Gabriel Songel, Professor of design of the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (UPV), has found the design pattern which was composed the relic of the Holy Chalice which is kept in the Cathedral of Valencia from the 15th century.
Gabriel Songel, Professor of design of the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (UPV), has found the design pattern which was composed the relic of the Holy Chalice which is kept in the Cathedral of Valencia from the 15th century.
For this, Songel-with the collaboration of the Cabildo Metropolitan of Valencia-has studied during his research them marks of cantero made in the city of Valencia, leading to out a detailed study of cataloging and analysis of them background of the design of brands.
Songel, an expert in the design of new products and brands management, has worked throughout his career in the prospective analysis and design trends, as well as the retrospective study of the history of brands in historical and documentary files.
The Goldsmith knew and used those canons of design
In 1960, Antonio Beltran, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Zaragoza, deduced that the whole of the chalice was mounted between the XII and XIII centuries. In this sense, Songel explains that "them analysis compositional made based on of them patterns used in the middle ages for them marks of cantero come to demonstrate that the Goldsmith that made that relic knew them cannons of design and them used for their composition." "This hypothesis is confirmed even more to see that inscription which is located at the base of the chalice was made following another medieval stonemason marks design patterns".
The relevance of the research lies in the early medieval link drawing in three areas: the design of objects, the trademark design and calligraphy. On the other hand, this research is the first that reveals the criterion composition of this relic.
One of the four patterns of Rziha
He pattern used in the composition of the Holy Chalice and in the registration made in its base is one of them four identified by Franz Rziha in the century 19th starting from in a study comparative of 9000 marks of cantero performed in the center of Europe, between them centuries XII and XIII, following them patterns of them builders of them cathedrals Gothic.
Rziha classified these marks pursuant to four types of compositional patterns based on the square, triangle and circles organized environment to the square and the triangle
The meaning of the kufic inscription
As regards registration, Songel points out that it has been interpreted "from Professor Beltran to the present as an Arab in kufic script and come to mean 'to which glitters'." "Subsequently, in them years 70, Oñate, consulting the École Biblique of Jerusalem, thought that could be Hebrew but, to the not know its meaning, is maintained the version Arabic".
In this regard, the UPV Professor says that the fact that the inscription is made according to one medieval patterns and read vertically invites to think of reading as a mirror image, given the knowledge of design patterns and the domain of symmetries by craftsman.
In the version of the image you can entreleer the WH, which appears in one of the forms used in Hebrew to write the word "God" JHWH. This peculiarity of the Hebrew of not include vocal and write of right to left shared with the Arab, added to the prohibition of mention the name of God in Hebrew, us forwards to them 72 names that the old testament used to designate it. Between them, the of Yoshua Yahweh is which has an architecture composition more similar to the registration.
According to Songel, so it could be understood that the author "overlaid the home of the two words by its graphic coincidence, reinforcing the meaning I wanted to give the inscription: Jesus is God".
Other conclusions
Of the study of the Professor Songel is derived, to its time, others "interesting conclusions", between which highlights the finding of that them marks of cantero are the prehistory of the design of brands or the existence of patterns geometric complex of design in them centuries XII and XIII.
Likewise, Songel highlights the "universality" of the marks of cantero, present by all the geography Spanish and European. "In addition, these marks show influences art and transfer of knowledge and technology of construction during the middle ages", says the researcher of the UPV.
To carry out his study, Professor Songel collected information from the archive of the Cathedral of Valencia, as well as the Registration Department of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, reviewing the most specialized in medieval art bibliography