Imagery, Spirituality and Ideology in Baroque Spain and Latin America

164 Pages·2010·1.372 MB·English

by  Jeremy Roe, Marta Bustillo

Imagery, Spirituality and Ideology
in Baroque Spain and Latin America

Imagery, Spirituality and Ideology
in Baroque Spain and Latin America
Edited by
Jeremy Roe and Marta Bustillo
Imagery, Spirituality and Ideology in Baroque Spain and Latin America,
Edited by Jeremy Roe and Marta Bustillo
This book first published 2010
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2010 by Jeremy Roe and Marta Bustillo and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-1913-1, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-1913-8
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations....................................................................................vii
Introduction................................................................................................ix
Carla Rahn Phillips
PART I: ICONOGRAPHY AND IDEOLOGY
Chapter One.................................................................................................3
Francisco Suárez’s Bienaventurada Virgen and the Iconography
of the Immaculate Conception
Mindy Nancarrow
Chapter Two..............................................................................................15
Envisioning the Body Politic: Iconographies of Christian Rulership
Ariadna García-Bryce
Chapter Three............................................................................................29
Tito Yupanqui and the Creation of the Virgin of Copacabana:
Instruments of Conversion at Lake Titicaca
Vanessa K. Davidson
PART II: RELIGIOUS IMAGERY AND POLITICS
Chapter Four..............................................................................................45
Teresa of Ávila vs. the Iconoclasts: Convent Art in Support
of a Church in Crisis
Christopher C. Wilson
Chapter Five..............................................................................................59
The Episode of the Cristo de la Paciencia and its Influence on Religious
Imagery in Seventeenth-Century Madrid
Marta Bustillo
vi Table of Contents
Chapter Six................................................................................................71
The Painted Face of the City: Images of Corpus Christi in Colonial
Cuzco
Carolyn Dean
PART III: RELIGIOUS BODIES
Chapter Seven............................................................................................85
Nature and Beauty in Velázquez’s Representations of Christ
Jeremy Roe
Chapter Eight.............................................................................................97
“Ante Obitum Mortuus, Post Obitum Vivus”: Visual Representations
of the Body of Saint Francis of Assisi
María Cruz de Carlos Varona
Plates.......................................................................................................113
Bibliography............................................................................................127
Contributors.............................................................................................143
Index........................................................................................................145
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig. 1-1 El Greco, Oballe Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. Toledo,
Spain, Museo de Santa Cruz.
Fig. 1-2 Francisco Pacheco, Immaculate Conception, 1610. Seville,
Archbishop’s Palace.
Fig. 1-3 El Greco, Visitation, 1608-13. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC,
House Collection.
Fig. 1-4 El Greco, Saint Peter, 1608-13. El Escorial, Monasterio de San
Lorenzo, Patrimonio Nacional.
Fig. 1-5 Bartolomé Murillo, Virgin of the Venerables, 1678. Madrid, Museo
del Prado.
Fig. 2-1 Empresa XXXIX, in Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, Empresas
Políticas.
Fig. 2-2 Caravaggio, Doubting Thomas, Stiftung PreuBische Schlösser und
Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg. Foto: Gerhard Murza. Copyright
SPSG, Verwerdung nur mit Genehmigung und Quellenangabe.
Fig. 3-1 Virgen de Copacabana. ca. 1583. Santuario de Nuestra Señora de
Copacabana, Bolivia. Photograph by the author.
Fig. 4-1 Christ Child of Prague. Villanueva de la Jara, Spain, Carmelite
Convent. Photograph by the author.
Fig. 4-2 Christ Carrying the Cross. Toledo, Spain: Discalced Carmelite
Convent. Photograph by the author.
Fig. 4-3 Jerónimo Dávila, Christ Bound to the Column, 1560s, fresco.
Ávila, Convent of Saint Joseph. Photograph by the author.
Fig. 4-4 Adriaen Collaert and Cornelis Galle, Teresa of Ávila undergoes a
spiritual conversion while praying before a painting of the Ecce
Homo, engraving (Antwerp 1613). Washington, D.C., Carmelitana
Collection of Whitefriars Hall Monastery. Photograph by the
author.
