The Portuguese Restoration of 1640 and Its Global Visualization

Political Iconography and Transcultural Negotiation

9789463725637

508 pages

Amsterdam University Press

Hardback $181.00

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Overview

The Portuguese Restoration of 1640 ended the dynastic union of Portugal and Spain. This book pioneers in reconstructing the global image discourse related to the event by bringing together visualizations from three decades and four continents. These include paintings, engravings, a statue, coins, emblems, miniatures, a miraculous crosier and other regalia, buildings, textiles, a castrum doloris, drawings, and ivory statues. Situated within the academic field of visual studies, the book interrogates the role of images and depictions before, during, and after the overthrow and how they functioned within the intercontinental communication processes in the Portuguese Empire. The results challenge the conventional notion of center and periphery and reveal unforeseen entanglements as well as an unexpected agency of imagery from the remotest regions under Portuguese control. The book breaks new ground in linking the field of early modern political iconography with transcultural art history and visual studies.

Author Bio

Prof. Dr. Urte Krass is Professor of Early Modern Art History at the Institute of at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Her research focuses on political iconography and the material culture of Christian sainthood, as well as on Early Modern transcultural negotiation processes via artifacts, objects, and images.