Signs of Power in Habsburg Spain and the New World explores the representation of political, economic, military, religious, and juridical power in texts and artifacts from early modern Spain and her American viceroyalties. In addition to analyzing the dynamics of power in written texts, chapters also examine pieces of material culture including coats of arms, coins, paintings and engravings. As the essays demonstrate, many of these objects work to transform the amorphous concept of power into a material reality with considerable symbolic dimensions subject to, and dependent on, interpretation. With its broad approach to the discourses of power, Signs of Power brings together studies of both canonical literary works as well as more obscure texts and objects. The position of the works studied with respect to the official center of power also varies. Whereas certain essays focus on the ways in which portrayals of power champion the aspirations of the Spanish Crown, other essays attend to voices of dissent that effectively call into question that authority.
Jason McCloskey is assistant professor of Spanish at Bucknell University. His research focuses on Renaissance artwork, classical mythology and the portrayal of exploration and piracy in early modern Hispanic poetry. Ignacio Lopez Alemany is assistant professor of Spanish at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and editor of Caliope, Journal of the Society for the Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry.
Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Part I.Myths of Power One - Titian, Philip II, and Pagan Iconography Anne J. Cruz Two - Visual Eroticism, Poetic Voyeurism: Ekphrasis and the Complexities of Patronage in Gongora's Fabula de Polifemo y Galatea Lucia Binotti Three - Hercules and the Statue Garden: Sanson Carrasco's Ekphrastic and Imperial Contests in Don Quijote II.14 Frederick A. de Armas Four - The Legend of Marus Curtius Romanus as a Sign of auctoritas in Early Modern Spain Ignacio Lopez Alemany Part II.Challenges for Power Five - Coins, Value and Trust: The Problematic of Vellon in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Culture Elvira Vilches Six - Tampering with Signs of Power: Juan de Palafox, Historiography, and the Limits of Heraldry John Slater Seven - Antonio Perez and the Power of Treason Ana Maria G. Laguna Eight - Ius gentium and Just War: The Problem of Representation in Inca Garcilaso's Royal Commentaries Jose A. Cardenas Bunsen Nine - The Politics of Salvation in El Greco's Escorial Paintings and Cervantes's La Numancia E. C. Graf Ten - Spain Succored by Religion: Titian and Lope de Vega's La Dragontea Jason McCloskey Bibliography Index About the Contributors
This is a fascinating collection of essays by different authors who, by means of careful examinations of texts, shed light on the nature, status, and practice of power in sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Spain. . . .[T]he essays in this collection succeed in engaging the reader through their high level of scholarship on varied topics, all focused on the exercise and reception of Spanish Hapsburg power. * Hispanic American Historical Review *