Fig. 4-5 Arnold van Westerhout, Teresa of Ávila contemplates a painting of
Christ and the Samaritan Woman, engraving (Rome 1716).
Washington, D.C., Carmelitana Collection of Whitefriars Hall
Monastery. Photograph by the author.
Fig. 5-1 Juan de Courbes, Desecration of the Christ of Patience. Copper
engraving, 17.5 x 12 cm. Frontispiece to Francisco Rojas Nieto,
Vespertinas de los Opprobios de la Passion de Christo Causados
de la Casi Eternalmente Ingrata Nacion Hebrea. En Modo de
Dialogos para las Tardes de los Domingos de la Quaresma,
Ocasionados de lo que se Predico por las Mañanas. Madrid:
Emprenta del Reyno, 1634. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, R-14461.
viii List of Illustrations
Fig. 5-2 Juan de Courbes, Desecration of the Christ of Patience. Copper
engraving, 17.5 x 12 cm. Frontispiece to Francisco Rojas Nieto,
Vespertinas de los Opprobios de la Passion de Christo Causados
de la Casi Eternalmente Ingrata Nacion Hebrea. En Modo de
Dialogos para las Tardes de los Domingos de la Quaresma,
Ocasionados de lo que se Predico por las Mañanas. Madrid:
Emprenta del Reyno, 1634. Madrid, Biblioteca de la Universidad
Complutense.
Fig. 5-3 Spanish School, Cristo de la Fé. Polychrome wood, 17th century.
Madrid, formerly Church of San Luis Obispo. Destroyed in 1936.
Image in the Public Domain.
Fig. 5-4 Manuel Alegre, Cristo de los Desagravios. Copper Engraving,
27.3 x 18.5 cm. Madrid, Museo Municipal.
Fig. 5-5 Alejandro Blanco y Asensio and Angel Monasterio: Cristo de la
Fé. 1807. Madrid, Museo Municipal.
Fig. 6-1 Anonymous, Corregidor Alonso Pérez de Guzman, Corpus Christi
series, 1674-1680, Church of Santa Ana, Cuzco, Peru. Artwork in
the public domain.
Fig. 6-2 Anonymous, The Parish of Santiago, Corpus Christi series, 1674-
1680, Church of Santa Ana, Cuzco, Peru. Artwork in the public
domain.
Fig. 6-3 Anonymous, Sodalities of Santa Rosa and la Linda, Corpus Christi
series, 1674-1680, Church of Santa Ana, Cuzco, Peru. Artwork in
the public domain.
Fig. 6-4 Anonymous, The Mercedarians, Corpus Christi series, 1674-1680,
Church of Santa Ana, Cuzco, Peru. Artwork in the public domain.
Fig. 6-5 Anonymous, Processional Finale, Corpus Christi series, 1674-
1680, Church of Santa Ana, Cuzco, Peru. Artwork in the public
domain.
Fig. 7-1 Diego Velázquez, Christ after the Flagellation. 1628-9, Oil on
canvas, London, National Gallery.
Fig. 7-2 Diego Velázquez, Christ on the Cross. ca. 1632, Oil on canvas.
Madrid, Museo del Prado.
Fig. 8-1 Pedro Perret, Saint Francis of Assisi, copper engraving. Included in
theRecopilación Breve y Devota de Algunas Colaciones y
Dotrinas de Quatro Singularissimos y Esclarecidos Religiosos de
la Orden del Serafico P.S. Francisco. (Madrid: Luis Sánchez,
1616.) Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional.
Fig. 8-2 Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Francis of Assisi. Oil on canvas.
Boston, Massachussetts, Museum of Fine Arts.
Fig. 8-3 Juan de Noort, Saint Francis of Assisi and Christ, copper
engraving, frontispiece to Pedro de Alba y Astorga, Naturae
Prodigium, Gratiae Portentus: Hoc Est Seraphici P.N.F. Francisci
Vitae Acta. (Madrid: Julián de Paredes, 1651.) Madrid, Biblioteca
Nacional.
