"The Prints of the Brotherhood of Ave María"

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The Prints of the Brotherhood of Ave MaríaAuthor(s): María Cruz de CarlosSource: Print Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 4 (DECEMBER 2003), pp. 335-348Published by: Print Quarterly PublicationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41826487 .

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The Prints of the Brotherhood of Ave Maria

Maria Cruz de Carlos

European popular prints have received the attention of a number of researchers in recent years, and as a result literature on this topic has increased substantial- ly.1 However, the use of these humble paper images for spreading religious ideas in Roman Catholic Europe is a field yet to be fully explored. In the case of Spain, while there are a number of studies dealing with popular religious prints, the most common approach is that of the catalogue.2 The time has come, therefore, to ask more searching questions about the rôle and the func- tion of these images in Counter-Reformation Spain. How were they used by producers and consumers? What were the aims of producers in employing these prints for religious purposes?3

The case of the Brotherhood of Ave Maria is worth discussing as a means of analysing the use of popular religious prints in seventeenth-century Madrid. The Brotherhood still exists in its chapel in the city, where some of the old plates for printing are still preserved. In spite of its intensely propagandist use of religious prints, this institution has never been properly studied.4 For this article, my main sources have been the extant prints and printing plates, and the archival documents belonging to the Brotherhood, the latter providing important new information on the circulation of printed images. These documents also demonstrate the use

of images in the context of liturgical celebrations, as well as the distribution of prints aimed specifically at different classes of recipient. Another remarkable aspect that will be discussed is the use of religious images by the Brotherhood in promoting the cult of their founder.

The Shod Trinitarian friar, Simón de Rojas, established the Brotherhood of Ave Maria in his convent in the centre of Madrid in 1611. His aim was to promote the cult of the Incarnation of the Virgin, and because of this the Brotherhood was called Ave Maria, alluding to the salutation given by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin. The choice of the Incarnation among the extant Marian mysteries has to be seen within the religious and social context at the time. It is important to note that at the beginning of the seventeenth century there were several religious institutions created in Madrid dedicated to this. The first was the College of the Incarnation, established by an Augustinián monk and María de Córdoba y Aragon, for the training of priests and preachers. It was known in the city as the College of Maria de Aragon, and it had close ties with Court circles.5 At the same time that Rojas founded the Brotherhood, the Virgin of the Incarnation's popularity was further enhanced by Queen Margarita of Austria's establishment of the Monastery of the

The material contained in this article was presented as a conference paper in the session on 'Printed Piety: European Religious Images in Context', at the 91st Annual Conference of the College Art Association (New York, 19-22 February, 2003). I am grateful to the session Chairs, Jon L. Seydl and David S. Areford and to David Morgan, Discussant at the session, for their suggestions and com- ments on it. Speciali thanks must be given to Yueng Gen Liang and Javier Portús for their generous contribution at every stage of the preparation of this paper, and to Father Paulino Alonso, from the Brotherhood of Ave Maria, for his kindness and the permission to see the documents of the Brotherhood. Jesusa Vega has shared with me some of her deep knowledge in prints and I am indebted to her for that. I also thank José Manuel de la Mano, Felipe Pereda, Manuel Gonzales and Angel Aterido for their personal encouragement. I. Among the most remarkable are the books by Tessa Watt for six-

teenth- to seventeenth-century England ( Cheap Print and Popular

Piety 1550-1640, Cambridge 1991) and Robert Scribner's study concerning the Reformation in Germany (For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation , Cambridge 1981).

2. The most useful studies of popular religious prints to date relate to Cataluña and Valencia. For literature, see the thorough J. Bias, Bibliografia del arte gràfico, Madrid 1994, pp. 35 1-58; 367-69.

3. Some of these questions, concerning religious prints in general and not only those intended for a wide public, have been discussed in the brilliant work by J. Portús and J. Vega, La estampa religiosa en la España del Antiguo Régimen, Madrid 1998.

4. For a succinct study of the history of the Brotherhood, see J. del Corral, La Congregación del Ave María, Madrid 1972.

5. See R. G. Mann, El Greco and his Patrons: Three Major Projects, Cambridge 1986, and Actas del Congreso sobre el retablo del Colegio de Doña María de Aragón del Greco, Madrid 2000.

PRINT QUARTERLY, XX, 2OO3, 4



336 THE BROTHERHOOD OF AVE MARÍA

142. Juan de Diesa, Simón de Rojas Surrounded by Scenes of his Life , etching and engraving, 220 x 162 mm (Madrid, National Library).



THE BROTHERHOOD OF AVE MARÍA 337

143. Detail of fig. 142.

Incarnation.6 The popularity of the Brotherhood was immediate,

especially at court, where Rojas would later be well known as tutor to the Prince and confessor to Queen Isabel de Borbón, wife of Philip IV From its inception, a number of nobles and high court functionaries were connected to the pious activities of the Brotherhood of Ave Maria and it was one of the most distinguished confraternities in Madrid.7 It is important to note that Rojas founded the Brotherhood for ideological, rather than charitable purposes, although in 161 8 it would begin to provide meals for the city's homeless.8 Thus the Brotherhood soon became quite popular among the people of Madrid.

