Eikón / Imago

Carrasco Ferrer, Marta y Elvira Barba, Miguel Ángel. Mujeres Artistas de la Antigua Grecia. Madrid: Reino de Cordella, 2023. ISBN: 978-84-19124-59-3

Nova Barrero Martín — 2025-03-27

José María Salvador-González, Thalamus Dei. The Bed in Images of the Annunciation Its Iconography and Doctrinal Explanation, Editorial Sindéresis / Editorial Dykinson, Madrid 2024, 188 pp. ISBN. 978-84-10120-23-5.

Piotr Roszak — 2025-02-07

From Heroic Science to Visual Studies: Pathways of Heraldry among Concepts, Images, and Contexts

Miguel Metelo de Seixas — 2025-02-05

Los creadores del vestido: los sastres de la Real Cámara en tiempos de Carlos IV y María Luisa de Parma (1789-1808)

Sandra Antúnez López — 2025-02-07

The objective of this article focuses on knowing the artistic career of the main tailors during the reign of Charles IV and María Luisa de Parma. We will do a brief review of the situation of the tailors who worked for the palace, since they differed in their occupation, salary and position within the palatine hierarchy. We will analyze which dresses the queen ordered and by whom they were made. The artisan hands of the tailors Pedro Alcantara Garcia, Manuel Ballesteros, Jorge Martin and Francisco Gonzalez made the textile works intended for the feminine royal image. The primary sources consulted show previously unpublished data, which allow the study of clothing artisans and their textile production for the monarchy.

Las Decoraciones pictóricas en la cripta de la basílica de San Filóxeno de Oxirrinco (Egipto)

Bernat Burgaya Martínez — 2025-02-07

At the site of Oxyrhynchus, a city known for its importance in the Byzantine period (4th-7th century CE), the Basilica of St. Philoxenus was found during the 2009 excavation campaign. The excavation and conservation work carried out simultaneously in this crypt made it possible to secure the stucco work, whose richness and variety of decoration was already evident from the outset. Numerous stucco works with very important pictorial decorations were discovered along the entire length and width of the walls. These paintings were examined on the basis of an exhaustive analysis of the stratigraphic arrangement and iconographic analysis of the individual layers. In some places, we were able to identify up to five superimposed plasters with very different decorations. Through the iconographic analysis and its arrangement, we can understand the development of the space within the basilica complex and approach the development of Christianity in Oxyrhynchus in particular and in Egypt in general during these centuries.

La Cofradía de los Negros de Huelva.

Rocío Calvo Lázaro — 2025-02-07

This paper offers an insight into the history of the Brotherhood of the Blacks, which existed in Huelva from at least the 16th century until the first third of the 20th century, being the only ethnic brotherhood in the city. The research methodology involved analyzing existing publications, followed by investigating several archives in Huelva and Seville, focusing particularly on pastoral visits to the vicarage of Huelva, where the brotherhood was mentioned. This study examines the testaments, specifically analyzing the religious bequests, donations, alms, and burial practices of the testators to learn more about the brotherhood. Additionally, the study analyzes the brotherhood’s celebrations, heritage as well as its operation and organization.

It is noteworthy that the Virgin of the Rosary was a highly venerated figure in Huelva, and her brotherhood was likely the oldest in the city.

Siehe Rückseite! Writings on the back in German amateur photographs (1939-1945)

Jose María de Luelmo Jareño — 2025-02-07

The digital condition has modified not only the status of photographic creation but also that of those photographs prior to its arrival that, for preservation or archiving purposes, have been subjected to digitization. Among other consequences, the conversion of these photographs into mere images has entailed the obliteration of certain material features, such as the marks and inscriptions on the back, of particular importance for their proper characterization. Taking as a paradigmatic case the amateur production of the German contingent in World War II, the research proposes how the study of these physical signs allows not only to contextualize and date the photographs but also to obtain information about their original intention, their value of use or the circumstances of their circulation, all of them of great relevance in this particular case. To test the relevance of this type of material analysis, the article directly analyzes an archive of original and unpublished photographs to date, and focuses on certain particularly significant typologies.

