{"product_id":"the-art-of-professing-in-james-m-czerdova-9780292753150","title":"The Art of Professing in Bourbon Mexico: Crowned-Nun Portraits and Reform in the Convent","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the eighteenth century, New Spaniards (colonial Mexicans) so lauded their nuns that they developed a local tradition of visually opulent portraits, called \u003ci\u003emonjas coronadas\u003c\/i\u003e or \"crowned nuns,\" that picture their subjects in regal trappings at the moment of their religious profession and in death. This study identifies these portraits as markers of a vibrant and changing society that fused together indigenous and Euro-Christian traditions and ritual practices to construct a new and complex religious identity that was unique to New Spain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo discover why crowned-nun portraits, and especially the profession portrait, were in such demand in New Spain, this book offers a pioneering interpretation of these works as significant visual contributions to a local counter-colonial discourse. James M. Córdova demonstrates that the portraits were a response to the Spanish crown's project to modify and modernize colonial society--a series of reforms instituted by the Bourbon monarchs that threatened many nuns' religious identities in New Spain. His analysis of the portraits' rhetorical devices, which visually combined Euro-Christian and Mesoamerican notions of the sacred, shows how they promoted local religious and cultural values as well as client-patron relations, all of which were under scrutiny by the colonial Church. Combining visual evidence from images of the \"crowned nun\" with a discussion of the nuns' actual roles in society, Córdova reveals that nuns found their greatest agency as Christ's brides, a title through which they could, and did, challenge the Church's authority when they found it intolerable.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e James M. Córdova\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0292753152\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780292753150\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Texas Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/06\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.40w x 1.10d","brand":"James M. Córdova","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48086465970431,"sku":"9780292753150","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_5c0bd5ba-3c8d-40bc-8350-416b81fd88fe.jpg?v=1769094826","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-art-of-professing-in-james-m-czerdova-9780292753150","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}