Iconography

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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

Keywords: Early Christian Art, Face of Christ, Iconography, Late Antiquity Art, Portrait, Roman Emperors.

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.

The Virgin of the Annunciation: A Paradigm of Humility in Medieval Doctrine and Imagery

José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ

Original title: La Virgen de la Anunciación, un paradigma de humildad en la doctrina y la imagen de la Edad Media

Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World

Keywords: Annunciation, Humility, Iconography, Medieval Art, Patrology.

In recounting the event of the Annunciation, the Gospel of Luke describes the sublime lesson of humility given by the Virgin Mary by proclaiming herself the Lord’s slave while she received the announcement of her election as Mother of God. Such a moral stance soon became an outstanding example of modesty and obedience for all Christians, as it was showed by many Church Fathers, theologians and religious thinkers throughout the centuries. Our paper aims to highlight that this significant lesson of humility and submission by the Virgin, reported by the Gospel and frequently interpreted in patristics and theological sources, often reflected also in art works, as we try to put evident through the analysis of twelve medieval paintings.

The allegorical representation in the Bad Women by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828): narrative and iconological analysis

Alexandre Emerick NEVES, Sabrina Vieira LITTIG

Original title: A representação alegórica na obra Mulher Má de Francisco de Goya (1746-1828): análise narrativa e iconológica

Published in Art, Criticism and Mysticism

Keywords: Allegory, Francisco de Goya, Iconography, Sorceress.

We present a study about of allegorical elements of representation from female figure in the work Bad Woman by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. Through stemming images of popular imagination that throw themselves in time and serve to reinforce decadent social stereotypes, we propose a brief discussion of the allegory its significant and symbolic structures. The iconological approach of some narrative aspects of these artistic formulations indicates how the popular imagination contributed to the development of the witch myth, creature represented as evil reference by the artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, pernicious enemy of religious and moral structures. We emphasize the symbolic and conceptual relationships in the modern development of these figures in Goya's work.

The apocryphal texts in the Christian iconography

Ofelia Manzi and Patricia Grau-Dieckmann

Original title: Los textos apócrifos en la iconografía Cristiana

Published in The educacion and secular culture in the Middle Ages

Keywords: Apocrypha, Art, Canonical, Christianity, Iconography.

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

Published in

Keywords: Conceptio per aurem, Iconography, Jacob of Serugh, Mariology, Medieval Art, Patristics, The Annunciation, Theology.

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.

The figure of St. Joseph in Art

Jesús CANTERA MONTENEGRO

Original title: La figura de San José en el Arte

Published in

Keywords: Art, Devotion, Iconography, St. Joseph.

The figure of St. Joseph has always been a great importance among the Christian believers. However, works of art did not always express, it and during the medieval times it almost seemed to be despised. Everything changed from the sixteenth century, where the figure started to be appreciated, enriching their iconography to show it as a prototype to be imitated by Christians.

The iconography of Hell in Medieval artistic tradition

Tamara QUÍRICO

Original title: A iconografia do Inferno na tradição artística medieval

Published in Paradise, Purgatory and Hell: the Religiosity in the Middle Ages

Keywords: Hell, Iconography, Middle Ages, Visions of the Otherworld.

This article shall briefly discuss the elaboration of the visual representation of Hell – both in paintings as in plays –, as well as some of the most important iconographic elements of the theme. It is intended to show how Scriptural elements were associated to others of popular origin in order to create the iconography of the theme throughout medieval period. It must be considered that Hell forms Christian imaginary, being an essential part of one of the most important questions to Christianity: man’s fate after death and after the end of the world. Absorbing concepts and traditions alien to Christian religiosity, the iconography of Hell became one of the main elements to indoctrinate the faithful, when presented as an independent theme, but especially when it was associated to the broader representation of the Last Judgment.

The iconography of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption in the Italian Quattrocento’s painting from the prospective of its patristic and theological sources

José María SALVADOR GONZÁLEZ

Original title: La iconografía de La Asunción de la Virgen María en la pintura del Quattrocento italiano a la luz de sus fuentes patrísticas y teológicas

Published in Paradise, Purgatory and Hell: the Religiosity in the Middle Ages

Keywords: Assomption, Iconography, Medieval Art, Patrology, Quattrocento.

The iconographic subject of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary to the heaven is based on a certain oral tradition and on some apocryphal writings, as well on a lot of homilies and interpretations of several Church Fathers and Doctors, such as John of Thessalonica, Saint John of Damascus and Saint Andrew of Crete, and a great number of other medieval theologians. All those literary sources, apocryphal and canonical, constitute the conceptual basis on which the Church has based the liturgical feasts and the iconography of the Death and the Assumption of the Mother of God. The iconography of the Mary’s Death, widely expressed in the Byzantine art since the 11th century, will begin to acquire some relevance in Europe since the 12th century, associating the Virgin’s triumph to the one of Jesus Christ in three characteristic subjects: the Death, the Assumption and the Coronation of Mary. Through the analysis of nine Italian paintings of the Quattrocento, our paper aims to show that such patristic and theological sources constitute the conceptual “model” that inspires in a direct and essential way the medieval iconography of Mary’s Assumption.