Pastrana Series: The Taking of Tangier
Origin: Real Fábrica de Tapices, Madrid, Spain
Cronologia: 1936
Material: Wool & Silk
Dimensions (cm): 494 x 1057
Inv. no.: PD0333
The Taking of Tangier
After the conquest of the city of Asilah, King Afonso V is informed that the inhabitants of Tangier had abandoned their small city, fearing the possibility of a violent conquest by the Portuguese, like it had happened to Asilah. Afonso V then decides to send out to Tangier infantry and cavalry units led by João, future Marquis of Montemor, a son of the Duke of Bragança.
In the upper part of the tapestry, a long gothic legend, written in Latin, describes the general features of what it narrates. Below the legend, one may see the representation of what is supposed to be the walled city of Asilah, portrayed in the distance, as a reminder of the conquest that happened only days before the taking of Tangier.
In the remaining field of the tapestry, reading from left to right, there can be seen the Portuguese cavalry and infantry, arranged in battle formation, where the figure of João stands out, bearing a banner in his right hand. Contrary to what happened in Asilah, there are no visible firearms, no artillery and not even the king’s symbol (a wooden pole splashing drops) is represented. Given that there was no conquest, the king was not present. In other words, there was no battle yet an occupation/taking of the city, since the Muslims had abandoned it.
In the middle of the field, the walled city of Tangier and its bay are represented; they were more reminiscent of a city from the North of Europe (mind the roofs) than of a small town from the North of Africa. Over the entrance door of the city, a Portuguese soldier stands out; he is holding the royal pennant in his hands. A detail worthy of highlight is the way the sea is represented: a more or less light blue, where the high waves stand out.
On the right side of the tapestry, the inhabitants of Tangier are represented – men, women and children – who are turning their backs to the city, leaving towards a forced exile. It is worthy to note their headgear, the way they carry their belongings on their shoulders or inside of baskets on their heads.
Pastrana Tapestries
The “Pastrana Tapestries” are known by this name for they are the unique copies of the ones made during the last quarter of the 15th century. The original ones may be found in the Pastrana Collegiate, in Spain.
The series narrates Portuguese exploits in the North of Africa, in 1471, during the reign of Afonso V: the conquest of Asilah (three tapestries) and the taking of Tangier (one).
It is believed that they were made by royal command during the third quarter of the 15th century in one of the Manufacturing Centres in Flanders.
According to Maria Antónia Quina, these tapestries would take between 3 to 5 years to be made, on four looms operating simultaneously, overseen by 16 to 20 craftspeople.
In Europe, as well as in the whole world, these tapestries are considered to be unique for they retract, with documented historical accuracy, the military events that occurred.
João de Bragança
First (and last) Marquis and great alcaide of Montemor-o-Novo, frontier governor of Entre o Tejo e Guadiana (between the Tagus and Guadiana rivers), lord of Viana do Alentejo and 7th Constable of Portugal.
He was the second son of Fernando – 2nd Duke of Bragança – and Joana de Castro. By paternal lineage, he was a great-grandson of King João I and of the Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira; and a grandson of Afonso, the 1st Duke of Bragança. He married Isabel de Noronha, natural daughter of Pedro de Noronha – Bishop of Évora and Archbishop of Lisboa – and niece of Constança de Noronha, 1st Duchesse of Bragança.
Little is known about his childhood. However, there is a record of his presence in Ceuta, at around 16 years of age, with his father who, at that time, was the captain of the Portuguese possession.
Following a military career, he participated in the conquest of Alcacer-Ceguer (1458), in the third campaign to conquer Tangier (1463) and in the conquest of Asilah (1471). Shortly before this last conquest, he was tasked by King Afonso V to pursue the English corsair Phoecumbrix, who had attacked 12 Portuguese ships coming from Flanders loaded with merchandise. In 1471, after the inhabitants of Tangier abandoned the city, King Afonso V temporarily appointed him as governor.
João de Bragança was rewarded for his service in Asilah and Tangier and was granted the title of 1st Marquis of Montemor-o-Novo. In 1473, he was made Constable of Portugal – a position that had already been held by his great-grandfather, Nuno Álvares Pereira.
He possessed a vast estate received from his father and from King Afonso V (Alcáçovas, Viana do Alentejo, Cadaval, Redondo and Peral). He received royal revenues from Elvas, Rio Maior, Mouraria and from the notaries of Lisboa, among others.