Shared pain: the meaning of the Compassio Mariae in the visual culture of the thirteenth century

Julia María García Morales — 2025-02-07

The present research deals with the meaning of the Virgin's compassion. This, understood as a shared emotion, had already been raised in various medieval medical treatises, but also in the theological framework, where it was linked to the figure of the Mother of God. Her compassion became a powerful meditative tool in the devotional practices of the late Middle Ages and became a model example for the faithful. This was understood as the physical and mental passion she suffered with her own son during the Passion. Pain, expressed through visual formulas such as fainting, permeated all kinds of compositions throughout the 13th century: artistic, literary, liturgical, musical, etc.

Los cuadros y los espectadores miran y son mirados.

Carmen Gutiérrez-Jordano — 2025-02-07

En este artículo se muestra que la pintura de Manet pretende superar, por un lado, la estética de la teatralidad y, por otro, la estética de la neutralización del espectador y del cerramiento del cuadro. Para ello emplea en su pintura varios dispositivos que pretenden mostrar, primero, que los cuadros tienen conciencia de la presencia del espectador y que son objetos hechos para ser contemplados; y segundo, que los cuadros tienen la suficiente entidad como para mirar e interpelar al espectador. La consecuencia es una estética del enfrentamiento mutuo cuadro/espectador. El espectador mira el cuadro, pero también el cuadro le mira a él. El cuadro interpela al espectador.

Un “Caballo de Troya” ateniense. La herma lignaria de Epeo en Eno

Pelayo Huerta Segovia — 2025-02-07

El Yambo VII de Calímaco narra el origen del culto a Hermes Perpheraios en la antigua ciudad de Eno (Tracia). El poema relata la reacción de los pescadores locales ante la excepcional “captura” de una estatua de Hermes proveniente de Troya y su posterior traslado a la ciudad como imagen de culto. En el presente estudio se procede a un comentario del yambo en clave interpretativa, paralelamente al de otras fuentes auxiliares iconográficas y literarias, con el fin de demostrar que el protagonista de la composición es una herma de madera. Este mito etiológico alude así a las vicisitudes históricas de la introducción del culto de una tipología estatuaria divina que es autóctona de los atenienses en un contexto “bárbaro”. En última instancia, y ante las analogías que presenta con el caballo de Troya, se lleva a cabo una definición de la imagen semi-antropomorfa de Epeo bajo el término de “artefacto cultual”, lo que llevará a sugerir que esta veneración tracia al hermes es parte de un mecanismo político-religioso de control por parte de la Atenas de mediados del s. V a.C.

Il paliotto d’argento di Olimpia Aldobrandini su disegno di Carlo Fontana nella Chiesa del Gesù di Roma.

Elisa Marangon — 2025-02-07

Since the early 1980s, research on the figure and functions of agents in Early modern Europe offered the possibility for an ever-increasing number of scholars to approach the topic using several interpretative models and approaches. In particular, the analysis of political, social, and artistic networks based on epistolary sources has proven to be the favoured method of investigation by scholars: the correspondence of the prince-bishop of Olomouc Karl von Lichtenstein-Castelcorno with the members of the Roman Curia is no exception. The role of intermediary between the Roman environment and the bishop was played by his agent Giovanni Petignier. In a letter sent in August 1682, Petignier informed his patron about the donation of a six-hundred-pound silver antependium to the Church of Gesù by Princess Olimpia Aldobrandini-Pamphilj. The purpose of this article concerns the historical reconstruction of the events that led to the loss of the piece of furniture, as well as underlying the role played by the bishop’s agent as cultural transfer with the Roman cultural context during the late seventeenth century. Finally, the attribution of the sculpture to Ticino architect Carlo Fontana will be analysed as well by investigating his connections with the Pamphilj family.

