CHAPTER 4
 SOURCES

 The inquiry into the Cycle of the Life and Passion of Christ in the Bible ofAvila

continues by investigating the possible iconographic and stylistic sources that the Master

of the Cycle of the Life and Passion of Christ could have seen and that might have

inspired him to produce the cycle. In this preliminary study, iconographic and stylistic

sources have been found from the 10th to the 12th century coming from Spain. A great

number of sources can be found in Spain along the pilgrimage road to Santiago de

Compostela, along the territorial boundaries of the kingdom of Castile and Leon with the

Muslim territories, and possibly along the ivory trade routes (see map Fig. 13).

Throughout these areas there are a number of religious buildings--churches, monasteries,

hermitages, etc.-that contain either sculpture in the form of historiated capitals or

tympana, mural paintings, manuscripts, or small scale objects, such as ivory shrines,

reliquaries, caskets, metalwork or arks, that resemble certain iconographic and stylistic

aspects found in the Cycle of the Life and Passion of Christ in the Bible of Avila, and that

could have been a source of inspiration for the artist.

 The present study will begin by suggesting possible sources starting with the

general iconographic characteristics and the surviving cycles of the Life and Passion of

Christ that might contain one or more scenes that are similar to the Cycle of the Life and

Passion of Christ in the Bible ofAvila. This discussion will be followed by a description

of the possible sources for the style of the Master of the Cycle of the Life and Pa~ssion of

Christ. Finally, this chapter will consider the many motifs that could have inspired the