Álvaro de Luna and the political discourses of the Chapel of Saint James
Cinthia ROCHA
Original title: Álvaro de Luna e os discursos políticos da Capela de Santiago
Published in
Keywords: 15th century, Crown of Castile, Funerary chapels, Nobility, Álvaro de Luna.
The Chapel of Saint James, built in the Cathedral of Toledo during the fifteenth century to become the burial place of Alvaro de Luna and his lineage, is one of the leading exponents of Spanish Late Gothic. The construction process had two phases: during the life of the Constable, when he took charge of the work, and a few decades after the tragic death of the former Favorite, when the Chapel elements were completed and his body transferred under the responsibility of his daughter, María de Luna y Pimentel, II Duchess of the Infantado. As the building occurred at different moments of a broad process of transformations, the structure also indicates changes in the representations and strategies used by the noblemen within conflicts of intra-nobility nature. The objective of this paper is analyze the Chapel of Saint James, understanding it as a complex form of political action, whose examination may contribute to the comprehension of the transformations that marked the fifteenth century in Castile, as the conflicts that involved the representation of groups and/or individuals were active agents of the changes that engendered the consolidation of high-nobility ideology.
“Thy Kingdom come”: The Legitimation of the Medieval Court Through Image of the Heavenly Court
Jó KLANOVICZ, Icles RODRIGUES and Rodrigo Prates de ANDRADE
Original title: “Venha a nós o Vosso reino”: a legitimação da Corte Medieval através da imagem da Corte Celestial
Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Church, Court, King, Nobility, image.
This article studies the medieval court by a perspective of a historiographical readout of the political theology. The idea of an instrument of legitimation of the royal power based in the heavenly court and that mirrored in the earthly court. This conception is very present in the medieval iconography, that will be used in this analysis.