Two of the most serious consequences of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, examples of how terrorism can become a casus belli. The operations “Enduring Freedom” and “Iraqi Freedom” posed a serious challenge to traditional conceptions of jus ad bellum and sparked intense debate over the legal grounds on which both interventions were based. This article briefly summarizes the United Nations system prior to the attacks in order to closely examine the various justifications, from the perspective of jus ad bellum, that supported the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, with particular attention to issues such as preemptive war, the “unable or unwilling” theory, and the doctrine of accumulation of hostile acts.

Book Review

The text deals with the celebration of funeral ceremonies of relatives of viceroys and governors of the Spanish monarchy, especially the vicereines and their daughters and mothers, in which both the funeral chronicles and the images that decorated the ephemeral architectures result in highlighted the virtues associated with women belonging to the nobility. These figures, linked to the delegated power of their husbands, received posthumous tributes on occasions not well seen by the central power, hence the interest of their study. The aim is to review what images of these women were communicated to the viceregal subjects through the construction of ephemeral architectures and the preparation of iconographic programmes that alluded to their role as an informal noble power in their viceregal territories. The analysis will be carried out from the methodologies of the cultural history and the iconographic-iconological of the art history.

This paper analyzes some of the legendary constructions that cemented Valencian identity between the Late Middle Age and the Early Modern Age and it studies the artistic images and festive manifestations that built its memory and supported its legitimization. To do so, it focuses on three case studies. The first is the Jacobean foundation of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher and the intellectual and artistic conflict between two Valencian churches to secure its primacy. Secondly, this paper deals with the city’s commitment to the Virgin, its relentless defense of the immaculate dogma and, above all, the architectural and artistic stage for a peculiar and local Marian devotion: the Virgen de los Desamparados. Finally, it delves into the making of an authentic Valencian pantheon and the way in which the images of the natural saints took possession of the city through art.

Book Review

Book Review

Book Review

Book Review