With the ascension of King João II to the throne (1481), relations between the nobility and the King deteriorated significantly. João de Bragança, as well as his brother Fernando, 3rd Duke of Bragança, rebelled against measures taken at the Cortes of Évora in 1481 and were condemned for treason.
After being exiled, João departed for Tierra de Campos (a region of Castile) and then he travelled to Seville. King João II ordered him to be tried in absentia. He was accused of high treason, condemned to death and was executed in effigy on September 12, 1483, in Abrantes.
Although he managed to escape execution, he suddenly died in Seville, on April 30, 1484. He is buried in the Monastery of Santa Paula in Seville, whose church was built by Isabel de Noronha.
“A Flora nas coleções do Paço”
«A execução de tapeçarias ou panos, que satisfaziam as encomendas destinadas às casas mais ilustres na Europa, provinha, a partir do século XV, de Paris e das cidades de Arras, Tournai, Lille e Bruxelas, na Flandres. Estes eram os centros onde existiam as oficinas de tapeçarias que, durante décadas, foram capazes de produzir um volume regular de peças de qualidade.
Tournai, um dos enclaves franceses no coração dos domínios do ducado de Borgonha, foi o local onde terão sido manufaturadas as tapeçarias denominadas de Pastrana por se encontrarem, atualmente, na Colegiada de Pastrana, em Espanha. O estilo e a forma complexa do arranjo espacial, entre a arquitetura, a paisagem, os animais e as personagens, parecem equiparar-se à técnica encontrada numa outra série de tapeçarias A história da Guerra de Troia, com o desenho atribuído ao Mestre de Coetivy (ca 1465), datada entre os anos de 1475-95, e que pertence ao espólio do Museu da Catedral de Zamora, atribuída à mesma oficina de tecelagem em Tournai.
O mercador e empresário tapeceiro Pasquier Grenier, residente e com a base do seu comércio na cidade de Tournai, está documentado como o intermediário entre vários encomendadores europeus e oficinas de execução de tapeçarias e como importante membro da Guilda de tapeceiros local. No que concerne à série de A história da Guerra de Troia, Grenier era o proprietário dos cartões e terá subcontratado as mais eficientes oficinas para executarem o trabalho de forma rápida, mas com grande qualidade – Segundo as mais recentes estimativas, uma série de 6 tapetes, entre 5 × 8 metros, necessitava de empregar 30 tapeceiros durante um período de 8 a 16 meses, excluindo o tempo envolvido no desenho, preparação dos cartões e organização dos teares (CAMPBELL, 2002B). Na inexistência de documentação sobre a encomenda ou manufatura, é provável que tenha sido Grenier a receber a encomenda real para as tapeçarias de Pastrana. Ainda que seja tema de debate sobre quem as encomendou (ARAÚJO, 2012; CAMPBELL, 2002C: 22), parece provável que tenha sido uma encomenda feita no reinado de D. Afonso V, sob a exaltação e propaganda dos feitos dinásticos.
[…]
Embora as oficinas pudessem usar os valiosos préstimos de pintores profissionais ou de pintores régios, reconhecidos em meios europeus, para criar os desenhos dos cartões que serviriam de modelo para os tapeceiros, esses detalhes florais diminutos que preenchiam a totalidade ornamentada do fundo das grandes tapeçarias não fariam parte do desenho original laboriosamente concebido por esses pintores, e nem do trabalho minucioso dos debuxadores que adaptavam o desenho original de forma a poder ser copiado para as tapeçarias. Pelo que sabemos, as tapeçarias medievais eram tecidas peça a peça e alguns padrões eram repetidos em diferentes partes da tapeçaria, como forma de abordagem à reprodutibilidade de imagens, o que esteve na base do sistema mecânico móvel na invenção da imprensa de Gutenberg (DIDI-HUBERMAN, 2002).
A técnica referida é particularmente evidente na representação de flores e plantas que, reproduzidas muitas vezes em espelho na mesma tapeçaria, sugerem a utilização do mesmo cartão repetidamente, o qual poderia ser utilizado em outras séries de tapeçarias, indiferentemente do local onde as peças eram produzidas.
