Saintly immobility, the gouged-out eye, and the severed breast: the metamorphosis of St Lucy in early Iberian art and literature

This article focuses on the representation of St Lucy in early Iberian art and literature, considering the extent to which her identity becomes subject to procedures of evolution. In some artworks, Lucy is characterized as the saint who could not be moved either by men or yokes of oxen. Yet in other...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Author: Beresford, Andrew M.
Format: article
Publication Date:2024
Country:España
Repository:e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:ebuahbibliot::976556aedfd06bb4dc0955e0bd6ab50b
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10017/62278
https://dx.doi.org/10.37536/RPM.2024.38.1.103334
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:St Lucy
Hagiography
Torture
Identity
Art
Literature
Santa Lucía
Hagiografía
Tortura
Identidad
Arte
Literatura
Filología
Philology
Description
Summary:This article focuses on the representation of St Lucy in early Iberian art and literature, considering the extent to which her identity becomes subject to procedures of evolution. In some artworks, Lucy is characterized as the saint who could not be moved either by men or yokes of oxen. Yet in others she is presented either as the saint who was blinded, or more radically, as a figure who suffers a forced mastectomy. The article argues that her example, which raises broader implications for the study of hagiography and of identity in general, shows that we should avoid focusing on representations of saints that are confined exclusively either to art or to literature.