ABSTRACT
Between the 13th and 15th centuries, monarchs used and disposed of their treasures in a symbolic way, using their sumptuous pieces on the most diverse occasions of their lives. The King’s Treasure and the pieces he chose to form it, both shapes and materials, made up a complex set, which was articulated through decorative or formal symbols previously defined and socially recognized. In ordinary or extraordinary ceremonies, the use of objects allowed medieval kings to affirm their status and simultaneously live in a way that was idealized as worthy to exercise their function.
From the medieval world, in ‘its closed mare clausum, to the new openings that occurred to an ‘open sea,’ with maritime voyages across the oceans, introduced new and exotic pieces, creating mutations and proposals that originated different artistic productions. This new vision, and way of seeing the world itself, gradually brought practices and options that led the kings to adopt an ever-growing accumulation of rare and rich pieces that would give the body of the Treasure a new form, as well as how the monarch handled the same and used it. The Iberian Peninsula medieval treasures, as a single logical whole, being functional and symbolic simultaneously, give us a better understanding of the thought, images, and idealized values, thus characterizing the specificities that comprised them before the Modern treasures and collections.
