ART, POWER AND POLITICS - THE AUGUSTINIAN ORDER DURING THE 17TH-CENTURY

In early modern times, what is conventionally termed "art" functioned within a complex structure of political, economic and social power, and their connected ideologies. It is not often that the sources allow us to uncover, from a multidisciplinary point of view, the many interdependencies between these fields. The case of the inconomachia that was waged between the two branches of the Augustinian Order during the 17th century, over the question whether or not St. Augustine should be depicted with or without shoes, has made it possible to write an in-depth analysis, showing the ways in which these fields influenced one another.