Article
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Heaven versus Hell: The vision Tnugdal and the voyage of the soul in search of salvation (12th century)
Adriana Zierer
Original title: Paraíso versus Inferno: a Visão de Túndalo e a Viagem Medieval em Busca da Salvação da Alma (séc. XII)
Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism
The Salvation in Middle Ages was connected to the idea of voyage. The medieval man saw himself as a voyager (homo viator), a walker between two worlds: the ephemerous earth, place of tentations and the Heaven, the kingdom of God and of celestials beings. If the individual suceeded in maintain his body pure, he would obtain the salvation, but if he failed his soul would be condemned with eternal chastiments in Hell or provisorial in the Purgatory. It was a medieval paradox the fact that the soul could only be saved by the body. Because this sentiment of guilt, broght by the Original Sin, the population usually searched for salvation by means of a voyage, for example the peregrinations to achieve the Saint Earth (Jerusalem). These displacements were insecures (bad trails, menace of robbery and of diseases) and seen as a form of salvation since the pilgrim never knew for sure if he would come back or not. He wanted to experience in his flesh what Christ and other martyrs had suffered. Another means of salvation was the isolation from the rest of society in search of a life connected to God, such as the hermits and monks did. Because of their despite for terrestrial pleasures and their lives consacrated in prayers and fastings to God, they were considered the purest in terrestrial society. The benedictine monks dedicated themselves to write Visions with the purpose of presenting the chastiments and pleasures of the souls in beyond. Their intention was to show to the people the correct rules of behavior to obtain the salvation. The exempla, such as the Vision of Tundalo, present the types of chastiments based on the seven capital sins, and the actions that should be performed to reach the Paradise: to give alms, to go to mass, to give riches to the Church and to avoid lust. Un common element from the Visions is the emphasis in the sensations of the five senses. For example, stink in Hell and perfume in Heaven. Tortures are explained by the use of darkness, screams and sorrows, in opposition to clarity, singing and happiness. In Iconography, with the Seven Deadly Sins, by Bosch, and The Final Jugdement, by Fra Angelico, the structure of the Visions is confirmed. The topos of the beyond, in the case of the Heaven, are characterized by an edenic landscape represented by gardens, chants, fountains, angels and leafy trees. Once in Hell, the geography presuppose some obstacles such as ways with narrow brigdes, boiling rivers, mountains, lakes of ice and monsters. Thus, the individual in Middle Ages wanted the salvation more for the fear of Hell than from the glories of the Heaven, and the human soul debated herself between the desire for the pleasures and the dread of the infernal abyss.
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Bringing the Divine down into Man: the building-up of the yoga path
Edrisi Fernandes
Original title: Trazendo o Divino para Dentro do Homem: a Construção do Sistema do Yoga
Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism
The author analizes the evolution of Yoga as an ascetic discipline, since the time of the absorption of the local inhabitants by the Aryan tribes, that settled in India in protohistoric times. Austerity vows, magical practices, breath control exercises and ascetic attitudes of the locals were incorporated in Vedic metaphysics and religion, and also in preclassical Yoga. The discovery of the power of ascetic/meditational practices gave rise to a progressive distantiation of the yogis from external religious practices such as sacrifices, intended to propitiate the gods, and to a parallel advance of the view of yoga as a kind of sacrifice in itself, grounded on the association - thought as a binding or [re]union - between the Self/the living Soul (âtman; jivâtman) of man and the eternal norm (sanatana dharma), the “Lord of Creatures” (Prajâpati), the Supreme Being (Parameshtin; Brahman; Shiva of Shaivism; Vishnu of Vaishnavism), or the force or power (Shakti of Shaktism [Tantrism]) that makes life possible and maintains the cosmos. Through a review of the Purusha (Sanskrit for “person; man”, but also for “Universal man; man-god”) theme in some classical Indian literary references - encompassing the Rigveda, the Atharvaveda, many Upanishads, relevant portions of the Mahâbhârata (particularly of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, and of the Mokshadharma and other sections of the Shânti Parva), the Yoga-Sûtra of Patañjali (the founding text of classical yoga), the Bhâgavata-Purâna, the Yoga-Vâsishtha attributed to Vâlmîki, and the Kulârnava-Tantra (an essential text to tantra-yoga), among others -, an articulation that consolidates human autonomy and superior status in the universe is perceived, giving way to the idea that one can be “enlighted”, and the God-in-man status can be achieved, both through knowledge (jñâna) and through yoga - the way of enlightment associated with bodily and mental control and stability, and with the achievement of trans-rational conciousness. Purely “transcendental” meditation and concentration practices progressively [re]turn to a situation where the body is valued as a kind of “temple”, that must be appropriately constructed and cared for in order to allow and to favour the final encounter and assimilation between man and the Divine.
