JAMES II AND HIS ARTISTIC PATRONAGE IN SANTES CREUS: PURPOSES, SEMANTIC CONTENT AND THE INFLUENCE OF FREDERICK II

This study analyses two of the great artistic projects that James II the Just (1291-1327) promoted at the Cistercian monastery of Santes Creus (Aiguamúrcia, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain) and which still stand to this day; namely, the dynastic pantheon and the cloister, specifically the unusual south-western pillar adjacent to the Porta Reial (Royal Entrance). The study explains the extent to which both had an aesthetic, persuasive and communicative purpose that was intended to serve the royal rhetoric and how sacredness, lineage and the role of the sovereign as executor of divine providence were key concepts for understanding the totality of these eloquent visual devices. To do this, as I will show, it is essential to examine the influences of Frederick II of Sicily, in particular the legal code known as the Liber Augustalis . 1


Introduction 1
As has been said on many occasions, Santes Creus was designed to be the principal showpiece of the aesthetic renewal by James II and was influenced by his awareness of the Normans and the Hohenstaufens' use of artistic projects in Sicily to demonstrate their prestige, a practice he became familiar with during his reign on that island 2 . Vives i Miret, Rosenman, Español and Barrachina are only some of the many who have commented on the historiography relating to this question. The following study, however, presents a new reading and interpretation of the grand artistic mechanisms that the king of the Crown of Aragon commissioned in the monastery in Tarragona and which have survived to this day: the extraordinary dynastic pantheon and the remarkable south-western pillar in the cloistral precinct that is adjacent to the celebrated Porta Reial (Royal Entrance). In my view, these eloquent artistic commissions and their aesthetic, persuasive and communicative purpose revolved around the two values that James II considered intrinsic to the institution that he represented, namely sacredness and lineage. These concepts are ultimately found in the ideas central to government and administration that the Staufens, with Frederick II at their head, implemented in the kingdom of Sicily and which were set down in the famous Liber Augustalis, the legal code that the Aragonese king knew and applied de facto during his time on the island and which he must have imported, along with other elements from the Staufens' model, to his government in the Iberian Peninsula.
As I will describe, the dynastic pantheon, which is organised as a unitary project despite having been constructed at different times and using two very differing tombs, synthesizes the tension between divine grace (rex Dei gratia) and human nature (rex per sanguinem). And among these, the concepts of lineage, paternitas and primogeniture will prove essential to a comprehensive understanding of the ensemble. Likewise, with identical Sicilian references, albeit with a Llullian rereading or updating, the cloister of Santes Creus and its atypical and very non-Cistercian iconography presents the sovereign as executor divinae providentiae, whose tasks was none other than restoring the order that was lost after the Fall. I refer to the pillar on the south-western corner, whose unprecedented narrative programme shows scenes from Genesis and which, to date, has not been convincingly explained by historians. As such, it can only be understood if we take into account its significant location opposite the Porta Reial, and the until now unnoticed visual mechanisms exhibited on adjacent capitals.
1. This article is part the research of the Pre-Consolidared Research Group "Edificis religiosos medievals a la Corona d'Aragó" (2017( SGR 1724, funded by the Catalan Government (Generalitat de Catalunya). I would like to thank the reviewers for their comments, which have helped me to be more exact and to better discuss some of the questions that are examined in the present text. 2. Español, Francesca. El gòtic català. Barcelona: Angle, 2002: 39.

The unusual dynastic funereal project: a new interpretation
As historiography has reiterated, the long rule of James II over the Crown of Aragon was enormously fertile in terms of transformations and projects and very prosperous in its foreign relations. James' political experience was enhanced by what has been called a "Sicilian sense of smell" 3 and by diplomatic skills of Italian origin; nevertheless, he was rooted in and committed to the House of Barcelona. It is beyond the scope of the present study to describe the various manifestations of the royal ideology of the kings of Aragon 4 , and in particular that of James II, although it is important to point out that one of his greatest achievements was his policy of governing each of his states differently; that is, of respecting each state's autochthonous institutions and territorial needs without negatively impacting their overall governability 5 . James' essential aim was to go beyond the financial and jurisdictional situation on which, according to Flocel Sabaté, depended the very manifestation and therefore visibility of royal power 6 . Because, as we will see, on an ideological level, the theory of power was not only expressed through socalled judicialization and its institutional and administrative entities 7 and their wellknown willingness to enter into pacts 8 , but also through the symbols, ceremonies of exaltation and propaganda that surrounded royalty, along with other material initiatives aimed at strengthening the institution that he represented 9 . Among these 3. Marzal García-Quismondo, Miguel. "La perspectiva catalano-aragonesa de D. Jaime de Sicilia", James II 700 años después, Juan Antonio Barrio, José Vicente Cabezuelo Pliego, eds. Alicante: Universidad de Alicante, 1996-1997. From among the many historians that we have analysed, we highlight the following in a far from exhaustive list: Corrao, Pietro. "Celebrazione dinastica e ricerca del consenso nella costruzione monarchica della Corona d'Aragona", Le forme della propaganda politica nel Due e nel Trecento, Paolo Cammarosano, ed. Roma: École Française de Rome, 1994: 133-156; Francisco Olmos, José Maria de. "Jaime II y la "Constitución" de la Corona de Aragón", Anales de la Universidad de Alicante: Historia Medieval, 11 (1996-1997: 521-530, Sabaté, Flocel. "Estamentos, soberanía y modelo político en la Cataluña Bajomedieval", Aragón en la Edad Media, 21 (2009): 245-278. 5. Citation from Sarasa, Esteban. "El reino de Aragón en la época de Jaime II (1291-1327)", Anales de la Universidad de Alicante: Historia Medieval, 11 (1996-1997: 305. 6. Sabaté, Flocel. "Discurs i estratègies del poder reial a Catalunya al segle XIV", Anuario de Estudios Medievales, 25 (1995): 622. The king's actions in this regard were also analysed in González Antón, Luis. "Jaime II y la afirmación del poder monárquico en Aragón", Aragón en la Edad Media, 10-11 (1993): 385-405. 7. See Ladero, Miguel Ángel. "El ejercicio del poder real en la Corona de Aragón: Instituciones e instrumentos de gobierno (siglos XIV y XV), En la España Medieval, 17 (1994) "Cortejos ceremoniales, funciones religiosas y simbolismos políticos en las ciudades medievales", Los cimientos del estado en la Edad Media. Cancillerías, notariado y privilegios reales en la construcción del Estado en la were the artistic commissions which, in the times of James II, took on a singularly important leading role in his efforts to restore royal power and the doctrinal definition of his supremacy 10 .