Mímesis y miniatura: la “metáfora viva” en las artes japonesas del “depaisaje”

María del Carmen Molina Barea — 2025-02-07

This paper analyzes the key points of Japanese landscaping according to the concept of “dépaysage”, which is derived from avant-garde practices of poetic estrangement rooted in metaphor. Taking this as guiding principle there will be addressed Japanese aesthetic techniques -such as bonsai, suiseki and Zen gardens- so as to excavate the way in which they are metaphorized. It will be necessary to draw up a comparative research of the meanings of Aristotelian metaphor. Ultimately, the paper argues that resources located within Japanese dépaysement go beyond mimesis to develop poietic representations in line with the “live metaphor” coined by Paul Ricoeur.

Entre telas anda la palabra de Dios: la compleja iconografía de la Virgen con el Niño y san Juanito de Joan de Borgonya

Araceli Moreno Coll — 2025-02-07

We aim to delve into the elaborate iconographic program of the painting the Virgin with the Child and the Young Saint John (Barcelona, MNAC, 005690-000), created by Joan de Borgonya (doc. 1496-1525). This work displays a remarkable deployment of visual resources and presents scenes linked to Mary, the protagonist of some key episodes in the history of human redemption, and the Childhood of Jesus. So far, no work has been identified containing all the represented elements; however, it is evident that the artist drew inspiration from the work of other masters, as we will detail throughout the text. Through our analysis, we seek to offer a possible interpretation: the Salvation of man through the divine word and conversion.

L’Augustale Federiciano: Nuove Prospettive Simonluca Perfetto

Simonluca Perfetto — 2025-02-07

A seguito della recente scoperta dell’ampia attività della zecca di Napoli durante il periodo svevo, è giunto anche il momento di compiere i primi passi nella classificazione monetaria. Il posto d’onore spetta sicuramente all’augustale, moneta d’oro attraverso la quale Federico II ha rivissuto e fatto rivivere i fasti dell’impero romano ai suoi contemporanei. Grazie alla catalogazione degli augustali, realizzata attraverso la monetazione imperiale romana, e grazie allo studio delle legende, è stato possibile creare un catalogo preliminare, che non solo offre una cronologia piuttosto attendibile, ma precisa anche l’attribuzione di queste monete alle zecche di Napoli, Brindisi e Messina.

The afterlife of François Le Moyne’s Annunciation on eighteenth-century Portuguese azulejos

Rosário Salema de Carvalho — 2025-02-07

Considered lost until a few years ago, the Annunciation painted by François Le Moyne in 1727 (and turned into a print, in the following year, by Laurent Cars) was widely copied, both in paintings and prints. But while the paintings – some of them thought to have originated in Le Moyne’s own workshop – are well documented, the same cannot be said of the prints. Nonetheless, these works remain highly significant, as they were the main vehicles for the dissemination of images in the 18^th century. In Portugal (and Brazil), researchers have found 34 eighteenth-century azulejo panels inspired by this composition. Based on these findings, they concluded that the model launched by Le Moyne’s painting and promoted by Cars’ print became highly popular from the 1740s on, and even more so with the rise of the Rococo style. In fact, it ended up replacing the previous models, thereby putting an end to the pictorial diversity that had characterized former depictions of the Annunciation in azulejo.

Appearances and Disappearances in the images of artistic practice

Ruth Sanjuan — 2025-02-07

We look at the images, but they also look at us. Images, as a texts, demand to be read and translated by the reader. They want to communicate things to us, stories. They want to reactivate themselves in every look and in every imagination. In images, as in texts, the information is not always evident, sometimes it is hidden, encrypted, wanting to be seen, decoded, rescued. Images in the context of artistic practice, especially those that will be addressed in this text, autobiographical images, speak of appearances and disappearances, a game that implies accepting that things -or bodies- can go from one place to another place, be and not be at the same time, like specters or ghosts that appear because they want to tell us something, because something was left untold and that's what they return to, that's why they appear. We can also understand that we have a vision when we look at them, when we are faced with the autobiographical images of these projects.

