Women in the Context of Romanesque Combat Scenes in Spain and France

For more than a quarter century, the authors have been examining Romanesque ecclesiastical and secular sites possessing depictions of military themes in sculpture, fresco painting and mosaics. Such examples are especially numerous in Western Europe during the period from 1120 to 1230. One especially wonders at the large number (over three thousand) of such themes appearing in churches, especially monastic structures, presumably isolated from the bellicose activity of the secular world. ¹ A useful explanation of this apparent conundrum can be found in the recent work of Katherine Allen Smith, who explores the considerable interest that monastic writers took in identifying their vision of the spiritual struggle with the analogous combats that took place in the secular world. Such comparisons appear as illustrations in numerous monastic manuscripts as well as in the decorative art manifest in their churches. ² A second factor emerges with the importance of royal and noble patronage and its possible influence on artistic programs, especially with regard to the ongoing military pressure of the Spanish kingdoms on the Islamic-controlled south, sometimes perceived as a crusade. ³ State-sponsored warfare along with the periodic conflicts of feudal aristocrats, and even struggles among the nascent municipalities of the twelfth century, provided numerous instances of bellicosity from which churchmen and the artists they patronized could draw inspiration. ⁴ One should not be surprised by the fact that a war-like age would display a penchant for war-like art, even in its churches.