Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519): victim and model of romantics, pre-Raphaelites and Victorians
Marc GOMAR CALATAYUD
Original title: Lucrècia Borja (1480-1519): víctima i model de romàntics, prerafaelites i victorians
Published in
Keywords: 19th-c., Femme Fatale, Lucrezia Borgia, Pre-Raphaelite, Romanticism, Victorians.
With the success of the theatrical drama of Victor Hugo and Donizetti’s opera, the historical character of Lucrezia Borgia became a literary theme for artists of the nineteenth century. A beautiful woman, powerful and prepared, she met all the conditions for creators of different movements used her to embody the fears of the century. Even today, the figure of Lucrezia Borgia is determined and conditioned by the popularized image in the Eight hundred in painting presented as the femme fatale in the late fifteenth century was a angelicata donna. Despite the reaction of historians like Gilbert or Gregorovius, who try to reconstruct the Duchess of Ferrara with the authentic documents, Lucrezia Borgia will be too lush Mediterranean to Victorian morals.
Some Thoughts on the Sphinx’s Symbolism
Cristóbal MACÍAS VILLALOBOS
Original title: Algunas consideraciones sobre el simbolismo de la Esfinge
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Femme Fatale, Oedipus, Riddle of the Sphinx, Sphinx, Symbolism.
The Greek Sphinx, probably of Egyptian origin, was known in Antiquity not only as a funeral spirit and guardian of tombs, but especially as that creature who dares to ask Oedipus a question about the nature of human identity. This dialectic encounter between hero and beast has been interpreted in many different ways, giving rise to a rich symbolic tradition that extends almost to the present day. This paper presents some key moments of this tradition in both literature and art.
