Introduction

Since the general acceptance of Christianity throughout Europe, politics and religion have been deeply intertwined. Art became not only a way to depict one's faith, but a vessel with which one could make a political statement. During the Medieval Period artists and craftsmen began to take the relationship of politics and religion one step further by adapting allegorical religious representations into a political context. Thus leading to the Enthroned Virgin and Child, with Cardinal Virtues and Two Figures Holding Scrolls - sometimes known as Madonna and Virtues - being birthed into the complex political world of the autonomous Catalan state at the hands of Bernardo Martorell.

Within this exhibit the aim is to understand the choice to represent the Cardinal Virtues alongside the Madonna, the political undertones of the piece, and explore the connection of the Catalan state to Martorell. Other works will be discussed alongside the piece by Martorell in an effort to fully encapsulate not only the rarity of the Cardinal Virtues and the Madonna depicted side-by-side but to view visually similar images with similar political statements.