Iconografía del espaciolas claves de bóveda de los edificios religiosos de la Diócesis de Tarragona (1150-1350)

Abstract

The study is in the same ambit as the new historiographical works that contemplate sacred and domestic architectural ensembles –such as monasteries, churches, hermitages and cathedrals– from new perspectives that examine the physical nature of these buildings, their documentary records and the visual programs that provided them with their liturgical and doctrinal significance. This doctoral thesis studies the iconographic programs present in the keystones of religious buildings and analyses how these images condition the viewer's perception of the architecture as a whole and how the prescriptions of religion, liturgy and protocol were interpreted by the artists who created them. However, the research article is not limited to a semantic interpretation of the bosses, but also analyses them in architectural terms, because the keystone is an intrinsic element of the ribbed vault. Consequently, renovations to the rib profiles are accompanied by changes in the shape of the keystones and often the incorporation of new iconographic motifs, an evolution that increases our understanding of their chronological and, possibly, stylistic dimensions of the buildings that receive them.