James II commissioned an unprecedented funerary project which, although it ended up being just two tombs, was originally intended to be dynastic because he also planned to include in it the tombs of his father Peter the Great, his own and that of his wife Blanca, and he made his successor the Infante Alphonse swear that he would be buried in the same abbey, a promise that he broke two years after his father's death. He also tried to transfer the remains of his brother Alphonse III, who was at the time in San Francisco de Barcelona and, although the Pope had initially agreed, he then changed his mind most likely due to the influence of his mother Constanza, a declared Franciscan who was then in Rome 11 . Although the king repeated his wishes after his mother's death 12 , he could not bring them to fruition.
The originally conceived pantheon, according to the surviving texts, was to contain five bodies; instead, one containing three was constructed, with the bodies laid to rest in two magnificent tombs. One was intended for his father Peter the Great, who had written so eloquently and innovatively in his will that he should have a tomb that was bene et honorifice 13 , a matter that already seemed to preoccupy  Barcelona: Fundació Noguera, 2001: 163 (doc. 24). However, the term honorifice could refer to liturgical and funerary ceremonies, without necessarily including a monumental tomb, as seemed to occur with Alphonse III, whose will contains both terms, and also adds "ut nos decet", that is, as was befitting his dignity: Martínez, Joan E. "Exequias his successor Alphonse III 14 , and the second was assigned to James II and his first wife Blanca d'Anjou 15 , who stated their wish to be buried at the monastery in 1292 16 and 1295 17 respectively (see illustration 1). It is significant that the queen should have been involved in the project before her death, something unheard of in the Crown of Aragon and which demonstrates her influence 18 . The fact that James II conceived the project as a single undertaking is corroborated by the sources: on 1/9/1312 he ordered the Royal Palace's master of works, Bertran Riquer, to go to Santes Creus together with Pere de Prenafeta to begin the preparations for his tomb, which had to be similis illi in quo sepultum est corpus illustrissimi domini regis Petri, and for which they had to take note of the mensuras et ffo [rma]s ei [us]dem 19 .
Among other aspects, of particular note is the debt that these tombs owe to those of Cefalú, Palermo and Monreale. The analogies are not solely related to their location 20 , but also, as was pointed out first by Vives y Miret and later by y enterramientos reales en la Corona de Aragón", Butlletí arqueològic. Reial societat arqueològica tarraconense, 3/4 (1947): 65. The description that Balaguer left us of the royal tombs in the Franciscan monastery indicates that they were located next to the main altar and were made "de mármol blanco de estilo gótico y de no escaso mérito, estaban levantadas en lo alto, formando un banco corrido" (of marble in the Gothic style and not without considerable merit. They were raised on high, forming a long bank): Barraquer, Cayetano. Rosenman 21 and as has been accepted by subsequent historiography, in the use of porphyry, which is so visible on the tomb of Peter the Great, and in the baldachins, elements closely associated with imperial iconography. Furthermore, the alveus, the dossals and the reliquary ceiling with its clear and unanimously accepted sacral connotations have no precedent in the funerary world of the Crown of Aragon, as Español once pointed out 22 . For their part, the tomb of James II and Blanca d'Anjou, also under a dossal, offers the novelty of the pair of recumbent effigies, which were completed by Francesc Montflorit according to a text from 1315 that referred explicitly to them 23 and which are an unusual form to find in the tombs of the kings of Aragon.
