Pia Desideria : Entre el aguardiente y la vida ascética. Las calaveras borrachas claman por el chinguirito (México, 1836)

2020

ABSTRACT: The allegory of the body as a prison of the soul was visually depicted as a skeleton that imprisons a figure with childish features. One of the earliest examples of this image is the emblem «Infelix ego homo!» included in Herman Hugo’s Pia Desideria (1624); however the pictura was incorporated in other media and contexts allowing its survival even to the end of the 19th century. In Mexico, it evolved from an ascetic-moralistic book to a popular pamphlet of ghostly apparitions revealed in dreams. How did this emblem –based on Neoplatonic philosophy– evolve from a book written in Latin to a popular nineteenth century pamphlet? Did it conserve part of its original meaning?
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