"Lacrimae rerum"San Isidro de León y la memoria del padre

Resumen

Taking the Aeneid as a methodological environment and ekphrasis as an analytical principle, with the historiographical background provided by the Historia Seminense, this article offers a complex vision of the imbrications between art, politics, and tragedy in the Kingdom of León-Castile during the reigns of Fernando I (r. 1037-1065) and Alfonso VI (r. 1065-1109). A study of the historical and human context of the patronage of Queen Sancha and her daughter Urraca in San Isidoro de León reveals the crucial role played by these two women in the regeneration and perpetuation of the Leonese dynasty at a historical moment defined by profound transformations, which inspired the creation of central works in the corpus of medieval art such as the Liber diurnus, the Royal Pantheon and the Portal of the Lamb. The analysis of themes such as the survival of myth, the translatio imperii, and the maternity of parchment is combined with a reevaluation of the work of important authors in traditional Spanish historiography, with the aim of initiating a dialogue towards the renewal of Spanish medieval art history in the 21st century.