INTRODUCTION
CARLA RAHN PHILLIPS,
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY,UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
The essays in this collection all deal with the complex nature of
religious art in the context of the Atlantic world in the early modern
period, especially the period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.
More specifically, the essays deal with the conceptualization, creation, and
function of spiritual art in Spain and its overseas empire. Understanding
the significance of holy individuals and events formed a crucial element in
the artist’s approach to a project. Formal elements such as composition
and the use of color also played important roles in the quality and ultimate
success of the finished product. The intellectual element was arguably
more important, however, enabling an artist to convey spiritual truth to
viewers at various levels of sophistication. Those viewers—ideally—
would bring the process full circle. In contemplating a work of art as an
aid to meditation and prayer, they would reach a deeper understanding of
the holy individual or spiritual concept that had inspired the artist at the
outset.
I joined this project as an admirer of artistic and literary production,
and, although I have done some research in topics related to art history, I
have no formal training in that field. Instead, I specialize in the general
history of the early modern period, focusing on Europe and especially on
Spain and its empire. When I read scholarship in the history of art or
literature, I have questions in mind that relate to the broad historical
context of artistic production. Why did an artist or writer choose a
particular topic? What historical questions does the author pose about
works of art and what sorts of evidence provide the basis for approaching
answers to those questions? Does the analysis locate in time and space the
people, events, works of art, written evidence, and other elements that
feature in an argument—in other words, its historical context? Finally,
does the author situate the argument with relation to prior work on the
topic?
Historical scholarship designed to appeal to readers from a variety of
disciplines faces the challenge of being clear, comprehensible, and relevant
x Introduction
to all those disciplines. Even within the various subfields of history—Art
History, Military History, Women's History, and so on—specialists often
assume that readers already know the context of their sub-field, and may
not feel the need to make it explicit. The problem increases exponentially
if a subfield requires a specialized vocabulary, or if its practitioners have
chosen to adopt a specialized jargon.
Unfortunately, outsiders do not always know the intellectual context—
much less the jargon—of a particular subfield. Yet without it they cannot
easily follow an argument, much less evaluate it. For that reason, I think
that authors should always make explicit the context of their argument,
even to an audience of experts. That is the best way to ensure that readers
will understand the argument and follow it to a logical conclusion.
Generally, all it takes is a word or two, a few dates, or a sentence to
remind even experts of dates or names that might have slipped their minds.
Far from being insulted, they will appreciate the gesture and be more
attentive to the argument because of it.
The authors of the essays collected here examine various aspects of
imagery, spirituality, and ideology, a topic of far-reaching importance for
the early modern world. They are dedicated to using visual and textual
evidence as a powerful lens through which to examine broad questions
about early modern society in Spain and its overseas empire. Whether they
received training primarily in the history and theory of art or literature,
they do not view their disciplines narrowly. Instead, they exemplify the re-
discovered approach once called “art in context” and work hard to
establish the context for their arguments.
All of the essays analyse both written and visual materials to examine
spirituality and its artistic representation. Mindy Nancarrow’s essay
focuses on representations of the Virgin in Spanish painting of the late
sixteenth through the late seventeenth centuries, in particular El Greco’s
Oballe Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. Despite the painting’s title,
at first glance it seems to depict the Virgin’s Assumption into heaven at
the end of her life, rather than her miraculous conception, free from
original sin. The belief in the Immaculate Conception was particularly
strong in Spain from the Middle Ages onward, although it did not become
dogma in the Roman Catholic Church until 1854. Standard iconography of
the Immaculate Conception represented the Virgin as a passive recipient of
the divine grace that defined her perfection. In El Greco’s Oballe Virgin,
produced between 1608 and 1614, although the symbols of the Virgin’s
perfection are prominent in the composition, she ascends toward heaven in
the traditional representation of the Assumption, taking an active role in
receiving grace from the Holy Spirit. Nancarrow finds textual support for