Sobre las placas cerámicas de estufa del Museo Cerralbo : Marte y Venus

Abstract

In the inventory of 1924, in which Juan Cabré inventoried the collections of the marquis of Cerralbo that were going to be part of his museum, the numbers 757, 808 and 812 appear in three tiles that, according to the note, belonged to the cathedral of Tarazona. It is also said that they are the busts of a knight with helmet and a lady. With the present text I pretend to unravel the reality of both figures, proving that they are representations of Mars and Venus and that they were part of a ceramic heater from the first half of the 16th century that was probably installe in the sacristy or in the dresser for canons of the cathedral of Tarazona and possibly produced in the city of Cologne. Part of the key is found in the tiles that the dean of Tudela, Pedro de Villalón, ordered to ornament his chapel.