A canopy from the Portuguese Medieval Monastery of Batalha: a singular exemple of micro-architecture in the Cloisters Collection

Abstract

The MET Cloisters acquired a peculiar architectural canopy in 2016 that belonged to the main portal of the medieval monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória in the Portuguese village of Batalha. This piece, now in New York, surmounted one of the twelve statues of the Apostles. In the 19th century, during restoration works, the portal was altered from its initial dimension and many of its original sculptural elements were replaced by copies. This research note intends to trace the current location of all the original elements, in both public and private collections, as well as their path in the art market. It also analyzes how this canopy represents a unique example of micro-architecture, relating its composition to the monastery’s architecture. The canopy seems to allude to the dual function and meaning of the Portuguese medieval monastery: the divine temple is represented by the five small buildings and their tile-roofs, as the church’s chevet with five radiating chapels; and royal funerary place as represented by the vertical segment, a sectioned octagonal volume evoking King John’s funeral chapel. In its simplicity and micro-scale, this canopy displays remarkable artistic quality, constituting an excellent example of the fourteenth-century production led by the master Huguet in the Portuguese construction site of Batalha.