Los tipos iconográficos de la Virgen de la Merced

Abstract

The iconographic type of the Virgin of Mercy, based on types common to other Marian representations, gradually took shape from the founding of the Order of Mercy in the 13th century until the canonizations of the Mercedarian saints in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Virgin of Mercy will not present a defined iconographic type until she is presented to us with the Mercedarian habit, something that does not occur until the 16th century, in a very significant way after the Council of Trent with the publication of the Chronicles and hagiographic stories that They will define the type in engravings and altarpieces, devotional paintings, that will populate the Mercedarian monasteries from that moment on. American independence will show us a paradox, since the dedication of the Virgin of Mercy and her iconographic type will modify the attributes of the liberator as the patron saint of weapons and insurgents.