Eikón / Imago
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description: Eikón Imago (ISSN: 2254-8718) is an annual scientific journal (previously biannual) that operates under a Continuous Article Publication (CAP) model. The journal is edited by CAPIRE Research Group (Collective for the Pluridisciplinary Analysis of European Religious Iconography), attached to the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Geography and History of the Complutense University of Madrid. The research interest of this journal is focused on iconography and visual studies in a broad sense, with a thematic coverage that covers the forms and meanings of images from any time, culture or country, as well as any theoretical, methodological, thematic variant, typological or disciplinary (art, aesthetics, communication, anthropology, etc.). Since 2018, the journal has been structured in three sections: monographic (with articles on an established theme, diverse each year, and with a guest editor), several articles (on the main theme of the magazine) and reviews and chronicles (with brief comments of recent exhibitions and publications, especially from the Hispanic world).
publisher: Ediciones Complutense
language: en
publication name: Eikón / Imago
issn: 2254-8718
copyright: In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Eikon Imago is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
items: The process of creation through visual methodologies
items: Jet in transit on the Way of St James
items: The Ateni Sioni Church: Sacred Architecture and the Languages of Power in Medieval Iberia
items: ] Displaced Iconography and Symbolic Rereading: Visual Ecosystem and Sacred Deactivation of The Temptations of Saint Anthony in Albert Merino's Digital Homage.
items: The Assimilation of Ptolemaic Queens to Isis: An Iconographic Reassessment
items: The “Ruinscape”, Traveling Bodies, and Images: The Case of Spolia in Moissac Abbey
items: Nature, Culture, and War in the Writings of Step’annos Orbelian
items: Sacralizing the Environment: Ecosystems, Bodies, and Iconic Presences
items: Piety, Blood and Conversion: Notes on the Jewish Child of Bourges in the Cantigas de Santa Maria
items: Religious Graffiti in the Western Mediterranean (18th Century): An Approach from the Notion of Iconic Presence
items: The issues of Berenice II, an iconographic exception
items: Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah: Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Enslaved Reproductive Bodies in Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean Painting. From Visual Exegesis to Iconographical Absence
items: ¿Cómo mirar una estampita? Propuesta metodológica para el estudio de imágenes religiosas impresas
items: Epistemología de la imagen generativa: plausibilidad, estética y representación del pasado en imágenes producidas por inteligencia artificial
items: “I was going to see a painting by Ribera”: Nineteenth-century interpretations of lo Spagnoleto and his Pietà (1637) from the Charterhouse of San Martino (Naples)
items: La musique, la danse et le vin : Festivités et rituels à Nishapur aux IXe–Xe siècles
items: The Altarpiece-Prints of Saint Diego of Alcalá Metamorphosis and Expansion of the Devotional Ecosystem in the Counter-Reformation
items: Medal Books and Emblem Books: A Face-to-Face Encounter between two Original Creations from the Humanistic World
items: “Death or Freedom”: Transformation of Household Plots into Political Ones. On the material of the hidden Ukrainian state coat of arms on embroidered Ukrainian towels (rushnyks)
items: Altar Space in Late Antiquity: The Water Newton Treasure and the Construction of the Sacred Space
items: Burying Pope Ludovisi. The Funereal Apparato of Gregory XV in the Political Context of the Rome of the Barberini
items: Per oculos ad loculos? – what can we learn from eye tracking about emblem art perception?
items: Feminine spirituality through an unknown catalan illuminated Book of Hours illuminated around 1500
items: Visualizing Shared Power: The Heraldry of Archdukes Albert and Isabella Clara Eugenia
items: Fons signatus: a theological symbol in Christian doctrine and Marian iconography
items: Ana María Cuesta Sánchez y Ángel Pazos-López (eds.) (2024). Digital Humanities for the XXI Century Museum. Boleine.ISBN: 978-2-490081-62-2
items: Junquera Rubio, Carlos, Ángela Franco Mata y Letizia Arbeteta Mira (2025). Reliquias y Relicarios a lo largo de la Historia: Cultura, Patrimonio e Identidad. Editorial ACCI.
items: Perkinson, Stephen and Noa Turel (2021). Picturing Death 1200-1600. Brill.
items: Taylor, Paul. (2025). How Images Mean. Iconography and meta-iconography. Paul Holberton Publishing.
items: Mellén, I. (2024). El Sexo en tiempos del Románico. Editorial Crítica.

