Parroquia de San Román en Toledo

Parroquia de San Román en Toledo 

Auguste Mathieu and Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot after Genaro Pérez Villaamil, 1850 

Lithograph 

The parish church of San Román occupies one of the highest points of Toledo. It was built in the twelfth century in mudéjar style and consecrated in 1221. Tradition has it that Alfonso VIII was crowned king of Castile in San Román in 1166. 

The viewpoint chosen by Villaamil allows him skilfully to illustrate the intersection of various architectural styles and materials. The layout is that of a traditional basilica with three aisles. The marble columns are clearly Roman in origin and may have been reused from an earlier building on the site, while the capitals are Visigothic. From the columns spring a series of horseshoe arches which ensure maximum visibility into and across the central nave in a way that recalls a mosque. The fall of light in the drawing emphasises the permeability of the design, and Villaamil speculates in a note quoted by Escosura in his commentary that the building may once have been a mosque. The apse, the Roman arch supported by two Hercules-like sculptures, and the Plateresque dome above were all designed by Alonso de Covarrubias in the sixteenth century and, although they are in shadow in this plate, the quality of the workmanship, especially in the coffered ceiling, is plain to see. 

The church now houses a Museum of the Councils [of Toledo] and Visigothic Culture, but the principal feature of the present-day building was not visible to Villaamil and his contemporaries: originally the church had been decorated with a series of Romanesque frescoes which were whitewashed out in the sixteenth century and only revealed after cleaning in the 1940s. Nevertheless, Villaamil found much to admire in this impressive interior. The small group of five figures with their backs to us shows just what a fine figurative artist Villaamil was – they are each so eloquent in their different ways. 

Title: Parroquia de San Román en Toledo | Paroisse de Saint Roman à Tolède. 

Author/Artist: Auguste Mathieu (1810-1864) and Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot (1810-1866, lithographers) after Genaro Pérez Villaamil (1807-1854, artist). 

Technique and Material: Lithograph on paper. 

Dimensions: 310 x 400 mm (image), 525 x 375 mm (page). 

Published: Plate 108 from Genaro Pérez Villaamil and Patricio de la Escosura, España artística y monumental. Three volumes. Paris: A Hauser, 1842-50. Volume 3.  

Date: 1850. 

Marks and Inscriptions: lower edge, left: ‘G.P. de Villa-Amil dibujó’ / ‘Paris, chez A Hauser boul des Italiens 11’; centre, title as above; right: ‘Aug Mathieu lith, fig par Bayot’ / ‘Imp par Lemercier à Paris’. 

Institution: Barry Ife Collection.