Friezes

Five friezes

Inv. 2014/35/1, 2014/35/2, 2014/35/3, 2014/35/4, 2014/35/5

PinewoodSalto de línea Curiel de Duero, 14th-15th centuries

Five friezes or fragments of friezes, bought by the State by Ministerial Order (T.S. 5/14) of 11/03/2014, by exercise of its pre-emptive right in Subastas Alcalá, and deposited in this National Archaeological Museum, where they have been registered with inventory numbers 2014/35/1-5. They seem to have been part of the wooden frieze in one of the ceilings of the rooms in the Curiel de Duero Palace, in the municipality of Valladolid known as Curiel de los Ajos. They are made of pinewood and painted on tempera on a plaster primer. All five have a similar decorative structure, consisting of mixtilinear, white pearl ribbon arches with a red point in their interior, this element being repeated on their edges. Different heraldic motifs or courtly scenes are painted inside the arches.

The Palace of Curiel de los Ajos was built and decorated by Diego Lope de Zúñiga from 1386 on, that being the date when he was named Chief Justice by John II of Castile, a position he kept with King Henry III; the palace was lived in until his death in 1412. These dates help us to date the ceilings.