Rocío Sánchez Ameijeiras | University of Santiago de Compostela

Rocío Sánchez Ameijeiras

University of Santiago de Compostela, Art History, Professor of History of Art

University of Santiago de Compostela, Art History, Professor of History of ArtUniversity of Santiago de Compostela, Historia da Arte, Faculty Member |

Visual Studies

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Papers

Devociones e imágenes medievales en la provincia eclesiástica de Mondoñedo

Información del artículo Devociones e imágenes medievales en la provincia eclesiástica de Mondoñedo.

“Cultura visual en tiempos de María de Molina: poder, devoción y doctrina”, en El conocimiento del pasado: el poder de la imagen femenina desde una perspectiva de género, Mª del C. Rodríguez Sevillano, J. Rodríguez Cortés, M. Olarte Martínez y L. Lahoz eds., Salamanca, 2005, pp. 295-328

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-“Rebellious Architecture: Movement, Subversion and Transubstantiation in the Visionary Mode”, Codex Aquilarensis 35 (2019), pp. 85-114.

Years ago, Madeline H. Caviness defined the visionary mode as a distinct mode of expression chara... more Years ago, Madeline H. Caviness defined the visionary mode as a distinct mode of expression characterized by a preference for geometric forms, for compositions highly ordered and hierarchical where disorder, as embodied in the contorted figures that inhabit Hell in Last Judgement Portals, fitted in with an aesthetic of contrast. What I want to contend here, focusing into the aesthetics of movement and subversion which permeates Romanesque and Early Gothic visionary discourses, is that visionary imagery rebels, more than occasionally, against the “Divine Order”. Formal artifices envisioned to create the illusion of movement, designs intended to evoke the transubstantiation of matter and imagery decorating architectonic elements that make them figuratively rebel against their function animate capitals, columns, arches, ribs and bosses in the three- dimensional scenario that is the medieval West End of Santiago cathedral, in such a way that they seem to challenge well-established traditions. But Compostela is the final step of a path that can be traced back in the portal of Saint- Pierre of Moissac, on the bosses of La Madelaine de Vézelay, or on painted vaults like those of Saint Chef et Saint Théudére-en-Dauphiné and San Pietro al Monte in Civate, in Lombardy

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"Un asunto con mala pinta: el testimonio de las imágenes en el Pleito del Voto de Santiago en la Compostela del siglo XVIII"

en Medieval Studies in Honour of Peter Linehan. Edited by Francisco J. Hernández, Rocío Sánchez Ameijeiras and Emma Falque, Firenze, SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2018, pp. pp. 809-850

Toward the end of the eighteenth century the finances of the Holy Apostolic and Metropolitan Chu... more Toward the end of the eighteenth century the finances of the Holy Apostolic and Metropolitan Church of Santiago de Compostela were seriously threatened when the Duke of Arcos brought a suit before the High Court of Castile against the validity of the ex-voto owed to Saint James for his decisive aid to a Christian army fighting the Moors in 844. The Voto, as was called, brought an additional tithe to that Church from all over the Spanish Empire and represented a staggering amount of money. The Compostela Chapter answered the Duke’s move by generating all kinds of supporting texts and, aware of the power of images, produced some in an effort to validate the spurious charter attributed to Ramiro I (842-850) instituting the Voto. This paper explores how they did it.

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The Arrival of Romanesque to the Museo del Prado: The Paintings from Maderuelo/ “La llegada del Románico al Prado: las pinturas de Maderuelo (Segovia)”, en Los tesoros ocultos del Museo del Prado, Madrid, Crítica, 2017, pp. 47-72

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'As the Virgin Looked Like, it Looked Like/ -“Como a Virgen Santa paresceu, paresçia: las empresas marianas alfonsíes y la teoría neoplatónica de la imagen sagrada”

en Alfonso X el Sabio, Catálogo de la Exposición (Murcia, 27 octubre 2009-31 enero 2010), T. López de Guereño e Isidro Bango Torviso, coords. Murcia, 2009, pp. 357-365.

