The glories of Spain. Allegory as an image of the Crown and Empire

Abstract

This article has as its objective an approach to the allegory of the Spanish crown of the XVII century. These prints belong to the frontispieces of books that, generally speaking, visually summarize their contents. With this set of illustrations, it is evident that the iconographic types of italian tradition have undergone a process of recuperation, which reflects the new "counter-reformist" mentality. The allegoric representation of Spain with its corresponding attributes is already presente in the coins that circulated in the epoch of August. After the XVI century, an interest begins to arise in the representation at countries and cities, as armed feminine figures, such as the Roman "matrons" and surrounded by the attributes of that country, a characteristic which will be constant in the Spain of the Minor Austrians.