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.
Jerome of Stridon’s Epistolario as a Source of Iconological Problems
Elena MUÑOZ
Original title: El Epistolario de Jerónimo de Estridón como fuente de problemas iconológicos
Published in Mirabilia Journal 31 (2020/2)
Keywords: Epistolary, Figure, Flemish painting, Iconology.
Some exegetes of the Late Antiquity used a system of allegorical and figurative relationships to extract Christian meanings from texts, and in this way, writing a historical memory. Later, in the 20th century, historians such as Erwin Panofsky, established the principles of the iconological method through a ‘scientific’ interpretation of figurative arts, that subjected those texts to the historical context, the iconographic code, and the technical medium of each work, in order to ‘reconstruct’ its meaning and, therefore, the history of art. In this essay, based on examples from Jerónimo’s Epistolary, Panof-sky’s theoretical texts, and Flemish painting, we try to observe how –underneath historical contexts and technical mediums– these disciplines can share processes of construction and communication of historical reality content, by means of figures and images.
Palaeochristian Art: Mirror of the worldview of the early Christians
Rosa Maria Blanca CEDILHO, Ana Paula Bernardo de SOUSA
Original title: Arte Paleocristã: espelho da visão de mundo dos primeiros cristãos
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Christianity, Iconology, Imperial Rome, Pagan Art, Paleochristian Art.
This research aims to present what are the main aspects of Paleochristian art. This artistic representation was intended to convey the gospel message and educate the followers of this new , who lived between the ages II and IV. However, according to research, it is clear that the Christian themes are mixed with pre-existing pagan art, or with classical art.