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"’Mui de coraçon rogava a Santa María’: culpas irredentas y reivindicación política en Villasirga”

Homenaje Al Prof. Serafín Moralejo, Ángela Franco Mata ed., Santiago de Compostela, 2004, 3 vols., III, pp. 241-252

Heart imagery in medieval tombs has been usually associated to the medieval custom of ordering he... more Heart imagery in medieval tombs has been usually associated to the medieval custom of ordering heart tombs when the deceased had died far from home and send his/her heart near the rest of his/her ancestors. In this paper I will examine a couple of monuments in Villalcázar de Sirga (Palencia) that show the effigies of Prince Felipe, a rebel brother of Alfonso the Learned, characterized as a noble hunter, and a richly dressed lady with her heart in her hand. Recovering both the lady’s identity -a bastard daughter who commissioned the ensemble to vindicate his father memory and the royal lineage of her offspring- and another piece of the ensemble, an image of the Virgin, let understand the religious meaning of the topos of the offering of the heart in funerary contexts, and understand, as well, the liturgical meaning of the heart that uplift in their hands a group of 13th century English effigies in their monuments.

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Urban Spectacles in Medieval Castile: the Knights' Funerals/ "Un espectáculo urbano en la Castilla medieval. Las honras fúnebres del caballero", Semata. Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, nº6 (1994), pp. 141-157.

Despite the silence of Castilian medieval chronicles on what concerns funerary ceremonies, docume... more Despite the silence of Castilian medieval chronicles on what concerns funerary ceremonies, documentary evidence and the very images decorating the chests of the monuments let recover several ceremonies performed in the funerals of knights. The procession departed from the house of the deceased headed by his mount, with his cut tail and mounted by the reversed shield as a sign of mourning and when approaching to the church, the clamor of the pleurants with their faces covered with ashes or black masks was enhanced with the loud noise of the braking of the arms, the moan of dogs and horses that were beaten up, and finally, the mount was offered to the church and shields were hung on the monument and over the walls of the church.

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Alfonso VIII's Royal Cemetery at Las Huelgas, Burgos/ - "El 'çementerio real' de Alfonso VIII en Las Huelgas de Burgos", Semata Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, nº 10 (1999), pp. 77-110.

The furthermost south chapel of the earlier church of the Royal nunnery of Santa María de Las Hue... more The furthermost south chapel of the earlier church of the Royal nunnery of Santa María de Las Huelgas (Burgos) founded by King Alfonso VIII of Castile and his wife Leonor of England, with its polygonal apse of brick and rubble masonry adorned with lobed arches points to models from Toledo; nevertheless, after 1212, the date of the Christian victory of Las Navas de Tolosa, south of Toledo, was radically transformed in a centralized dome chamber, allowing space for a small vestibule. The decoration of this centralized structure resembles that of contemporary Almohade buildings; it is adorned with stucco ornament and covered by an octagonal vault with crisscrossing ribs. In its Muslim character, we can see an evocation of the burial place of the king’s ancestors, Alfonso VII and Sancho III, in the former mosque of Toledo, and the architectural transformation responded to a tradition of centrally planned funerary structures, marking the consolidation of the chapel’s role as a burial place for the royal family. If the Frontier early gothic cathedrals were perceived as bastions of Christian orthodoxy for a Muslim population in the recently conquered cities, Las Huelgas, situated in the pilgrimage road to Santiago, the main entrance of the northern Christians in the Peninsula, might have been similarly conceived as an emblem of the identity of the recently independent kingdom of Castile.

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“Some Aspects of Galician Visual Culture in the Times of Kings Fernando II and Alfonso IX” in El Románico en Galicia y Portugal/ Arte Romanica en Portugal e Galiza, José Carlos Valle Pérez y Jorge Rodrigues eds., A Coruña: Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Fundación Barrié, 2001, pp. 258-263.

English translation published simultaneously with the Spanish text. The images encompassing the text are to be seen in the Spanish version.

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Books and Tombs: On the Construction of the Cult of Saint Rosendo/ “Libros y tumbas: sobre la construcción medieval del culto sepulcral a San Rosendo”, en Rudesindus. El Legado del Santo, Santiago de Compostela, 2007, pp. 156-173.