The process of creation through visual methodologies
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description: The experience presented here shows the methodology developed for the incorporation of scientific infographics in the study and analysis of museographic projects. Infographics and museography use visuality on different levels, which is a didactic opportunity to create and study through different visual methodologies. The student uses infographics as a tool for the development of creative skills, conceptualization and visual interpretation, also requiring, for its correct execution, to carry out tasks typical of scientific methodology such as prior research, analysis, interpretation and synthesis. The process, as a whole, provides the student with transversal and specific competences of the contents taught, obtaining, in addition, a highly effective means of visual communication.»
subject: Miscellany
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creator: Ángel Pazos-López
creator: Estrella Sanz Domínguez
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Ángel Pazos-López, Estrella Sanz Domínguez
date: 2025-06-30
publication date: 2025-06-30
doi: 10.5209/eiko.87383

Jet in transit on the Way of St James
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description: In this paper, we present the narrative role of small jet figures linked to pilgrims' attire within the sacred ecosystem of the Camino de Santiago. Beyond their function as identifiers and circulatory devices, such as amulets or pilgrimage souvenirs, these portable images served as visual devices that condensed and projected the spiritual experience of the journey and, therefore, as devotional objects with symbolic, personal and ritual uses. These objects were intended to be sewn or attached to clothing or hats, or to be hung.This contribution, which also briefly addresses antecedents and influences, fundamentally explores their production and uses, their relationship with other objects of the Way, and their presence in portraits, inventories, and literary or artistic testimonies that tell us about their bearers. Despite being mass-produced objects, as attested to in guild documentation, the archaeological record is still very scarce, but it allows us to confirm a use linked to both genders and to better understand their context and functionality. The small number of known examples and their dating based mainly on stylistic criteria still make precise dating difficult. Today, jet and the Camino follow divergent paths. Over time, these objects have undergone a process of reinterpretation, losing their purely devotional or apotropaic character.
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creator: Andrea Menéndez Menéndez
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Andrea Menéndez Menéndez
date: 2026-06-02
publication date: 2026-06-02
starting page: e104319
ending page: e104319
doi: 10.5209/eiko.104319

The Ateni Sioni Church: Sacred Architecture and the Languages of Power in Medieval Iberia
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description: This article explores the medieval Iberian Ateni Sioni Church, built in the 7th century and renowned for its comprehensive mural cycle dated to the 12th century. It draws particular attention to the church’s architectural, topographical, and decorative parallels with a significant sacred site in Iberia, the Church of the Holy Cross in Jvari. Rather than viewing these similarities as exclusively formal, the article offers an alternative perspective, focusing especially on the church’s topography and exterior decoration. It examines the donor reliefs on the facade in relation to their spatial context and considers how pilgrims and worshippers engaged with them as well as their possible symbolic significance at the time of their creation. The study demonstrates that, in the medieval period, Ateni Sioni served not only as a religious monument but also as a powerful political statement – a visual embodiment of authority and faith.
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creator: Margarita Khakhanova
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Margarita Khakhanova
date: 2026-05-06
publication date: 2026-05-06
starting page: e104313
ending page: e104313
doi: 10.5209/eiko.104313

] Displaced Iconography and Symbolic Rereading: Visual Ecosystem and Sacred Deactivation of The Temptations of Saint Anthony in Albert Merino's Digital Homage.
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description: The Great Arsenic is an audiovisual allegory inspired by the Flemish sacred painting tradition of the 15th to 16th centuries, particularly The Temptations of Saint Anthony by Pieter Huys, with echoes of Bosch and Beccafumi. Drawing on this iconographic archive, Albert Merino constructs a visual universe that deactivates the moralizing dimension of sacred images and reconfigures them from a contemporary, critical, and non-normative perspective. The article analyzes how the work transforms these sources into a fragmentary visual system, in which the absence of the saint shifts the interpretive focus toward secondary figures and autonomous symbolic elements. Through a qualitative approach that combines visual analysis, film analysis, and an interview with the artist, the formal and symbolic strategies that articulate the piece are examined. It is argued that The Great Arsenic does not reinterpret sacred iconography in narrative terms, but rather activates it as an open visual archive, characterized by ambiguity, fragmentation, and the suspension of meaning. From this perspective, the work allows us to consider the persistence of forms of devotional visuality in contemporary culture not as a transmission of religious values, but as symbolic structures reconfigured through an aesthetic and critical logic. This visual logic shifts the meaning toward an open interpretive experience, in which images associated with temptation, desire, or evil cease to function as fixed moral categories.
subject: Monographic theme
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creator: Francisco José Gómez Díaz
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Francisco José Gómez Díaz
date: 2026-05-04
publication date: 2026-05-04
starting page: e102178
ending page: e102178
doi: 10.5209/eiko.102178