The construction of Boullèe’s abstract portrait through the images of Peter Greenaway’s film The Belly of an Architect

Gabriela Solís Rebolledo — 2025-02-07

The present research analyzes the image of a frame from Peter Greenaway’s film The Belly of an Architect in light of his interpretation of Étienne-Louis Boullée, focusing attention on the inherent complexity of artistic creation and the idea of the figure of the architect. Among the various possible levels of reading, this research addresses the aspects of allegory and personification of the concepts that represent Boulléan architecture through the main character, Stourley Kracklite, considering that he sees himself as Boullée’s heir, due to which he appropriates the thought, drawings and projects of this architect. The analysis makes visible Greenaway’s aesthetic notion regarding the abstract portrait of Boullée represented through the conceptual relationship between the Boullean project of the Cénotaphe à Newton, the treatise Architecture. Essai sur l’Art, the monuments of Antiquity and Italian Renaissance painting, taken up in the film frame to establish Boullée’s identity and offer a perspective on his architecture and its sources.

A collaboration between Rubens and Snyders on the pictorial representation of ophidians.

Saúl Yubero-Hierro — 2025-02-07

The collaboration between Rubens and Snyders was very fruitful, but doubts sometimes arise as to the hands that collaborated with the author of Head of Medusa, as Rubens retouched his own and others' works. Three canvases with snakes portrayed by Snyders are exhibited in museums in Madrid. The aim is to contribute to the hypothesis of collaboration in that painting.

Thoughts on the Heraldry Supports within some Historical Sources from the Medieval West (12th-early 16th centuries)

Alexandre Grosjean — 2025-02-05

This article discusses the motivations of medieval chroniclers to describe the heraldry image supports into their historical works. Due to the hardness to investigate on exhaustive materials, this article is rather a compilation of thoughts than a definitive study. The different thematics of the image supports are showed and discussed, from the usefulness of this kind of image supports for identification of historical characters to the ability to give an image of political power, before highlighting the real limits of these occurrences because of the historian influences and various ways of working. A conclusion explains theses influences prevent to give directly simple reality of facts and force to be cautious with this kind of representation.

La araldica nell'iconografia dei santi

Vittoria Camelliti — 2025-02-05

The iconographic attributes of saints are not always classifiable as heraldic signs: in most cases they are generic emblems, functional to the recognition of the various characters. The saint (whose image is often assumed to be a heraldic sign), can be qualified heraldically by attributes that are proper to him and that identify him as such (as in the case of the crusader ensign of St. George or the lily cope of the Angevin saint Ludwig of Toulouse); or by 'external' attributes that requalify him in an identity sense, as is the case with the patron saints represented as standard-bearer. In the absence of specific attributes, the heraldic qualification of the saints is possible thanks to the inclusion of the elements of a coat of arms (figures and colours) on their robes, within the backgrounds and in other details of the composition. Figurative strategies are varied and employed in similar ways with reference to both civic heraldry and family heraldry in private devotional contexts.

Los sellos femeninos del entorno áulico de la Corona de Aragón (siglos XIII-XIV)

Marta Serrano Coll — 2025-02-05

For some decades now, medievalism has been questioning about gender issues, but there is still a lot of work to be done, especially with regard to seals. This paper aims to clarify the state of new research focused on sigillography, a genre that, despite its relevance in the Middle Ages due to its legal and communicative value, has often been neglected by most of the historiography. Starting from the fundamental catalog made by Ferran de Sagarra in the first third of the 20th century, these lines exhaustively analyze, from a polyhedral point of view, the sigillar pieces opened by women in the Catalan territories of the Crown of Aragon between 1200 and 1400 to elucidate to what extent they became efficient and efficacious instruments of identity and vindication on the part of their female owners.

Un château d’or pour horizon.

Laurent Macé — 2025-02-05

Epigraphy offers a documentary support which can prove rich in the field of heraldry, particularly in the early days of its diffusion, at the turn of the 13th century. Certainly, traces of polychromy are often lacking due to the effects of time, but cross-checking with other historical sources makes it possible to propose an identification of the sponsor of the lapidary inscription. When the file is made up of several witnesses living within a narrow chronological interval, certain conclusions can be deduced about heraldic practices and uses in a given area. The proposed case study concerns a chivalric lineage residing in Toulouse, the Castelnau, some members of which are part of the entourage of the count’s dynasty of the Raimondins. This proximity reflects the heraldic influence which emanated from the princely authorities and which affected families of high-ranking urban knights in the 1180s. In the present case, the role of wives and mothers deserves to be amply underlined.

