The Isabel of Aragona’s miracle of the roses and the art market’s money dilemma

While also some pivotal international players have started to question the many crucial problems affecting the opaque structures of the main auction houses – including UBS, that is sponsoring a quite aggressive video circulating on the web thanks to artsy.com – we would like to talk about a minor but meaningful exhibition that both revives a fascinating historical figure and somehow sends a touching message to those who, according to their detractors, are exploiting an intellectual resource which is in fact extraordinary rare and fragile.

 

There is a tiny room in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon, where tiny exhibitions are held. It is called the Room with the Painted Ceiling as part of the vaults still displays the original quadratura realised by the Tuscan artist Vincenzo Baccherelli at the beginning of the 18th century. According to the Museum, this tiny room is mainly dedicated to host shows related to research projects with the ultimate goal to present to the public perhaps smaller yet valuable pieces of the museum’s collection, as in the case of the current exhibition, the Treasue of the Holy Queen (until 19th June).

 

In occasion of the fifth centenary of the beatification of Isabel of Aragona, the Museum is celebrating the Holy Queen by putting on display in the tiny room her Treasure, a set of five pieces – the reliquary, her pilgrim staff, a processional cross, a Virgin and Child image-reliquary, and a necklace – which belonged to the Queen and became relics just after her death. The beauty of these objects is possibly enhanced by the two paintings which are placed alongside, one from the workshop of Quentin Meytys and the other by Francisco Zurbarán.

 

The small size of the room, the dim light, the strong colors chosen for the setting, the artworks on show all do contribute to create a holy atmosphere and trigger your interest in finding out more about the Holy Queen, also known as the Queen of the Miracle of the Roses who in the iconography is traditionally depicted bearing roses in her garments.

 

The miracle of the roses seems to have been first described in an anonymous text composed in the Monastery of Saint Clare in Coimbra. According to the account, Isabel was a pious, virtuous and compassionate woman who devoted her life to help people in need against the will of her husband King Dinis, whom she married at very young age. One day, while she was hiding in her skirt a large sum of money to be handed out to the poor, she came across her husband and when questioned by him she pretended to be carrying roses instead. Despite being winter time, she actually showed the king the beautiful roses concealed in her garments.

 

Canonised in 1625, she was highly venerated in Spain and Portugal during the 17th century and many artworks in honor of the Saint were produced in those years, amongst which there is the extraordinary piece by Zurbarán, portraying the Holy Queen, staring directly at the viewer while delicately holding with both hands the hem of her skirt, full of roses. She is also wearing the crown, which apparently she donated to the Sanctuary of Santiago de Compostela during the pilgrimage she went on in 1325 after the death of King Dinis.

 

The pilgrimage represents an important episode in her life and some of the pieces now on show at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga are actually evidences of this event – such as the pilgrim staff -, while the necklace includes some elements from the crown she left behind.

 

The great value of this exhibition lies in the choice of placing side by side the two paintings and the relics; while the latter are certainly enhanced by the artworks, the Holy Queen on the canvas becomes more real through the presence of physical items. And somehow the tiny room with the painted ceiling is turned into a mystic stage.

November 25, 2020