The Assimilation of Ptolemaic Queens to Isis: An Iconographic Reassessment
type: item
description: This article analyzes the identification of female portraits with divine attributes as possible representations of Ptolemaic queens assimilated to the goddess Isis. To this end, it examines the main characteristic attributes of the goddess within the Egyptian religious context, the historical precedents of divine assimilation by royal women, as well as the type of portrait and the function of the various iconographic media on which the Lagid queens are depicted. The proposed hypotheses are based exclusively on images whose identification is supported by inscriptions or by a clearly documented archaeological context. This analysis confirms that the symbolic association between queens and the goddess Isis/Hathor was a widely used visual device in Egyptian art of the Ptolemaic period. Nevertheless, it is proposed that anonymous female portraits in Isiac style should be interpreted as representations of the divinity, with the possibility of a royal identification considered only when the royal diadem is present as a distinctive attribute.
subject: Miscellany
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creator: Sergio Sistac Marina
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Sergio Sistac Marina
date: 2026-04-28
publication date: 2026-04-28
starting page: e104253
ending page: e104253
doi: 10.5209/eiko.104253

The “Ruinscape”, Traveling Bodies, and Images: The Case of Spolia in Moissac Abbey
type: item
description: The present article examines the use and functions of spolia within the architecture of Moissac Abbey, France, during the late 11th and 12th centuries. The overarching goal of the text is to delve into the question of how the medieval monastery rewrote, reused, and reproduced the antique past through various media. It explores how the practice of spoliation contributed to the monastery’s establishment as both a sacred space and a strong political and cultural center. The spoliated elements are further anchored and interpreted within their particular material context as bearers of iconological significance that may contribute to our understanding of the iconography of the abbey’s sculptural decoration. Moreover, based on visual comparisons from across the region, it is argued that Moissac actively participated in the creation of an extensive sacred ecosystem interconnected by the constantly reminiscent memory of the ancient past, which is maintained and extended by the movement of human bodies.
subject: Monographic theme
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creator: Jana Cernocka
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Jana Cernocka
date: 2026-04-24
publication date: 2026-04-24
starting page: e104312
ending page: e104312
doi: 10.5209/eiko.104312

Nature, Culture, and War in the Writings of Step’annos Orbelian
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description: This article reflects on how the transformation of natural sites into cultural spaces was perceived in medieval Armenia, as analysed in The History of the State of Sisakan, written by the bishop and historian Stepanos Orbelian (c. 1250–1304). Orbelian's text opens with the familiar theme of a natural environment being transformed from a desert into a paradise, and describes how monastic colonisation turned a wild landscape into a prosperous cultural and fertile place. Art and culture are presented as instruments that bring the environment closer to God's will: thanks to the monastic presence, the region was protected from floods and bad weather. However, human action cannot be seen as positive alone: various invasions by foreign forces should be seen as elements of rupture, damaging nature and culture in order to satisfy diabolical greed. By analysing textual data and architectural heritage, this text explores some of the questions raised within Ecocritical Art History, attempting to understand the issue of the 'exploitation' of natural sites in the past.
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creator: Ivan Foletti
creator: Michaela Kovářová
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Ivan Foletti, Michaela Kovářová
date: 2026-04-24
publication date: 2026-04-24
starting page: e108526
ending page: e108526
doi: 10.5209/eiko.108526

Sacralizing the Environment: Ecosystems, Bodies, and Iconic Presences
type: item
subject: Editorial
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creator: Zuzana Faktorová Frantová
creator: Ivan Foletti
creator: Adrien Palladino
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Zuzana Faktorová Frantová, Ivan Foletti, Adrien Palladino
date: 2026-04-24
publication date: 2026-04-24
starting page: e108564
ending page: e108564
doi: 10.5209/eiko.108564