Un bordado heráldico de María de Padilla

Jose Maria de Francisco Olmos — 2025-02-05

Heraldic elements are a very important source for the identification and dating of official documents, such as coins or seals, or of artistic pieces, be they tombs, monuments, furniture, clothing, etc. But sometimes we have identification problems that require a more precise study, as in the case of the heraldic embroidery attributed to María de Padilla that is in the Textile Museum of Tarrasa and whose origin is in the monastery of Santa Clara de Astudillo. In this work we are going to question the traditional identifications of the shields that appear in it and we are going to propose new attributions through comparative heraldry studies.

L'araldica immaginaria e il Libro della Natione Normanda (Universidad de Sevilla, Biblioteca, A 332/142)

Alessandro Savorelli — 2025-02-05

The ms. entitled Book of the Norman Nation, preserved in the University Library of Seville (by an unknown author of the 17^th century) contains coats of arms, portraits of sovereigns and family trees of the dynasties reigning in Naples from the Normans to the Habsburgs. Some tables placed at the end of the work illustrate ficititious coats of arms assigned to various ancient characters and peoples, copied from foreign sources, and a table with flags full of heraldic signs attributed to dominions from the Greeks, to the Goths, to the Lombards, up to the Franks and the Saracens. It is an example of imaginary heraldry, built on anachronisms, but partly original compared to other testimonies of the time, as figures of a fantastic nature are renounced in favor of heraldic compositions freely inspired by those of the capital cities of Campania.

De la imagen del poder al poder de la imagen.

Javier Herrera Vicente — 2025-02-05

This study analyses the heraldry of D. Alonso de Fonseca II y Acevedo (c.a.1437-1512) in the church of San Benito in Salamanca. The coats of arms presented in this article are not an addition that is only limited to identifying the lineage and ornamenting the perimeter walls of the church; on the contrary, they are ontologically linked to a persuasive strategy implemented by their promoter. The aim is to understand how the archbishop began to work on the creation of an ostentatious personal image in accordance with his religious dignity at the beginning of the 16th century. From this point of view, it is understood that these objects not only represent the power, it also presents to the spectator as "living" artefacts with a specific purpose. Therefore, this article focuses on the symbolic potential of coat of arms and examines the relationship between the Salamanca context, the San Benito church, the heraldic pieces, and their reception.

The image of the lineage. The noble ideal rationale in armory books

Pedro Valverde Ogallar — 2025-02-05

The heraldic emblem finds its origins to be eminently practical. May it be about calling the difference between participants in the battle field or in tournaments, to recognize armies or to give an identity to manufactured goods, at the end of the day it was it consisted of being able to make a quick visual differenciation. Nonetheless, the evolution of the medieval society makes out of heraldry and element of dinstiction between nobilty and the rest of the social corpus. The graphic elements that were thought in a practical way became definig elements of social status. Given that the afore mentioned status ought to be based on the best condition of the given bloodline, the families made an effort to translate the mythologizing narrative of their own lineage to the heraldic literature, what created a new genre that pulls away from traditional armorials and gets closer to genealogy. Those would be the so called armoury books. Thus, legends that praise the mythic origin of the bloodline were used through iconographic elements of family crests.

Con ell arco de la ffe: a spiritual reading of the badge of the arrows of Isabella the Catholic

María Narbona Cárceles — 2025-02-05

This article offers a hypothesis about the interpretation of the badge of the arrows of Isabella I of Castile, based on a spiritual reading of the emblem. The starting point is the messianic conception that the Catholic Monarchs had of their mission as rulers from very early on, as well as the idea of crusade against the infidel. The study is based on various sources that would have inspired the creation of the badge: chapter 49 of the book of Isaiah and Psalm 45 and the commentaries made on the subject by some Fathers of the Church and some medieval authors, as well as the Legend of Saint Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins, based on the Legenda aurea by Jacobus de la Voragine and its Spanish version, the Flos sanctorum. The study also takes into account the complexity of the circumstances in which the badge of the Elizabethan bundle of arrows was made, between 1469 and 1473.

