Article (Mirabilia Ars)
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The choir stalls of the St. Nicholas´ parish of Úbeda
Pablo Jesús LORITE CRUZ
Original title: La sillería del coro de la parroquia de San Nicolás de Bari de Úbeda
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This little article talks about St. Nicholas of Bari medieval parish in the Úbeda town (South of Spain) and her choir stalls. We explain a photography that Georg Weise made before 1936.
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Isidore of Pelusium and the use of the Holy Bible in his epistles
Eirini ARTEMI
Original title: Isidore of Pelusium and the use of the Holy Bible in his epistles
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St. Isidore the Pelousiotes studied the Bible carefully. Through his letters, he interpreted various biblical passages and he explained different biblical themes. The word of the Bible was for the Father an infallible guide to overcome the pitfall of every heretical teaching, which threatened the salvation of believers in Christ. At the same time according to the inspired work of the Bible he could proclaim that there is One God in Three Persons. He emphasized the unity of God's essence and at the same time he talked about the hypostases of the one God. Isidore knew, of course, that the human mind cannot grasp the incomprehensible wisdom, that God's wisdom, since that God overlies the limits of the human mind. Finally with the help of hagiographical passages he could comprehensively cover the letters of issues other than doctrinal, moral, ascetic, educational and interpretive. In the Scriptures, he supported that the believer finds in Christ supplies to strive for social and moral progress, but mainly in order to conquer spiritual godly progression and perfection. The profound study of the Scriptures provides to the human being the ability to keep alive the flame of faith. It is a safe guide for the course of the life in Christ according to what the Triune God revealed in the Old Testament, the incarnated Word taught in the New Testament and the Apostles preached. Through Isidore's letters, it seems the respect which nourishes the holy father for Old and New Testament. For him, both testaments have the same worth as sources the Bible. They proclaim strongly and unambiguously the existence of one and at the same time Triune God. Simultaneously he ridiculed those heretics like Marcion who distorted the truth and became enemies to the Testaments.
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Pagan syncretism in the Middle Ages: the zodiacal signs
Jesús CANTERA MONTENEGRO, Inmaculada ÁLVAREZ DEL OLMO
Original title: Sincretismo pagano en el medievo: Los signos zodiacales
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Study of signs of the Zodiac, essential element to understand the calendars configured in books of hours, as in the frescoes of temples, set during this historical period. These calendars were created from the astrological studies for good agricultural work and therefore shall be listed with their respective months, to somehow explain weather phenomena, as well as seasonal changes. A travel through its evolution and transformation since its inception in ancient times, to see its settings in medieval times. Many of them will be modified, either by the current fashion for illustrating images, or the meaning I wanted to give them.
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Relics, materiality and expression of the sacred body: a medieval wooden sculpture in the National Museum of Art of Buenos Aires
María Laura MONTEMURRO
Original title: Reliquias, materialidad y expresión del cuerpo sagrado: una talla medieval en el Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires
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Among the works of medieval art preserved at the National Art Museum of Buenos Aires, there is an important medieval sculpture of the Virgin and Child in Majesty. This 12th century wooden sculpture from the French region of Auvergne exemplifies a type of carving that became very popular around the second half of that century: the so-called “Throne of Wisdom” or Sedes Sapientiae. Such sculptures were generally employed as reliquaries and hold special interest for the art historian since they mark the renaissance of sculpture in the round nearly five hundred years after this technique had fallen into disuse. How can we explain then, the transition from a period of nearly complete lack of sculpture in the round to one of increasing popularity of these same carvings? In this paper we propose that the same motives argued by ecclesiastical authorities to object tridimensional sculpture, later became the reason why these Sedes Sapientiae sculptures turned to be regarded as objects of a foremost devotional value and attracted a massive popular cult. The same nature of the sculptural technique (its tridimensional character), as well as the focus on its materiality, together with the inclusion of built-in relics, resulted in the “epiphanic character” that Jean Claude Schmitt has assigned to the medieval image. We believe that the sculpture in Buenos Aires, and other similar carvings, did not only succeed in representing a sacred body but even, in a certain way, to restore it.
