Refashioning the past, reforming the present: visual culture and civic life in early modern Seville

Visual media in Spain during the early modern period drew marked connections between religious devotion and civic allegiance. This project examines the formation and expression of civic devotion and historical memory in sixteenth and seventeenth century Seville. Public ceremonies, architectural renovations, and religious iconography promoted healthy urban societies through the formation of public images which spoke directly to civic life within the city. Public expressions of local history and civil authority lay at the nexus of various debates about civic life during the sixteenth and seventeenth century, such as the promotion of gendered civic hierarchy, anxieties about regional decline, and the close connections drawn between Spanish identity and antiquity. The fundamental goal of this research is to more thoroughly understand the conceptual frameworks which constructed human interaction in urban life during the early modern period

Forging Imperial Cities: Seville and Formation of Civic Order in the Early Modern Hispanic World

In 1503 the Spanish monarchy awarded the city of Seville a monopoly on Spanish-American trade. Serving as the gateway to Spain's lucrative Atlantic Empire for over two centuries, the city fashioned itself as an imperial capital, and natural successor to ancient Rome. Despite never serving as the official capital to the Spanish Habsburgs, civic authorities in Seville nonetheless expressed their city's wealth and nobility through an excess of laudatory histories, artwork, architectural renovations, and regional patron saints. This dissertation first contextualizes Seville's prominence by exploring how Phillip II's refusal to establish a permanent capital in Madrid until 1561 promoted competition between many cities in Castile, all of which saw themselves as potential contenders for the future imperial court. As Spain moved into Atlantic territories, this competition helped fashion the urban organizational strategy for colonial settlement in the New World. As Seville was the most important city in Spain during the early modern period, the city greatly influenced the conceptualization and development of Spanish-American cities between the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries. Colonial capitals such as Mexico City found in Seville a language for expressing their inclusion in the Habsburgs' global empire through lavish ceremonies and architecture which could establish their New World cities as distinctly Spanish and Catholic. By placing Seville at the center of the empire, my research will act as an amendment to contemporary Spanish historiography which has failed to fully recognize the influence of Andalusia in early colonial development