It appears that the Brothers of Ave Maria were con- scious, from the first years of their existence, of the importance of prints for disseminating their message and activities. Such awareness must date from the time of the founder, Simón de Rojas, who made good use of religious prints during his lifetime. He is depicted in a seventeenth-century engraving engaged in one of his preferred activities of handing out prints9 (figs. 142 and 143). Among the women surrounding the friar we can see one crying, a detail that probably alludes to an actu- al episode in Roj as 's life. One day he went to say Mass at a brothel, where he distributed rosaries and religious prints to the prostitutes, and at the end of the Mass all of them were crying, so moved were they by the friar's attitude. This would explain why Rojas is surrounded only by women, one of whom is wiping away her tears.10 The hagiographers talk a great deal about this aspect of

6. Some hagiographers of Rojas connect the foundation of this monastery with the friar's work on promoting the cult of the Incarnation. The same sources indicate that in the same year, the Queen was miraculously healed by Rojas after a serious crisis in El Escorial, simply by saying Ave Maria'. Whether any modern study has demonstrated the implication of the Trinitarian in the raising of the monastery, the information must not be completely rejected, if we consider the existing bonds between Simón de Rojas and the Court of Philip III. On this information linking Rojas with the Royal foundation, see Fray Alonso Cano (O. S S. T.), Ave Maria : Compendio historko de la Vida, Virtudes, y Fama Posthuma del B. Simon de Roxas, del Orden de la SS. Trinidad de Calzados . . . Escùto con arreglo puntual à los Procesos de su Beatificación. Madrid 1766, p. 58. On the Royal Monastery of the Incarnation, maintaining that the name was given by Philip III after the Queen's death, see L. Sánchez Hernández, El Monasterio de la Encarnación de Madrid: Un modelo de vida religiosa en el siglo XVII , Madrid 1986.

7. On the confraternities m Madrid, see E. Sánchez de Madariaga, Cofradías y socibilidad en el Madrid del Antiguo Régimen , Madrid 1997.

8. Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter AHN), Clero- Cofradías (hereafter C-C.), Book I of the Assemblies of the Brotherhood, folio 63 (resolution of 12 December 1618).

9. It is included in Ave Maña: Constituciones y Instrucciones de la Hermandad del Real Hospicio de pobres mendigos del Ave Maria, y San Fernando, Rey de España, Madrid 1715.

10. This episode is quoted in Fray Francisco de Arcos (O.SS.T.), Primera [y Segunda] parte de la vida del Venerable y Reverendísimo Padre Maestro Fr. Simón de Roxa ..., Madrid 1670 (1) and 1678 (n); 1, pp. 545-46-

The print has an almost lost signature of the engraver, which appears to be Juan de Diexa. We can identify this with Juan de Diesa, active in Madrid in the 1620s. He is the author of a Trinity included in the book Novus et methodicus tractatus de repraesentatione, by B. Robles (Madrid 1624) and the coat of arms of Francisco de Castro, Duke of Lemos, made the same year (see A. Correa, 'Repertorio de grabadores españoles', in Estampas: Cinco Siglos de imagen impresa, Madrid 1982, p. 258). The fact that Diesa was active in Madrid by this time shows that he was a contemporary of Simón de Rojas and thus of the episode depicted in the print.




144. Marcos Orozco, The Creation of The Royal Hostel of Ave Maria, 1675, engraving and etching, 195 x 135 mm (Madrid, National Library).




145. Detail of fig. 144.

his activities, handing out images not only to members of the lower classes, but to courtiers and even to the royal family, one of them saying that he distributed 1,500 in a single day.11 In spite of the inherent hyperbole of hagiographical sources, the importance given to the use of prints and images in the written sources to Simón de Roj as 's activities is remarkable.

Probably following the example of their founder, the Brothers of Ave Maria used a great number of printed works, with and without images. We have documen- tary evidence of this from the 1630s onwards. It is important to note that the Brotherhood distributed

prints in a systematic way. Prints constituted a careful- ly planned means of delivering the Brotherhood's message to society, being used in publicity campaigns for their spiritual and charitable work as well as contribut- ing to the propagation of the cult of their founder. A varied means of production and distribution was the most important characteristic of the Brotherhood's use of prints. The second was their view of the print medi- um as something essentially useful and didactic, rather than of purely artistic value.

A substantial number of prints generated by the Brotherhood were destined for internal use. These were broadsheets without images that announced to members the date and time of different activities. The poor cared for by the Brotherhood's food distribution were given such sheets too, which served as meal tickets. Not only were paper tickets distributed to the homeless, but lead plaques, used to accredit habitual recipients of this charitable service, were also given to poor soldiers. The Brotherhood served special meals to this important class of people in the social structure of the old regime. While we do not have examples of these plaques, we can gain an idea of their appearance thanks to the card that was given to the poor who were licensed to beg alms in Madrid in 1672. This card was sewn into the recipient's clothing, as can be seen in an engraving by Marcos Orozco dating from 1675, accrediting those who could stay in the Brotherhood's hostel, later to become the Poorhouse of Madrid12 (figs. 144 and 145). Apart from its charitable aims, the Brotherhood was trying to work with the city's author- ities in keeping vagrants and paupers under control.