My question is whether it is possible to make a joint reading of the original features of both funerary artefacts and if it is possible to entertain a new hypothesis that explains how both typologies, despite being from different phases, are contained within the same project whose function was to praise the monarchic institution and to visualize the royal rhetoric; that is, the creation of the ars bene dicendi through which could be constructed an adequate discourse by means of a system of processes and resources intended to persuade, in the true etymological sense of the word 24 , those who heard it. As his predecessors had demonstrated since the reign of James I 25 and perhaps influenced by his father, whose oratory skills he had inherited, 26 James II was familiar with the art of speaking eloquently. He was acquainted with the works of Brunetto Latini who, among others, wrote the treatise Retorica in which he translated and commented on De inventione by Cicero, and who intervened in the political debate that would end in the insurrection of the Sicilian Vespers 27 , which marked the end of Anjou dominance and the enthroning in Sicily of his father Peter III, married to Constanza, daughter of King Manfred Hohenstaufen. Also eloquent are his library because, among other examples, it contained the Communiloquium by John of Wales, and his correspondence, analysed by Finke, Trenchs and more recently Péquignot 28 . The same is corroborated by certain descriptions of the king, such as that of his doctor, concierge and secretary Jafudà Bonsenyor 29 or Muntaner who described him when he was still Infante as "dels pus savis prínceps del món, e mills parlant" 30 (one of the wisest princes in the world and the best spoken). It is thus no surprise that on two occasions he opened the Cortes "preïcant" (preaching) with a discourse consisting of "moltes bones paraules" 31 (many good words), rhetorical skills that he would use again in a sermon in Port Fangós on the departure of his son Alphonse to conquer Sardinia 32 . Thus, in accordance with the communicative strategies that he used, whose function was to shore up the institution that he represented, James II conceived the dynastic project at Santes Creus and placed it in the service of a royal rhetoric that had an aesthetic, persuasive and communicative purpose regarding his political and symbolic complex. This in turn he weighed against two values that he considered intrinsic to the institution of monarchy: sacredness and lineage. Sicily was, for James II, a place of startling visual contrasts with his native Valencia and the rather stifling Huesca where he spent his infancy, and this would have major artistic consequences, as many historians have had occasion to state 33 . Also, and more importantly regarding the hypothesis that I offer here, it immersed the king in the legislation implemented by Frederick II, which was primarily based on his legal code the Liber Augustalis, which came into effect on 1/9/1231 and whose golden age was the period of Aragonese domination 34 . Taking the Scriptures as its point of reference, specifically Proverbs, 8, 15-16, its prologue asserts that kings rule by divine right and therefore, that the power enjoyed by the king, was Dei gratia and thus the result of divine providence 35 . The argument that derived from regarding the king as vicarius Dei because he fulfilled on Earth the function of monarch that God has in Heaven 36 was not new, given that traces of it can even be found in Visigothic sources 37 , but its proclamation, development and success in the Crown of Aragon were, without a doubt, due to James II. In fact, although there were subtle precedents in Desclot 38 , it was under James II's reign and from the pen of his 32. Rubió, Antoni. "Algunes consideracions sobre l'oratoria política de Catalunya en l'Edat Mitjana", Estudis Universitaris Catalans, 3 (1909): 213-224; Johnson, Marc D. "Parliamentary oratory in medieval Aragón", Rethorica. A Journal of History of Rethoric, 10 (1992): 99-107. 33. Historians have dedicated much time to this issue, as was pointed out several years ago by Cabestany, Joan F. "El 650 Aniversari de la mort del rei Jaume II", Santes Creus: Butlletí de l'Arxiu Bibliogràfic de Santes Creus, 46 (1977) 38. Divine protection appears in various episodes in the chronicle, but an explicit reference to lineage is only found in chapter XV when during the preparations for the conquest of Mallorca, his subjects chronicler Muntaner that we encounter the first written reference to Aragon as a dynasty favoured by God 39 .
As has been said, Sicilian legislation proclaimed that the monarch's capacity to legislate came from God and, likewise, that the king was la lex animata in terris 40 , an argument that would also be used by James II, where the legitimacy (not legitimation 41 ) of his power made him turn to legal arguments, for example when he stated that the coronation was merely a formal recognition of that which was already his by right 42 . It should be recalled that when Alphonse III died and James had to leave Sicily to become the new king of the Crown of Aragon, after landing at Barcelona and paying homage to his brother and his father, he arrived in Saragossa at the Cortes of 1291 to inaugurate his reign without any coronation ceremony, because he had already been anointed (and crowned) when proclaimed king of Sicily 43 . However, he did take the chance to signal that he had become king not due to the will of his brother, but due to his right of succession, that is, due to primogeniture, as was indicated in will of his father Peter III, who established who was to be heir in case his successor should die without issue 44 . In doing, he was really just responding to the inadmissible initiative of his brother Alphonse III who whilst being proclaimed heir to the throne, had ceded the kingdom of Sicily to his younger brother Federico and the island of Mallorca to his uncle James, as vassal.
respond in the affirmative to King James because "Déu mou e el Sant Esperit és amb vos; e par bé del llinyatge on vós movets" (God moves and the Holy Spirit is with you and, for the good of the lineage, where you move): Les quatre grans cròniques. II. Crònica de Bernat Desclot. ed. Ferran Soldevila. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, 2008: 422. 39. Les quatre grans cròniques. III...: III and VII, and Llull, to whom I shall return. And that was despite the fact that Peter the Great died excommunicated and that James II was also barred from the sacraments after his arrival in Sicily. However, Muntaner wrote very personally in his chronicle and was always at pains to demonstrate that the hand of God guided the steps of the kings of Aragon. Aguilar, Josep A.  (2) (2012): 65-68. 41. Understanding the term legitimate to mean that which is just and in accordance with the law; legitimacy as the good or value that is invested in political authority, and legitimation as the action through which legitimacy is conferred on or recognised in the holder of a power. For more on the meanings of these terms in political studies, sociology and the history of political theory, see Castaño, Sergio R. "Una introducción en el tema de la legitimidad política", Espíritu, 140 (2010) Having taken the throne, and following his father's example, he emphasised the power of the papacy 45 and, on returning to Barcelona, insisted again that he should receive the throne by virtue of his father's will and not his brother's, with whom he also disagreed for having established the separation of Sicily 46 . This is, in my view, a key element to understanding the funereal complex that he commissioned in Santes Creus, where lineage, paternitas and primogeniture were fundamental both to the correspondence and homogeneity between the tombs of father and son, and for his decision to have both his and his wife's effigy sculpted on his own tomb. By including his wife's he was recognising her role and proclaiming his wider "family connections" 47 , which would later benefit his dynastic continuity and institutional legitimacy. Dynastic identity and legitimacy based on the blood line, per sanguinem, of the House of Aragon and Barcelona were constantly asserted through various initiatives, such as diplomacy, where the figure of the king was that of a fatherking who served as a point of reference 48 . It speaks volumes that Federico III spoke to his brother James II as he would a father, a fictitious bond through which he recognised the pre-eminence of the king at the heart of a great family such as that of Aragon. Furthermore, it is the documents from his chancery that provide the best and first evidence of the queen's participation in the ministries of government and the systematic association of her person with the king 49 . According to Péquignot, this was the origin of the singular political regime that then prevailed in the realm, whose unity was based, essentially, on the familiaritas regia 50 .
