Article (Mirabilia Ars)
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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
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.
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The Beauty and Love in Ibn Sīnā (980-1037)
Ricardo da COSTA, Evandro Santana PEREIRA
Original title: O Belo e o Amor em Ibn Sīnā (980-1037)
Published in
Keywords: Aesthetics, Beauty., Ibn Sīnā, Love.
This paper analyses the subjects of Love and Beauty in the Risalah fi’l- ‘ishq (A Treatise on Love) of the philosopher Ibn Sīnā (980-1037).
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Introduction: The Power of Images. Ideas and functions of artistic representations
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: Presentación: El Poder de la Imagen. Ideas y funciones de las representaciones artísticas
Published in
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Byzantine iconography of The Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the light of a homily of St. John Damascene
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ
Original title: Byzantine iconography of The Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the light of a homily of St. John Damascene
Published in
Keywords: Byzantine Iconography, Medieval Art, Nativity of the Virgin, St. John of Damascus, Virgin Mary.
As a result of the fact that the New Testament mentions little episodes and provides very few details of the real life of the Virgin Mary, several pious apocryphal legends emerged during the first centuries between the eastern Christian communities, which tried by all means to solve this hermetic silence surrounding the birth, childhood, youth, adulthood and death of the Mother of Jesus. These apocryphal accounts were then assumed and interpreted by numerous Church Fathers, theologians and sacral orators. These reflections of such prestigious thinkers structured a solid corpus of doctrine from which several devotions and Marian liturgical feasts of great importance would arise shortly after. The supernatural birth of Mary, after her miraculous conception in the womb of her elderly and sterile mother Anne, is a primary milestone in her “imaginary” life. As natural fruit of these heterogeneous literary and theological sources, the European medieval art and, in a very special way, the Byzantine one, addressed with remarkable enthusiasm the iconographic theme of The Nativity of the Virgin Mary, especially since the 10th-11th centuries, as one of the most significant episodes in the life of the Theotókos. On this basis, our paper proposes a triple complementary objective. First and foremost, it will highlight the content of the apocryphal sources and some thoughts or patristic exegesis on the subject, with particular emphasis in the homilies of St. John Damascene. Secondly, it will look at some Byzantine paintings on The Nativity of Mary, to determine to what extent the apocryphal accounts and the exegetical or doctrinal reflections on this Marian event are reflected in the characters, situations, attitudes, accessories and scenic items represented in these paintings. Finally, it will suggest some author’s interpretations which seem plausible on the possible symbolic meanings underlying in this relevant, dogmatic core and in its corresponding iconographic theme.
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Humanism and medieval narrative in Max Weber´s iron cage: the case of Hayden White
Miguel Ángel SANZ LOROÑO
Original title: Humanismo y narrativas medievales en la jaula de hierro de Max Weber: el caso de Hayden White
Published in
Keywords: Cold War, Philosophy of History, Weber, White.
This paper attempts to read the “content of the form” of the medievalist work published by Hayden White in his early academic career. Taking Max Weber as the main guide, White plotted the history of papal schism of 1130 with typical tools of social science: Weberian typology and narrative. Also, White began, from the contradictions and limits of the German sociologist, to develop a personal vision of the humanistic and moral function of historiography. The limits to his humanism that he found in Weber's quasi dystopian narrative of modernization, strongly embodied by the realities of the Cold War, were equally important for this development. Over time, these limitations (from political prohibition to antihumanism) led White from Max Weber to Benedetto Croce. Finally, the neo-Kantian dualism of Weber's epistemology, which dramatically embodied the ontological gap opened up by modernity, had developed by the humanist idealism of the Neapolitan philosopher.
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Orthodox Christianity and “Modernity”
Eirini ARTEMI
Published in
Keywords: Christianity, Modernity, Post-patristic, Theology.
Nowadays, there is a question about the relationship between patristic and “after patristic” theology, according to Orthodox theology. This theology comes from the writings of the Fathers, the tradition of the Orthodox Church but also from the general revealed truth of the Church. The opposite of orthodox theology is “after patristic” theology. The latter is an extension of the various newer theologies of western Christian Churches. They make a relevance of theology and feminist, or politics, or different social problems, etc. What is the view of the Orthodox Theology, when many Orthodox support these kinds of theologies and some others have negative attitude to these theologies. Is there any real connection between patristic theology and “modern theology”?
