Article
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Medieval animals and gender configurations in the Colonial chronicles: discursive strategies and political order
Pedro Carlos Louzada FONSECA
Original title: Animais medievais e configurações de gênero na cronística colonial: estratégias discursivas e ordem política
Published in Mirabilia Journal 34
Keywords: Colonial chronicles, Discursive strategies, Gender, Medieval animals, Political order, Wonderful and usefulness.
The representation of the natural reality of America epitomized in the chronicles of Colonial Brazil is permeated by a dichotomous posture situated between wonder and utility, whose teleological values can be perfectly verified in medieval references. Using the comparative method and favoring the study of cultural ideas, this article examines the plausibility of the presence of the medieval bestiary and the process or trope of the feminization of the colonial natural reality, configuring oscillations between the simple enjoyment of the wonderful and its practical usefulness. The terms of this dialectical formation are examined in this article seeking to identify its limits in the configuration of reality in the chronicles of Colonial Brazil. In this way, two pillars in the article are approached, namely, the symbolic tradition of the so-called bestiary books and the tropological tradition of the feminizing discourse of reality, both of an ideological and political nature. Therefore, a curious but explainable formation of values were strategically conceived to legitimize the European intentions in the possession of the American lands in colonial times.
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Women artists in the Middle Ages: constantly self-represented, consciously ignored
Sheila ADÁN LLEDÍN
Original title: Artistas en la Edad Media: constantemente autorrepresentadas, conscientemente ignoradas
Published in Mirabilia Journal 34
Keywords: Artist, Illuminating, Middle Ages, Misogyny, Sculptress, Woman.
Women in the medieval society were taught good manners in taking care of their homes, their children, pregnancy, or marriage. However, not a few of them made it to get rid of it and become writers, mystics, medics, doctors, sculptors, painters, powerful queens, and even crusaders and war soldiers. Despite many of them being silenced, many others left the anonymity behind. Courageous women who never meant to be forgotten and will be remembered in this work. It’s key to consider that due to the patriarchal system, as well as the medieval misogyny, only a few women were able to study and learn to read and write. The ones who succeeded belonged to wealthy families with high social standards, or to the Church, like the abbesses. The Renaissance will bring more women testimonies, signatures, and self-portraits. However, there are many relevant female artists before this period, and this work will focus on them. The article goes through the different Middle Ages artistic periods: from the Early (5th-10th century) to the High (11th-13th century) and finally the Late Middle Ages (14th-15th century).
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Dominus dat sapientiam. Erasmism and wisdom as backbone elements of the action and the image of Charles V
Carlos Jesús SOSA RUBIO
Original title: Dominus dat sapientiam. Erasmismo y sabiduría como elementos vertebradores de la acción y de la imagen de Carlos V
Published in Mirabilia Journal 34
Keywords: Erasmus of Rotterdam, King David, King Solomon, Philip II, Strength, Wisdom.
Wisdom acted as a backbone in the image of Charles V, especially during his first years of government, and in this matter Erasmus of Rotterdam had a relevant role. Starting from this premise, it is convenient to analyze the origin of that decision and, above all, the consequences it had for the shaping of his effigy, whose unquestionable evolution in the 30s and 40s of the century did not necessarily mean a total break with the ideological substratum of that previous period. This paper analyzes Charles V’s wisdom sources, with Erasmus as the main point of reference, as well as its effects and manifestations, to subsequently study the relationship that through this “gift from heaven”, and the other great biblical virtue, which is strength, Charles V and Philip II establish with David and with Solomon. Legitimacy, Davidic Covenant and messianism are other issues addressed that are closely related to the propagandistic use of these two great figures of the House of Judah.
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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
Keywords: Art Collecting, Philip IV of Spain, Prado Museum, Raphael, Renaissance painting.
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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Presentation. A Comprehensive Look into the Past
Ricardo da Costa
Original title: Presentación. Una mirada comprehensiva hacia el Pasado
Published in The World of Tradition
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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
Keywords: Death, Funeral Weddings, Pride, Punishment, Revenge, Trojan War.
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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Humorous Discourses on Classical Greek Pottery
Manuel ÁLVAREZ JUNCO
Original title: Discursos humorísticos de la cerámica griega clásica
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Classical Greece, Conceptual wit, Iconography, Visual insight.
The figurative pottery of classical Greece developed some visual discourses recognizable in the current Western humorous graphics. An important legacy of these significant images, of a high-quality technical workmanship and artistic expressiveness, has reached our times. This paper shows and analyses some examples of that visual world and its communicative methodology. The festive, the comic and, above all, the conceptually witty, has been the criteria followed for their selection.
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Thanatology of the Corpus Hermeticum (c. 100-300): the philosophical concept of Death in the Hermetic Tractates
David Pessoa de LIRA
Original title: A Tanatologia do Corpus Hermeticum (c. 100-300): o conceito filosófico da Morte nos Tratados Herméticos
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Corpus Hermeticum, Death, Hermetic Literature, Hermeticism, Marcus Aurelius’ Antoninus, Philosophy, Stoicism, Thanatology.
This article attempts to examine the idea of death, its problem, in the scope of hermeticism in Antiquity, having mainly as object of analysis the Corpus Hermeticum. In particular, the problem of death, in the Corpus Hermeticum, is treated from the ontological point of view. A history of ideas about death in the Corpus Hermeticum supposes an analysis of the underlying conception of the world by the Hermetic authors, and not just of their philosophy. Although this study is linked to an examination of ideas about the meaning of life and the conception of immortality, which are problems related to the theme of death, here it does not imply an analysis of these problems, but a conclusive indication that some Hermetic Tractates show the dilemma of death between dissolution and change from the reflection of the Stoic Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
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Commercial networks between the Byzantine Empire and Europe, including the British Isles
Elena Ene DRAGHICI-VASILESCU
Published in The World of Tradition
Keywords: Byzantine Empire, Commercial networks.
In the literature concerning Byzantium usually the historical phenomena are analysed as they took place along the Eastern-Western axis of its territory. What my paper proposes is an alternative to this approach. Because of the need to circulate goods between the Mediterranean and the North Sea, roads were constructed to connect the two, and along these both merchandises (textiles, metal objects, etc.) and cultural items as manuscripts, ivory for book covers, pigments for painting, etc. were transported. The same thoroughfares and points of connection within a large network were used for religious purposes and by the military. I adduce testimonies to make a strong argument that the division ‘North-South’ within the Empire was as important as that ‘East-West’.
