Paintings from Arlanza

There was also fine decorations of a courtly or profane nature in large monastic centres, such as Arlanza in Castile, and these fragments represent especially rare survivals.

[2] The ten very large animals and other subjects from the world of heraldry[3] come from the chapter house or a room above,[4] on the lowest floor of the so-called Torre del Tesoro (Treasury Tower), and are inspired by illuminated bestiaries, with the basic landscape backgrounds that are often seen in these.

The Barcelona group includes a gryphon, a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, in a watchful pose.

There are other panels of a lion and a dragon, now at The Cloisters in New York,[5] one at the Harvard University Fogg Art Museum,[6] and another in a private collection.

The style of the paintings in Arlanza is generally related to other Spanish works of around 1200, especially the frescos from the Monastery of Santa María de Sigena (also in MNAC, Barcelona), which are clearly influenced by English illuminated manuscript miniature painting, something that can be seen in the refinement and the precision of the motifs, combined with their monumental nature.