During his government, James II not only managed to avoid fighting against the Rights and Privileges of his subjects, but even accepted them and became their principal defender. Under his reign, they became the primary legal source to which 45. "[…] no recibía la corona con reconocimiento que por el reino debiese hacer a la Sede Apostólica, conservando su derecho cuanto a ser libre y exempto, como lo había sido y lo era en lo temporal" (he did not receive the crown by recognising the Holy See in the manner that he should, thus preserving his right to be free and exempt, as he had been and as he was temporally): Blancas, Gerónimo de.  . Madrid: Bibliothèque de la Casa de Velázquez, 2009, especially chap. XI: "une affaire de famille". 48. The Sicilian king alluded to the fraternity, fraternitas, that connected him through blood, comunione sanguinnis, thus also evoking the common history at the heart of the dynasty: Péquignot, Stéphane. Au nom du roi...: 54. 49. The queen was the object of numerous petitions and interceded on behalf of the members of the royal families close to her. According to Péquignot, Stéphane. Au nom du roi..., Queen Blanca was perceived as an influential wife by the ambassadors. 50. Péquignot, Stéphane. Au nom du roi... both the king and his subjects had to submit, which paradoxically affirmed doctrinally and effectively the monarchy's superior power over the nobles 51 . Immediately, as had occurred in other European monarchies with Frederick II at their head 52 , James II set about countering the nobles' power by consolidating the myth of the king, making sacred his person, his acts and, in general, everything that surrounded him, in order to sublimate and strengthen the power and authority obtained through the oath that he had been obliged to fulfil before taking possession of his estates 53 . In reality, he followed the formula of Frederick II, defined by Caesar as simultaneously pater et filius Iustitiae, which bound the governor as gemina persona or persona mixta who emerged out of the right itself 54 and who maintained in himself the tension between human nature and divine grace and thus the essence of the tombs at Santes Creus. For James II, the basis of his power was clearly divine in origin and he affirmed this principle through various initiatives: at a political level he did so through a series of processes in 1301 55 and through his bestowal of titles and palatine customs 56 . He also did so through the dynastic project at Santes Creus, where he used effective visual mechanisms, such as the specific location of the tombs 57 , the unusual and significant porphyry with profound imperial connotations 58 , the magnificent Gothic canopies that protected and architecturally developed the tombs and which accentuated the 51. González Antón, Luis. "Jaime II y la afirmación del poder...": 387. 52. For whom the king "gerens typum Jesu Christi" was gradually substituted with a prince "gerens typum Iustitiae", who obtained his strength from his consecration and his knowledge of high legal science. The interrelations between Christ and justice were so evident and numerous that the transition was often imperceptible: Kantorowicz, Ernst H. Los dos cuerpos del rey: un estudio de la teología política medieval. Madrid: Akal, 1957: 162-163. 53. Palacios, Bonifacio. La coronación de los reyes..., 1975: 196-200. In the same manner, Arnau de Vilanova also initiated a form of exaltation of the monarchy: Bohigas, Pere. "Profecies catalanes dels segles XIV i XV: assaig bibliogràfic", Butlletí de la Biblioteca de Catalunya, 6 (1920Catalunya, 6 ( -1922: 24-49; Rodríguez de la Peña, Manuel A. "Mecenas, trovadores, bibliófilos y cronistas...", 1997: 685-697. 54. As can be seen in Liber Augustalis: Kantorowicz, Ernst H. Los dos cuerpos del rey..., 1957: 124. The mirrors of medieval princes also insisted on the importance of administering justice as an attribute par excellence of royalty, presented in the human and earthly form of the divine. Nogales, David. "Los espejos de príncipes en Castilla (siglos XIII-XV): un modelo literario de la realeza bajomedieval", Medievalismo: Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Medievales, 16 (2006): 29-30. 55. González Antón, Luis. "Jaime II y la afirmación del poder...": 397. 56. For example, knights and functionaries used the expression "besar la terra davant els seus peus" (kiss the ground before your feet), the same as the Infantes. Also for the first time in the Crown of Aragon, the consellers of Barcelona addressed the king with the title "vestra majestas regia": Martínez, Joan E. almost sacred transcendence of the governor 59 , the wealth of colours and materials that took on life when illuminated by candles and, above all, the extraordinary ceiling in the form of a reliquary dedicated to his father 60 , who conferred an almost sacred character on the funereal device that silenced any accusation of heterodoxy and extended the sacredness of his own dynastic line 61 . It is no coincidence that a few decades later, in 1358, the pages of De vita, moribus et regimine principum, written by the Infante Peter to provide political training for his nephew the future Peter IV, illustrate the theory of the dynastic sanctity of the House of Aragon and Barcelona 62 .
