An Emperor’s Heraldry, a Pope’s Portrait, and the Cortés Map of Tenochtitlan: The Praeclara Ferdinadi Cortesii as an Evangelical Announcement (original) (raw)

“Who Would Believe What We Have Heard?”: Christian Spirituality and Images from the Passion in Religious Art of New Spain

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...

Andrés de la Concha, Sagrada Familia con San Juan Boutista: Spanish Imperialism, Papal Power and Maniera Metaphors

The latter part of the Sixteenth century into the early Seventeenth century witnessed the political fracturing and realignment of many societal fronts in Europe. This wildfire of controversy and politicking rooted its way into virtually every corner of the globe and all echelons of society--New Spain was no exception. A debt-riddled and slowly crumbling Holy Roman Empire on the opposite side of the Atlantic ocean from the Americas, set the stage for mass wealth extraction in the form of taxation, exportation and an underscored importance to maintain piety and Papal loyalty. Europe was being politically and religiously disembodied by the Protestant movements; and, a new Bourbon monarchy found itself attempting to tighten its grip on the empire and thereby force success via centralization and standardization throughout in a way that would ensure an Imperial machine that would run smooth like a pocket watch.

A Glimpse of Amadís: A Brief Scholarship Survey and Analysis of the 1524 Nuremberg Map of Tenochtitlan

When Cortes and his men marched awestruck into the capital of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan, they thought they had discovered a new Eden. Yet within a few years of their arrival, this paradise was but ruins; its glory confined to those who lived to remember it, and the few depictions of it which survived its destruction. The 1524 map of Tenochtitlan, published in Nuremberg, is one such relic. How was it created? What does it reveal of the legendary city? And what insights can it yield both into the minds of the early imperialist Spaniards who engraved it, and the European audience experiencing their first glimpse of a North American empire whose power and magnificence seemed on par with their own.

[2024] Sancti Christi Martyris Justini in Puebla de los Ángeles (Mexico) and the Cult of Catacomb Relics Between Rome and the Americas. Counter-Reformation Sanctity in Global and Material Perspective, Noyes, Ruth Sargent (ed.) [Preview PDF and Introduction]

Counter-Reformation Sanctity in Global and Material Perspective, 2024

*To get a free copy of the first proof of this chapter, request it through a message or the contact email. This book explores the making of saints' cults in the early modern world from an interdisciplinary perspective, considering the entangled roles of materiality and globalization processes. It brings together work across diverse media, objects, and materials as well as communities, cultures, and geographies to reframe a more synoptic, materials-centric, and comparative history of the making and remaking of saints' cults, with a special focus on the long Counter-Reformation. The contributions engage with dynamics of local and universal and draw attention to the vital role of textual, visual, and material hagiographies in the creation and promotion of saints' and would-be saints' cults. The book fosters novel conceptualizations and cross-pollination of ideas across traditions, regions, and disciplines and expands hagiography's horizons by reconsidering canonical saintly figures and reframing lesserknown cults of saints and would-be saints. The book will be of interest to scholars of religious and early modern history as well as art history and visual and material studies.