ABSTRACT
This essay takes as its focus the frontispiece of the Liber Feudorum Maior, an illuminated cartulary commissioned by Alfonso II, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona (r. 1162–96). This miniature – iconographically unique in the history of medieval art – constructs an image of the patronage of the manuscript itself, with an emphasis on the active roles played by King Alfonso as its patron, and Ramon de Caldes, Dean of Barcelona Cathedral and head of the royal chancery, as its compiler. I contextualise this image in relation to unresolved questions surrounding the manuscript’s chronology and patronal history. At the heart of this mystery is the book’s incorporation of two stylistically divergent sets of illuminations – one in keeping with Romanesque pictorial traditions in Catalonia, the other embracing a more naturalistic approach associated with the so-called Channel Style or Year 1200 Style. While various scholars have suggested that this latter group of illustrations should be dated c. 1220, long after the deaths of both Alfonso and Ramon, I argue that the full spectrum of stylistic, iconographic and patronal evidence makes an earlier date more likely. Beyond addressing a simple dating controversy, this essay demonstrates that Alfonso’s cartulary represents an ideal case study for examining the complexities of royal patronage; it also considers the investigation of patronage as an art historical methodology more broadly.
