Eschatological Fortified Cities. Perspective Uses in the Beatus of Girona and Saint-Sever

Abstract

Some of the urban representations designed in the Beatus of Girona and Saint-Sever differ from models used in the others families of Early Medieval Apocalypses. This original feature appears as a result of the chosen perspective —vertical projection of elements as a simulation of virtual depth— in the images of the most important cities in the eschatologic christian thought: Heavenly Jerusalem and Babylon. This research study feasible previous connections and consequents of this kind of perspective and the causes of its use in Hispania and Gasconia. A new record is presented here to be included in the schemes of architectural representation in early Medieval Art. Therefore, is offered a possible answer for an archetype of vertical perspective in Mozarabic illumination, with possible consequences in Poitou romanesque architecture.