This paper explores the role played by the successive medieval tombs and hagiographic narratives ... more

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“La escultura románica en la provincia de Ourense”, Enciclopedia del Románico en Galicia. Ourense, José María Pérez González y José Carlos Valle Pérez (coords.), vol. III Aguilar de Campoo, 2015, pp. 35-53

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“El Códice Calixtino y el Tumbo A”, Enciclopedia del Románico en Galicia. A Coruña, José María Pérez González y José Carlos Valle Pérez (coords.), vol. II, Aguilar de Campoo, 2013, pp. 1061- 1078.

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“La escultura románica en la provincia de A Coruña” Enciclopedia del Románico en Galicia. A Coruña, José María Pérez González y José Carlos Valle Pérez (coords.), vol. II, Aguilar de Campoo, 2013, pp. 79-109.

by Rocío Sánchez Ameijeiras and Rosa María Rodríguez Porto

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‘Wool, Leather, Silk, and Gold: Actual and Figurative Attire in Medieval Galicia’ in Con-fío en Galicia. Vestir Galicia, Vestir o Mundo, Miguel Anxo Seixas Seoane coord., Santiago de Compostela, Xunta de Galicia, 2016, pp. 369-379.

English translation published simultaneously with the Spanish text. Other images encompassing the... more

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“Entre pergaminos y piedras: nuevas hipótesis sobre los autores de la policromía original del Pórtico de la Gloria de la catedral de Santiago”, en Los mundos del arte. Estudios en homenaje a Joan Sureda, Eva March y Carmen Narváez (eds.), Barcelona, 2019, pp. 57-66.

Bringing together the information provided by the analysis of pigments belonging to the medieval ... more Bringing together the information provided by the analysis of pigments belonging to the medieval polychromy of the Pórtico de la Gloria of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) with that related to the activity of the cathedral scriptorium at the end of the twelfth century let me formulate an hypothesis about on the origin and training of the group of painters who illuminated the ambitious sculpted ensemble of the West End of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela can be proposed: they belong to successive generations of English painters who had earlier worked at Winchester and took part in the illumination of the cathedral cartulary known as Tumbo A.

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'Dreams of Kings and Buildings. Visual and Literary Culture in Galicia (1157-1230)' in Culture and Society in Medieval Galicia. A Cultural Crossroads at the Edge of Europe, James D’Emilio ed. and trans., Leyden, Brill, 2015, pp. 695-764.

At the courts of Kings of the independent kingdom of León Fernando II (1157-1188) and Alfonso IX ... more At the courts of Kings of the independent kingdom of León Fernando II (1157-1188) and Alfonso IX (1188-1230) languages mixed freely in a cosmopolitan culture. The langue d’oc was understood and canços were composed, the first generation of Galician and Portuguese troubadours elevated the rank of the local vernacular language; Latin, too, was spoken and understood, and it held sway in the royal chancery, and the shifting loyalties of some magnates had even taught them to hold their own in Arabic. Meanwhile Compostela was elevated into an artistic center of the first rank, a catalyst for the transformation of a figural language and the creation of a distinctive poetics. It attracted artists of all kinds, including English miniaturists and, possibly, bronze casters; Burgundian sculptors that brought together artists trained in the early Gothic workshops of Paris and Champagne, and they even admitted new formulas from Almohad art. The result was a kind of visual polyglossy that forged a distinctive figural language, sometimes anticipating developments in northern Europe.
The singularity of the visual culture of Galicia in this period cannot be separated from the flowering of Latin culture among the clerics who ultimately were responsible for the visual discourses of the Galician cathedrals. They found themselves seduced by the realization in stone of the architectural metaphors used in biblical exegesis by authors like Richard of Saint Victor, Peter Comestor and Peter of Celle. Thus, the Celestial Jerusalem and the heavenly ladder found diverse forms of visual expression in the principal Galician architectural projects of the period: the west end of Santiago cathedral, the monumental programs of Ourense cathedral, and the west facade of Tui cathedral. Galician canons and bishops also shared with the theologians of Paris a taste for biblical typology, especially for its specific use in the exaltation of the Capetian kings, readily applied in Galicia to the glorification of the newly independent dynasty of León. This appears evident not only from the sculptural programs decorating the cathedrals, but also from the additions to the Compostelan cartulary known as the Tumbo A.

