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The Middle Ages is among Iberia’s richest artistic periods, one in which diverse cultures, shifting politics, and seemingly combative faiths produced unprecedented objects of beauty with unparalleled harmony. In the 10th through 15th centuries, power was fragmented across the peninsula, including the caliphate in Córdoba, less unified Islamic and Christian territories, and the Christian kingdoms of Aragón and Castile. When Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon—the “Catholic monarchs”—married in the mid 15th-century, Spain was united under one crown. By the late 1400s, Isabel and Ferdinand’s jurisdiction zealously extended to the Americas. The Middle Ages were shaped by the ebb and flow of ideas and artistic styles throughout Iberia, at times generated by diversity within its borders, at other times inspired by foreign influences.

Master of Belmonte (act. c.1450–c.1480), Saint Martin of Tours Dividing His Cloak with a Beggar. Tempera on panel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Herbert James Pratt Fund, acquired 1924

Unknown Castilian artist The Last Supper, Mid-twelfth century. Fresco and tempera, mounted on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Maria Antoinette Evans Fund, acquired 1927

Unknown Castilian artist Three Marys at the Sepulchre, Mid-twelfth century. Fresco and tempera, mounted on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Maria Antoinette Evans Fund, acquired 1927

Martín de Soria (act. c. 1452–1487), Retable of Saints Michael and Anthony Abbot. Tempera on panel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Herbert James Pratt Fund, acquired 1942

Workshop of Gil de Siloe (act. 1486–1501), Saint Jude (?), Saint John the Evangelist, and Saint Bartholomew, 1500–05. Alabaster. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Harriet Otis Cruft Fund and Sarah Elizabeth Simpson Fund, acquired 1918

Martín de Soria (active in Zaragoza, c. 1452– c. 1487), Retable of Saint Peter, n.d. Tempera on panel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Robert Hall McCormick, acquired 1946