In order to analyse the general characteristics of the Asturian Art, we must establish a very clear division between two completely different styles: the Ramirense period reflected in San Salvador de Valdediós, that we will study separately, and the rest of this phase's artistic manifestations.

Among the latter ones, both, due to the little boldness of its structures as well as for the quality of its buildings and sculptured decoration, we may consider that the Asturian Art is a leap backwards with respect to the last Visigothic Art. Only in the exterior aesthetics of the buildings we can see a very interesting step forward with respect to the buildings prior to 711.

• The horseshoe arch disappears completely and is replaced by the round series of arches.

• The walls are of masonry or ashlar whilst among Visigothics they were generally made of built in bone ashlars. Exterior buttresses are common, sometimes for decorative reasons when not corresponding to the vaults support.

• Churches are of basilical plant with three naves, three rectangular apses and elevated tribune at the feet. There is frequently a hidden chamber above the central apse as well as a portico at th feet and a small compartment on each side.

• The columns in the separation of the naves disappear, and are replaced by much heavier cuadrangular pillars. That is the reason to replace capitals by impostas, except in the cabeceras.

• The covering of buildings is plane, wooden, except in the B>cabeceras where they are always rectangular and are covered by barrel vaults.

• The sculptured decoration is reduced to lattice windows and, above all, to the chevets that sometimes are also decorated with blind series of arches on columns against the walls, but a much richer pictorial decoration is used in all the building..

• Special care is given to the exterior design of the churches, with a clear difference in the height between the lateral and the central naves, with latticework above the lateral ones, three windows in the apses and another window in the upper chamber of the central one, normally with two to three arches on small columns and capitals. The portico at the feet and sometimes also at the sides is usually of great beauty and is a very clear precedent of the Romanesque Art.

• According to the analysis made by Schlunk, all the walls, both, exterior and interior, were covered with smooth plaster. In the exterior, on a mix of small ashlars with other building elements, with decorations imitating the areas built with ashlars, wheras the interior was rendered and decorated with paintings.

It can be considered that some of the mentioned characteristics are manifested in Santanes de Pravia, the most ancient building that has been preserved to these days. Due to the isolation of the Asturian kingdom at its beginning -between 774 and 783- the most reasonable is to think that the Hispanic tradition was much more meaningful than the external influences in the gestation of the Asturian style.

In fact, as we have seen, we can find precedents of the preceeding phase of almost all noted characteristics: basilic plants with three naves, three apses -Son Bou, San Juan de Baños, Santa Lucía del Trampal -, porticos at the feet and in the laterals - San Pedro de Alcántara, San Pedro de la Nave, Quintanilla de las Viñas, etc. -, chambers above the central apse - Santa Comba de Bande, San Pedro de la Mata, San Pedro de la Nave, etc. -, elevated tribune at the feet of the church - San Giao de Nazaré, Quintanilla -, utlisation of pillars instead of columns - Aljezares, Son Bou, San Pedro de Alcántara, San Pedro de la Nave, etc. - and even the utilisation of masonry and ashlars was also very frequent before the cruciform churches.

The subject that appears most conflictive is the utilisation of the round classical arch, although being one of the main features of this phase, replacing the horseshoe arch so typical to the Visigothic Art. No satisfactory explanation for the reasons of this change have been found so far, being the most probable one that it has been motivated by the Carloingian Art. But this theory does not sound believable for several reasons: one the one side, the evidence of the spirit of continuity of the Visigothic monarchy in the Asturian kingdom, that undoubtly reflected very clearly in all its cultural manifestations, in architecture as well as in sculpture, goldsmithing and miniatures. On the other hand, it is difficult to think that this change had been motivated by building traditions or artistic influences that came from the exterior to one area that remained practically isolated during the first times of the Reconquest. Only since the last years, when remains of important Roman constructions start to appear in the principality, like Veranes, the Balneario de Las Regueras or the hot thermal baths of Campo Valdés, among others, it is becoming more probable that it had only been motivated by the utilisation of previous classical models existing in the area.

This phase is diveded in four perfectly differentiated periods. The last three correspond to the personal impulse of three of the most important kings -at least from a cultural standpoint- of the Asturian monarchy:

• Initial period: from the battle of Covadonga till the moving of the capital to Oviedo, during Alphonse II's reign. It is a time of survival, of resistance and extension of the territory- Galicia is conquered and the court moves from Cangas de Onís to Santianes de Pravia. Evidently it was not a period of great artistic creativity; in fact only the remains of two churches of those times have been preserved, one in Cangas de Onís, today disappeared but built in 737 upon a dolmen that still exists, and the other one in Santianes de Pravia, from the times of king Silo, around 780. We know through the chronicles of Sebastian that between these two dates, in times of Alphonse I, many churches were built and restored, among them the monastery of San Vicente that gave origin to Oviedo, but no remains of those buildings have reached us. What really may be considered as trascendental in this period is the continuity of the traditions of the Visigothic culture in the monastery of Liébana, where Beato, its abbot during the reign of king Silo, wrote "Comments on the Apocalypse", confronting Elipando, the metropolitan of Toledo, opposing to his adoptionist theory. The "Comments on the Apocalypse" are direct descendants of the Visigothic culture and miniature and it is the starting point of all the later Mozarabic miniature and, therefore, of the Romanesque painting and sculpture.