Piety, Blood and Conversion: Notes on the Jewish Child of Bourges in the Cantigas de Santa Maria
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description: This article studies cantiga 4 of the Cantigas de Santa Maria corpus, dedicated to the Jewish child of Bourges. The approach is based on anthropological postulates regarding liminality, understanding conversion stories as liminal experiences mediated by the cult image. From this framework, the textual and visual development of the composition will be analysed, as well as the role of the Marian effigy. The main argument is to understand the absence of the baptismal scene, understanding the child's stay in the oven as a baptism of blood. A comparison with an apocryphal miracle from the Infancy of Christ, preserved in the Bodleian Library (MS. Selden Supra 38), will help us to define the peculiarities of our case. This will lead us to address issues of anti-Semitism, conversion, and baptism as a liminal ritual.
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creator: David López Riveira
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 David López Riveira
date: 2026-04-23
publication date: 2026-04-23
starting page: e104299
ending page: e104299
doi: 10.5209/eiko.104299

Religious Graffiti in the Western Mediterranean (18th Century): An Approach from the Notion of Iconic Presence
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description: This article offers a theoretical approach to the study of iconic graffiti with religious themes through a selection of Mediterranean cases from the 18th century. In this context, the graffiti are interpreted as graphic expressions of popular religiosity. The conceptual framework is articulated from the notion of iconic presence formulated by Hans Belting, complemented by the idea of image-matter by José Luis Brea and by the conception of graffiti as acts of material devotion proposed by Ann Marie Yasin. The study examines the dynamic relationship between subject, image, and object of worship
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creator: Irene Agües Escolano
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Irene Agües Escolano
date: 2026-04-23
publication date: 2026-04-23
starting page: e104320
ending page: e104320
doi: 10.5209/eiko.104320

The issues of Berenice II, an iconographic exception
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description: In 2016, the National Archaeological Museum (MAN) in Madrid acquired an octodrachm of Berenice II bearing the name of Arsinoe II at a public auction. The primary reason for this acquisition was the coexistence of iconographic and epigraphic references to two distinct personalities on the same coin. This peculiarity in Ptolemaic coinage, in addition to perpetuating an unprecedented iconographic model for representing Lagid queens, presupposes the need for numismatic research to examine its communicative function. Through iconographic analysis, this study seeks to unravel the message conveyed by this coinage. The motives that led Berenice II to portray herself in the manner of Arsinoe are not only related to issues of succession and consolidation of power but also to personal reasons stemming from family conflict. Berenice II preferred to associate herself with her paternal Ptolemaic lineage rather than her maternal Seleucid line— constituting clear evidence of the union of two kingdoms, the Ptolemaic realm and Cyrenaica, into a single state.
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creator: Katharina Nothnagel Vivas
creator: Ana Vico Belmonte
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Katharina Nothnagel Vivas, Ana Vico Belmonte
date: 2026-04-14
publication date: 2026-04-14
starting page: e106576
ending page: e106576
doi: 10.5209/eiko.106576

Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah: Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Enslaved Reproductive Bodies in Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean Painting. From Visual Exegesis to Iconographical Absence
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description: This paper investigates the visual representations—or the marked absence—of Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah, three enslaved women in the Book of Genesis, within seventeenth-century Mediterranean painting. Drawing on feminist biblical criticism, art historical analysis, and visual exegesis, it explores how artists in Catholic regions such as Italy and Spain engaged with the iconography of these biblical figures. The study considers how artworks either reproduce or challenge the patriarchal ideologies embedded in Scripture and reflected in early modern theology and culture. Through the analysis of selected paintings, it reveals how silence, abjection, and guilt were visually encoded into the stories of these women, shaping their reception across time. It also contrasts Catholic visual traditions with Dutch Protestant interpretations, illuminating the theological and cultural dynamics at play. The research shows how artistic strategies—such as composition, gesture, and emotion—contributed to the marginalization or subversion of these figures. Ultimately, the paper argues that early modern art participated in the ideological work of biblical interpretation, acting as both a mirror and a critique of patriarchal structures. In doing so, it contributes to broader debates at the intersection of gender, religion, and visual culture, and expands the discourse on how enslaved and silenced biblical women are negotiated through image.
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creator: Begoña Alvarez Seijo
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Begoña Alvarez Seijo
date: 2026-04-14
publication date: 2026-04-14
starting page: e103911
ending page: e103911
doi: 10.5209/eiko.103911