A proximidade dos centros de produção, a mobilidade dos artesãos, a prática empresarial dos mercadores se deslocarem entre as cidades e outros centros de tecelagem, a itinerância geográfica dos próprios emissários dos encomendadores, e a transferência de cartões entre oficinas, fez com que as diversas atividades, que tiveram lugar simultaneamente nos vários centros onde se localizavam as oficinas e os mercados de tapeçarias, transcendessem as fronteiras regionais (CAVALLO, 1993: 64-71).
As tapeçarias de Pastrana apresentam-se, por isso mesmo, como um campo interessante de estudo relativamente a esse método de transferência de encomenda para encomenda e onde se observa a contaminação de outros centros de produção no que toca ao preenchimento de todo e qualquer espaço num horror vacui [“horror do vazio”].
Contudo a representação da flora é mais simplificada e dispersa do que em outros casos permitindo, no entanto, a identificação botânica aproximada da planta padrão, no pressuposto que a grande maioria das plantas pertence à flora europeia indígena, todas misturadas na sua floração, independente dos períodos das estações do ano, como se assistíssemos a um milagre botânico.
[…]
Enquanto algumas plantas seriam delineadas de forma natural, outras deveriam adquirir formas inventivas já que resistem a qualquer identificação precisa, talvez porque a linhagem das culturas e hibridizações as fizeram desaparecer ou transformar e não as podemos reconhecer atualmente.
À época, a observação do mundo natural não se regia por um qualquer sistema taxonómico classificativo, como o que veio a ser desenvolvido a partir do século XVII e que ainda hoje prevalece como o método de identificação científica, sendo que o importante, durante os séculos anteriores, era representar determinadas caraterísticas das flores ou plantas para melhor enfatizar uma relação transcendente no plano religioso, ou na prática da utilização medicinal ou agroalimentar. Apesar disso, é hoje evidente que, no norte da Europa, as representações botânicas destas tapeçarias, em particular, foram o primeiro passo para o estudo científico de plantas (CROCKETT, 1982).
As plantas que parecem flutuar no campo e na paisagem idealizada, por entre os espaços que a ação compacta da narrativa permite ver, são identificadas tanto como espécies de ambientes campestres como de ambientes do cultivo em jardins. A maior parte deverá representar a familiaridade ou a ubiquidade da sua presença nos terrenos campestres ou ajardinados. A sua profusão, no espaço deixado vazio pelas cenas historiadas, assemelha-se mais a um catálogo ou coleção de flora do que a um registo de interpretações simbólicas sugeridas pelas tapeçarias com temas corteses, de caça ou religiosos que, durante a época medieval tardia, seguia os conceitos místicos postulados em vários escritos.
Algumas plantas identificadas nesta série são indiscutivelmente das mais representadas em tapeçarias millefleurs. São exemplo disso as violetas, os morangos-silvestres, os jacintos, as prímulas, os goivos, as cravinas, os narcisos, as pervincas, os jarros-do-campo ou as campânulas. Outras não terão sido tão comuns como o açafrão, as serradelas-largas ou as abelhinhas. Mas todas elas aparecem espalhadas pelo vasto espaço tecido da série de Pastrana e embora não as possamos definir associadas a um simbolismo preciso, todas elas pertencem, neste caso, à grande enciclopédia dos saberes de génese clássico-medieval de origem erudita ou religiosa e às tradições do saber empírico campesino.
Contudo, no conjunto total das quarenta e quatro plantas identificadas nas tapeçarias, algumas não deixam de se apresentar como estruturantes, de largo espectro semiótico no que diz respeito à ideologia do domínio do reino cristão, relacionada com a gesta da narrativa. Sugerindo essa leitura aberta no campo da ideologia cristã e poder real, encontramos algumas árvores que, ora juntas ao casario e muralhas ou dispersas em zonas conspícuas nas tapeçarias, são representadas com frutos e flores bem delineados, contrastando com os pequenos tufos arbóreos indefinidos espalhados pelo horizonte.
Um pequeno grupo de árvores são insignes, a todos os títulos, e parecem convergir em si uma encruzilhada de símbolos e funções transcendentes. Codificadas no mundo visual do ideário cristão europeu, serviam para retificar a ostentação das armas e, segundo a doutrina coeva da coroa portuguesa, de culto cavaleiresco e de feitos heroicos e grandiosos, eram elementos privilegiados do mundo natural, repletos de sinais sobrenaturais ordenados pelo Divino Criador, que justificavam e coincidiam com o plano expansionista no Norte de África, relativamente à apropriação dos frutos da Terra Prometida bíblica e às inefáveis doçuras do Paraíso.
