3 Review(s)

This volume offers a series of essays that explore the significance of visual imagery as a medium for the representation of spiritual and ideological concerns by the Catholic Church in the Spanish Habsburg Empire. Each of these essays provides a valuable contribution to established areas of research such as Velazquez studies, St. Teresa of Avila as spiritual exemplar for the Counter-Reformation in Spain, the iconography of St. Francis of Assisi, or the evolution of Peruvian Christian iconography. A valuable contribution of all these essays is their discussion of new visual and textual sources which are revealing of the diverse modes of representation developed by the Church to 'Delight, Move and Instruct' the many and diverse spectators of its artistic message. Together these essays provide a range of critical perspectives on the complex cultural, political and spiritual context that shaped the evolution of Religious Art in cities as distant as Cuzco and Madrid.