Abstract

In a Catholic monarchy, it is to be expected that religion played a transcendentally important role. Not just from a spiritual standpoint, however, but far beyond that, it came to be one of the basic premises of the political and dynastic identity of the Habsburgs. Based upon this, a complex theological conception of politics was constructed, and all the available means of rhetoric and persuasion in Baroque society were mobilized for propagandistic dissemination. In particular, art at the service of faith became a useful instrument as the «broadcaster» of all visually transmitted ideology. In this respect, the two pillars that supported the Pietas hispanica —distinctive signs and mystic unifying agents— carried special importance:  Eucharistic and Immaculist devotion professed by the monarchs of the House of Austria. By this means, the political-confessional and propagandistic complex discourse that irradiated from the heart of the Monarchs to American territory was articulated. This article will look at some of the most significant images in relation to this theme, integrating them into the political-religious discourse of the time.

Abstract

We analyze some works of art representing St. Teresa of Ávila, within the corpus of sermons, paintings and sculptures of the New Spain, to investigate its proximity or their uniqueness regarding the metropolis. We confront texts and images to enrich reading and show some artistic repertoires where he enrolled to the figure of the holy reformer of Carmel.

Abstract

The relationship between literature and reality in the Middle Ages can be considered from several dimensions. One of the most important cultural elements of the medieval period is the visual representation of reality found it literary texts, not only through the presence of miniatures in the manuscripts, but especially through the description of realia in the same text. The encyclopedic tradition helps to intertwine this close relationship between the outer representativeness and the inwardness of the text, a new interpretation of the Horacian’s ut pictura poiesis. The «Tirant lo Blanch» is a fictional text full of iconic references to contemporary reality, which in this study are made clear visually.

Abstract

Abstract: Among the many editions of the «Peregrinació del Venturós Pelegrí» ab les «Cobles de la mort» published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Cervera, we examine sixteen that reproduce the same series of woodcuts depicting some scenes of the visionary pilgrim or the ghost of purgatory. The bibliographical descriptions, with a review of copies located in libraries around the world, is accompanied by facsimiles reproducing the series of woodcuts, the front page of fifteen editions and the preserved first page of a unique acephalous copy. This series is remarkable, both quantitatively and chronologically, for being the most repeated and most documented of all those printed in editions of these works from the seventeenth century to the present day.Key words: University of Cervera, printed poetry, bibliography, iconography.

Abstract

This paper analyses the evolution of childhood image throughout History from the most ancient times, when realistic representation of specific infant features is practically non existent in –or irrelevant to- many cultures. Children´s image, with all its specific characteristics according to each historical period, turns into a major theme in a whole body of religious and secular iconography which grants them a leading role.