LITVIS · Literary and Visual Cultures in the shaping of female monastic life (Iberian Peninsula, c. 1350-1550)

Literary and Visual Cultures in the shaping of female monastic life (Iberian Peninsula, c. 1350-1550)

Focusing on a specific period and context that is still understudied, the action entitled “Literary and Visual Cultures in the shaping of female monastic life (Iberian Peninsula, c. 1350-1550)”, aimed to assess the role of nuns’ literary and visual cultures in the lives and religious praxis of late medieval and renaissance Iberian nuns. Rising suggestions on the mutual influences between the use and development of texts and artworks in conventual context demanded that these phenomena be analysed as part of the same equation in order to be fully understood. This entailed a change of focus from the isolated object and its formal characteristics, to its functionality and reception, acknowledging it as part of the religious praxis to which it bears witness. Such a task demanded an interdisciplinary study that brought together the fields of Art History, Philology, Religious History and Cultural Studies. In order to reach the project’s main goal, three specific objectives were defined: 1) assess the Iberian nuns’ literary culture; 2) assess the Iberian nuns’ visual culture; 3) assess the existence of interrelations between texts and artworks and the nuns’ religious praxis. By addressing these communities' visual and literary cultures and their religious praxis from a joined perspective, LITVIS contributed to the further comprehension of artworks, texts and rituals that shaped monastic life, unveiling information about their development, functionality and reception that could not be obtain when inquiring those phenomena individually as has happened traditionally. Through activities centred on the translation of scientific research to the general public, LITVIS will promote lifelong learning and the democratization of culture, offering the citizens a new perspective on an important part of European heritage and identity that is underrepresented in schools, museums and fictional recreations of the period.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union