Usos heráldicos en Gipuzkoa en los siglos XV-XVI.

F. Borja Aguinagalde Olaizola — 2025-02-05

RESUMEN. El linaje de Lazarraga, originario de Oñate (Gipuzkoa), protagoniza una intensa actividad cronística entre 1520-1600. La narrativa es, sobre todo, genealógica, pero incluye un cuidadoso dispositivo heráldico. El objetivo es confortar la identidad del linaje y explicar su distinción social. Onomástica, jerarquía y emblemas operan coordinadamente en este empeño.

El relato de los orígenes es mitológico, y sirve para crear unas armerías parlantes que no son de linaje, sino de bando. Varias familias las adoptarán a lo largo del siglo XVI y conservamos numerosos testimonios de ello. El personaje clave para materializar esta operación es Juan López de Lazarraga (m. 1518), secretario de los Reyes Católicas y de la reina Juana, quien funda con su mujer, doña Juana de Gamboa Irarrazabal, el Monasterio de Bidaurreta (Oñate), el primero de su género en Gipuzkoa. Bidaurreta es un monumento heráldico sofisticado y novedoso.

Las claves del recuerdo.

María Carrión-Longarela — 2025-02-05

What became of the Enríquez family, admirals of Castile? What became of the ship-shaped tomb that the sources recall? Although it is still lost, other visual media maintain their memory in the family pantheon located in the convent of Santa Clara in Palencia. The heraldic device occupies a prominent role in this space, both in the north portal and especially in the interior of the church, where the keystones of the vaults stand out. The Enriquez coat of arms is repeatedly displayed on them, accompanied by those of the admirals' wives. Taking the concept of the coat of arms as a medial face (H.Belting) as the reference point, the aim is to analyse the case of the pantheon of the Enriquez family. The topography of the church refines the message of the coats of arms and supports the construction of an image of the lineage's power projected towards the city. Likewise, given the unknowns about the tomb, the testamentary mandates of the admirals give great importance to heraldry and suggest that the image they wanted for posterity should present them first as members of the lineage of the admirals, through the corporate portrait of the coats of arms, rather than as individualised faces.

Heraldry and entailment identity in pre-modern Portugal

Rita Nóvoa — 2025-02-05

Like the nobilities and aristocracies of pre-modern Europe, many Portuguese noble families used heraldry to build, consolidate, transmit, and perpetuate identity traits that, internally and externally, defined a sense of belonging to a group. Among the different solutions adopted to regulate the use and transmission of arms and the rest of the family's symbolic heritage were entails. Entails were legal institutions that framed kinship and organized heritage transmission. They were also creators of identity, here defined as “entailment identity”. The aim of this article is to evaluate the relationship between heraldry and entailment identity from a holistic and contextual perspective. It aims to present the role played by heraldry within the scope of entailment, contextualizing the interpretation of heraldic manifestations within a broader identity logic. The concept of entailment identity is briefly presented in the first section of the article. The second section demonstrates the functioning of the relationship between heraldry and entailment identity based on a case study, the entail founded in 1621 by a secretary of state of king Filipe II, Luís de Figueiredo Falcão.

Hypotyposis of the virtues of the Valido: heraldry and communication of a political anomaly in early modernity: the Duke of Lerma

José Antonio Guillén Berrendero — 2025-02-05

The text proposes an interpretation of the Duke of Lerma’s shrewd use of heraldry. As Philip III’s favourite, Lerma launched an ambitious self-promotional campaign shaping his own image in what may be aptly described as self-fashioning avant la lettre. We shall analyse Lerma’s heraldic displays from his early years as Duke of Gandía up to his rise to power. The status of royal favourite was nonstandard in early modern polities. Yet Lerma made it part of the visual culture shared by Europe’s nobility at the time. His coat of arms was transformed into a hypotyposis of his own heroic virtues and those of the Sandoval lineage.

