc. The opinionsof both schools of thought are purely subjective, webelieve. More research is needed in this area.'Walter Mettmann, Alfonso X, o Sabio. Cantigasde Santa Maria (Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra,1959-1964) 4 vols. Cantiga 209 appears on pages274-75 of Vol. ii.

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