[…]
[Nesta tapeçaria], no preciso centro, exterior ao perímetro das muralhas da cidade, esvaziada dos seus habitantes mouros, sem que tivessem oferecido qualquer tentativa de combate, existe um pomar formado por quatro árvores.
Expostas ao olhar do observador, pela centralidade que auferem na narrativa, adquirem aqui um protagonismo que se destaca das representações laterais das mesmas árvores no plano geral das tapeçarias. No jardim ideal, como a porta secreta para atingir as riquezas da cidade finalmente conquistada, perfilam-se da direita para a esquerda, uma romãzeira, um pilriteiro, uma nespereira-europeia e uma laranjeira.
A sua simbologia merece uma atenção particular por serem árvores investidas de prováveis sinais sobrenaturais, de ordem moral e religiosa, que assim premiavam e legitimavam a empresa cristã da coroa portuguesa em terras de África.
[…]
A partir do século X, na Península Ibérica, durante o período de hegemonia muçulmana, as laranjas chegavam diretamente do norte de África, através de Marrocos. Eram variedades que ainda hoje são produzidas no Sul da Andaluzia, nas redondezas da cidade de Sevilha, e consideradas como as laranjas amargas padrão, denominadas, em Espanha, de Real ou Agrio de Espanha.
Contudo, importações através do Médio Oriente e Mediterrâneo, nunca deixaram de aportar à Península, e, no começo do século XIII, os cruzados começaram a trazer para a Europa uma nova variedade de laranja amarga, mais propícia a ser consumida como um fruto que era menos acre. É provável que as ilhas de Malta e da Sicília tenham sido os primeiros centros da sua plantação em solo europeu, onde, ainda hoje, se produzem localmente alguns dos melhores exemplares dessa variedade.
[…]
As laranjeiras estão presentes nas quatro tapeçarias de Pastrana mas é na Tomada de Tânger […], quando a armada portuguesa se encontra às portas de Tânger, viajando do mundo hostil fora das muralhas para o interior da cidade, vazia dos seus antigos habitantes, que a laranjeira se afirma na sua centralidade no pomar onde as folhas, entre o amarelo da luz e o verde das sombras, parecem refletir a vitória e a paz alcançadas. Os seus frutos eram legitimas dádivas dos deuses que se acreditava serem oriundos da terra santa. Posteriormente, durante a Renascença, nenhuma outra árvore adquirirá o fervor religioso de representação como a que se observa em variadíssimas pinturas da Anunciação, Ressurreição, Fuga para o Egipto e outras cenas do Novo Testamento onde simbolizava a árvore predominante da Palestina. Além disso, a laranjeira, ao florescer e frutificar simultaneamente, foi também um símbolo preferencial que acompanhava a Madona.
[…]
[O] pilriteiro aparece uma única vez, situado no meio do principal quarteto arbóreo […] e a exuberância, desenho e beleza da cor das suas flores ofuscam as árvores fruteiras vizinhas. No contexto, a árvore é um provável símbolo de uma união entre o feito glorioso da tomada da cidade de Tânger por D. Afonso V e o ensejo do prolongamento da fé cristã pelos fundadores da dinastia de Avis, D. João I e D. Filipa de Lencastre, de quem o rei era neto.
Na esteira do que foram os esforços desse alargamento dos territórios portugueses para além-mar, “quando D. Afonso V penetrou sem luta no recinto amuralhado de Tânger, provavelmente no dia 1 de setembro de 1471, completou‐se um ciclo das campanhas marroquinas da coroa portuguesa” (COSTA, 2022). Desde os primeiros alvores da expansão portuguesa em território marroquino, com a conquista de Ceuta em 1415, durante o reinado de D. João I, que um ideário político-religioso de um esforço de combate contra o Islão se alinhava com os interesses económicos investidos no comércio marítimo português.
Ainda que o fundador da dinastia de Avis, D. João I, tivesse desejado regressar a África para continuar a invasão de novas terras, só 22 anos mais tarde, os seus filhos organizaram uma expedição militar que resultou num rotundo fracasso e que, provavelmente terá deixado marcas no jovem príncipe, futuro Afonso V, no que respeita à humilhação sofrida pelos tios, e, principalmente, à sorte e morte inglória do infante D. Fernando no cativeiro marroquino.
