Medieval Christian Religion and Art

The Middle Ages was the period in which most of the iconographic types of the Christian tradition were formed and solidified. Although it is not the only contribution of this issue, some of its ten articles have studied the genesis as well as the continuity and variation of various iconographic types, both Old and New Testament, and, in some cases, extrabiblical types. The first case is represented in the article by María Ángeles Martí Bonafé, who studies the creation of two iconographic types: Joseph’s investiture and Joseph on the Pharaoh’s chariot, according to the iconic criteria for the representation of political power, contemporary to the configuration of both iconographic types. Just as Joseph—Jacob’s beloved son—was considered a prefiguration of Christ, the Woman of the Apocalypse will end up being a prefiguration of the Church and of Mary, according to what is known as typological symbolism in the interpretation of biblical images. This relationship closes the article by Sergi Doménech García, the main purpose of which is the study of the visual tradition of the Woman Clothed with the Sun from chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation. The author fills a void in the iconographic study of the Woman of the Apocalypse, better known from the Modern Age for its relationship with other iconographic types of Mary.

Despite their abundance, images of the virtues have also received little attention from art historians, and their systematization was very scarce until it was addressed by María Montesinos Castañeda, one of the main specialists in the iconographic typology of the cardinal virtues. Specifically, in this issue, the author studies in detail the allegorical representation of theoretical matters related to the virtue of Temperance. The research of Elena Monzón Pertejo and Victoria Bernad López regarding the demonic possession of Judas and Mary Magdalene is also innovative. To the few studies of each of them, the authors provide a comparative analysis of both cases from a cultural perspective, comparing images with texts. José María Salvador-González does the same when studying the comments of some Church Fathers and medieval theologians and hymnographers to deepen the interpretation of the iconographic type of the Coronation of Mary in Italy during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modernity.

To study the continuity and variation of those iconographic types, the authors have carried out interdisciplinary research, treating medieval images of the Christian tradition as cultural history. This research has taken shape in a genuine inter-relationship between disciplines for the study of the image, such as the connection of art with theology or philosophy—and even sermons, as in the article by Oscar Calvé Mascarell. Thus, authors such as Montesinos, Monzón and Bernad, Salvador-González, Denise Fallena, Lluís Ramón i Ferrer and Montiel Seguí propose an approach that addresses both the meaning of an image and its cultural function in different contexts. The importance of context has determined the relevance of the miniature, as an object of study, in the articles by Fallena, Martí, Doménech and Monzón and Bernad, due to the librarian context (biblical, liturgical or devotional) in which they are inserted. The miniature, which is often relegated in academic circles, such as the so-called applied arts, has emerged as fundamental for the historical study of numerous iconographic types of the Christian tradition. In this issue, the miniature recovers its cultural importance among pictorial manifestations. In the same way, other artistic disciplines have acquired prominence in research, such as the goldsmith in the articles by Cecilia Mazzocchio—more specifically, the reliquaries—and Fallena, overcoming the traditional hierarchy of the arts, or music in the article by Seguí.

The late medieval periodization of many of the articles in this Special Issue involves the considerable prominence of images of Mary, which have been studied from various points of view: Fallena and Seguí have studied them in relation to two Marian symbols, Domus Dei and Porta Coeli, respectively; Salvador-González addresses the imagery of the Regina Coeli, while Doménech ends his study with the exegesis of the Mulier amicta sole as mother of God. Finally, Ramon interprets, in a Marian sense, an altarpiece dedicated to the saints Dionysius and Margaret. Also, Calvé and Mazzocchio have dedicated suggestive studies to the imagery and devotion of two saints in the Italian context: Saint Vincent Ferrer and Saint Thomas Becket.