
Sense and Spectacle in the Age of Philip IV
Performing Empire in Word, Music, and Image
Mary Quinn(Author)
Pallas Publications (Publisher)
Published on 25. October 2024
Book
Hardback
212 pages
978-90-485-6305-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book accounts for the outpouring of celebrations in the Habsburg Empire upon the 1657 birth of Felipe Prospero, heir to Philip IV of Spain. These celebrations allow us to interrogate the shifting uses of performance in the empire's center and periphery. Such spectacles could work to contain and manipulate public sentiment, but at other moments they questioned sanctioned power structures. A study of zarzuela texts, opera libretti, notated music, paintings, poems, and historical documents shows that an array of people took advantage of this festive moment to question the empire's policies in surprising ways. Sensorial experience played a crucial role during these celebrations. For its part, the Crown engaged a variety of senses, especially sight, sound, and smell, in order to augment the impact of royal spectacles. But simultaneously, those who questioned the Crown also did so through an engagement of the sensorial world.
Reviews / Votes
"By dissecting cultural artefacts into layers of meaning, Mary B. Quinn's book convincingly shows how writers and artists used the performative sense to obtain new forms of communication."Ascension Mazuela-Anguita, Universidad de Granada, in Music and Letters, gcaf145
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-485-6305-0 (9789048563050)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
approx. 12/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€73.22
Not yet published

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download
Person
Mary B. Quinn (University of New Mexico) is the author of The Moor and the Novel: Narrating Absence in Early Modern Spain and co-editor of Aural Culture and Poetics in the Early Modern Hispanic World: Sound, Rhythm, and Music.
Content
Dedication and Acknowledgements, List of Figures, Introduction Prince Felipe Prospero, Festival Culture, and the Performative Sense, Chapter 1: Calderon de la Barca, Rubens, and Apollo's Desire, Chapter 2: Antonio de Solis, Velazquez, and Minerva's Competition, Chapter 3: Naples, Opera, and Parthenope's Song, Chapter 4: Florence, Cavalli, and Ipermestra's Choice, Chapter 5: Parades, Poetry, and Plus Ultra in Lima and Manila, Epilogue Making Sense of Spectacle, Index, Works Cited.