Nas tapeçarias, no plano superior ao aparato dos homens armados apeados, do monarca e do príncipe herdeiro montados e dos escudos com símbolos heráldicos, vogam as bandeiras, os pendões e os estandartes. O estandarte do rei surge, desfraldado, nas três tapeçarias de Arzila, mas contrariamente à identificação heráldica do reino de Portugal, é a empresa pessoal de D. Afonso V que está identificada, o rodízio de azenha aspergindo gotas, em fundo vermelho. Se, na representação, o porta-estandarte empunha a empresa pessoal de D. Afonso V e não as armas do reino, tudo leva a crer que existe uma valorização, na representação desta divisa real, pessoal do rei, numa provável relação íntima que esta divisa tem com a herança simbólica dos emblemas, a perpetuação da memória dos antepassados, e com “a cultura em circulação na sua corte, em especial com a literatura cavaleiresca, moralizadora e especular” (SEIXAS, 2020: 160-161) coeva.
Desde o reinado de D. João I, que o rei fez distinguir a pessoa individual do rei, do cargo que ele desempenhava por via das empresas. As empresas eram símbolos de cunho pessoal, denotativas de um projeto de vida de índole moral e política. Se as armas reais representavam a continuidade dinástica e o símbolo do conjunto de instituições dirigidas pela Coroa e eram transmitidas aos seus descendentes, as empresas logravam só exprimir a individualidade do soberano e não podiam ser transmitidas.
Não obstante a vertente pessoal, é importante acentuar que havia uma prática comum de fazer conjugar as empresas e complementar os motos ou almas dos casais régios da Dinastia de Avis. Assim, D. João I adota um pilriteiro, com a alma Por bem, a mesma árvore adotada por D. Filipa de Lencastre com um moto em francês Yme plet. Fernão Lopes, o cronista quatrocentista do reinado de D. João I, indica que o pilriteiro “foi a divisa dEl Rei que tomou pela Rainha Dona Filipa sua mulher” (LOPES, 1977). Não é de excluir a influência da rainha na escolha da divisa pela inspiração das flores com a figuração de rosas (PAÇO DARCOS, 2006: 57-60), como o eram as flores do pilriteiro nativo inglês (Crataegus laevigata), em corimbo de tom vermelho, símbolos da Casa de Lencastre.
[…]
No mosteiro da Batalha, nas divisas da capela tumular dos fundadores da dinastia de Avis, é precisamente este código simbólico e singular do pilriteiro que ali está representado.
Porventura, nenhuma outra árvore como o pilriteiro, pela sua dimensão semiótica teria exercido os poderes de inspiração para recriar os laços do rei vivo, imerso na sua glória, com os feitos dos antepassados fundadores da dinastia de Avis que tinham encetado o grandioso plano da expansão além-mar e a tentativa de evangelização dos povos islâmicos, nos territórios do norte de África.
[…]
Além de fazer parte das quatro árvores do jardim exterior à entrada do recinto amuralhado da cidade de Tânger […] a romãzeira encontra-se também representada fora do perímetro da cidade […].
[…]
As características intrínsecas do fruto, como a sua coroa, nem sempre são percetíveis ou intencionalmente definidas. A identificação resulta unicamente do facto que a romãzeira tem sempre alguns dos seus frutos abertos, condição para que o fruto fosse visto como uma romã e não outro, como um convite, na ideologia cristã, a associá-la a Cristo […].
[…]
Contudo, a presença das árvores nas tapeçarias de Pastrana, não se parece circunscrever unicamente à dimensão religiosa. Se é certo, que a forma esférica do fruto da romã, aliada aos frutos e flores das outras árvores, amplia e intensifica os desenhos circulares dos rebordos dos escudos e defesas e as decorações cravejadas dos chapéus-de-armas e das brigandines, numa orquestração puramente ornamental e servem, igualmente, de contraponto orgânico a todo o equipamento bélico, ao metal das armaduras, adagas, lanças e outras variadíssimas armas que se entrecruzam numa espantosa sobreposição de efeitos cromáticos, é na maior teia de símbolos do ideário político da casa de Avis e da sua expansão territorial que parece interessante perceber os fios que a compõem.
Na composição das quatro árvores que definem a parte central da Tomada de Tânger […], tanto a romãzeira como a laranjeira são investidas como árvores que pertencem à esfera da realeza.»