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Monks and Birds: on Some Animal Imagery in Medieval Galician Churches/ “Monjes y pájaros: sobre algunas representaciones animales en las iglesias medievales gallegas”

Memoria Artis. Studia in memoria Mª Dolores Vila Jato, María del Carmen Folgar de la Calle, José Manuel López Vázquez y Ana Goy Diz eds., Santiago de Compostela, 2003, 2 vols., I, pp. 105-122.

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Crisis, What Crisis? On 14th Century Castilian Gothic Sculpture/ “Crisis, ¿Qué crisis? Sobre la escultura castellana del siglo XIV”, en El Trecento en Obres. Art de Catalunya i art d’Europa al segle XIV, Rosa Alcoy ed., Barcelona, 2009, pp. 243-272.

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“Lana, seda, cuero y oro: indumentaria real y figurada en la Galicia Medieval” en Con-fío en Galicia. Vestir Galicia, Vestir o Mundo, Miguel Anxo Seixas Seoane coord., Santiago de Compostela, Xunta de Galicia, 2016, pp. 213-240.

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Devociones e imágenes medievales en la provincia eclesiástica de Mondoñedo

Información del artículo Devociones e imágenes medievales en la provincia eclesiástica de Mondoñedo.

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-“Rebellious Architecture: Movement, Subversion and Transubstantiation in the Visionary Mode”, Codex Aquilarensis 35 (2019), pp. 85-114.

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"Un asunto con mala pinta: el testimonio de las imágenes en el Pleito del Voto de Santiago en la Compostela del siglo XVIII"

en Medieval Studies in Honour of Peter Linehan. Edited by Francisco J. Hernández, Rocío Sánchez Ameijeiras and Emma Falque, Firenze, SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2018, pp. pp. 809-850

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'As the Virgin Looked Like, it Looked Like/ -“Como a Virgen Santa paresceu, paresçia: las empresas marianas alfonsíes y la teoría neoplatónica de la imagen sagrada”

en Alfonso X el Sabio, Catálogo de la Exposición (Murcia, 27 octubre 2009-31 enero 2010), T. López de Guereño e Isidro Bango Torviso, coords. Murcia, 2009, pp. 357-365.

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"’Mui de coraçon rogava a Santa María’: culpas irredentas y reivindicación política en Villasirga”

Homenaje Al Prof. Serafín Moralejo, Ángela Franco Mata ed., Santiago de Compostela, 2004, 3 vols., III, pp. 241-252

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Alfonso VIII's Royal Cemetery at Las Huelgas, Burgos/ - "El 'çementerio real' de Alfonso VIII en Las Huelgas de Burgos", Semata Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, nº 10 (1999), pp. 77-110.

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English translation published simultaneously with the Spanish text. The images encompassing the text are to be seen in the Spanish version.

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This paper explores the role played by the successive medieval tombs and hagiographic narratives ... more

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by Rocío Sánchez Ameijeiras and Rosa María Rodríguez Porto

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English translation published simultaneously with the Spanish text. Other images encompassing the... more

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Monks and Birds: on Some Animal Imagery in Medieval Galician Churches/ “Monjes y pájaros: sobre algunas representaciones animales en las iglesias medievales gallegas”

Memoria Artis. Studia in memoria Mª Dolores Vila Jato, María del Carmen Folgar de la Calle, José Manuel López Vázquez y Ana Goy Diz eds., Santiago de Compostela, 2003, 2 vols., I, pp. 105-122.

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A Forgotten Entrerprise: the Sculptural Program of León Cathedral Chapter House/ "Una empresa olvidada del primer gótico hispano: el programa escultórico de la sala capitular de la catedral de León", Archivo Español de Arte nº 276 (1996), pp. 389-406.

A group of six relieves whose figurative decoration fits specially well with figurative programme... more A group of six relieves whose figurative decoration fits specially well with figurative programmes of cloisters (Christ in Majesty, the Virgin of the Annunciation, Saints Peter and Paul and two Leonese saint bishops -Alvito and Froilán) are today preserved in the Museo de la catedral de León. Its sculpture can de dated to ca. 1200 and attributed to French early gothic sculptors. Both the format and the iconography of the pieces let propose the documented lost portal of the chapter-house as its original destiny, a portal intended to exalt the see that was trying to eclipse the powerful monastery of San Isidoro.