Thus, James II wished, as he stated in his will with the terms "ipsa nostra sepultura fiat bene et honorifice sicut decet" 63 that his tomb should reflect his dignity. Its singularity, its incomparability and its supremacy, adjectives that defined the pantheon from its inception, ensured that it was seen as an unicum in the Crown of Aragon, whilst also being a manifestation of alteritas, an imperial quality that James II also adopted from the oft-mentioned referents originating from Palermo 64 . However, taking Frederick II of Sicily as a precedent and model who used all the resources within his reach to convey an underlying political message of sacredness and legitimacy 65 , James II conceived two tombs that made visible the two notions that he proclaimed through his ministerium regis (see illustration 2). On one hand, through the tomb of his father Peter III, with its structure and iconography as a reliquary, he reaffirmed the divine origin of the power of the monarchical institution in opposition to the theoretical formulation of the supremacy of the papal authority that, although originating in 1075, was still the cause of a struggle for power and recognition 66 (see illustration 59. They supported him as the highest legal institution, in the words of Nieto, Manuel. Ceremonias de la realeza: propaganda y legitimación en la Castilla Trastámara. Madrid: Nerea, 1993: 214. 60. Their structure has been compared with French reliquaries such as the chest of Nivelles, from 1272-1290, or the reliquary of Taurin d'Evreux, from around 1240-1255. Barrachina, Jaume. "El mestre Bartomeu de Girona", Locus Amoenus, 7 (2003): 117-135. 61. Other European kings, such as the French, chose a similar type to show this same idea. However, in the tomb at Santes Creus one finds the protection of the Virgin, the apostles and two Cistercian saints, perhaps Benedict and Bernard, representatives of the orthodoxy for an excommunicated king accused of heresy: Rosenman, Barry. The Royal tombs...: 86. Perhaps the king was inspired by the images from 1140 of Roger II crowned by Christ in Martorana in Palermo, or the coronation of William II in Monreale around 1174-1185. Peter III had been excommunicated on 11/4/1286 by Honorius IV, accused alongside his mother of fomenting rebellion in Sicily, and on 23/5/1286 for his coronation in Sicily, an excommunication that was extended to the celebrants on 18 November: Martínez, Joan E. Jaume II..., 1963: 72. 62. This mirror of princes is inspired by the De Regimine Principum by Giles of Rome: Palacios, Bonifacio. "El mundo de las ideas políticas en los tratados doctrinales españoles. Los "espejos de príncipes" (1250-1350)", Europa en los umbrales de la crisis. 1250-1350. Pamplona: Celesa, 1995 66. Which is the reason why James II altered, consciously, the swearing-in ceremony and swore in the Infante James as his heir when the latter was only four years old. It was also significant that the new 3). And, on the other hand, through his own tomb situated on the other side of the crossing, different in typology due to his recumbent statue and that of his first wife, but maintaining a clear unity thanks to the dossals, he confirmed that his temporal power was based on the legal principle that royal power was hereditary and derived from the lineage; that is, he was the king by right. With this, the project gave a visible rendering of a concept of monarchy based on the abstract authority of the king Dei gratia through the paternal tomb and in the visible link per sanguinem through the recumbents 67 , significantly the first to appear in a funereal ensemble of the kings of the Crown of Aragon. (see illustration 4) And all of this with some material devices that could not only be seen, but also read: at Santes Creus this unprecedented marriage between image and word through the epitaphs is of utmost importance 68 and should also be understood, due to its novelty and visibility, as an iconographic mechanism. In these epitaphs, despite being carved by different epigraphists at different times within a chronological arc of almost thirty years, one may observe the debts that are owed to the epigraph of Emperor Frederick II 69 . Also revealing is their location; the epigraphs belonging to and glorifying the kings are located at the head of the tombs, marking significant achievements, whereas that of the queen, far from being celebratory or propagandistic, is situated right next to her tomb so it can be seen by the religious community and, in this way, carry out alone the task for which it was inscribed 70 .
The ideology of James II could not be separated from the Sicilian political inheritance implicit in the birth of his imperial commitment (to use the description of Rodríguez de la Peña 71 ) for the House of Aragon and Barcelona which, for a generation, had borrowed allegorical figures from the eschatological cycle of the Staufen, thus establishing lines of continuity between the imperial project of that regia stirps and the Aragonese dynasty 72 . In reality, this "commitment" reflected heir was sworn in during the courts of 1320 (Alphonse, after the renunciation of his older brother) and that only later did the monarch also swear to honour the privileges and rights: González Antón, Luis. "Jaime II y la afirmación del poder...": 396. It should be pointed out that the policy of James II towards the Pope was not intended to be one of rivalry in terms of universal power, but rather the recognition of a specific role for the king of Aragon, namely to be the arms of Christianity at sea and the first authority in the Mediterranean. 67. An argument put forward by Frederick II in Sicily with his enthroned images: Vagnoni, Mirko. "Lex animata in terris. little more than the need to define the sovereign as the true repository of the plenitudo postestatis according to the imperial model. Historiography has pointed to the presence, in the palace court of the king of Aragon, of exiled Ghibellines who had served the Hohenstaufen, which accounts for the rapid and easy assimilation of these foreign ideas 73 . Similarly, it is important not to forget the close relations between the monastery at Santes Creus and Sicily 74 . However, as has been said, 73 Historiografia, propaganda i comunicació..., 2006: 291-316. 74. Between 1305 and 1307, Frederick III founded the Monastery of Santa Maria di Altofonte and in its foundational decree, after praising the monks of Santes Creus, a place "ubi divorum progenitorum nostrorum corpora requiscunt", he requested that they be its founders: Granà, Michele. "Corona, ufficiali regi e fondazioni monastiche nella Sicilia Aragonese: il caso di Santa Maria di Altofronte", Mediterraneo medievale. Scritti Francesco Giunta. Soveria Mannelli: Centro di studi tardoantichi e medievali di Altomonte illustration 2. tomb of pedro iii © santes creus. photograph provided by marta serrano. illustration 3. Jaime ii and blanca d'anJou tomb © santes creus. photograph provided by marta serrano.