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The Quotidianity of an Image: the Face of the Christ
Ofelia Manzi
Original title: La Cotidianeidad de una imagen: el rostro de Cristo
Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism
After the third century, a widespread repertoire of Christian images is created. Recognition of the characters of Biblical history was made by their assimilation to motifs of Roman art. The study of origin, development and modifications that modified the face of Christ offers the possibility of analyzing the multiple sources for this image as well as establishing the changes of its meaning, that run parallel to the history of the Church.
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The dialectical disputes of the Spartan Helen in the tragedies of “The Trojan Women” by Euripides (c.480-406 BC) and “Troades” by Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD)
Anastasia Nancy TERZOPOULOU
Original title: Las disputas dialécticas de la espartana Helena en las tragedias de “Las Troyanas” de Eurípides (c.480-406 a.C.) y “Troades” de Séneca (4 a.C. - 65 d.C.)
Published in Languages and Cultures in Tradition
The objective of this article is the analysis of the agón between Helen and Hecuba in “The Trojan Women“ (Τρωάδες) by the Athenian playwright Euripides, through which the intertextuality of the passage with the agón between the Spartan Helen and Hector's widow, Andromache, in Seneca's dramatic piece is indicated. Both playwrights managed to transmit through these dramatic works all the pain and horror that war causes to the vanquished, but also to the victors, since, practically, within a war conflict no one comes out completely unscathed both emotionally and physically.
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The portal and the rose window in the Praise 1 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria by Alfonso X (13th century)
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: O portal e a rosácea no Louvor 1 das Cantigas de Santa Maria de Afonso X (século XIII)
Published in Intercultural Mediterranean
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The Cantigas de Santa Maria, in addition to their most obvious characteristic, that of King Alfonso X's homage to the Virgin Mary, through hundreds of praises, accounts of miracles and their corresponding images – in particular, more than four hundred full-page historical illuminations – are for us, art historians, a summary of medieval life, not only in the kingdoms of León and Castile, ruled by the Wise King in the second half of the 13th century, but throughout Europe and its surroundings. An example of this is right at the beginning of the Alfonsine compendium, in the Praise 1, since its 2nd stanza, as well as vignette 2 of the illumination, tell of an important event that took place in Bethlehem: the birth of Jesus. Focusing on this stanza and vignette – but without losing sight of the main theme of the praise of the Virgin, her seven moments of extreme happiness, or “goyos” in Galician language –, this article correlates biblical texts with the themes addressed in the Praise 1 of the Cantigas; it also correlates religion and architecture, goodness and beauty, as well as holiness and perfection of forms. Let us then delve into the religious universe that underpins the creation of the Gothic portal and rose window, according to the vision of Alfonso X and his Cantigas de Santa Maria.
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The stone vault and the ivy leaves: the Cantiga 65 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria by King Afonso X (13th century)
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: A abóbada de pedra e as folhas de hera: a Cantiga 65 das Cantigas de Santa Maria do rei Afonso X (século XIII)
Published in Returning to Eden
This work analyses the text and images of the Cantiga 65 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria by the Castilian king Afonso X with the aim of demonstrating how the vaults of medieval sanctuaries relate to the ivy leaves and the main character of this Cantiga, an excommunicated man who wandered across half the world to receive from the Virgin herself the grace of redemption, in addition to glimpsing the immortality of faith and friendship in an abandoned church, already covered by vast foliage.