Sasha Assis Lima
“Flora in the Palace’s Collections”
«The execution of tapestries or panels, which met the orders destined for the most illustrious households in Europe, came, from the 15th century onwards, from Paris […] Arras, Tournai, Lille and Brussels, in Flanders. These were the centres where the tapestry workshops existed which, for decades, were capable of producing a regular volume of quality pieces.
Tournai – one of the French enclaves in the heart of the Duchy of Burgundy’s domains – was the place where the tapestries named of Pastrana were likely manufactured – they are currently in the Collegiate Church of Pastrana, in Spain. The style and the complex spatial arrangement – considering the architecture, the landscape, the animals and characters – seem to be comparable to the technique found in another series of tapestries, The History of the Trojan War, with the design attributed to the Master of Coetivy (ca. 1465), dated between 1475-95, belonging to the collection of the Zamora Cathedral Museum and attributed to the same weaving workshop in Tournai.
The trader and tapestry merchant Pasquier Grenier – who lived and based his commerce in the city of Tournai – is documented as the intermediary between several European patrons and tapestry workshops, and as an important member of the local tapestry guild. Regarding the series The History of the Trojan War, Grenier was the owner of the cartoons and is believed to have subcontracted the most efficient workshops to execute the work promptly, but with high quality – According to the most recent estimates, a series of 6 tapestries, between 5 × 8 meters, required employing 30 weavers for a period of 8 to 16 months, excluding the time involved in the design, preparation of the cartoons and organization of the looms (CAMPBELL, 2002B). In the absence of documentation on the order or manufacture, it is likely that it was Grenier who received the royal order for the Pastrana tapestries. Although it is a subject of debate as to who commissioned them (ARAÚJO, 2012; CAMPBELL, 2002C: 22), it seems likely that the order took place in the reign of King Afonso V – for the exaltation and propaganda of the dynastic deeds.
[…]
Although workshops could resort to the valuable contributions of professional painters or royal painters – to devise the designs of the cartoons that would serve as a models for the weavers – the minute floral details that filled the entire ornate background of the large tapestries would not be part of the original design laboriously conceived by such painters, nor would the meticulous work of the draughtsmen who adapted the original design so that it could be copied for the tapestries. As far as it is known, medieval tapestries were woven piece by piece and some patterns were repeated in different areas of the tapestry, as a way of approach to the reproducibility of images, which was at the basis of the mechanical movable system in the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press (DIDI-HUBERMAN, 2002).
This technique is particularly clear in the representation of flowers and plants which, produced many times in a mirror image in the same tapestry, suggest the use of the same cartoon repeatedly, which could be used in other series of tapestries, regardless of where the pieces were produced.
The proximity of the production centres, the mobility of artisans, the business practice of merchants moving between cities and between weaving centres, the geographical itinerancy of the patrons’ own emissaries, and the exchange of cartoons between workshops, meant that the diverse activities that took place simultaneously – in the various centres where the workshops and tapestry markets were located – transcended regional borders (CAVALLO, 1993: 64-71).
Therefore, the Pastrana tapestries present themselves as an interesting field of study, regarding the method of transferring orders, from order to order, and where one observes the contamination of other production centres in terms of filling every space in a horror vacui [“vacuum horror”].
However, the representation of flora is more simplified and disperse than in other cases, allowing, nevertheless, the approximate botanical identification of the standard plant – on the assumption that the vast majority of plants belong to the indigenous European flora, all mixed in their flowering, regardless of the seasons, as if witnessing a botanical miracle.
[…]
While some plants would be delineated in a natural way, others would acquire inventive forms, so they do not allow precise identification – possibly because the lineage of cultures and hybridizations caused them to disappear or transform – and cannot be recognized nowadays.
At the time, the observation of the natural world was not governed by any taxonomic classification system – such as the one developed from the 17th century onwards and that still prevails today as the scientific identification method – so, the important thing during the previous centuries, was to represent certain characteristics of flowers or plants to better emphasize a transcendent relationship on a religious level, or in their use in medicinal or aggro-alimentary practices. Despite this, it is now evident that – particularly in northern Europe – the botanical representations in these tapestries, were the first step towards the scientific study of plants (CROCKETT, 1982).
The plants that seem to float in the field and in the idealized landscape – through the areas that the compact action of the narrative allows one to see – are identified both as species in land-field and cultivated garden environments. Most ought to represent the familiarity or ubiquity of their presence in rural or gardened lands. Their profusion – in the space left empty among the historical scenes – resembles more a catalogue or flora collection, than a record of symbolic interpretations suggested by the tapestries with courtly, hunting or religious motifs that, during the late medieval period, followed the mystical concepts postulated in various writings.