James II had first-hand knowledge of applying de facto the legal and artistic policies of the Staufen 75 , which clearly inspired him to organize a funereal complex that was not only reminiscent of the tombs in Palermo that gave him his legitimacy as king 76 , and ed. Rubbetino, 1989: 567;Miguel Caneller, abbot, 11  The echoes of the Staufen in the artistic and cultural policies of James II can be heard not only in various genres (including sigillography, coinage and epigraphy) but also in significant initiatives that demonstrate his awareness of the power of writing and the machinery of the state and of the need for and importance of education. 76. His mother was Constanza of Sicily, and Peter the Great used her to lend legitimacy to his claim, involving her as Regina in Italian politics during the period of co-regency (1283-1285). On 19/4/1283, in Messina, she was proclaimed legitimate regent: she received the regency while the heir and co-regent was her son Jaume, the future James II. Marzal, Miguel. "La perspectiva catalano-aragonesa... ", 1997: 422-423. but which also brought together and made visible the two great principles of the institution that his person represented.

The cloister and its peculiar south-western pillar as a visual and significant development
Frederick's influence on the royal works at Santes Creus was not limited to the tombs, as can be seen in the singular discursive focus of the cloister, which is disconcerting due to its possession of a fabulous iconography that is so distanced from the Cistercian canon 77 and its problematic building process that has yet to be fully determined 78 . The building, which replaced an earlier one from around 1200 79 , was begun at the behest of James II and Blanca d'Anjou, who had demonstrated their artistic preferences during the many years that it took to build the tomb of their predecessor 80 . A document dated 12/1/1310 records the first donation of 50,000 Barcelonan sueldos "in constructione et profectione dictorum claustri et reffectorii monasterii prelibati" 81 , although the king's patronage of the construction of the refectory is recorded four years earlier 82 . Twenty-eight years later, on the feast of Saint Benedict, 11 July 1341, and during the abbacy of Francesc Miró, the cloister was completed 83 . The scant surviving documentation cannot be listed here 84 , but it is important to recall that on 3/6/1327, the Infante Alphonse, "illustrissimi domini regis Aragonum primogeniti eiusque generalis procuratore ac comitis Urgelli", approved and confirmed the debt to his father 85 . At the start of the 1330, by now king, he gave fresh impetus to the works, leading to the blessing of the cloister on 23/11/1331 86 by Friar Pere de Déu, bishop of Santa Justa of Sardinia, abbot of the monastery and who had been chaplain to the Infante Alphonse 87 , and to the contracts to build the cloister and refectory 88 .
It is important to identify the repairs and refurbishments made during the restoration projects and to determine the original from the spurious in order to analyse in detail each original sculpture and element and clarify the building process in which various maestros participated 89 . Although the donations for the works date to the time of James II, the reports show that most of the building work occurred under his successor, Alphonse IV, as did, it seems, part of the heraldic work on the capitals close to the noteworthy and surprising pillar on the south west corner (see illustration 5). This corner pillar presents, from left to right, scenes from Genesis: God giving life to Adam, the Creation of Eve, the Entrance in Paradise, the Original Sin, the Shame of their Nakedness, the Reproach 90 , and the Expulsion. The capitals that look out over the garden feature the Condemnation to work and Abel the addition to ensuring that the paintings of the tomb of Peter the Great are suitable, took the opportunity to request the quantity promised for the refectory. The presence of Pere de Déu at Santes Creus was so that he could take leave of his companions before setting off for Sardinia after being named Bishop of Santa Justa: Cabestany, Joan F. "Pere de Déu, bisbe de Santa Justa", Santes Creus: Butlletí de l'Arxiu bibliogràfic de Santes Creus, 63-66 (1986-1987: 32. 87. So too had the Infante James, who renounced the throne; James II would blame him for this decision. Pere de Déu had been promoted to Bishop of Dolia according to a letter of instruction issued by James II to Bernat de Boxadós, his nuncio and procurator in the Roman Curia: Forci, Antonio. "L'episcopato di Saladinus Doliensis nella Sardegna regnícola del secolo XIV", Rivista dell'istituto di Storia dell 'Europa Mediterranea, 12 (2014): 78 (doc. 83). John XXII refused the election, with the result that Pere de Déu was elected bishop of Santa Justa in 1330, after Alphonse IV had proposed in vain his election as archbishop of Torres and bishop of Sulci: Cabestany, Joan F. "Pere de Déu, monjo de Santes Creus i bisbe de Santa Justa (Sardenya)", Santes Creus: Butlletí de l'Arxiu bibliogràfic de Santes Creus, 49 (1979): 73-77;Cabestany, Joan F. "Pere de Déu, monjo...": 30-33. 88. Puig i Cadafalch, Josep. "Un mestre anglès contracta l'obra del claustre de Santes Creus", Anuari de la Secció Històrico-Arqueològica de l'Institut d 'Estudis Catalans, 7 (1921-1926 shepherd and Cain the farmer. Historiography has recognised the singular nature of this historiated frieze, of a style and content so different from the other capitals in the precinct 91 . Although it has been proposed that a historiated programme was originally planned and then abandoned in favour of a new project characterised by the iconography that we see today 92 , the existence of this pillar with its peculiar narrative may be easily explained by the hypothesis regarding the influence of Frederick II's political theory on the king of Aragon, in which he was immersed during his reign in Sicily, and which has enabled a new reading of the semiotic content of the tombs.
