Between the late thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, the wealthy elite throughout the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, and parts of the Americas colonized by Spain decorated their palaces and religious buildings with polychrome wood ceilings known in Spanish as artesonados. Built as a series of panels that were hoisted into place to cover the internal structural supports of the roof or the floor above, such ceilings were a type of luxurious interior adornment that offered a vibrant decorative surface for viewers to contemplate from below. They featured painted, gilded, carved, and applied designs, including geometric and floral motifs as well as heraldic emblems, inscriptions, and religious imagery. This panel, which likely came from a building in Toledo, features a rampant lion and a three-towered castle, emblems associated with the kingdoms of Castile and León.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a surge of interest in Spanish culture in the United States led many wealthy Americans to purchase these historic ceilings to decorate their homes. The ceiling of which this panel is a part was acquired by the media mogul William Randolph Hearst and appears to have been intended for installation in his home at San Simeon, California. However, it was never installed and likely moved to storage, where it was later seen and purchased by the postmodern architect Charles Moore for use in the Faculty Club at the University of Santa Barbara, which he was designing in the late 1960s. In 2014, when the club was undergoing renovations, the ceiling was donated to LACMA in honor of the museum’s 50th anniversary.
2024
* Note that the muqarnas element was fabricated by Taujel, S.L., a Spanish company specializing in restoration and construction of historic woodwork; it is based on historical methods of construction.
