From bestiaries to the Iconology of Cesare Ripa: the construction of political and religious representations at the dawn of the Modern Age
Maria Leonor García da CRUZ
Original title: Dos bestiários à Iconologia de César Ripa: a construção de representações políticas e religiosas nos alvores da Época Moderna
Published in Ramon Llull. Seventh centenary
Keywords: Bestiary, Fox, Iconology, Machiavelli, Reform, Wolf.
Wolves and foxes, traditionally chosen as representatives of the threat to the sheep that were led by the Pope, Pastor of souls, were animals used both positively and negatively in religious and profane literature, in bestiaries, emblem books and in the “Iconology” of Cesare Ripa in the late 16th century. Putting special emphasis on the latter and comparing political thought and 16th-entury movements of spirituality, I shall attempt to explain meanings in the textual and pictorial representations of the time, in an approach that is part of the “Imagery Studies” of Lisbon University’s History Centre.
The Unicorns – Virtue and Treason – An enigmatic iconographic proposal by Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Patricia GRAU-DIECKMANN
Original title: Los Unicornios – Virtud y Traición – enigmática propuesta iconográfica de Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Published in Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Peninsula Cultural History
Keywords: Alchemical Hermetic Androgyne, Bestiary, Hunting of the unicornio, Salvador Dalí, Unicorn.
“Whether or not a real unicorn existed, it may not itself be as exciting or as important as the things that men dreamed, thought and wrote about it” (Shepard). Of all the stories woven around the mythical figure of the unicorn, one that is repeated over and over again is that only a true virgin can be used as a decoy. Her aroma leaves the unicorn defenseless in front of the hunter who would kill it for its valuable horn. An unexpected iconography is the one proposed by Salvador Dalí in his small statue of The Unicorn.
