Religiosity and popular devotions in the engraving of the baroque period in Jaen

Abstract

Throughout the Modern Age, the diffusion of artistic designs and iconographic models between Europe and America occurred thanks to the transfer of illustrated books, engravings and prints, generally of Flemish and Italian origin and, to a lesser extent, from Spanish printers. Also in the lands of the ancient Kingdom of Jaén was developed an engraving industry (of less relevance with respect to the rest of the Andalusian territory), generally destined to illustrate the books coming out of the printing presses of cities such as Jaén or Baeza. Thanks to the engraving, some of the main religious dogmas of the Counter-Reformation will be disseminated, promoting in the same way the development of popular devotions around certain miraculous images. In this text we intend to provide knowledge about engraving in the Kingdom of Jaén during the Modern Age, addressing issues such as possible authors and works, techniques, iconographic models, later influences, etc. For this we will take as a basis the corography Relacion de algvnas cosas insignes qve tiene este Reyno, y Obispado de Iaen of Gaspar Salcedo de Aguirre (Baeza, printing press of Pedro de la Cuesta, 1614) in order to analyze some of the popular devotions of the province, studying the woodcuts contained in it, and relating them to other examples of engravings made in the printing presses of the 17-18^th. centuries.