Dr Vanessa A. Portugal

Assistant Professor in Global Art History

Research interests

I am an art historian specialized in art theory and the alchemical, magical, and astrological uses of the image in the Early Modern world. I am also interested in the use of astrology in medicine and the environment, and in the processes and objects employed in creating astrological images.

My book Imagenes astrológicas en la Nueva España (UCO Press, 2018) explores the power
of astrological images for political, meditative, divinatory, medical, and magical purposes in New Spain from the 16th to the 18th century.

My past research has examined the use of astrological and cosmological motives in diverse art objects and practices between the Spanish Americas and Europe that potentiate memory and change though meditation, game, and dance (‘“Voladores y jugadores”, 2022; ‘Simbolica Descriptio’, 2019; ‘Modelos de la imagen. El Mago del Tarot Visconti’, 2018). Additionally, it has explored the use of astrological images derived from European and Indigenous Antiquity in political negotiations in the Colonial Iberian Americas (‘Las vestiduras de Apolo en la Nueva España’, 2016), as well as the potentialities of astrological images for promoting spiritual and physical wellbeing (‘Astros festivos. Imágenes celestes en los arcos triunfales’, 2013).

Currently, I am working on my second book, which delves into the scientific culture of seventeenth-century Western Mexico and its relationship with contemporary astrological debates between science and belief.

Selected Research Publications

Aby Warburg (en/sobre) América: historia, sobrevivencias y repercusiones. Linda Báez Rubí, Emilie Carreón Blaine coord., Vanessa Alvarez Portugal ed. Mexico: Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas UNAM, 2024.
‘“Voladores y jugadores” ¿Cómo hablar de una pathosformel a la luz de sus imágenes?’, ARJ Art Research Journal, Revista de Pesquisa em Artes, [S. l.], v. 9, n. 1, 2022, pp. 1–19.
‘Allegorical Negotiation: Images Before the Academy’, Michael F. Zimmermann, et al., eds, Dialogical Imaginations: Debating Aisthesis as Social Perception, Biopolitics, and New Ideas of Humanism. Eichstätt: Diaphanes, November 2024.
‘Las imágenes científicas de Joaquín Velázquez de Léon’, in Jesús Paniagua Gutiérrez, et al. eds., El paraíso de fura y tena. Estudios sobre la plata en Iberoamérica de los orígenes al siglo XIX. Mexico City: Secretaría de Cultura, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Coordinación Nacional de Monumentos Históricos; León: Universidad de León, 2021, pp. 747–764.
‘Simbolica Descriptio. El trayecto de una alquimia espiritual. Polonia-Italia-Nueva España’, Ma. De los Ángeles Fernández Valle et al. eds., Discursos e imágenes del barroco iberoamericano, Universo Barroco Iberoamericano 8. Sevilla: Universidad Pablo de Olavide, 2019, pp. 281–292.
Imágenes astrológicas en la Nueva España. Córdoba: UCO Press Editorial Universidad de Córdoba, 2018.
‘Modelos de la imagen. El Mago del Tarot Visconti’, Revista Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM, Vol. XL, n. 112, 2018, pp. 133–179.
‘Las vestiduras de Apolo en la Nueva España’, María Inmaculada Rodríguez Moya, et al. eds., Arte y patrimonio en Iberoamérica. Tráficos transoceánicos. Castelló de la Plana: Universitat Jaume I, 2016, pp. 173–185.
‘Bildwissenschaft. Una ciencia en construcción’. Revista Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM, Vol. XXXVI, n. 105, 2014, pp. 215–254.
‘Astros festivos. Imágenes celestes en los arcos triunfales de la Nueva España’, Concinnitas, Revista do Instituto da Artes da UERJ, 1, 2013, pp. 6–22.

Teaching

My teaching covers modules on cultural intersections in art history as well as art historical methods and study skills. I welcome proposals for a research degree from suitable qualified applicants interested in visual culture and intercultural exchange in the Early Modern period.