¿Cómo mirar una estampita? Propuesta metodológica para el estudio de imágenes religiosas impresas
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description: This article puts forward a methodological study of holy cards from an interdisciplinary perspective that combines visual and material studies, and popular religion. Based on a corpus drawn from the Historical Provincial Archive of the Society of Jesus in Chile, the study proposes a methodological framework built on four dimensions: iconographic, material, scriptural, and positional. These categories explore how these images mediate the sacred in everyday life, articulating devotional, affective, and bodily practices within Catholic communities from the mid-19th onwards. Through the proposed methodology, it is revealed how these images configure symbolic and social universes that connect beliefs, collective memories, and cultural practices, opening up a broader reflection on the role of material objects in constructing religious experience and their persistence in contemporary visual culture.
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creator: Lily Estefanía Jiménez Osorio
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Lily Estefanía Jiménez Osorio
date: 2026-04-14
publication date: 2026-04-14
starting page: e10050
ending page: e10050
doi: 10.5209/eiko.100500

Epistemología de la imagen generativa: plausibilidad, estética y representación del pasado en imágenes producidas por inteligencia artificial
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description: This article examines the epistemological implications of artificial intelligence-generated images without empirical referents, focusing on their credibility, historical plausibility, and impact on collective memory. Drawing on visual culture and the philosophy of history, it argues that their plausibility stems not from documentary evidence but from the recognition of shared aesthetic codes. Methodologically, the study adopts a hermeneutic and critical approach, based on the analysis of selected cases of synthetic medieval representations disseminated on social media. Although entirely fictional, these images reproduce stylistic attributes established in historical painting and iconography, activating a collective aesthetic memory that renders them seemingly credible. The study concludes that their epistemic authority lies not in referential fidelity but in their capacity to mobilize culturally validated visual repertoires. This poses challenges for historiography, heritage transmission, and the uses of the past in the digital era, within a qualitative framework centered on image theory, philosophy of history, and software studies.
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creator: Alberto Venegas
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Alberto Venegas
date: 2026-04-14
publication date: 2026-04-14
starting page: e104454
ending page: e104454
doi: 10.5209/eiko.104454

“I was going to see a painting by Ribera”: Nineteenth-century interpretations of lo Spagnoleto and his Pietà (1637) from the Charterhouse of San Martino (Naples)
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description: Unlike other Spanish masters, art historiography has devoted limited attention to the contemporary critical reception of José de Ribera (1591-1652). This study examines nineteenth-century testimonies —primarily Spanish— regarding his most esteemed work during this period: the Pietà (1637) of the Charterhouse of San Martino (Naples). First, we explore how, within the European and American context prior to the 1908 publication of August L. Mayer's monograph on lo Spagnoletto, a “black legend” surrounding the painter was established, based on artistic literature from preceding centuries, particularly Bernardo de Dominici’s account (1742). Subsequently, we analyze nineteenth-century travel guides that focused on Ribera’s paintings preserved in that charterhouse and contributed to their dissemination. Finally, we present a collection of testimonies —mostly unpublished— related to the Pietà of San Martino, highlighting the qualities that made this painting Ribera’s most admired work during the nineteenth century and examining how the oeuvre of this Naples-based artist was interpreted from Spain through a nationalist lens, affirming the painter as a fundamental figure in the Spanish pictorial tradition and refuting certain myths about his life.
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creator: Guillermo Juberías Gracia
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Guillermo Juberías Gracia
date: 2026-04-09
publication date: 2026-04-09
starting page: e105544
ending page: e105544
doi: 10.5209/eiko.105544

