A Painted Panel, a Parish Poster, and a Radiocarbon Date
You are asked to catalogue a painted wooden panel in a parish church in the Alpujarras (Granada). It measures 95 × 70 cm, is 2.5 cm thick, and has three vertical joins and old worm damage. The paint is tempera with gold ground. The iconography is a Christ in Majesty inside a pointed mandorla, with the four evangelist symbols; the halo is decorated with punched dots; the inscription on the open book is Latin, 'AGNUS DEI'. The faces are modelled with green underpaint; the drapery falls in V-shaped 'damp folds'. Radiocarbon dating of the wood gives a calibrated range of 1180–1260. The parish has already printed posters for an exhibition called 'Byzantium in the Alpujarras' and wants the panel described as an 11th-century Byzantine import. A local historian objects that it is Romanesque. You have three weeks before the opening.
1. How would you decide between a Byzantine import and a local Romanesque work? Rank the evidence and state the label you would defend.
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Defend: 'Romanesque panel with Byzantine influence, 13th century, probably Iberian'. Not an 11th-century Byzantine import.
- Radiocarbon range 1180–1260 (moderate, conditional): it dates the wood's growth, not the paint. If the sample is from the outermost ring of the original panel, the painting must be later than c. 1180, which rules out an 11th-century import. If the sample came from an inner ring or a repair, it is only a terminus post quem.
- Latin 'AGNUS DEI' (strong against a Greek import): Byzantine icons normally use Greek; Latin points West, although Crusader and Italian works complicate the picture.
- Pointed mandorla (moderate): Western Romanesque; Byzantine mandorlas are usually circular or oval.
- Punch marks (weak): used in both Byzantine and Western gold grounds.
- Green underpaint (weak): found in Byzantine and Italian/Western flesh modelling.
- 'Damp folds' (moderate): a Romanesque Byzantinizing convention, not evidence of a Byzantine import.
- Three joins (weak): Western panel construction, but not decisive.
Ranking: radiocarbon with sampling context and language first; mandorla and drapery second; punch marks and underpaint last. The poster title is untenable.
2. What exactly does the radiocarbon date establish, and what does it not establish?
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It establishes the approximate age of the wood sample: when the tree was growing, and therefore a terminus post quem for any painting on that panel. It does not date the paint, the gilding, the varnish or later retouching. It does not tell us whether the panel was painted soon after the wood was felled or decades later, nor whether the sampled wood belongs to the original support rather than a later repair. If the sample came from the outermost ring, the felling date is close to the upper end of the range; if it came from inner rings, the tree could have been felled later. The report should state the sampling position. Used carefully, the date makes an 11th-century import impossible only if the sample is original and outermost; used loosely, it proves too much.
3. Write a 50-word label for the parish exhibition that is accurate and does not embarrass the parish.
Read the worked answer
Draft: 'Christ in Majesty with the Evangelist Symbols. Tempera and gold on wood, 13th century. Romanesque, with Byzantine influence. The Latin inscription and pointed mandorla are Western; the gold ground and solemn frontality reflect Byzantine models.'
The label keeps the word 'Byzantine' but as an influence, not as an origin. It gives the parish the visual language it wants while correcting the claim of an 11th-century import. '13th century' is consistent with the radiocarbon range and the Western features. The final sentence teaches the visitor how to read the object, which is what a PAU-style answer should do: name the style, then justify it with visible evidence.