El borrado en la pintura conceptual. De la iconografía de Dánae a la de Sémele en Hilario Bravo

"Within the conceptual approaches that define the aesthetics of the painter Hilario Bravo, the transformation of a work is a standard response in 20th-century art. On a few occasions, however, the radical nature of the transmutation causes the work to change its title and meaning completely. This is the case with Flammae, a work from 2014 in a series dedicated to the relationship between flame, thought and the act of creation, which in 2017 is transformed into Semele, at a time when the artist’s main concern is the search for cathasterism as the ultimate projection of fire. This has key hermeneutical implications, both from a mythological perspective and from the iconography of the Christian tradition, but, above all, it fulfils the meaning of the work: a painting about the creative process that leads to a reflection on the immanence of the work."

La escultura. Engañando a la gravedad

Sculptures are not capable of creating as complex scenes as painting does, except sculptural relief that creates the illusion of perspective and narration through the different planes. And it is not a question of establishing conceptual criteria in the manner of El Paragone, but rather discovering the constructive possibilities of sculpture in certain proposals, such as the representation of content through mass, height and depth, that is, the three-dimensionality. Already in the past, sculptors made an effort to obtain complex results such as the challenge to gravity (deceiving gravity), by means of optical effects, the colour, using movement, light and other components. The Niké by Peonio, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Bernini, the Annunciation by Günther or many of the works by Canova, Orrico, Quinn, Bethencourt, etc. are samples of those professional boasting, always depending on the materials used. The Baroque period is the most fruitful stage in the production of these sculptural purposes, creating, as Quirin Asam did, authentic theatrical productions where the characters seem to float.

Nuevos datos para la biografía de Juan de Ochoa, maestro cantero cordobés del Quinientos

"Juan de Ochoa Méndez was a prominent Cordovan architect who worked in the second half of the 16th Century. His style and particular constructive language fall within the Spanish classicist current of the late 1500s, according to the maniera italiana, which refined the Renaissance tradition and set the foundations for the future baroque style during the first years of the 17th Century. His prolific professional career at the service of the main religious and civil institutions of Córdoba at the time, has recently been reconstructed thanks to the numerous references and documentary data extracted from the main Cordovan archives and particularly the Historical-Provincial Archive."

Magia, religión y mito. Harry Potter bajo el signo de la posmodernidad

On the one hand, our aim with this paper is try to analyse how Harry Potter stories were built under postmodern narrative patterns in which J.K. Rowling is a late and elusive example. On the other hand, we reflect on how this creative literature process proposes the combination and reformulation of several references of the Western Culture: religious and mythical, artistic and all those related to popular tradition. All this was taken into account when the books metamorphosed into the successful movie saga.

Noticias sobre los catálogos monumentales de España en el epistolario de José Gestoso (1852-1917)

The aim of this paper is to reveal unpublished news on the production of Spain’s monumental catalogues. This information has been located in the epistolary collection of the Sevillian scholar José Gestoso, kept at the Institución Colombina in Seville. This information has been extracted from the letters this personality received from some of his authors. It helps to trace the intrahistory of one of the most important projects undertaken in Spain in favour of the knowledge and protection of historical and artistic heritage. Given the private nature of the documentation, the more human side of the cataloguing tasks is perceived, and how they were conceived and interpreted personally and individually by their protagonist

Las pinturas del retablo mayor de la iglesia del Real Hospital de San Lázaro de Sevilla

The brief study that we present is part of an ongoing work on the history, architecture and artistic heritage of the Real Hospital de San Lázaro in Seville, the oldest in the city and the first and only one with a royal foundation, which maintains its function care until today. We present what is known so far about the paintings made in 1553 by the masters Pedro de Villegas Marmolejo and Juan Chacón for the main altarpiece of the church, some of which have remained in a later Baroque style altarpiece. Fortunately, the pictorial set is being restored at the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (IAPH)

«Vistas» de Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Imagen del poder de la casa ducal de Medina Sidonia

This article addresses the reflected image of the city of Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz, Spain), which was the capital of the dominion of the Pérez de Guzmán family, counts of Niebla and dukes of Medina Sidonia, located at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. Its iconographic representation as “view,” throughout the 16th to 18th centuries, has been an idealized literary and artistic object, and approached in a topographical way due to its strategic and emblematic value for the Crown and the Ducal House, as seat of the Fleet of the Indies.

Símbolos de masculinidad(es). Investigación para la creación de una propuesta

"The present text emerges as a process of artistic research that aims to elaborate a visual proposal about the problematic of masculine identity in the current social and cultural context. For this, it is necessary to generate a theoretical framework on the subject of gender, starting with the feminist theories and the studies of masculinity, which will allow to establish the categories of analysis from which the imaginary will arise for the elaboration of the visual proposal. It starts from the notions of the gender understood as social construction, and therefore establishes a visual reference link with the city as a material manifestation of the structures of meaning that delimit the processes of elaboration of identity of the individuals. Finally, on the basis of a semiotic analysis methodology regarding the set of signs and symbols that make up the imaginary built from the categories proposed by the theoretical framework, a visual proposal will be articulated through pictorial language that poses a questioning the rigidity of these structures, alluding to the diversity of masculinities that are experienced today."

María Joaquina Viera y Clavijo, Josefa de Miranda y Juana Evangelista de la Cruz y Ríos: mujeres en la actividad artística del siglo XVIII en Canarias

"When approaching to the study on women’s artistic creation in Canary Islands for eighteenth century, the lack of bibliographical and documented references has to be added to the difficulty on finding their artistic works. In spite of it, we found the names and bibliographic references about women who carried on artistic activities in Canary Islands during the century, such as the case of María Joaquina Viera y Clavijo, Josefa Miranda and Juana Evangelista de la Cruz y Ríos."

Una escultura inédita de san Roque del Círculo de Balduque, recuperada en Tenerife

"In this paper we study a wood sculpture representing Saint Roch of Montpellier that belongs to the parish church of The Immaculate Conception, in Realejo Bajo, Los Realejos (Tenerife). The religious effigy, which was venerated in the extinct Franciscan Convent of Saint Lucy, in the same town, has recently been restored. Its art features allow us to relate this simulacrum to the art of the well-known Flemish sculptor and woodcarver Roque de Balduque, who worked in Seville from 1534 to 1561 and is one of the most prominent figures in 16th-century Spanish sculpture."