Iconología de la liturgia cristiana medievalmétodos visuales y propuestas teóricas emergentes desde la Historia del Arte

Abstract

This doctoral thesis proposes an approach to the Christian liturgical image of the Middle Ages from the methodological and interpretative principles of the History of Art. The present study aims to analyze the theoretical keys necessary for the establishment of an Iconology of the Medieval Liturgy, which will be applied in a practical way to a limited corpus of works of visual art, enabling new interpretative readings from the liturgical perspective. Avoiding being profusely exhaustive, the proposal is conceived as the beginning of a line of research that goes from ritual studies to the most current approaches in the History of Art, Iconography, and Visual Culture of the Middle Ages, with future applicability in multiple images, objects, and cultural artefacts. Firstly, the main conceptual dimensions in the understanding of medieval liturgy from the history of art are analyzed. In this sense, essential terms are defined to understand the functioning of the Christian ritual: from the notions of rituality, liturgy and devotion, to the chronological and geographical borders of liturgical traditions. Special attention to the concept of ritual diversity and plurality among the different Eastern and Western cultures will be paid. At the same time, the research delves into a dimension of the medieval liturgical time –which conditioned the men’s behaviour in the face of rites, and organized the year,days and hours. Furthermore, the codification of the sacred space concerning its liturgical uses throughout the Middle Ages fostered the emergence of new places in the liturgy across time and geographic locations...