“Visigothic Art”: Pillar in the Church of San Salvador, Toledo

The pillar in the Church of San Salvador in Toledo defies certain dating, but scholars generally assign it to the Visigothic period.  Even before the Asturian carving promised in my previous post, we see a formal similarity between an early medieval Spanish stone relief and early Byzantine ivories. 

The pillar displays four scenes: the Healing of the Blind Man, the Raising of Lazarus, Christ and the Samaritan Women, and the Woman with the Issue of Blood. The simplicity of the compositions and their vertical arrangement recall the side panels on the front cover of the  Etschmiadzin Gospels (I can only find a blurry image of the back cover) and on the Murano Diptych.  The vertical format may also recall the scenes between the columns that flank Luke in the Corpus Christi Gospels (see earlier posting for the class on “Religious Imagery ca. 600″). 

The other three sides show vinescrolls and other vegetal ornament, but I have seen no images of them.

Discussion of the program of the pillar provides a useful exercise, but one without an obvious solution.  Also, when you look closely, you see that no faces remain, suggesting some sort of systematic destruction, perhaps by the aniconic conquerors who ended Visigothic dominion over the Iberian peninsula in 711. 

And here ends the class on the art of Visigothic Spain.