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Interior decoration of lay public spaces in the Middle Ages
Jesús CANTERA MONTENEGRO, Ángela ORGANERO MANZANERO
Original title: Decoración de interiores públicos laicos en la Edad Media
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Keywords: Ambrogio Lorenzetti, European painting, Fiscal system, Florence and Siena, Political propaganda.
The secular presence on art during XIV century, reflects how artistics genres started a process of indipenditation of eclesiastic world. In Europe, in this age a fiscal system was stablished that aloud a fluence transmission of money to coffers. This made Florence and Siena gain a strong economic stability. With the total control of middle class, took place the building of Public Palace of Siena and the decoration of the Sala dei Nove by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. This frescos constitutes a unicum european painting because his conception and convey feelings, like one of famous manifiestion of political propaganda of Middle Age. Ambrogio, under allegorical, political, theological and philosophical pressure, put together a whole political ideology result of agreement between citizens.
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On the supposed line of development of the medieval portraiture. From the donor to individual portrait
José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ, Cristina DE LA CASA RODRÍGUEZ
Original title: Sobre la supuesta línea de desarrollo de la retratística medieval. Del donante al retrato individual
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Keywords: Donor, Flemish painting, Individual, Middle Ages, Portrait, Quattrocento.
This paper aims to assess the problems arisen when trying to talk about the development of medieval portraits. Usually, we tend to think that the donor is typical of the Early Middle Age, and then, progressively, the importance of the subject depicted increases, so that finally we can encounter the Italian, but mostly Flemish, portrait in which the values of modern society, such as the distance taken from the religious principles or the human being’s feeling of superiority, are reflected. Throughout our paper, this so-called perfect evolution will be tested, by doing an initial approach to the concepts of “donor” and “portrait”, so that we can realise that this kind of expressions used by art historiography are just characteristic of narrow-minded visions which cannot be used to reproduce the existing diversity of the Art. Finally, we will analyze the different ways of depicting people throughout the Middle Ages, giving particular emphasis on the line of thought and the philosophy dominant every concept and piece described, with the firm belief that ideas, instead of mere formalist analysis, give us the key points about the human being’s representations throughout history, and in a more precise way, the medieval period.
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Marginals, schismatics, heretics: Their religious expression in fourth and fifth century patristics
Susana FIORETTI
Original title: Marginales, Cismáticos, herejes. Su expresión religiosa en la patrística de los siglos IV y V
Published in
Keywords: Christians, Marginals, Schismatics y heretics.
During the fourth century, once Constantine’s politics placed Christian worship on equal footing to Paganism, a fruitful and swift effort to create a corpus of doctrine and thought was carried out. Fourth-century Christians became increasingly vigilant with respect to their own Christian identity when they faced the rapid and sometimes incomplete conversion of the heathen, but fundamentally when facing internal divergences that were becoming more visible and problematic in this new political process. The century witnessed the emergence of numerous marginalized Christian movements that resisted the creation of a Catholic orthodoxy supported by the Empire. Hence, heresy was the hub of the problem, configured as a negative limit for orthodoxy. The “Constantinian Revolution” marked the beginning of the end of the old system, eclectic and tolerant of doctrinal matters, yielding to a religious centralization that would not be limited only to ritualism, but would also extend into the realm of personal behavior and belief. By transforming a persecuted faith into a stable Church, not only was it sought that it be present in society, but that it would control it. Hence, the absolute and exclusive conception of dogma constructed by the Church shows its inability to conceive as possible the coexistence of its preaching with other forms of truth. The center of the philosophical and theological universe was solidly occupied by the truth of the Church, who ended up becoming the arbiter of all discourse. The topic has come a long way and evolved to an intolerance that, undoubtedly, entailed a modification of Roman policies. Many of the works that we have analyzed are a registry of the Church’s struggle against its persecutors and against heretics, who were becoming the biggest threat to its continuity, as understood by many of its contemporaries.
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The murals of Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico. Paintings for a city at war
Jesús CANTERA MONTENEGRO, Clara Mª CASTREJÓN VELLÉ
Original title: Los frescos del Palazzo Pubblico de Siena. Pinturas para una ciudad en guerra
Published in
Keywords: Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Good and Bad Government, Maestà, Medieval Italian frescos, Simone Martini.
Study of the Siena’s palace paintings as an example of a secular public interior in the Middle Ages and the social and political circumstances that influenced them in their iconography and symbolism, taking a special attention to Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Good and Bad Government and Simone Martini’s Maestà.
