Le personnage de Marie-Madeleine au Siècle d'Or : iconographie et littérature

Mary magdalen in the spanish golden age : iconography and literature

• Auteur / Autrice : Line Szende
• Direction : Augustin Redondo
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Études ibériques
• Date : Soutenance en 1997
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 3

Résumé

Marie-madeleine est la pecheresse qui se convertit en lavant les pieds du christ de ses larmes et en les essuyant de sa chevelure denouee. Son culte, tres vivant des le moyen age, prend un nouveau relief a la faveur de la contre-reforme. Elle incarne des lors le sacrement de la penitence remis en cause par les reformes et fait l'objet de multiples representations dans les arts et les lettres. Cet engouement pour la sainte a inspire de nombreux travaux s'appuyant sur des exemples principalement francais et italiens mais tres rarement espagnols. Il nous a donc semble interessant d'etudier les representations de la madeleine au siecle d'or. La premiere partie de notre etude situe le personnage dans l'epoque qui nous interesse. Nous y rappelons l'evolution de l'hagiographie de marie-madeleine sous l'influence de la controverse autour du culte des saints et nous montrons comment le personnage, ainsi transforme, devient une heroine tridentine. La deuxieme partie de notre travail presente un panorama abondamment illustre des figurations de la sainte dans la peinture et sculpture, mais aussi dans le theatre et la prose espagnols. Les troisieme et quatrieme parties de notre etude presentent et analysent un large corpus de poesies consacrees a la sainte apres le concile de trente. Nous evoquons la constitution du corpus, ses caracteristiques bibliographiques, puis nous analysons les poemes selon differents criteres: la metrique, la thematique, la stylistique et les images recurrentes. Nous nous interessons enfin au caractere pedagogique de cette poesie et nous presentons aussi ses ambiguites. Un volume d'annexes offre au lecteur l'ensemble des poemes qui ont servi a notre demonstration assorti d'une serie d'index pour en faciliter la consultation.

Mary magdoler was the sinner who became a convert after washing christ's feet with her tears and drying them with her loose hair. Her worhip, which was already widespread in the middle ages, was givena new lease of life during the counter-reformation. She embodied the penitent's sacrament which was being questioned by the protestants, and she became the subject of many representations in the arts. This profound interest in the saint inspired a lot of works based mainly on french and italian examples but very rarely on spanish ones. We therefore deemed it more interesting to study the representations of mary magdalen during spain's golden age (siglo de oro). The first part of our study places the character in the period we are interested in. It explains the evolution of mary magdalen's hagigraphy under the influence of the controversy caused by the saint's worship. We thus show how this character became a tridentine heroin. The second part of our essay gives an abundantly illustrated overview of the representations of the saint in spanish painting and sculpture as well as in spanish drama and prose. The third and fourth parts of our study present and analyse a broad corpus of poems dedicated to the saint after the council of trente. They deal with the collection of the corpus and its characteristics, and then analyse the poems according to various criteria, namely: metrics, set of themes, stylistics and recurrent images. Finally we look a the educational aspect of this poetry and underline its ambiguities. The reader will find the complete set of poems on which our demonstration is based in the appendices. A series of indexes make them easier to consult.