Review of Xavier Bray, The sacred made real: Spanish painting and sculpture 1600–1700 and Ronda Kasl, ed. Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World (original) (raw)
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The sacred made real: Spanish painting and sculpture, 1600-1700
Choice Reviews Online
Important: The images displayed on this page are for reference only and are not to be reproduced in any media. To obtain images and permissions for print or digital reproduction please provide your name, press affiliation and all other information as required(*) utilizing the order form at the end of this page. Digital images will be sent via e-mail. Please include a brief description of the kind of press coverage planned and your phone number so that we may contact you. Usage: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of the exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. All published images must be accompanied by the credit line provided and with copyright information, as noted. File Name: 2871-071.jpg Spanish Pietà, c. 1680-1700 polychromed plaster, macerated linen fibers, gesso-or glue-soaked fabric, wood, papier-mâché, glass and other materials 115 x 113 x 84 cm (45 1/4 x 44 1/2 x 33 1/16 in.) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Eugene V. Klein and Mary Jones-Gaston in memory of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Stone Jones, by exchange Cat. No. fig. 109 / File Name: 2871-070.jpg After Pedro de Mena Mary Magdalene meditating on the Crucifixion, late 1660s polychromed wood height: 64 3/16 in. (163 cm) Church of San Miguel, Valladolid
Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, 2010
Important: The images displayed on this page are for reference only and are not to be reproduced in any media. To obtain images and permissions for print or digital reproduction please provide your name, press affiliation and all other information as required(*) utilizing the order form at the end of this page. Digital images will be sent via e-mail. Please include a brief description of the kind of press coverage planned and your phone number so that we may contact you. Usage: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity for the duration of the exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. All published images must be accompanied by the credit line provided and with copyright information, as noted. File Name: 2871-071.jpg Spanish Pietà, c. 1680-1700 polychromed plaster, macerated linen fibers, gesso-or glue-soaked fabric, wood, papier-mâché, glass and other materials 115 x 113 x 84 cm (45 1/4 x 44 1/2 x 33 1/16 in.) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Eugene V. Klein and Mary Jones-Gaston in memory of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Stone Jones, by exchange Cat. No. fig. 109 / File Name: 2871-070.jpg After Pedro de Mena Mary Magdalene meditating on the Crucifixion, late 1660s polychromed wood height: 64 3/16 in. (163 cm) Church of San Miguel, Valladolid
Religion and the Arts, 2009
The colonial art of New Spain/Mexico provides the viewer with a locus of examination into the robust Christianity that emerged over time out of a native spirituality newly laden with the contours and images from the Old World theology of late medieval/early Catholic Reformation Spain. Franciscan and especially Jesuit missionaries, impelled by a devotional zealotry, championed an apocalyptic vision of hope and suffering that was well suited for artistic expression. Religious art, whether or not patronized by European colonizers, became an instrument for the missionaries to teach and for the native artists to interrogate religious doctrine, and some artists, consciously or not, created their art as a response to that catechesis, a subtle fusion of ancient passion with the dramatic intensity of the new Catholic faith. One array of images in particular, that of the dolorous Passion of the Christ, was especially vibrant in the imaginations of the native artists and in the contemplation o...
Review of Spanish Medieval Art: Recent Studies, Princeton University, 2010
Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 2010
This volume is a collection of eight essays by a new generation of scholars from the United States, Spain and Great Britain. Given its sponsorship by the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University, the scope of the papers is narrower than its generic title suggests, since it is limited to iconography and Christian art. Fortunately, however, the essays break away from the artificial boundaries between Christian, Islamic and Jewish art in medieval Spain, to examine the art works within their complex multi-cultural and multi-religious reality. This historical contextualization provides new insights into the culture of medieval Iberia, as well as on how art could become a highly sophisticated tool for the ideology of their patrons. All the essays either challenge traditional interpretations of well known works, or present the readers with novel materials previously overlooked by the literature in English. Another important common denominator is the attention paid to the intended audiences of the art works as well as to their complex and multilayered meaning. The essays offer an exciting variety of methodologies and interests to which one cannot do justice in a few lines. The first essay, by James D'Emilio, looks into a little known but numerous group of inscriptions in Romanesque buildings in Galicia. His study advocates a holistic approach that incorporates such disparate issues as the design of the inscriptions, their value as a source of knowledge about building history, patrons and artists, relationships between the cultural centres and surrounding countryside, the system of property, or the implementation of the Gregorian Reform. The essay by Therese Martin focuses on two little known secular Romanesque palaces in Huesca and Estella. Besides arguing for a new dating for both works, and a female patronage for the one at Huesca, (Queen Petronila), Martin provides new readings of some of the capitals that decorate them. Disregarding traditional boundaries between secular and religious in Romanesque art, she argues that some of the religious scenes were conveniently altered in order to reinforce the dynastic rights and royal authority of their patrons. The essay by Manuel Castiñ eiras proposes alternative lines of inquiry for the understanding of the Romanesque painted altar-frontals from Catalonia, ranging from technical issues linking the altar-frontals to wall painting, to their role in liturgical celebrations, their iconographical sources, and their connection to Byzantine art. Three other essays illustrate the rich field of research that Romanesque cloisters has become. Pamela Patton deciphers the many layers of meaning present in the capital representing the Meeting of the Temple Priests and Pharisees in the House of Caiphas, from the cloister at Santa Maria la Mayor, in Tudela. Her focus is on the visual representation of the Jews, and the attitude it reveals not only about Judaism but about the generic non-Christian other, be it from the Old Testament, contemporary Jews or Muslims. She also places this capital within contemporary polemics about the Talmud, and concerns about promoting the Christian faith among the Jewish population of Tudela. The well known pillar from the cloister of Santo Domingo de Silos with the Incredulity of St Thomas and the Journey to Emmaus is the subject of the essay by Elizabeth Valdez del Alamo. Taking into account the experience of the cloister by the monks, and their particular interests, she unveils a multi-layered interpretation that
Art of the Hispanic World, 1492-1665
The visual arts carried out a wide array of crucial cultural work across the vast and shifting network of territories encompassed by the Spanish empire between the beginning of the conquest in 1492 and the death of Philip IV in 1665. This course will consider some of the practical, theoretical, esthetic, spiritual, and political functions that works of art performed in a selection of locales from this enormous empire, ranging from Madrid, Granada, and Lisbon, to Naples, Antwerp, Tenochtitlan, and Cuzco. What were the prerogatives and powers of images in and across these different venues? How did these prerogatives change when the images in question underwent the physical and cultural displacements of colonialism and global commerce? What did the producers and consumers of images think of themselves as producing and consuming in these cultural settings? We will explore a wide variety of art historical approaches, from traditional and canonical texts to recent interventions.