Citas y evocaciones en los discursos visualesA propósito del bizantinismo a finales de la Edad Media

Abstract

The terms «primitive», «conservative» or «archaic» are recurrent in artistic historiography, in order to define the works that entail a step backwards in terms of style, contrasting with the general tendency of their period. During the second half of the 15th century and the first decades of the 16th century, when the first echoes of the Italian Renaissance arrived to Spain, at the same time the Byzantine model was recovered, which is visible in many paintings that copy or recall ancient icons. In the same way as we can pay tribute by citing a text, in painting, the use by Spanish painters of gold in backgrounds, or the Christian East iconographic models, or the arrival of copies of Byzantine paintings coming from Italy, it doesn’t simply respond to aestethic reasons, but to the need of appropriating and benefiting from the properties of a specific model. The call for «going back to the origins» on the part of spiritual reformist currents inside the Catholic Church coincided completely with this phenomenon, but it also coincided with spiritual practices based on meditation, prayer and the religious controversy between Christians, Muslims and Jews. Precisely, one important point of contention was the use of images, which was fundamental for Christians, but rejected by the other religions. Focusing on Madonna del Popolo images, we will analyse the reasons for their popularity during the Catholic Kings’ reign, the sceneries where they were present, and the connections they could have had with the religious reformation.