To carry out this reading, first it is necessary to bear in mind the capital featuring the effigy crowned and flanked by coats of arms, one very deteriorated and showing the pales of Aragon, which in line with the predominant heraldry on the capitals and keystones, can only represent James II 93 (see illustration 6). (Fig. 7) Second, one has to consider the visual device that is located just opposite the Porta Reial (Royal Entrance) (see illustration 7) that provides access to the cloister; seen as one enters from the exterior, the entrance received this name because it is a true acclamation of James II and Blanche of Anjou, whose busts sit atop some corbels 94 91. As highlighted by Vives, Josep. Reinard des Fonoll, escultor anglès renovador de l'art gòtic a Catalunya (1321-1362. Barcelona: Blume, 1969: 90; Batlle, Pere. "Cicles bíblics els capitells del claustre...": 1. 92. Español, Francesca. "L'art al servei de Jaume II...": 12. 93. The keystones of the monastery (church, cloister and chapterhouse) are being analysed by Xènia Granero in her PhD thesis, Iconografía del espacio: las claves de bóveda en los edificios religiosos de la Diócesis de Tarragona (1150-1350, which she will defend at the beginning of 2022. 94. Serrano, Marta. "Imatges de la monarquia...": 181-192. illustration 5. detail of the corner pillar scenes © santes creus. photograph provided by marta serrano. and whose heraldry exhibits numerous coats of arms. As the first thing to be seen by those who accessed the cloister via this celebratory door, this narrative deployment on the pillar and the adjacent and frontal capital was in reality a visual statement with a clear theological and political message that brings to life the aforementioned prologue of the Liber Augustalis, where the emperor declared that after the fall of man, kings and princes were created due to natural necessity and by the power of God to task them with the royal office of executor divinae Providentiae 95 (see illustration 8 divine providence, is it possible to restore the order that once existed in Paradise, represented, significantly, on the axial axis of this corner pillar with the scene in which God invites Adam and Eve to enter Eden. It is also important not to overlook the metaphor and the emotional shock that this scene must have had on audiences that accessed the cloister (itself a prefiguration of Paradise 97 ) through the Royal Entrance, which was perhaps also used by individuals who were socially unimportant but very useful or profitable in matters of salvation. By this I refer to the regular stream of the poor who regularly and several times a year said prayers pro anima before the tomb of the kings 98 . James II imported the concept of government and administration that the Staufen had imposed on the Kingdom of Sicily 99 , and his artistic patronage highlights the fortunes of the Liber Augustalis beyond its island frontiers, in particular in the Crown of Aragon 100 , in accordance with one of its constitutions 101 . An analysis of the cloistral precinct of this area suggests that although the perimeter enclosure was undertaken during the reign of James II, when the Royal Door was planned 102 , the raising of the galleries and the vaults happened in the time of Alphonse IV, which explains the heraldry on the first capital adjacent to the corner pillar on the west wall 103 (see illustration 9). In it can be seen a shield dimidiated between Aragon and Urgell, an emblem that Alphonse was entitled to use from 1314, when still an Infante and after acquiring the county of Urgell, until 1334 once he had become king of Aragon and tutor to his firstborn James 104 . Although we cannot rule out that some emblems 102. Analysis of the entrance can be found in Vives, Josep. "El portal...": 1-11. 103. Shield of Aragon and Urgell identified in Vives,Josep. Reinard des Fonoll...: 98. 104. Although the will of the count of Urgell, Ermengol X, which was dictated in 10/7/1314 and which stated that the county would pass into the hands of the Infante Alphonse, established that the arms of Urgell could not be mixed with any others: Monfar, Diego. Historia de los condes de Urgell II. Barcelona: illustration 7. royal door (porta reial) © santes creus. photograph provided by marta serrano.
were sculpted for the purposes of memory and retrospection, a precise analysis of them alongside the eloquent visual programme 105 reveals their owners and gives a more exact understanding of their dates. It may be that those in the west gallery belong to laypeople and ecclesiastics directly connected to the work 106 and those in the south gallery belong to knights and nobility closely linked to the king 107 . If this is the case it would confirm rather than alter the meaning of the programme because the idea in the prologue of the Liber Agustalis had been taken up again in the Llibre de l'ordre de cavalleria, written around 1274-76 by Ramon Llull 108 , who had close connections to the royal family and who emphasised the role of knights, instituted by God to re-establish order but always subject to the king who "deu esser cavaller e senyor de tots cavallers" (must be a knight and lord of all knights) 109 . It is no accident that these noble coats of arms are situated opposite arcosolia in which lie illustrious knights, among them the one next to Ramón Alemany de Cervelló 110 , whose heraldry I have identified on the capital and who died in 1324 during the Sardinian campaign, one of the great feats in Alphonse's biography and from when he was still an Infante. In this manner James II's eagerness and strategies to reinforce royal power 111 , some of them influenced by Frederick II, become visible at Santes Creus both in belong to monks; perhaps the fleur de lys alludes to Guillelmo de Lilleto, a monk who signed the contract with Pere Alegre and the maestro Fonoll. Throughout the gallery more arms of Aragon can be seen (free-standing capitals 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10), although two of them seem to have been restored. On the last capital in this gallery, the one next to the northeast pillar, the arms of Aragon and Anjou are flanked by tetramorphs. 107. From west to east, the first capital next to the corner pillar, two shields of Anjou and two of Aragon and just after, the set of columns crowned and flanked by the paly shield. On the second freestanding column in the second arcade, another four: one with the bezants of Montcada, another with a lion rampant, the third with the goat of Cervelló, and the last with three large vessels or bags. 108. Ramon Llull (1232-1316) was in close contact with James II throughout his life and supported him in various initiatives, such as the much desired crusade in Hispanic territory, which Llull justified in his final treatise Liber de acquisitione Terrae Sanctae, in which he described military strategies for fighting against the infidel. He also travelled to Sicily to take advantage of the missionary spirit of Frederick III: Musco, Alessandro; Romano, Marta, eds. Il Mediterraneo del '300: Raimondo Lullo e Federico III d'Aragona, re di Sicilia. