Altar frontal from La Mare de Déu in El Coll

From the second half of the 12th century, the cult of the Virgin Mary became very popular all over Catalonia, thanks in large part to the Marian devotion promoted by the Cistercian monks. This frontal, like the image of the Virgin (MEV 74) exhibited next to it, comes from the sanctuary of Santa Maria in El Coll where, around 1180, a Benedictine priory depending on the abbey of Amer was established. This new prominence of the figure of the Virgin can be appreciated in this frontal in which the Virgin does not have the Child in the middle of her lap, acting as a throne, typical of the high Romanesque: the infant Jesus is on one of her knees, very habitual in the new Gothic art. Mary, crowned, with the fleur-de-lis, the symbol of royalty, in her hand, is inside the vesica piscis surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In the side compartments there are scenes related to the life of the infant Jesus and the Virgin Mary: the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Presentation at the Temple, the Dormition and the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. The stylistic parallels of this frontal with the miniature of a Calvary from a manuscript (second half of the 12th century) done in the scriptorium of Vic Cathedral make it possible to attribute the making of this frontal to a workshop established in Vic at the time.