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-“Una empresa olvidada del primer gótico hispano: el programa escultórico de la sala capitular de la catedral de León”, Archivo Español de Arte nº 276 (1996), pp. 389-406

In this paper I try to reconstruct the los façade of the chapterhouse of the Cloister of León cat... more In this paper I try to reconstruct the los façade of the chapterhouse of the Cloister of León cathedral. A group of six figural slabs with the figures of Christ, Mary, Saint Peter in monastic garments, Saint Paul and the wo leonese saints Isidore and Alvitus, today displayed at the Museum of Leon cathedral dated at around 1200 and atributed to sculptors trained in first gothic French models could comform a program where devotion is accompanied but an exaltation of the allegedly saintly origins of the see.

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“El entorno imaginario del rey: cultura cortesana y/o cultura clerical en Galicia en tiempos de Alfonso IX, en Alfonso IX y su época. Pro Utilitate Regni mei, La Coruña, 2008, pp. 307-326.

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-“La fortuna sevillana del códice florentino de Las Cantigas”, Quintana, 1 (2002), pp. 257-273.

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- “Dando forma al tiempo: estrategias visuales y cartularios ilustrados”, Studium Medievale, 2 (2009), pp. 61-84.

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-"Sobre las modalidades y las funciones de las imágenes en el Tumbo A" , en M. C. Díaz y Díaz, F. López Alsina y R. Sánchez Ameijeiras, en Tumbo A. Indice de los Privilegios Reales, que contiene este libro titulado de la letra A, Madrid, Testimonio, 2008, 143-216

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- “Algo más sobre Salomón y Sancho IV”, Homenaje a la Prof. Socorro Ortega; Santiago de Compostela, 2002, pp. 165-171

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“Sepulcro del Obispo desconocido. ¿Sepulcro del Obispo don Gonzalo de Novoa (+1331)?”, Camino de Paz. Mane Nobiscum Domine. Catálogo de la Exposición, Orense, 2005, pp. 163-172

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“Dos ejemplos de patronazgo en la escultura funeraria gótica leonesa”, Actas del VII Congreso Español de Historia del Arte (Murcia, 1988), Murcia, 1992, pp. 81-87. (ISBN 84-7684-371-2)

El sepulcro de Rodrigo 11 (t 1232) en la catedral leonesa es el más antiguo monumento funerario o... more El sepulcro de Rodrigo 11 (t 1232) en la catedral leonesa es el más antiguo monumento funerario obispal conservado en territorio castellano-leonés t (fig. 1). En él se fragua una solución-enriqueciendo un esquema compositivo característico de los <<enfeu>> franceses 2 con novedades iconográficas dictadas por la voluntad del comitente 3-, que resulta especialmente apropiada para los sepulcros de eclesiásticos. Y así, a pesar de la tosquedad de su labra, se convertirá en modelo para una larga serie de monumentos posteriores•. La utilización de un esquema o un dibujo de un ejemplar francés para la realización de este monumento es indudable 5 _.. Ya J. Gardner señalaba como posible modelo un ejemplar correspondiente a un estadío más evolucionado del tipo, uno de cuyos primeros exponentes sería la tumba del arzobispo Henri de Francia (t 1170), labrada hacia 1180, y cuyos restos conforman hoy la llamada Porte Romane de la catedral Reims 6 • El desaparecido sepulcro del obispo Arnaut (t1033) en St-Pere de Chartres, fechado hacia 1225, u otro similar parecería adecuado 7 • Pero el yacente leonés es de un tipo más primitivo-manos cruzadas sobre el pecho, ausencia de ángeles turiferarios flanqueando la cabecera del difunto-, y se aproxima más al de Rotrocus de Warwick (tll83) en Rouen, de fines del siglo XIJS. Además en León se omite el gablete y es mayor el número de archivoltas: dos rasgos que apuntan también hacia fechas tempranas 9 • El único argumento que apoyaría la tesis inicial sería la presencia de un remate lobulado en la arquivolta interna; pero si uno repara en la Porte Romane de Reims es evidente que la arquivolta interior ha sido retocada, y la posición de los ángeles de las

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“Rituel, récit hagiographique et tombes dans la construction de l’espace symbolique du chemin de pèlerinage” dans XLIIes Journées romanes: Mémoires, tombeaux et sépultures à l’époque romane (Saint-Michel de Cuxa´, 5-12 Juillet 2010).