• Reign o King Alphonse II, the Chaste (791-842): great politician and military and supporter of the renaissance of art and culture of the Visigothic kingdom in Asturias By moving the court to Oviedo he wanted to convert this city in a new Toledo, providing to it all the structures he thought necessary to become the capital of an important monarchy. According to what we can read in the chronicles, under the responsibility of its architect, Tioda -name that come from the Gothic Teudis-, a walled city was built and a monumental nucleus in its interior that included the palaces of the king, the church of San Tirso and the chapel of Sta. Leocadia, and a whole series of buildings of public service, like aqueducts, thermal baths, etc. He built the basilica of San Julián and Santa Basilisa, forming part of a royal villa at 1 Km from Oviedo. The basilica has been very well preserved to these days and it is known as San Julián de los Prados or Santullano. Besides, other two rural churches are considered belonging to this period due to their similarity with Santullano: Santa María de Bendones and San Pedro de Nora. The Holy Chamber and Santullano have been declared world heritage sites. During the reign of Alphonse the II started the devotion to Santiago for which he also ordered the building of the first church devoted to the saint in Compostela.

• Reign of Ramiro I (842-850): In just eight years and without any intention to leave a monumental work to posterity, this king, who only intended to build a small recreational palace and a church in his hunting domaines, has bequeathed three extraordinary constructions of absolute perfection both, structural and aesthetically. These buildings, declared world heritage sites, although very different between them, hold some basic common characteristics very different to those defined for the rest of the Asturian architecture:

  • Each building corresponds to an integral plan, very complete for which also all the sculptural decoration is designed that fits in its structure.

  • SThey are constructions built on the base of little ashlars, very well squared and totally vaulted. The vaults rested on fajones arches and rested in the exterior by buttresses and in the interior by pilasters against the wall as we will see later reproduced in the Romanesque architecture.

  • They have a very rich decoration sculptured in columns, capitals, bases, stone courses, discs, pilasters, etc. where it again appears the human figure that had not been reutilised since the latest Visigothic period, as well as geometric, vegetal and animal subjects where some Visigothic, oriental and even Viking influences seem to be present.

  • In view of the integration of all elements in each building, for which only material expressly prepared for each one of themis used, it seems unquestionable that they were built not only by a single architect, but also by a team of masons, builders and sculptors with a wide joint previous experience.

  In fact we might think that an encyclopaedia in stone was written, perfectly planned and executed, with the best building techniques known till then. As we will see in the study of each building, we find the three most meaningful types of structure of previous periods: double vault, basilical and pseudo cruciform. The covers are always vaulted, resting on blind series of arches and buttcresses, but with the vaults arrayed in a very different manner according to their type of structure. The definition of space, both exterior as well as interior, is also very different in each of them and their sculptured decoration, integrated in general to the structure of the buildings and developed within a single design and by the same workshop, is a compendium of geometric, vegetal, animal and human figure motives, mixing Hispanic, Sassanid, Syrian, Byzantine...and even Viking influences.

  In spite of the many studies developed by the best experts in high-medieval European art, no conclusion has been reached so far, not even an approximate one, of who could have been the architect that created Santa María del Naranco, San Miguel de Lillo and Santa Cristina de Lena; nor how could he have formed in such a short stretch of time, a team that would work with very different techniques to those of the previous period, with the level of perfection and safety shown in these three buildings, without leaving a single reflection of his knwledge in later buildings. What we know is that almost two centuries in advance this architect and his workshop left the structural and aesthetic bases of what the Romanesque art would be. In fact, the easiest would be to believe that, as what tradition says with regard to the Angels' Cross, also a team of angels appeared to build the Ramirense buildings, and disappeared without leaving a trace after having them built in a very short period of time.

  

• Reign of Alphonse III, el Magno (866-910)): In his forty-three years of reign he gave a definite impulse to the Asturian kingdom. He extended the line of conquest till the Duero river, repopulating with people that came from his domaines as well as with Mozarabics, founding villas and monasteries, and protecting them with fortified villages, like Oporto, Toro, Zamora, Simancas or Dueñas, and creating the bases of the future Castille by building the fortress of Burgos. In the political area, he joined through matrimony with the royal family of Navarra and gave a great impulse to the idea of recovering all of Spain, joining the different Christian kingdoms under a "Magnus Imperator", as his sons called him. Along this same line, he was a great supporter of culture and promoted the building of civil works, especially in Oviedo and León, like churches and monasteries. In this period, within the Asturian architecture of religious character, besides San Salvador de Valdediós, a jewel of the Asturian art, other buildings were raised, like San Adriano de Tuñón, Santiago de Gobiendes, San Salvador de Priesca yand the new cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, replaced later by the present one. In the civil area, besides the fortification of Oviedo and the already mentioned cities, he built a new palace and the Fountain of the Foncalada in Oviedo, also included in the list of Oviedo monuments declared world heritage sites.

  The Asturian constructions of this period, excepting San Salvador de Valdediós, totally vaulted and with a portico that recalls the Ramirense buildings for their structure and decoration, have the same basic characteristics than those of the reign of Alphonse II, although they beguin to show certain influences of the Mozarabic art in the paintings, in the horeshoe arches and in the window lattice work.

  We think it to be very important to point out that in those times churches and monasteries were being built in the reconquered territories, by Christians that came from Al-Andalus and also with the support of Alphonse III, like San Miguel de la Escalada, San Cebrián de Mazote or Santa María de Lebeña, in a style that, besides recovering part of the characteristics of the Visigothic architecture that had been abandoned in Asturias, like the horseshoe arch and the utilisation of columns instead of pillasters in the series or arches for the separation of tha naves, it brought new construction techniques learnt in Al-Andalus.