The pomegranate is the emblem of the Kingdom of Granada, which during the 13th century was merged with the lion of Leon and the castle of Castile, in the long reconquista that produced the Spanish empire.
Granada was the seat of a powerful Moorish emirate, whose palace was the Alhambra, and whose toleration of Jewish scholars and intellectuals made it a center of medieval learning.
Thanks be to Wikipedia for the splendid art.
Manuscript Leaf with Saint James the Greater, from a Book of Hours, Medieval Art
The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Medium: Tempera, ink, and shell gold on parchment
The scallop shell emblem on the arms of Las Californias, is that of St. James, patron of Spain. The backpacks and crossed walking sticks are symbols of the pilgrims heading to his important (i.e., lucrative) shrine at Compostela in Leon. I love the way the artist uses the border to suggest, through subtle perspective, a long and winding road.
The scallop, worn on a cord around the neck, was given to all faithful who completed the pilgrimage. The begging bowl, above the whole scene, reminds us to be charitable, that is, to feel caritas, toward the hungry pilgrims.
A 17th century Spanish province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Its capital was balmy Loreto in Baja until 1777, when the seat was moved north to foggy Monterey, then to chaotic Los Angeles in 1835. (Note the scallop shell of St. James the Greater, “Santiago.”)
I love the visual inference of this treatment: an island of Catholic Spanish red-and-yellow, wrapped by a band of briny blue. This echoes the old legend from Cortez’s time, that California was an island.
The Jesuits ran Las Californias until 1765, when, as part of Carlos III’s “Bourbon Reforms,” Don Jose de Galvez arrived from Madrid. He announced he was the Visitador, a rank above the Viceroy himself. The Jesuits were promptly expelled from Baja, and their missions given over to the Dominicans. The Franciscans were brought in to missionize northwards, up into unexplored Alta California. Galvez put the whole plan – including the Jesuit expulsion from Baja – under the command of a new governor, Don Gaspar de Portola.
In 1804, the thriving province was split in two, Baja California and Alta California, Lower and Upper.
In 1838, following rebellions by Californio surenos, the removal of the capital from Monterey to the Angels in Southern Alta California, Alvarado’s coup d’etat of nortenos, a formal secession from Mexico as the Free and Sovereign State of Alta California, a sureno loyalist backlash, and the forcible expulsion of two incompetent governors, Mexico promulgated a constitution that re-welcomed the quasi-breakaway province. Mexico even gave Alvarado back control of Baja, recombining both Californias. Ten years later the province was again split by the Treaty of Guadeloupe-Hidalgo.
Baja has itself been split into two Mexican states: the Free and Sovereign States of Baja California and Baja California Sur – “Southern Lower California” – organized only in 1974. Its emblem remains the design above.
Wikipedia is the source of these wonderful digital coats of arms.
Vanity Sounds the Horn and Ignorance Unleashes the Hounds Overconfidence, Rashness and Desire (from The Hunt of the Frail Stag), Medieval Art
Beqeust of Adele L. Lehman, in memory of Arthur Lehman, 1965
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Medium: Wool warp, wool and silk wefts
Vanity Sounds the Horn and Ignorance Unleashes the Hounds.
‘Tis a pity we are unused, in our sad day of dumbing, to allegory.
The Valley Village View 