La musique, la danse et le vin : Festivités et rituels à Nishapur aux IXe–Xe siècles
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description: This article examines the rich visual culture of ninth- and tenth-century Nishapur through its polychrome ceramics, in which music, dance, and wine function as intertwined ritual languages. After reconstructing the historical and musical context, the study offers a detailed iconographic analysis of the “dancer” motif. It explores the dancer’s frontal posture, ambiguous attributes (drinking vessel versus horn of abundance), and associated symbols such as crested birds and fish. Close attention to costume details and the gender-fluid representation of the figure reveals a performative art that transcends rigid social categories. A second series of variants introduces masked performers, while the rare branch-bearing figure evokes themes of regeneration and cosmic renewal. Comparative readings alongside Sassanian metalwork and al-Sufi’s manuscript miniatures demonstrate that these ceramics formed an active visual archive, conveying collective memory and negotiating cultural exchange across pre-Islamic and early Islamic traditions. The article concludes by reflecting on the dynamic interplay between art, ritual, and identity in medieval northeastern Iran, and suggests avenues for future research into transregional iconographic networks.
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creator: Sheila Samavaki
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Sheila Samavaki
date: 2026-04-07
publication date: 2026-04-07
starting page: e103646
ending page: e103646
doi: 10.5209/eiko.103646

The Altarpiece-Prints of Saint Diego of Alcalá Metamorphosis and Expansion of the Devotional Ecosystem in the Counter-Reformation
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description: The article analyzes, based on the premises of anthropological iconology and visual studies, three prints dedicated to Saint Didacus of Alcalá, produced between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, with the aim of reconsidering their function within the devotional ecosystem of post-Tridentine Europe. The "vicarious visibility" of these images, together with their portable condition, contributed to multiplying the praesentia of the saint beyond the chapel where his relics rest, the epicenter of his miracles. The innovation of this study lies in the formal and typological analysis of these engraved images and in the formulation of a pertinent theoretical framework for their examination. The author proposes the category of "altarpiece-prints" to designate this formal model of narrating the Wunderviten. Their fragmentary and sequential structure—evocative of Gothic hagiographic altarpieces and Byzantine vita icons—offers an adaptation of the altarpiece language to the printed medium. The study concludes that the emergence of this format may have responded to the need to articulate new devotional practices —effective both in Reformed Europe and in Catholic territories, in Europe as well as the Americas— through images capable of maintaining, extending, or renewing the experience of sacred presence beyond the institutional framework of worship.
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creator: Gerardo Rappazzo Amura
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Gerardo Rappazzo Amura
date: 2026-04-07
publication date: 2026-04-07
starting page: e104208
ending page: e104208
doi: 10.5209/eiko.104208

Medal Books and Emblem Books: A Face-to-Face Encounter between two Original Creations from the Humanistic World
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description: This paper aims to establish a connection between the genres of medal books, as visual and iconographic sources, and their parallels and divergences in relation to emblem books, both phenomena within the Renaissance. While both textual and visual genres have been widely and independently studied, never have they been drawn as close manifestations and put into comparison. Similarities include formal elements, as well as their educational purpose, their admiration for Antiquity and the use of mythological characters. Nevertheless, medal books focus on the life of exemplary historical or mythological figures, with illustrations imitating ancient coins, whereas emblems allow for greater thematic breadth and graphic creativity. On the other hand, a chronological comparison between both is explained; it is thus noted that interest in medals began in the 15th century, as its key publication, the Illustrium imagines by Andrea Fulvio, was published at an early date, in 1517. This period slaps over time with the so-called “pre-emblematic” or “proto-emblematic” phase. During the first half of the 16th century, Medallistics was at its height and so precedes Alciato’s volume (1531); however, Emblematica ends up imposing its design and layout over medal books.
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creator: María Teresa Rodríguez Bote
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 María Teresa Rodríguez Bote
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e97298
ending page: e97298
doi: 10.5209/eiko.97298

“Death or Freedom”: Transformation of Household Plots into Political Ones. On the material of the hidden Ukrainian state coat of arms on embroidered Ukrainian towels (rushnyks)
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description: This article is devoted not only and not so much to the presence of national symbols (in particular, the trident which is the state coat of arms of Ukraine) on century-old Ukrainian rushnyks (embroidered towels). The main goal of this study is to show how closely the so-called political (patriotic) may be intertwined with household (everyday) embroidered plots, that we can sometimes easily confuse them. Since it was dangerous to embroider Ukrainian national symbols during the occupation and struggle for state independence, such signs often had to be masked. Thus, such usual embroidered scenes, as entertainment and fun or separation and meeting of a boy and a girl, could hide political undertones. And vice versa, using the ready-made printed cross-stitch papers containing the state coat of arms of Ukraine, girls sometimes could avoid embroidering this sign.
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creator: Tetiana Brovarets
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Tetiana Brovarets
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e97444
ending page: e97444
doi: 10.5209/eiko.97444