Novelty Perspectives on Art and Heraldic Display of Nineteenth Century Historicist Retables in the Temes Banat

Mihaela Vlăsceanu — 2025-02-05

In this study I will question the function of images and symbols present on a selection of nineteenth-century altars in the Banat region, analyzing the use of heraldic symbols and particular iconography related to the holy kings of Hungary, providing an interpretation of the political engagement of their formulation and use. In order to augment knowledge on their semantic multivalence we will include a topical discussion on the ideas generating their specific morphology and integrated historicism, applying an interdisciplinary methodology, revealing multiple layers of novel meaning and connections.

O “Cenógrafo”-Heraldista do Estado Novo

Paulo Morais-Alexandre — 2025-02-05

The important intervention of the Portuguese heraldist Franz-Paul de Almeida Langhans is stood up, registered, and analysed. He is the responsible for the most relevant creations in terms of Heraldry during the “Estado Novo” era, despite never having particularly interested in the areas of family, municipal or ecclesiastical heraldry. This production took place mainly in the third quarter of the 20th century in Portugal, within the scope of the visual structuring - the image, and even scenographic - the spectacle, of what was called the Corporate State. This heraldist had very significant activity in several areas of Heraldry, such as civil corporate heraldry, the heraldry of the Portuguese Armed Forces, the heraldry of overseas and national domains. A critique is also made of the work he produced, both in terms of heraldic science and in aesthetic terms, this already within the scope of Art History. Finally, his activity as an author is summarized, namely as a researcher and theorist in the Armaria area.

Modernizing through tradition: the current heraldry in the Spanish Army and its symbolic dimension as identification and diffusion of its institutional image

Carlos J. Medina Avila — 2025-02-05

Heraldic symbols are one of the most relevant and identifying representations of the military sphere. At the end of the 1980s, the disorder in which military heraldry found itself in the Spanish Armed Forces made it necessary to regenerate it to recover its purity and its identifying purpose and, at once, modernize its institutional image. This article analyzes the various actions carried out through the regulation of the criteria for the design of coats of arms by applying the basic concepts of general heraldry, and the modernization of armories with the establishment and standardization of exterior ornaments, which began in the Army and was extended to the Navy and the Air Force, configuring the current heraldic panorama in the military institution.

The State Symbols of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Twentieth Century

Emir Filipovic — 2025-02-05

This paper explores the relatively frequent changes of symbols that had been used to represent the land, province, territory and state of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the twentieth century. Throughout this time the small multi-ethnic Balkan country had mostly been a part or unit of larger state structures, such as the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1878-1918), Royal (1918-1941) and Socialist Yugoslavia (1943-1992). In 1992 it managed to gain its independence which was then followed by a three-year-long brutal military aggression and armed conflict that ended in 1995. Seeing as each regime change also required an adjustment of symbols which would have reflected the newly established political realities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this case study can serve as an appropriate illustration of the significant role symbols can play in modern state-building processes and construction of collective identities. In analysing these changes, the author examined a number of legal texts and contemporary discussions, revealing that the political elites responsible for designing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s symbols often oscillated between traditional heraldic inspirations from the Middle Ages and the unconventional modern desire for neutral solutions.

The symbols of heraldry in today's political theatrics. The Russian case of the letter ‘Z’ and the St. George ribbon

Maria Gelpí Rodríguez — 2025-02-05

This article analyzes the role of legitimizing symbols of war in contemporary political theatricality. It focuses on the case of Russia and the Latin letter "Z", initially painted on the tanks of Russian troops at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the same function as the old coats of arms, namely the recognition of the contender. Later, this letter has been used in the media to symbolize support for Russia in the war in Ukraine, in the urban context of civil society, especially configured with the colors of the St. George ribbon, of heraldic origin. This study examines Vladimir Putin's most relevant speeches, his public appearances, as well as support through social networks and merchandising products. The social impact of the use of symbols is evaluated, in the political and urban sphere, along with other strategies.