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007; Garcías, Sebastián. "El candidato de Ramon Llull para el cargo de "Maestro General" de la Orden militar del Espíritu Santo", Estudios Lulianos, 16 (1972): 63-77;Garcías, Sebastián. Ramón Llull y el Islam. Palma: Graficas Planisi, 1981: 219-223;Dominguez, Fernando. Ramon Llull. El mejor libro del mundo. Madrid: Arpa, 2016. These relations between Llull, James II and Frederick III are recorded in the documents and the parallels between the Llibre de Cavalleria and the Liber Augustalis are essential to understanding the sort of ideological and intellectual triangle between the three men. I would like to thanks Ignacio Cabello for his conversations with me on this matter. 109. Sanchis, Manuel. "L'ideal cavalleresc definit per Ramon Llull", Studia Lulliana, 2/4.1 (1958): 46: "A significar que un Déu és senyor de totes coses, Emperador deu esser cavaller e senyor de tots cavallers. Mas, car Emperador de no poria per si mateix règer tots los cavallers, cové que haja de tots si reys qui sien cavallers, per tal que li ajuden a mantener l'Orde de Cavalleria. E los reys deuen haver dejús si, comes, comdors, varvessors, e axí dels altres graus de Cavalleria. E dejús aquests graus, deuen esser los cavallers de un scut, los quals sien governats e posehits per los graus de Cavalleria demunt dits" (If a God is lord of all things, an Emperor must be a knight and lord of all knights. But, because an Emperor cannot himself rule all knights, he must make kings of all of those who pretend to be knights so that they may help him maintain the Order of Knighthood. And the kings must have below them counts, viscounts, barons, and the other ranks of the Knighthood. And below these ranks must be the squires, who are governed and owned by the ranks of the Knighthood mentioned above). 110. He was correctly identified by Español, Francesca. "El maestro de los Alemany de Cervelló y la primera escultura trecentista en Tarragona", Locus Amoenus, 1 (1995): 61-74. 111. Sabaté, Flocel. "Discurs i estratègies del poder reial...": 617-646. the pantheon that he conceived as a unitary project in the specific sector of the cloister next to the entrance from outside through the Porta Reial. The communicative potential of the discourse is indisputable, showing the monarch as the executor of Divine Providence, and was probably sculpted after his reign during the times of his successor who, still an Infante and count of Urgell, had confirmed and sanctioned the financial resources for its construction. And although his reign was brief, only nine years, his actions demonstrate that his father's political theory was very familiar to him, as was seen in his coronation ceremony, so notable that his successor Peter IV would say of it that "no deu ésser mes en oblit" (it must never be forgotten) 112 . Like his father who had followed the same reasoning as Frederick II, Alphonse IV understood the liturgy as a means of setting a magnificent scene that visualised the extraordinary honour of the institution that he represented and only increased the "ápice de la dignidad real" (apex of royal dignity) attained on the death of his father 113 . He chose the day of Easter for the ceremony, establishing a parallel between the death and resurrection of Christ and the death of James II and the resurrection of the royalty, as recorded by the chronicler Muntaner 114 . Dressed with the specific garments of the deacon, he introduced the most significant change to the liturgy by taking the crown from the altar and placing it on his own head, an act that would have immediate consequences, and not only within the Crown of 112. Les quatre grans cròniques. IV. Crònica de Pere III el Cermioniós. ed. Ferran Soldevila. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, 2014: 35. 113. […] antequam pervenissemus ad apicem regie dignitatis is a sentence that is repeated in various documents issued by the future king. Palacios, Bonifacio. La coronación de los reyes...: 207 (doc. 9). 114. "ell pensà que així con los sants apostols e deixebles de nostre Senyor, ver Déus Jesucrist, estaven desconsolats e marrits per la passió de nostre Senyor déus Jesucrist, que aixi los seus sotsmeses estaven ab gran tristor per la mort del senyor rei, son pare; e que, així com Jesucrist, lo jorn de Pasqua, per la sua resurrecció, ell los alegrà e confortà, que enaixí lo jorn santbeneit de la Pasqua primera vinent, que fo dicmenge, tres dies en abril, a l'entrada del any mil tre-cents vint-e-vuit, que ell confortàs e alegràs ell mateix e sos germans e tots los seus sotsmesos" (He thought that in the same way as the apostles and disciples of our Lord, the true God Jesus Christ, were disconsolate and grief-stricken because of the passion of our Lord God Jesus Christ, so too were his own subjects struck with great sadness because of the death of the king, their father; and just as Jesus Christ, on the day of Easter, through his resurrection, cheered and comforted on the blessed day of Easter, which was Sunday, three days in April, at the start of the year 1328, he comforted and cheered himself and his brothers and all his subjects): Les quatre grans cròniques. III...: CCXCI; Cingolani, Stefano M. Vida, viatges i relats de Ramon Muntaner. Barcelona: Base, 2015: 101-102. illustration 9. heraldry of alfonso with the dimidiate of aragon and urgell © santes creus. photograph provided by marta serrano. Aragon 115 . Although no earlier ceremony had ever involved the king substituting the officiating bishop and placing the crown on his own head, this was precisely what Frederick II had done during his fourth coronation when on 17/3/1229 he made his unusual entrance into the Holy Sepulchre and, as the patriarch Giraldo would later complain in his letter to Gregory IX, placed on his own head the diadem as king of Jerusalem 116 . Perhaps we are faced with a new echo of the Staufen in the ceremony that inaugurated the reign of the new king of Aragon and that did none other than demonstrate before the subjects his immediate and direct dependence on God and his authority as king, without any intermediary, just as the emperor has done many years before in the temple in Jerusalem 117 and as his father had brought together, promoted and made visible through various actions, among others his artistic commissions at the monastery of Santes Creus.