Altar Space in Late Antiquity: The Water Newton Treasure and the Construction of the Sacred Space
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description: Dated between the second half of the 4th and the early 5th centuries CE, the Water Newton treasure is the earliest material example of a liturgical and votive Christian hoard. Previous research has focused on determining the overall function and the treasure’s possible original context. This article presents an overview of the treasure’s components from the perspective of their relation to the Christian altar, mainly during the Eucharist. After examining the liturgical paraphernalia and furnishings in the 4th and 5th centuries, as documented by late antique church inventories, the individual objects are studied in their ritual application. This lets us appreciate the role of material culture in defining the sacred space. The continuity with ancient traditions emerges, such as certain vessels’ connection with some substances and properties or the adoption of ritual practices, reinterpreted through a new Christian meaning. Starting from the material analysis and the written evidence, the article aims to frame the treasure in the wider perspective of Christian altar space development. The treasure's relation to its lost setting of perishable materials and ritual actions emphasised how the objects ‘activated’ the altar space, highlighting its sacredness as a place for encountering the divine.
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creator: Nicolas Samaretz
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Nicolas Samaretz
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e98767
ending page: e98767
doi: 10.5209/eiko.98767

Burying Pope Ludovisi. The Funereal Apparato of Gregory XV in the Political Context of the Rome of the Barberini
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description: This article analyses the funeral ceremony held in 1624 on the occasion of the first anniversary of the death of Pope Gregory XV in the cathedral of Bologna. The ceremony and the allegorical apparato displayed in the church were promoted by Cardinal-nephew Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of the late pope and one of the greatest art collectors of his time. This ephemeral apparato, with a sensitive and emotive strategy, focused on exalting the virtues and work carried out by the pontiff and also on trying to promote the imagen of the cardinal in the circles of power in the Rome of Urban VIII. In doing so, the cardinal wanted to establish a visual marker of his uncle’s cultural memory, creating an artistic project of great material splendour, an authentic example of the Baroque rhetoric of the time. The article reconstructs the iconographic programme of the funeral apparato, understood as an instrument of propaganda, relating it to contemporary literary and graphic sources, as well as to the atmosphere of nepotism prevailing at the papal court, in order to understand the political and religious significance of this ceremony.
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creator: Eneko Ortega Mentxaka
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Eneko Ortega Mentxaka
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e98882
ending page: e98882
doi: 10.5209/eiko.98882

Per oculos ad loculos? – what can we learn from eye tracking about emblem art perception?
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description: Emblems are depictions of concepts, composed of texts and images. Scholars dispute whether the emblematic image or the text contributes more to making the viewer appreciate the emblem and better understand its message. Are images and texts of equal importance? Which element - image or text- attracts attention in the first place? What are the dynamics of attentional processing of the text-image structure of emblems? We have applied eye-tracking techniques to study where and how people look when presented with emblems. We mapped participants’ eye gaze locations and dynamics (order) of their scan paths to uncover the relationship between the text and the image aspects of emblems. Moreover, we also used internet ‘meme’ images containing a similar text-image structure to emblems to test for similarities between these two classes of bimedial compositions. We present and discuss the preliminary findings of the study, showing that in the perception of such multi-modal messages like emblems, the text and the picture are both critical for a dynamic process of understanding. We will further suggest an experimental framework aiming to explore the cognitive processing underlying the perception and interpretation of emblems.
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creator: Artur Pilacinski
creator: Filipa Araújo
creator: Zohar Tal
creator: Patricia Fernandes
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Artur Pilacinski, Filipa Araújo, Zohar Tal, Patricia Fernandes
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e99780
ending page: e99780
doi: 10.5209/eiko.99780

Feminine spirituality through an unknown catalan illuminated Book of Hours illuminated around 1500
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description: Towards the last decade of the 15thcentury, was elaborated an exquisite book of hours for a lady. The manuscript, written in Latin with Catalan rubrics in the Roman use is kept in a private collection (Barcelona, Patrimoni artistic Fundació “La Caixa”). This book of hours was left unfinished and contains a good amount of decorated initials, accompanied by floral decoration or even a kind of marginal ornamentation with flowers, birds and human figures that acquire a more naturalistic dimension in some specific folios, in agreement with aesthetic proposals of the Wiener Master of Mary of Burgundy, aspect of which the last one was unknown in Catalonia. The full-page illustrations are seven in total and were made in grisaille with dashes of blue. The calendar includes celebrations typical of Barcelona. It has an office dedicated to the Guardian Angel (f. 211r) and amidst the Suffrages there is the prominent figure of Mary Magdalene (f. 235r), a model of contemplative woman for the theologians and moralists of the time. This study analyzes a manuscript that is practically unknown to researchers.
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creator: Josefina Planas
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Josefina Planas
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e101069
ending page: e101069
doi: 10.5209/eiko.101069

