Abstract
Modern historiography has studied the influence of messianic and millennialist ideas in the Crown of Aragon extensively and, more particularly, how they were linked to the Aragonese monarchy. To date, research in the field of art history has mainly considered royal iconography from a different point of view: through coronation, historical or dynastic images. This article will explore the connections, if any, between millennialist prophetic visions and royal iconography in the Crown of Aragon using both texts and the figurative arts, bearing in mind that sermons, books and images shared a common space in late medieval audiovisual culture, where royal epiphanies took place. The point of departure will be the hypothesis that some royal images and apparently conventional religious images are compatible with readings based on sources of prophetic and apocalyptic thought, which help us to understand the intentions and values behind unique figurative and performative epiphanies of the dynasty that ruled the Crown of Aragon between 1250 and 1516. With this purpose in mind, images will be analysed in their specific context, which is often possible to reconstruct thanks to the abundance and diversity of the written sources available on the subject, with a view to identifying their promoters’ intentions, the function they fulfilled and the reception of these images in the visual culture of this time and place.
Highlights
On 21 March 1522, in Xàtiva, the second largest city of the kingdom of Valencia, a man dressed as a sailor climbed up on a catafalque, sword in hand, flanked by two other men playing trumpets.Surrounded by four harquebusiers and hundreds of soldiers, he made a speech as solemn as a sermon in which he declared himself the legitimate heir to the Trastámara dynasty and a challenger to the throne of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor
Inquisition tribunal and on chroniclers who were generally against the Revolt of the Germanias, which shook the kingdom of Valencia between 1519 and 1522 with civil war-style battles between supporters of the crown and the viceroy on one side and the rebels on the other (García Cárcel 1981; Duran 1982; Vallés 2000; Pérez García 2017)
The point of departure will be the hypothesis that some royal images and apparently conventional religious iconography are compatible with readings based on sources of prophetic and millennialist thought, which help us to understand the intentions and values behind particular figurative and performative epiphanies of the dynasty that ruled the Crown of Aragon from James I (1213–1276)
Summary
On 21 March 1522, in Xàtiva, the second largest city of the kingdom of Valencia, a man dressed as a sailor climbed up on a catafalque, sword in hand, flanked by two other men playing trumpets. The use of metaphor and allegory, the commemorative function and the implicit action in eschatological visions persuaded and informed observers of events, prophecies and missions that wrapped the Aragonese kings in a uniquely charismatic aura, staged through images and ceremonies. It is even worth wondering whether or not eschatological images of the monarchy interfered in royal power’s other forms of representation in the Crown of Aragon, making it unique. With these purposes in mind, I will analyse the images in their specific context, which is often possible to reconstruct thanks to the abundance and diversity of the written sources available on the subject, with a view to identifying their promoters’ intentions, the function they fulfilled and the reception of these images in the visual culture of this time and place
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