Metáfora, lujo y aderezo en la corte de los Reyes Católicos: los animales en las joyas de Isabel I de Castilla /

Abstract

The present work analyses the representations of animals that decorated the jewels of Queen Isabella I of Castile. Although we have not preserved the pieces, the documentation that has come down to us –chronicles, testamentary, auction, inventories, and accounts– allows us to know not only the cost of these, but also their manufacture and materiality. On some occasions, the jewels’ design gives us information about the superstitions and devotions of either the queen or their previous owners. On other occasions, these pieces seem to have been conceived as part of the royal ceremonial and scenery, echoing metaphorical resources present in the literature of the time, based on royal animal mimicry. However, this does not mean that all the animal motifs that decorated the queen’s jewels were designed for propaganda or speculative purposes. Some of these would have been simply ornamental and luxurious pieces, for personal decoration, whose symbolic charge would reside in their own sumptuousness.