The General Director of Culture of Aragon Government, Pedro Olloqui, and the mayor of Huesca, Lorena Orduna, have announced on Wednesday the two new additions that become part of the permanent collection of the Huesca Museum: a Roman tombstone with almost 2,000 years old and the table of “The bedroom of the Virgin Mary’ “from the dismembered altarpiece of Our Lady of Baldós de Montañana (Huesca).
“There are two works with a very different origin: an archaeological piece and the acquisition of a gothic table,” the General Director of Culture observed. He has highlighted the work of the technical team of the Museum in the conservation of the works and has praised the “enormous effort” that the Municipal Corporation is doing to publicize the history and culture of Huesca.
For her part, the mayor has pointed out that the Roman tombstone “has a special meaning”, since it offers details of how Huesca was at that time: a city “located in the upper part, with cobbled streets, with water wells of excellent quality, with religious buildings, theaters and with wealth”, as demonstrates the marble used in this piece. “It is very important to preserve our heritage, our cultural legacy and our history,” he said.
During the recent urbanization works in the Coso Alto de Huesca, in the section between the Plaza de la Immaculada and the Friendship Street, an archaeological finding of great value was discovered: an ancient Roman registration that, according to the experts, belonged to a funeral monument of almost 2,000 years ago.
Pedro Olloqui is the general director of Culture of the Government of Aragon. Photo: DGA
The discovery occurred at the end of November 2024, when within the archaeological actions of a preventive nature that are usually carried out in historical helmets, archaeologist Héctor Arcusa, which supervised the works, located several white marble fragments in a ditch destined for new sanitation ducts. The pieces were buried between medieval period filling layers, associated with what was the old medieval pit of Huesca.
It is a Roman funeral registration of remarkable quality, both for the type of marble and the precision of the carved letters. The text, although incomplete, is written in Latin and was commissioned by a woman named Sergia, who dedicated the tombstone to her son -in -law – a high local position – to her daughter Cornelia and also herself. The formula used in registration indicates that it was commanded to do in life, a usual practice in Roman times.
Duunviro honored
The tombstone mentions that the honoree was Duunviro, a figure equivalent to the current mayor, a member of the Gallery tribe and probably also Flamen, a priest of public cult. Cornelia, his wife, carries maternal cognomen. This type of testimonies helps reconstruct the social and political life of the ancient Osca, the Roman city that gave rise to the current Huesca.
This new finding reinforces what was already known about the Roman past of the city: that Osca was integrated into the gallery tribe since the end of the 1st century B.C., when it was promoted to municipality. In addition, the repetition of cognomen such as Aelius, Cornelius, Sergius and Marius in other inscriptions suggests that local power was concentrated in a few families, forming an elite that dominated political and religious life during the 1st and second centuries A.D.
The discovered tombstone is added to the little one, but a valuable set of Roman inscriptions found in Huesca, such as the one that mentions the magistrate M. Marius Nepo or the altar dedicated to the august victory for the Seviri L. Cornelius Phoebus and L. Sergius Quintillus, confirming the importance of the city in imperial times.
Works at the Huesca Museum
After its finding in the excavation, the registration is part of the funds of the Huesca Museum, where the restoration process has been carried out with a view to its future incorporation in the permanent exhibition, specifically in room III dedicated to the Roman world.
After entry into the Restoration and Conservation Area, the first step was an exhaustive evaluation: organoleptic examination, detailed graphic documentation, technical sheet and analysis of the conservation status. A sample of marble, extracted from a recent breakage, was sent to the Petrology area of the University of Zaragoza to determine its geological origin. The results of this study are still pending.
The state of conservation of registration is good, despite being incomplete and fragmented in eight pieces of different sizes. Marble retains a homogeneous and compact structure. Remains of land, cement and carbonations were observed, especially deposited in the incised areas and the edges. The surface shows spots in ocher and reddish tones, attributable to their permanence underground and to contact with polluting agents dissolved in rainwater and ferruginous elements.
The healing restoration process began with thorough mechanical cleaning, made with soft brushes, scalpels and soft tools under binocular magnifying glass. Subsequently, a slight chemical cleaning was proceeded by swabs. After the union of the fragments, taking care that the small gaps were reintegrated to reintegrate the piece and facilitate their reading.
The works were carried out following criteria of minimal intervention, reversibility and discernibility, always respecting the integrity of the original object.
Altarpiece table
On the other hand, the Government of Aragon, through the General Directorate of Culture of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, allocated in 2024 a budget item of 147,070 euros for the acquisition of works of art, with the purpose of increasing and strengthening the public collections of the museums managed by the autonomous administration. Of the total, about 30,000 euros were allocated to the acquisition of this piece that is now exhibited as an outstanding work and that will then go to the Museum’s Gothic collection.
In this way, the result of this acquisition policy, the Huesca Museum has incorporated into its collections a new table from the dismembered altarpiece of Our Lady of Baldós de Montañana (Huesca), a work attributed to Pedro García de Benabarre and dated at the end of the fifteenth century. This is the scene entitled ‘The sleeping of the Virgin Mary’. In 2013, another table belonging to this same altarpiece was already integrated into the museum collection, representing ‘the resurrection’.
The work is a painting on table that represents the moment of the virgin of the Virgin Mary. This appears in the central part of the composition lying on its death bed covered with a rich fabric. The Virgin, with her eyes closed and her hands crossed over her body, is observed by the apostles who appear together with her.
It highlights the figure of San Juan that leans towards the Virgin while we hold a palm of paradise. In the upper area some angels appear and the figure of God the Father who welcomes the soul of Mary represented as a girl. First, there are the figures of San Pedro and San Pablo reading two books.
The table is part of the Hispanic-Flamenco Gothic style, artistic current represented by outstanding figures such as Juan de la Abadía, from whom numerous works and documents are preserved, and by Pedro García de Benabarre, painter of active altarpieces in Aragon and Catalonia between 1445 and 1483.
The latter had his workshop in the town of Benabarre, where he developed intense artistic activity thanks to the collaboration of disciples and assistants. His style marked a reference that lasted in the east of Alto Aragón and in the province of Lleida until the first years of the 16th century.
This table was part of one of the side streets of the main altarpiece of the Church of Our Lady of Baldós de Montañana (Huesca), located to the right of the titular image. The whole, dedicated to Mary, occupied the entire background of the presbytery of the parish, and became a big screen on which compartments dedicated to the conception and childhood of Mary, the joy and the cycle of death and glorification of the Virgin Mary were included.
This impressive furniture was dismembered and sold in 1928 by the antiquarian Josep Bardolet, and is currently preserved completely dispersed. Of this altarpiece, the Huesca Museum already has in its collection with the Table of the Resurrection, acquired by the Government of Aragon in 2013, to which the acquired in this 2024 is added.
