La imagen gótica de Nuestra Señora de la Cinta: integración en corrientes estéticas europeas, hipótesis de datación y contexto del encargo artístico santiaguista

Abstract

This article aims to conduct an integrated analysis of a fourteenth century sculpture depicting a Virgin
with Child, belonging to the Church of Santa Maria dos Mártires, in Alcácer do Sal, which was then
the headquarters of the Order of Santiago. This sculpture, somewhat relegated by historiography,
differs stylistically from those of the same period that can still be found in Portuguese churches or
museums. These differences allow us to establish, for the first time, the existence of artistic connections
with Languedocian sculpture, and the primacy of the sculpture’s patron, and of his social status. It
thus becomes possible not only to understand how this sculpture fits within the international artistic
context of the period, but also to venture an identification of its patron within the field of the artistic
patronage of the order of Santiago.