Introduction:

The apse of the San Clemente of Taull is a Romanesque painting. It is a part of the
decoration of the church of San Clemente of Taull. It was painted in the early 12 century by
the “Maestro de Taull”. It was located in Catalonia, close to the Pirinees, but nowadays the
painting is located in the National museum of art of Catalonia. As it is a wall painting, the
technique used for this painting is named fresco.

Description:
As we can see the base is divided into different parts. In the middle
we can see Christ, that is bigger than the rest. We can see him
seated on the mandorle, which would represent that he is seated
over heaven. His bare feet are over a semicircle that represents the
earth. On the two sides behind him, we can see alpha and omega,
which represent that God is the beginning and the end. We can see
him judging with his hand. Surrounding Christ, there are the four
evangelists, and each of them is represented by a symbol. On the
lowest part of the right side, we can see Luke, And on the lowest
part of the left side we can see Mark, representing a lion who
represents an ox, and on the highest part we can see John, who
represents an eagle while in the highest part is Mathew,
representing an angel. We can also see that the colors in this painting are colder and that
the predominant color of this painting is the blue color. It was very expensive because it was
obtained due to natural causes. The volumes of the painting are very rigid.

Commentary:
The Romanesque painting is basically based on the biblical and religious message of this
painting is very didactic, it represents some biblical narrations and the Last Judgment. It
was influenced by Byzantine art.

Conclusion:
The painting in the apse of the church of San Clemente of Taull has been so important for
the history of the arts because it's a clear example of the Romanesque painting. Its shows
the relationship that people had with religion in that period.