Visualizing Shared Power: The Heraldry of Archdukes Albert and Isabella Clara Eugenia
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description: This paper analyzes the evolution of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia and Archduke Albert in relation to their marital status and political position. It examines how, before their marriage, Albert used a coat of arms that emphasized his connection to the Hispanic Monarchy, reflecting his trajectory under the protection of Philip II. On the other hand, after Isabel Clara became the sovereign of the Netherlands, a coat of arms was established for her that highlighted her single status. After the marriage, they adopted a joint coat of arms, where the Austro-Burgundian elements became prominent, reflecting their shared sovereignty in the Netherlands. However, the individual use of this emblem suggests that the title belonged more to Albert. This interpretation in the coat of arms of Isabel Clara Eugenia as a widow, where she places their former joint arms where her husband's should be, is explored. Through the study, it is demonstrated how the archdukes used heraldry as a visual representation of political and dynastic legitimacy, adapting to changes in power and reinforcing their position as sovereigns.
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creator: Luis Fernando Fernández Guisasola
creator: José María Francisco Olmos
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Luis Fernando Fernández Guisasola, José María Francisco Olmos
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e102257
ending page: e102257
doi: 10.5209/eiko.102257

Fons signatus: a theological symbol in Christian doctrine and Marian iconography
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description: Among the many metaphors with which Christian doctrinal tradition has designated the Virgin Mary, this article focuses on analyzing the “sealed fountain” (Fons signatus) from the Song of Solomon, as attested by numerous theological texts and some Marian images. The author begins by analyzing many testimonies from Fathers and medieval theologians of the Latin Church on this subject; secondly, he analyzes a large set of fragments of medieval liturgical hymns that poetically reconfigure this metaphor; in a third section, he analyzes five 15th-century Marian paintings that depict a sealed fountain invested with a clear symbolic intent. Finally, the author summarizes the results of the analysis of the texts and images, highlighting the essential relationship between the two.
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creator: José María Salvador-González
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 José María Salvador-González
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e104322
ending page: e104322
doi: 10.5209/eiko.104322

Ana María Cuesta Sánchez y Ángel Pazos-López (eds.) (2024). Digital Humanities for the XXI Century Museum. Boleine.ISBN: 978-2-490081-62-2
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subject: Reviews
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creator: Lucas Porras Saborit
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Eikón Imago
date: 2025-12-14
publication date: 2025-12-14
doi: 10.5209/eiko.106497

Junquera Rubio, Carlos, Ángela Franco Mata y Letizia Arbeteta Mira (2025). Reliquias y Relicarios a lo largo de la Historia: Cultura, Patrimonio e Identidad. Editorial ACCI.
type: item
subject: Reviews
  topic: section
creator: Benito Rodríguez Arbeteta
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Benito Rodríguez Arbeteta
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e105826
ending page: e105826
doi: 10.5209/eiko.105826

Perkinson, Stephen and Noa Turel (2021). Picturing Death 1200-1600. Brill.
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subject: Reviews
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creator: Herbert González Zymla
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Herbert González Zymla
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e105373
ending page: e105373
doi: 10.5209/eiko.105373

Taylor, Paul. (2025). How Images Mean. Iconography and meta-iconography. Paul Holberton Publishing.
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subject: Reviews
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creator: Agustín Martínez Peláez
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Agustín Martínez Peláez
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e105372
ending page: e105372
doi: 10.5209/eiko.105372

Mellén, I. (2024). El Sexo en tiempos del Románico. Editorial Crítica.
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subject: Reviews
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creator: Ana María Sánchez Saz
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 Ana María Sánchez Saz
date: 2026-02-10
publication date: 2026-02-10
starting page: e102824
ending page: e102824
doi: 10.5209/eiko.102824