Dans la cartographie symbolique du Chemin de Saint-Jacques, les tombes des saints, les rivières e... more Dans la cartographie symbolique du Chemin de Saint-Jacques, les tombes des saints, les rivières et les ponts ont créé une sorte d’association fonctionnelle. Ainsi, l’attestent aussi bien le Guide du pèlerin, le Livre V du Codex Calixtinus, que la cartographie visuelle rattachée au pèlerinage vers Compostelle –telle que la mappemonde du Beatus de El Burgo d’Osma–. Au cours du processus de symbolisation de ces jalons symboliques, les rituels semblent avoir joué aussi un rôle particulier. Dans cette communication, je ressusciterai –à travers l’analyse des textes de la première heure rattachés au culte de Santo Domingo de La Calzada, et des diverses restructurations que son sépulcre subit pendant le Moyen Âge, je m’intéresserai tout particulièrement à l’ensemble monumental taillé dans la pierre au cours du premier tiers du XIIIe siècle– un rituel qui unit la tombe du saint à la rivière Oja et au pont qui la traverse et qu’il avait apparemment lui-même construit. La singularité de ce rituel réside dans le fait que ce rituel processionnel était mené à terme sur le chemin de retour de Compostelle, une caractéristique généralement vouée à l’échec à cause de la teneur unidirectionnelle du texte du Guide.

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-“Beyond the Tabernacle: the Real and Ideal Jerusalem in the Cistercian Abbey of Santa María de Las Huelgas” paper delivered in the International Medieval Congress (Leeds, 13-16 July 2009)

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-“Dust in love: the funerary undertakings of Leonor Ruíz de Castro?” 36th International Congress of Medieval Studies, (Kalamazoo, May, 2001)

This is an early version of the paper published in Spanish “’Mui de coraçon rogava a Santa María’... more This is an early version of the paper published in Spanish “’Mui de coraçon rogava a Santa María’: culpas irredentas y reivindicación política en Villasirga”, Patrimonio Artístico de Galicia y otros estudios. Homenaje Al Prof. Serafín Moralejo, Ángela Franco Mata ed., Santiago de Compostela, 2004, 3 vols. III, pp. 241-252. The differences between this text and the published one lie not only in the conclusions, becuase when I wrote this text I still thought that heart imagery in medieval tombs was related to filial piety, but mainly for the analysis on intervisuality between the tombs remains unpublished.

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" 'O Pórtico da Gloria e a Arte do seu Tempo'". Simposio Internazionale organizzato dalla Conselleria di Cultura de la Xunta de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, 3-8 ottobre 1988", Arte Medievale, n. s. 1990/1, pp. 197-198.

The review is a record of the conference and the papers delivered then. Some of them, like the on... more

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“Discursos y poéticas en la escultura gótica leonesa del siglo XIII”, Actas de Congreso internacional “La Catedral de León en la Edad Media”. León 11-17 de abril de 2003, Gerardo Boto Varela, Mª Victoria Herráez Ortega y Joaquín Yarza Luaces eds., León, 2004, pp. 203-239.

This approach to the imagery of the Southern and Eastern façades of Leon cathedral restores their... more This approach to the imagery of the Southern and Eastern façades of Leon cathedral restores their original topography, their several liturgical functions, their intended audiences and the particular cultural and historical circumstances that surrounded their carving, and confronting them with the Portal of the Coronería and Sarmental of Burgos cathedral. In the portal of Saint Froilán is seen a celebration of this local saint’s main liturgical Feasts; the choice of an Apocalyptic program for the south central portal is justified by a Castilian tradition of decorating the cathedral entrance near the bishop’s palace with ecclesiological discourses; and Bishop Martín Fernández’s great expectations can be shown in the commemoration of the bethrothat of the Castilian heir Fernando de la Cerda and the French Princess doña Blanca in the south western portal’s sculpted decoration. As for the Western entrance, the baptismal imagery displayed in the northern access is related to the parish function of the chapel in the ground floor of the northern tower; and the scatological discourses in the Last Judgement and the Coronation of the Virgin portals adequate to the medieval use of the parvis as a cemetery, and they are discussed in the frame of mid-thirteenth century theological controversies on the resurrection of the body that help to recognize a Franciscan bias not only in León but also in the “diplomatic” portal of La Coronería in Burgos. Finally, the different stylistic trends that converge in León are examined as sculpted counterparts of vernacular pastoral rhetorical devices: the more “narrative styles” of the portal of San Froilán and Saint John as opposed to the “expressionistic naturalism” of the last Judgement and Apocalyptic portals.

