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Title: Approach to the iconography of two illuminated manuscripts of the fifteenth century of the National Library of Spain. The Gradual EMn: MPCANT/23 and the antiphonal EMn: MPCANT/35. The BNE (National Library of Spain) has rediscovered and digitalized two luxurious choirbooks from its own collection (EMn: MPCANT/23 y EMn: MPCANT/35), probably prepared between 1477 and 1491. During the Conference on Studying and Cataloging Choirbooks, held in the BNE in May 2013, two works about its artistic aspects were presented together. Thanks to this discovery, it is possible to confirm that some fragments of the Santo Tomas de Avila choirbooks do not belong to that Dominican foundation, but they are instead part of this book, very probably destined for the Franciscan convent in Toledo named San Juan de los Reyes. Noemi Silva has analyzed the vignettes and historiated initials from both books. The illumination of the gradual MPCANT/23 develops three thematic focuses: the Immaculate Conception, the Exaltation of the Eucharist, and the typological comparison of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Its illustrations show a relation to etchings, suggest connections between the miniatures and oil painting, and reveal two major concerns: the tension between Jews and converts, and the legitimation of the monarchy by the Church institutions, which are protected by it. The incomplete Franciscan antiphoner MPCANT/35 preserves a miniature dedicated to one of the Seven Virtues, related to others cut out and preserved in different collections. Isabel Nieto has studied the iconography of margins, where the emblems of the Catholic Monarchs indicate that they are products of a royal assignment, and that they are linked to the group of Juan de Carrion, to the circle of influence of the Flemish miniaturist Vrelant, and to the artists who worked in Toledo. |