Some plants identified in this series are indisputably among the most represented in millefleurs tapestries. The violets, wild strawberries, hyacinths, primula, cowslips, dianthus, daffodils, periwinkles, arums or bellflowers are examples of this. Others may not have been as common such as saffron, the bird’s-foot or the briza. But they all figure scattered throughout the vast woven space of the Pastrana series, although we cannot associated them with a precise symbolism. [I]n this case, they all belong to the great encyclopedia of knowledge of classical-medieval origin – of erudite or religious nature – and to the traditions of rural empirical knowledge.
However, within the total set of forty-four plants identified in the tapestries, some stand out as structural, with a broad semiotic spectrum regarding the dominion ideology in a Christian kingdom, interrelated with the narrative. Suggesting this open reading in the field of Christian ideology and royal power, one finds some trees that – either by houses and walls or dispersed in conspicuous areas in the tapestries – are represented with well-defined fruits and flowers, contrasting with the small, undefined tufts of trees scattered across the horizon.
A small group of trees are distinguishable – in every way – and seem to converge in a crossroads of symbols and transcendent functions. Codified in the visual world of the European Christian ideology, they served to rectify the ostentation of weapons and – according to the contemporary doctrine of the Portuguese crown – of chivalric cult and of heroic and grandiose deeds; they were privileged elements of the natural world, filled with supernatural signs ordered by the Divine Creator, which justified and coincided with the expansionist plans in North Africa – comparatively to the appropriation of the fruits of the biblical Promised Land and the ineffable sweetness of Paradise.
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[In this tapestry], in the exact centre, outside the perimeter of the city walls – emptied of its Moorish inhabitants, without offering any attempt of resistance – there is an orchard of four trees.
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[D]ue to the centrality in the narrative, they acquire here a protagonism that stands out from the lateral representations of the same trees in the general plan of the tapestries. In the ideal garden, as a secret door to reach the riches of the city finally conquered, they line up from right to left, a pomegranate tree, a hawthorn, a medlar and an orange tree.
Their symbolism deserves particular attention as they are trees invested with probable supernatural, moral and religious signs, which thus rewarded and legitimized the Portuguese crown’s Christian enterprise in African lands.
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From the 10th century onwards, in the Iberian Peninsula, during the period of Muslim hegemony, oranges arrived directly from North Africa, via Morocco. They were varieties that are still grown in Southern Andalusia – near the city of Seville – and considered as the standard bitter oranges, known, in Spain, as Real or Agrio of Spain.
However, imports via the Middle East and the Mediterranean, continued to arrive in the Peninsula, and, at the beginning of the 13th century, the Crusaders began to bring to Europe a new variety of bitter orange, more suitable for consumption as a fruit that was less sour. It is likely that the islands of Malta and Sicily were the first centres of its cultivation on European soil, where, even today, some of the best examples of this variety are produced.
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Orange trees are present in the four Pastrana tapestries, but it is in the Taking of Tangiers […], when the Portuguese fleet is at its gates, travelling from the hostile world outside the walls to the interior of the city […] that the orange tree asserts its centrality in the orchard where the leaves – between the yellow of the light and the green of the shadows – seem to reflect the victory and peace achieved. Its fruits were legitimate gifts from the gods believed to be from the Holy Land. Later, during the Renaissance, no other tree acquired the religious fervor of representation as that observed in a wide variety of paintings of the Annunciation, Resurrection, Flight into Egypt and other scenes of the New Testament where it symbolized the predominant tree of Palestine. In addition, the orange tree – flowering and fruiting simultaneously – was also a favoured symbol that accompanied the Madonna.
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[A] hawthorn appears only once, in the middle of the main quartet of trees […] and the exuberance, design and beauty of its flowers overshadow the neighbouring fruit trees. In this context, the tree is a probable symbol of a union between the glorious feat of the conquest of the city of Tangier by King Afonso V and the opportunity for the prolongation of the Christian faith by the founders of the Avis dynasty, King João I and Queen Philippa of Lancaster – of whom the king was a grandson.
