Power and Piety: Bodily Experience in the Paintings of Bartolomé Bermejo

Abstract

Bartolomé Bermejo (c.1440–1501), a Spanish painter active in the Kingdom of Aragón, is renowned by scholars for his distinctive adoption of Netherlandish oil techniques, creating illusionistic depictions of religious scenes. Given that so little is known about Bermejo’s life and career, literature on his work has mainly focused on uncovering his production, employment of technique, details about his clientele, and suspicions over his possible identity
as a converso. More recently, scholarly attention has more substantially addressed his unusual employment of iconography, particularly in relation to the devotional climate in the Kingdom. The thesis builds on these studies by situating Bermejo’s iconography within
broader devotional traditions and examining how his representations of the body and corporeality convey religious meaning. Focusing on selected paintings, it examines closely how he devotes particular attention to the portrayal of anatomical detail or the materiality of
fabrics, jewels, architectural elements, and objects within specific naturalistic and architectural spaces. Employing a conceptual approach informed by theories regarding the
significance of the body, devotional paintings and the context in which they were viewed, this study aims to explain how Bermejo’s treatment of the body was understood by patrons and viewers of the time. It is the first sustained analysis of the devotional significance of
corporeality in Bermejo’s oeuvre, offering new insight into his contribution to late-fifteenth century Iberian painting.