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The mulier of Saint Isidore of Seville and the Fathers of the Church. Aristolelian configurations
Pedro Carlos Louzada FONSECA
Original title: A mulier de Santo Isidoro de Sevilha e os Padres da Igreja. Configurações aristotélicas
Published in Games from Antiquity to Baroque
This article examines the presence of postulates of Ancient Science presented by Aristotle about the anatomy and physiology of the parents in the generation of animals in his book Generatione animalium [Generation of animals], which starts from the biology of the genders to reach ideological values about the male and the female. female, Widespread in the Middle Ages, the teachings of Aristotle influenced the thought and religious literature of the period of the so-called Fathers of the Church. Through comparison, the article traces of this Aristotelian theme in Saint Isidore of Seville, Saint Anselm, and Saint Thomas Aquinas with the critical purpose of concluding that the theology and morals of religious doctrine were in many respects debtors of the classical legacy of Greek Antiquity, very well represented by the well-known Stagirite.
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The funeral weddings of the Eurypid princesses Cassandra and Polyxena. Comparison between the tragedies The Trojan Women and Hecuba of Euripides (c. 480-406 a. C.)
Anastasia TERZOPOULOU
Original title: Las bodas fúnebres de las princesas euripídeas Casandra y Políxena. Comparación entre las tragedias Las troyanas y Hécuba de Eurípides (c. 480-406 a. C.)
Published in The World of Tradition
The aim of this article is to compare the “funeral weddings” of the Trojan princesses Cassandra and Polyxena through the tragedies The Trojan Women and Hecuba by the Athenian playwright Euripides. More specifically, this work indicates the terrible consequences that people suffer due to the cruelty of war.
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The fish, the pearl and the daisy: admiration for Rafael and his works in the Spanish collections
Aurora GALISTEO RIVERO; Jorge RIVAS LÓPEZ
Original title: El pez, la perla y la margarita: admiración por Rafael y sus obras en las colecciones españolas
Published in Mirabilia Journal 34
This article aims to make an appreciation about a specific artist, Raphael Sanzio, in the Spanish collections from the very XVIth century to the present. To focus on this matter, the three most representative paintings have been selected among all those which were at some point in Spain. It will try to reflect the great importance that these paintings had from the beginning, all of them being acquired in the XVIIth century during the reign of Philip IV of Spain. For this purpose, the consultation of different sources will be essential, among them, the descriptions of the Escorial monastery, artistic treatises, or news. The vicissitudes during the Peninsular War have been also considered, as well as the departure of artworks to France, their return, and their placement in the rooms of the newly opened Prado Museum. Taking all this into account, we will be able to evaluate the different stages through which the taste or esteem for this artist has been changing in our country, to understand his presence into the world of the art collecting and his influence in the artistic scene.
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The second level of St. Bonaventure’s Transcendent Aesthetics: Speculating the divine Trinity through the good
José María SALVADOR-GONZÁLEZ
Published in Mirabilia Journal 31 (2020/2)
After pointing out that St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio conceives his Aesthetics as a free way to be able to ascend contemplatively towards God, this article seeks to explain the surprising and ingenious “arguments” (deeply imbued by faith) that this author proposes to base the second level of the “transcendent” stage of his peculiar Aesthetics. In the first four levels of his Aesthetics, Bonaventure establishes this initial ascent to God by considering the external beings of the material world as vestiges of the Creator (first and second levels), and then by examining our mind as an image of God, in which he can be seen reflected in a mirror (third and fourth levels). St. Bonaventure states that in the third stage of his Aesthetics (the "transcendent" stage), the human mind can look over itself to speculate on God in his essential property as the Supreme Being (fifth level) and in his personal properties as highest Good (sixth level). Our article focuses exclusively on the expression of this sixth level of Bonaventurian Aesthetics.