In the wake of the efforts to expand Portuguese territories overseas, “when King Afonso V entered the walled enclosure of Tangier without a fight – probably on September 1, 1471 – a cycle of the Moroccan campaigns of the Portuguese crown was completed” (COSTA, 2022). Since the first dawn of Portuguese expansion into Moroccan territory, with the conquest of Ceuta in 1415, during the reign of King João I, a political-religious ideology of a struggle against Islam had been aligned with the economic interests invested in Portuguese maritime trade.
Although the founder of the Avis dynasty – King João I – had wished to return to Africa to continue the invasion of new lands, only 22 years later, his sons organized a military expedition that resulted in a resounding failure and that probably left its mark on the young prince – the future Afonso V – in terms of the humiliation suffered by his uncles and, mainly, the unfortunate fate and inglorious death of Prince Fernando in Moroccan captivity.
In the tapestries, on the plane above the apparatus of the dismounted armed men, the monarch and heir on horseback and the shields with heraldic symbols, the flags, pennants and standards flutter. The king’s standard is unfurled in the three Asilah tapestries, but contrary to the heraldic identification of the kingdom of Portugal, it is the personal escutcheon of King Afonso V that is identified – the wheel scattering drops over the red banner. If, in the representation, the standard-bearer wields the personal device of King Afonso V and not the arms of the kingdom, everything suggests that there is a valorization, in the representation of this royal escutcheon – personal to the king – in a probable intimate relationship that this device has with the symbolic heritage of the emblems, the perpetuation of the memory of his ancestors, with “the culture in circulation in his court, especially with the chivalric, moralizing and speculative literature” (SEIXAS, 2020: 160-161) of the time.
Since the reign of King João I, the king has distinguished the individual person of the king, dfrom the office he held through enterprises. The enterprises were symbols of a personal nature, denoting a life project of a moral and political nature. If the royal arms represented dynastic continuity and the symbol of the set of institutions directed by the Crown and were transmitted to his descendants, the enterprises only managed to express the individuality of the sovereign and could not be transmitted.
Despite the personal aspect, it is important to emphasize that there was a common practice of conjugating the devices and complementing the mottos […] of the Avis Dynasty royal couples. Thus, King João I adopted a hawthorn – with the motto Por bem [For good] – the same tree adopted by Queen Philippa of Lancaster with a motto in French Yme plet. Fernão Lopes, the 15th century chronicler of the reign of King João I, indicates that the hawthorn “was the device of the King that he took from his wife Queen Dona Filipa” (LOPES, 1977). It is not to be excluded the influence of the queen in the choice of the escutcheon through the inspiration of the flowers with the figuration of roses (PAÇO DARCOS, 2006: 57-60), as were the flowers of the native English hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata), in a red corymb – symbols of the House of Lancaster.
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In the Batalha Monastery, in the motto of the sepulchral chapel of the founders of the Avis dynasty, it is precisely this symbolic and singular code of the hawthorn that is represented there.
Possibly, no other tree like the hawthorn, due to its semiotic dimension, would have exerted the power of inspiration to recreate the bonds of the living king, immersed in his glory, with the deeds of the founding ancestors of the Avis dynasty who had initiated the grandiose plan of overseas expansion and the attempt to evangelize the Islamic peoples in the territories of North Africa.
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In addition to being one of the four trees in the garden outside the walled enclosure of the city of Tangier […] the pomegranate tree is also represented outside the city perimeter […].
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The intrinsic characteristics of the fruit – as its crown – are not always perceptible or intentionally defined. The identification results solely from the fact that the pomegranate tree always has some of its fruits open, a condition for the fruit to be seen as a pomegranate and not another, as an invitation, in Christian ideology, to associate it with Christ […].
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However, the presence of trees in the tapestries of Pastrana, does not seem to be limited solely to the religious dimension. While it is true that the spherical shape of the pomegranate fruit – combined with the fruits and flowers of other trees – amplifies and intensifies the circular designs of the edges of the shields and defenses and the studded decorations of the helmets and brigandines, in a purely ornamental orchestration ,and also serve as an organic counterpoint to all the war equipment, to the metal of the armours, daggers, spears and other varied weapons that intertwine in an astonishing overlapping of chromatic effects, it is in the greatest web of symbols of the political ideology of the House of Avis and its territorial expansion that it seems interesting to perceive the threads that compose it.
In the composition of the four trees […], both the pomegranate tree and the orange tree are invested as trees that belong to the sphere of royalty.»
Sasha Assis Lima