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The Ave Maria for four voice mixed choir attributed to Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611): a hermeneutic analysis of the text/compositional procedures relations
Ernesto HARTMANN
Original title: A Ave Maria para coro misto a quatro vozes atribuída a Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611): uma análise hermenêutica das relações entre texto e processos composicionais
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This research examines the work Ave Maria for mixed choir attributed to Iberian composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). Seeking for new analytical perspectives I apply the notion of hermeneutical windows, by Lawrence Kramer, in order to elucidate the relations of the text and compositional procedures in the work. To do so, I first present a brief historical perspective of musical representation of text, I analyze the work outlining its texture, church mode and metric choices and discuss the results in order to open the hermeneutical windows and reach the possible meaning beyond the text.
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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
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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.
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The Hispano-Islamisms of Juan Guas. The fabrication of a Historiographical Stereotype
Roberto GONZÁLEZ RAMOS
Original title: The Hispano-Islamisms of Juan Guas. The fabrication of a Historiographical Stereotype
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Formalist currents tinged with nationalism in twentieth century historiography developed the idea of Toledo’s late Gothic architecture being imbued with elements and features from Hispano-Islamic architecture, especially in the case of one of its leading lights, the architect Juan Guas. This gave rise to descriptions of a specific, hispanicized style, which had modified its essentially Northern European characteristics. This essay analyses the gradual construction of the aforementioned historiographical viewpoint, its champions, and their arguments and methodological approach. The process can then be reconstructed, with a view to revisiting it and critically analysing underlying assumptions.
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Goodness, Justice and Truth. Three Marian virtues in the Cantigas de Santa Maria and in the Book of Santa Maria, by Ramon Llull
Ricardo da COSTA, Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: Bondade, Justiça e Verdade. Três virtudes marianas nas Cantigas de Santa Maria e no Livro de Santa Maria, de Ramon Llull
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The Cantigas de Santa Maria is a cultural landmark in medieval Spain. This magnific work of the thirteenth century is composed of 420 praises and narratives of miracles of the Virgin Mary and written in galician-portuguese language. Furthermore, have hundreds of miniatures. Sponsored by King Alfonso X (1221-1284), is not great only for its artistic value, but, specially, for its historical value. Each song registry differents aspects of medieval sensibility. Thus, the objective of this study is to make a comparative analysis (textual and imagistic) of three philosophical-theological virtues of the Virgin Mary – Goodness, Truth and Justice – present in the praise 140 of the Cantigas de Santa María and in the Libre de Sancta Maria (c. 1290) from the Catalan philosopher Ramon Llull (1232-1316), to analyze the symbolic structures from marian spirituality, typical religious and artistic manifestation of the thirteenth century in the Medieval West.
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The Choir Books of the monastery of St. Benedict of Cátris: codicological analyses of an Antiphonarium
Antónia Fialho CONDE, Isabel Maria Botelho de Gusmão Dias Sarreira Cid da SILVA
Original title: Os Livros de Coro do mosteiro cisterciense de S. Bento de Cástris: análise codicológica de um Antifonário
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Study of an Antiphonarium (materials, structure, techniques, pagination, decorated alphabets, biding) trying to identify its main characteristics to be possible to connect it to other books of the same type (Choir Books) belonging to the ancient library of the Cistercian Monastery of S. Bento de Cástris of the city of Évora, Portugal.
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The doctrine of Jacob of Serugh on conceptio per aurem as a possible literary source in medieval iconography of The Annunciation
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: La doctrina de Jacob de Sarug sobre la conceptio per aurem como posible fuente literaria en la iconografía medieval de La Anunciación
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This paper focuses the attention on the possible influence that the thinking of the Syriac theologian Jacob of Serugh on conceptio per aurem might have had on late medieval representations of the Annunciation. Therefore, after explaining the doctrine of this Oriental thinker by explaining many passages of his writings, ten pictorial images of this Marian theme in which you could glimpse such influence are analyzed. While underlining the prestige of this great writer of Serugh and the wide dissemination of his works during the Middle Ages, the author also emphasizes that the interpretation given in this paper is only a mere conjecture that, even if it looks plausible, is susceptible of enrichment, correction and even rejection, if reliable documentary evidence so require.
