Altar frontal from Sant Hilari in Vidrà

This altar frontal is a more popular version of the Italo-Byzantine art style developed in Catalonia during the first half of the 13th century. As on the altar from Rotgers, the figures have a flowing and smooth modelling that distances them from the more hieratic style of Romanesque art, although they are not done as well as those on the altar from Rotgers. The figure of Saint Hilary, the titular saint of the parish of Vidrà, is depicted in one of the compartments of the altar. He appears wearing the liturgical ornaments, the mitre ant the maniple, celebrating the Eucharist. On the altar we see the chalice and the book. In the other compartments there are the figures of six apostles, of which we can only clearly distinguish the figure of Saint Peter with the keys. The frontal is centred on the figure of the Virgin and the Child sitting on his mother's knee. Behind them, the archangels Raphael and Gabriel hold up a cloth that frames the figures of the mother and child. These two archangels, with a very stylised canon and a very elegant body movement, are the most accomplished figures on the frontal.