Iridescence and the Image : Material Thinking in the Early Modern Spanish World

Brendan C. McMahon

ISBN 10: 0271099690 / ISBN 13: 9780271099699

Edité par Pennsylvania State University Press Okt 2025, 2025

A propos de cet article

Neuware - At the turn of the seventeenth century, people in Spain and Mexico were fascinated by iridescence. Artists stretched the capacities of conventional media in attempts to capture its shifting hues, while others integrated iridescent materials directly into their work. At the same time, naturalists strove to convey the changing colors of these substances in printed texts, theologians and political commentators invoked them in tracts and treatises, and playwrights and poets wove them through the scripts of comedies and into the stanzas of sonnets.In Iridescence and the Image, Brendan C. McMahon explores this preoccupation with such materials--including shot fabric, hummingbird feathers, mother of pearl, and opals--in the early modern Spanish world. Taking the virtuosic renderings of tornasol (shot silk) by the Spanish painter Antonio de Pereda (1611-1678) as a point of departure, he shows that the ubiquity of these materials in a broad array of period cultural productions stemmed from the ways in which their unique properties undermined trust in visual perception--and in visual images themselves. Ultimately, McMahon argues, iridescence provided a way for people to grapple with profound questions about seeming and being, deception and revelation, and the nature of truth itself.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9780271099699

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Iridescence and the Image : Material Thinking in the Early Modern Spanish World
• Éditeur: Pennsylvania State University Press Okt 2025
• Date de parution: 2025
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0271099690
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780271099699
• Reliure: Buch
• État de l'article: Neu
• Dimensions: 261 L x 207 H x 25 P (en millimètres) 261 millimètres de largeur par 207 millimètres de hauteur par 25 millimètres de profondeur
• Poids: 1172 grammes

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

"At the turn of the seventeenth century in Spain and Mexico, people were fascinated by iridescence. In paintings, portraits, and prints, artists stretched the capacities of conventional media to depict shimmering hues. Some artists put iridescent material right into their work—such as the Indigenous artists in central and western Mexico who crafted elaborate mosaics from feathers. Meanwhile, scientists tried to convey the color play of iridescence in their writings, while theologians and intellectuals invoked iridescent materials in essays and commentaries. Writers also wove the subject into theater scripts and poems. In Iridescence and the Image, Brendan C. McMahon explores the preoccupation with materials such as shot fabric, hummingbird feathers, mother of pearl, and opals in the early modern Spanish world. McMahon takes as his point of departure the virtuosic depictions of iridescent silk (tornasol) that Spanish artist Antonio de Pereda painted in the 1630s. He shows that iridescent materials such as tornasol and feathers served to challenge assumptions about the nature of visual perception. Ultimately, McMahon argues, iridescence provided a way for people to grapple with profound questions about seeming and being, deception, and the nature of truth. This highly original book will be of interest to scholars of art history, history, and literature in the early modern Spanish Empire and beyond."

À propos de l'auteur

Brendan C. McMahon is Assistant Professor of History of Art at the University of Michigan.