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Camel Tapestry
In stock
SKU
WMET0078
Our Inspiration: Camel
Spanish, made in Castile-León
Fresco transferred to canvas, first half 12th century (possibly 1129–34)
The Cloisters Collection, 1961 61.219
In the early 12th century, a workshop of painters covered the monastery church of San Baudelio de Berlanga’s walls with frescoes, including this image of a one-humped camel (a dromedary), originally part of a group of animal and hunting scenes. The painters’ style prompted the flattening and exaggeration of this dromedary’s form, but its overall shape and proportions are relatively close to the real thing. Inside the church, the animal could have taken on specifically Christian symbolic value. According to Saint Augustine, the camel represented humility—a virtue suggested by this creature’s deeply dipping neck.
Our Inspiration: Camel
Spanish, made in Castile-León
Fresco transferred to canvas, first half 12th century (possibly 1129–34)
The Cloisters Collection, 1961 61.219
In the early 12th century, a workshop of painters covered the monastery church of San Baudelio de Berlanga’s walls with frescoes, including this image of a one-humped camel (a dromedary), originally part of a group of animal and hunting scenes. The painters’ style prompted the flattening and exaggeration of this dromedary’s form, but its overall shape and proportions are relatively close to the real thing. Inside the church, the animal could have taken on specifically Christian symbolic value. According to Saint Augustine, the camel represented humility—a virtue suggested by this creature’s deeply dipping neck.