ABSTRACT

By exploring textual, visual and material culture, this volume presents a range of new research into the experiences, agencies and diverse political identities of Iberian women between the fifteenth and early-eighteenth century.

Representing Women’s Political Identity in the Early Modern Iberian World explores how the political identities of Iberian women were represented in various forms of visual culture including: religious paintings and portraiture; costume; and devotional and funerary sculpture. This study examines the transmission of Iberian culture and its concepts of identity to locations such as Peru, Goa and Mexico, providing a rich insight into Iberia’s complex history and legacy. The collection of essays explores the lives of protagonists, which vary from queens and members of the nobility to painters and nuns, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of both the elite and non-elite woman’s experience in Spain, Portugal and their overseas realms during the early modern period.

By addressing the significance of gender alongside the visual representation of political ideology and identity, this book is an invaluable source for students and researchers of early modern Iberia and the history of women.

Chapter 11 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at https://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

part I|116 pages

The politics of non-elite devotional identities in textual, visual and material culture

chapter 1|20 pages

Three Willful characters in search of God

Visionary action and political identity in seventeenth-century Portuguese women mystics 1

chapter 2|18 pages

From spectatorship to sponsorship

Female participation in the festivals of colonial Potosí 1

part II|112 pages

Spaces and spectacles of the female courtier

chapter 6|19 pages

The monastery I have built in this city of Madrid

Mapping Juana de Austria's royal spaces in the Descalzas Reales convent 1

chapter 8|13 pages

Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda, Princess of Éboli

Image, myth, and person 1

part III|83 pages

Rethinking regal iconography

chapter 11|14 pages

The Queen Consort in Castile and Portugal

María de Aragon (b. 1403–d. 1445), Queen of Castile and Leonor de Aragon (b. 1405/1408–d. 1445), Queen of Portugal 1

chapter 12|21 pages

Mariana de Austria

The ideal bride and saviour of the Habsburg Monarchy 1

chapter 13|19 pages

Dresses, Portraits and Spaces

Female identities at the Royal Alcázar (1621–1665) 1

chapter 14|27 pages

Queen Catherine, a Bragança in seventeenth-century London

Cultural legacy, identity and political ‘individuality’ 1