History through Image: an iconological analysis of the Saint George’s Altarpiece by Bernat Martorell
Carlos Vinicius Costa de MENDONÇA, Bárbara Lofiego Pimenta LOFEGO
Original title: A História através da Imagem: uma análise iconológica do Retábulo de São Jorge (1425-1437) de Bernat Martorell (c. 1390-1452)
Published in Art, Criticism and Mysticism
Keywords: 15th century, Bernat Martorell, International Gothic, Medieval Art, St. George.
This work aims to establish an iconological analysis based on the art historian Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) methodology of analysis. The addressed work is the St. George’s Altarpiece (1425-1437) by the Catalan painter Bernat Martorell (1390-1452). The major goal is to data the collection of St George’s legend and the copic texts that tells his life, highlighting the chivalrous ideal represented by this saint in the fifteenth century medieval society. This work also aims to provide a comprehensive overview of this society, which was identified whth St. George’s image, in that particular period.
On the teaching will in the work of Isabel de Villena
Vicent J. ESCARTÍ
Original title: Sobre la voluntad didáctica en la obra de sor Isabel de Villena
Published in Isabel de Villena (1430-1490)
Keywords: 15th century, Isabel de Villena, Medieval catalan literature, Teaching, Valencia, Vita Christi.
The Vita Christi of Isabel de Villena is an excepcional work. She wanted to give live models to her sisters of religion, and that is why the role of the female protagonists of the life of Christ gain relief in the pages of his work. This article emphasizes the teaching of the abbess of the Trinitat present in this book and in other works known and now lost.
Tamerlane’s female court. Sensory and power from the perspective of Ruy González de Clavijo (1403-1406)
Laura CARBÓ
Original title: La corte femenina de Tamorlán. Sensorialidad y poder desde la perspectiva de Ruy González de Clavijo (1403-1406)
Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds
Keywords: 15th century, Embassy to Tamerlan, Materiality, Power, Senses.
Ruy González de Clavijo starred, together with a team of ambassadors, the second mission sent by Henry III of Castile to Tamerlan in 1403, whose round trip itinerary spans three years. Clavijo's meticulous account includes the timurid protocol deployment, which often has the women of the court as protagonists. The ambassadors' approach to the women's world was eminently sensory: the five senses came to the aid of the travel story, with visual, tactile, auditory, tasteful, olfactory experiences that allowed the narrator to communicate the experiences occurred in the presence of women. In addressing to "sensory" we mean both the material world and the sensory experience itself. The historical study will focus on the’ representations of medieval objects (clothing, meals, setting, organization of spaces, buildings) and the consideration of its users, simultaneously addressing both the intellectual and material substrates of medieval culture. This study of the particular feminine spaces allows showing a relationship between culture, materiality and power in a temporal and spatial arc reduced to the itinerary of the embassy.
The Evolution of the Main Topics in Ausias March According to the Three-Fold Love Process
Tània ARAGÓ MELIÀ
Original title: L’evolució dels principals tòpics ausiasmarquians en relació amb l’evolució de les tres fases amoroses
Published in
Keywords: 15th century, Ausiàs March, Disappointmentm poetry, Loving failure, Passion.
This article analyzes the writings of Ausiàs March as derived from the concept of ‘failure’ in love. Ausiàs was not interested in the abstract analysis of the different types of love but in the study of his very own nature, as he felt devastated by his dissapointment with love. His verses reveal a personality full of contradictions showing his changing and volatile mood as he focused on three different concepts of love: spiritual love, human love, passionate love. Through the analysis of these three concepts, we try to answer the following question: through his analysis of the secrets of love, was Ausiàs March able to ever find virtue?
Álvaro de Luna and the political discourses of the Chapel of Saint James
Cinthia ROCHA
Original title: Álvaro de Luna e os discursos políticos da Capela de Santiago
Published in
Keywords: 15th century, Crown of Castile, Funerary chapels, Nobility, Álvaro de Luna.
The Chapel of Saint James, built in the Cathedral of Toledo during the fifteenth century to become the burial place of Alvaro de Luna and his lineage, is one of the leading exponents of Spanish Late Gothic. The construction process had two phases: during the life of the Constable, when he took charge of the work, and a few decades after the tragic death of the former Favorite, when the Chapel elements were completed and his body transferred under the responsibility of his daughter, María de Luna y Pimentel, II Duchess of the Infantado. As the building occurred at different moments of a broad process of transformations, the structure also indicates changes in the representations and strategies used by the noblemen within conflicts of intra-nobility nature. The objective of this paper is analyze the Chapel of Saint James, understanding it as a complex form of political action, whose examination may contribute to the comprehension of the transformations that marked the fifteenth century in Castile, as the conflicts that involved the representation of groups and/or individuals were active agents of the changes that engendered the consolidation of high-nobility ideology.