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From Psalter to Marial: on the Sources of Visual Poetry in the Alfonsine Books / “Del Salterio al Marial: sobre las fuentes de la poesía visual de los códices alfonsíes”, Alcanate. Revista de Estudios Alfonsíes, VIII (2012/2013), pp. 55-80

The aim of this paper is revisiting the concept of 'source' in the study of the miniatures th... more The aim of this paper is revisiting the concept of 'source' in the study of the miniatures the Códices de las Historias of the Cantigas de Santa María (Escorial T.I.1, Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale, BR 23). After drawing a brief historiographic panorama, a new approach to the issue is offered, taking into consideration the generic difference between the narrative and lyric visual genres, which call for different codes of visual rhetorics, and, consequently, the use of specific sources belonging to well-established traditions.

El presente trabajo pretende ofrecer una reflexión sobre el concepto de “fuente” aplicado al estudio de las versiones figuradas de las Cantigas de Santa María en los Códices de las Historias. Después de dibujar un breve panorama historiográfico se propone una nueva aproximación utilizando como base teórica la distinción genérica entre composiciones líricas y narrativas en verso, dos modos que exigen retóricas visuales diferentes, y que determinó el uso de fuentes específicas en cada caso.

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Espiritualidad mendicante y arte gótico

Semata, Jan 1, 1996

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-“’Que me bese con el beso de su boca’: las interpretaciones visuales del Cantar de los Cantares”

en Las imágenes de la Biblia en el Museo del Prado, Madrid, Galaxia-Gutemberg, 2016, pp. 325-348.

The Song of Songs, the biblical epitalamium was interpreted since early Christian times in figura... more The Song of Songs, the biblical epitalamium was interpreted since early Christian times in figurative and mystical terms as they did the images that, since 11th century gloss the text in Romanesque Bibles where complex relationships between text and images can be traced. After the 4th Lateral Council, when matrimony was declared a sacrament, new visual interpretations flourished, moral ones, transforming, in a tour de force, the figurative interpretation of the text into a moral one destined to shape the behaviour of devote married couples. In the late Middle Ages the sensuality of the lover’s dialogue, and the floral and fruity metaphors praising the Bride’s beauty materializes in the attributes with which the images of devotion of the Virgin Mary uses to be adorned, and a new imagery focused on visual topoi related to love -as visual materialization of corporeal metaphors- expands the semantic field associated to the Biblical text. These constructs will survive in the 17th century when Diego Velázquez painted his Coronation of the Virgin preserved in the Museo del Prado.

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Las "estorias" de Flores y Blancafl or en la Castilla medieval: Amor, política e identidad" 1

Resumen: La historia de Fleur y Banchefl eur es básicamente un relato de frontera de amor y conve... more Resumen: La historia de Fleur y Banchefl eur es básicamente un relato de frontera de amor y conversión que se caracteriza por su fl exibilidad genérica tanto en sus versiones literarias como fi gurativas. Este trabajo pretende rescatar un nuevo ciclo fi gurativo de la historia en la llamada capilla de Santa Catalina de la catedral de Burgos que se podría califi carse al tiempo de crónica-al igual que la versión literaria castellana-la Cronica de Flores y Blancafl or-, y de hagiografía cortesana. El programa fue concebido con la intención de redefi nir tanto la identidad nacional castellana, al presentar el mito seminal de una antigua Hispania musulmana convertida al cristianismo por amor, como, en su formulación cortesana, redefi nir la identidad de la poderosa oligarquía urbana de la ciudad-los caballeros villanoscomo demuestra el papel concedido a los personajes secundarios del relato visual. Palabras clave: Flores y Blancafl or, claustro de la catedral de Burgos, identidad nacional castellana, siglo XIV, narración visual, amor, conversión.

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