Iberian art

Lady of Elche (National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid).

The term Iberian art refers to the artistic style typical of the Iberian people, settled in the Iberian Peninsula. The best preserved manifestations are the sculptures, made of stone and bronze. The remains of wood and baked clay are scarce, as they are more perishable materials.

Sculpture

Gran Dama Oferente (Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España, Madrid).

The most well-known activity of Iberian art is figurative sculpture, with small bronze statuettes, used as offerings or ex-votos, and larger stone statues. The most important sites are: the Sanctuary of Cerro de los Santos and Llano de la Consolación, in Albacete; the sanctuary of Collado de los Jardines, in Despeñaperros (Jaén); Fuentecica in Coy and Cigarralejo in Murcia.

Among the sculptures made of stone, classifiable according to their funerary or religious purpose, are the Lady of Baza and the Lady of Elche (National Archaeological Museum of Spain, in Madrid), which are richly decorated and served as an urn mortuary. Later than the previous ones, and with a religious purpose, is the Great Offering Lady (from the 3rd century BC), coming from the Cerro de los Santos in Montealegre del Castillo (Albacete), in whose long garment with deep and geometric folds, and in the frontalism of its structure, the archaic influences of Greek plastic art can be appreciated.

From this same period is the León de Coy and the Bicha de Balazote (National Archaeological Museum of Madrid), found in the town of Albacete that gives it its name and related to the Mesopotamian anthropocephalous bulls and ferocious-looking beings of the Hittite world.

Other artistic expressions

In goldsmithing, the Jávea Treasure stands out, made up of gold and silver pieces of delicate work of Greek influence.

Area of influence

The area of expansion of Iberian sculpture is not very wide, although it is very diversified, which favored a great regional variety favored, to a large extent, by the natural wealth and cultural traits of each area. Its manifestations focus on three areas: Andalusia, the center of the peninsula and the Levante area.

Andalusia

Lion of Bujalance, 5th century BC.

The Andalusian area, between Jaén and Granada, is highly complex due to the cultural influence of the oriental colonizing peoples who had settled there before (Phoenicians, Greeks, etc.) and due to the tradition left by the Tartessians. The proliferation of architectural and sculptural remains, as well as samples of gold and ceramics are the most distinctive features of this region. Along with this eastern current, another one of Hellenic origin can be seen in Andalusia, which is introduced from the Alicante coast to the south, present in the Cerrillo Blanco de Porcuna Complex, the Heroic Sanctuary of Cerro del Pajarillo (Huelma) and in the Site of Osuna (3rd century BC).

Inside

Inland, specifically in western Mancha, the important city (oppidum) of Alarcos stands out next to the Guadiana river and with important remains of cobbled streets, votive offerings and bronze figurines. The ruins of the Iberian city (later Roman and Visigothic) of Oretum, capital of ancient Oretania on both sides of Despeñaperros are barely excavated. The remains are scarce in this area: ceramics, bronze figurines and votive offerings in the Sanctuaries of Despeñaperros and Castellar de Santisteban. In this western area the ceramic remains seem to be related to Andalusia.

The same does not happen with the eastern Mancha and the foothills of the Serranía Cuenca where the influence of the Ibero-Levantine artistic style is palpable, especially ceramics. The central and southern zone of Cuenca constitutes the northern limit of the Iberian world that connects with the Celtiberians of the mountains. Numerous sites in La Manchuela, Cuenca, stand out here, such as Barchín del Hoyo and, above all, the Ikalesken oppidum (now Iniesta) which preserves the only mosaic of Iberian art and one of the oldest in the Mediterranean. This mosaic has the particularity of representing the fusion of the Iberian, Greek and Phoenician cultures. The Iberian culture is represented by the wolf, a sacred animal; the Greek for Pegasus and the Phoenician for the representation of the goddess Astarte, in the middle of the composition. The mosaic, from the VI century B.C. C. approximately, it is very archaic in its realization but due to its artistic interest and its antiquity, it is worth being considered as one of the emblems of Iberian art.

Albacete

The territories of the current province of Albacete are especially prodigal in diverse samples of Iberian art, especially sculpture, and surprise by the profusion of findings, the stylistic quality and the singularity of its pieces. Very succinctly, we can mention the large number of pieces (close to three hundred are preserved in the National Archaeological Museum alone) found in the important cult center of Cerro de los Santos -especially the Great Offering Lady- and in the Llano de la Consolation. As unique pieces, the Bicha de Balazote, the Lady of Caudete, the Sphinx of Haches, the Doe of Caudete, the Sepulcher of Pozo Moro, the Lion of Bienservida, the twin Sphinxes of El Salobral, the Horse of La Losa (Casas de Juan Núñez) or the Villares Rider (Hoya Gonzalo) among others. In goldsmithing, the so-called Treasure of Abengibre stands out, a set of silver tableware with Iberian inscriptions and also the Necropolis of Los Villares and the way of the cross in Hoya Gonzalo that are located in the foothills of the Altos de Chinchilla in the vicinity of the Vía Heracleia with Greek ceramics, Punic and Etruscan materials, etc. The existence of large oppida in the province, still not studied, may significantly increase the already large number of vestiges of Iberian art. Although this area is always classified as a passage or extension of Iberian, Levantine or Andalusian influences, it is possible that the extension flow was, rather, in the opposite direction and this is a nuclear area.

Lift

Arracada de la Condomina, (Villena)

In eastern Valencia, in the old Edetania, the Iberian manifestations show great links, not only with the old traditions of the first settlers of the Bronze and Iron Age, such as cremation as a burial system, but also with the oriental currents contributed by the Greek colonizers, from which they collect characteristics typical of the Greek archaic period, they deal with the same subjects - sphinxes, griffins -, and use geometric decoration on the ceramics, with yellowish or slightly reddish backgrounds.

This Levantine current is transmitted to isolated areas of the Ebro valley where it mixes with Celtic and later Roman substrata.