Published in Art, Criticism and Mysticism

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The aim of this work is to analyze some aspects of the philosophical discourse and the medieval rethoric elements contained in the sermons of Saint Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), especially his thoughts about a theme currently and universally present in the Christian Middle Ages: the moral virtues or cardinal virtues. For this, we will utilize a specific sermon wrote in Latin language (the Vth Sermon of the IVth Sunday of Advent), in which the preacher relates the four cardinal virtues with episodes of the life and deeds of Christ, as reported in the Gospels. The theme will be related with some artistic representations of the saint: the paintings of Joan Macip (1540-1545) and the most famous, of Alonso Cano (1601-1667), “Saint Vincent Ferrer Preaching” (1644-1645), as well as the central altarpiece of the Dominican Convent Church of Cervera (Segarra c. 1456), which represents Saint Vincent Ferrer and the Mother of God (Apocalyptic Virgin) of Pedro García de Benabarre (1445-1485). Our iconographic analysis is based on the theoretical perspective of Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968), and in the definition of image for the period according with the considerations of Jean-Claude Schmitt (1946- ).