However, the greatest number of prints were destined for the general public, with two objectives in mind. The first was to gain more adherents, either as active members of the Brotherhood or as recipients of its services, and thus increase the Order's prestige and social standing in the capital. Second, the Brotherhood sought to promote the cult of its founder and in partic- ular to contribute to the campaign for his beatification, initiated in Madrid immediately after Simon's death in 1624. Both objectives were expressed in the posters with which the Brotherhood literally wallpapered Madrid, most of them combining image and text, as in an example that dates from Lent in 1669 13 (fig. 146).

Ii. On this see Portús and Vega, op. cit., p. 220, who claim that Rojas was a singular case 'who realized the extraordinary contribution that prints could make to propagating a cult', pointing out the systematic use of them by the friar in promoting the cult of the Ave Maria, his religious order and his own personality See also J. Portús, El culto a la Virgen en Madrid durante la Edad Moderna , Madrid 2000, pp. 160-64.

1 2 . Signed Marcus Orozco Presbr Deliri et Sculpe MK It is included in Ave Maña: Constituciones y Instrucciones de la Hermandad del Real Hospicio de pobres mendigos del Ave Maria, y San Fernando, Rey de España . Cuyo Patrocinio tiene su Magestad, y su Supremo, y Real Consejo de Castilla , Madrid 1675. Madrid, National Library, 2/63411.

13. Included in AHN, C-C, leg. 27.




The text details the spiritual exercises that would take place at the Brotherhood's headquarters in the Convent of the Holy Trinity, with the names of daily preachers and the promise of indulgences for those attending. These kinds of posters were placed in the churches, main streets and public places of Madrid, and in the area around the Royal Palace, fixed onto the walls with flour and water paste.14 The efficacy of this publicity campaign was clearly demonstrated when the Brotherhood suffered a decrease in the normal number of participants in 1698 because it had been forgot- ten to place the poster on the main door of the Church of the Trinity. Next time, the poster was in its place and there was even a boy to watch over it.15

The combination of text and image gives us an indi- cation of the variety mentioned above, understood here as a diverse audience for the Brotherhood's message. In a mainly illiterate society, visual and written

sources have to be considered alongside oral culture. On some occasions it is possible to confirm that the directors of the Brotherhood gave the preachers printed sheets to be read at Mass, asking for alms to support the provision of the hostel for the homeless, and we can be sure that the same procedure was employed in many other cases.16 Messages were conveyed to the illiterate largely by the images at the top of the sheet, which depicted the Cross of the Order of the Holy Trinity, an image of the Virgin, and an 'S' with a nail (a play on words in Spanish, meaning at the same time 'esclavo', or 'slave' of the Virgin, which was also the name that the Brothers gave to themselves). The image of the Virgin is the one of the Ave Maria. Why was this image chosen and not the Expectant Virgin, the patron of their establishment? The main reason is that it was the one depicted in the images distributed by Simón de Rojas himself, as we know from the inscription sur-

14. On methods for attaching prints to walls, see Portús and Vega, op. cit., p. 79. The paper images decorating the interior of private houses were fixed onto the walls with a mix of the same materials, or with pap.

15. AHN, C-C, Book II, folio 5. 16. AHN, C-C, Book I. The combination of visual and oral culture

is analysed both in Scribner and in Watt, op. cit., among others.

146. Anonymous Artist, detail from Virgin of Ave María , woodcut, 1669, whole 433 x 305 mm (Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional).




rounding them (fig. 147). One of his hagiographers says that this model was made by Rojas himself to celebrate one of the Virgin's feast days, and that he posted the images on the doors of the houses with the words 'Ave Maria' in large letters.17 Because of this, everyone who saw the image could identify it with the Trinitarian friar.

I have said that one of the Brotherhood's aims was to contribute to the spreading of the cult of Rojas, but they could not do so by displaying his image in public places. This would have signified that he was honoured with a public cult, which had been forbidden by the decrees of Pope Urban VIII in 1634. 18 Simón de Rojas was not yet beatified, nor was he a saint, so his image could not be exhibited on the posters put up through- out the city. The best way of connecting him to the Brotherhood in the eyes of the citizens of Madrid, where he had died in the odour of sanctity, was to use images of the Virgin of Ave Maria. It would not be until 1766, after his beatification, that posters carried the images of Simón de Rojas at the top19 (fig. 148).

The Brotherhood's documents also mention Ave Marias posted in the streets and on the doors of private houses, which were depictions without text. Probably these were little woodcut images like the one at the top of the poster of 1669. The documents distinguish between the kind of paper employed in the making of these images, which was a cheap one and different from the more expensive type used for the rest of the prints. They were made by a printer, not by an engraver, and at times almost 6,000 of them were posted in the streets, as in 1654:

De la impresión que se hiço de Ave Marías para poner por las calles como es costumbre, y de las estampas finas que se dieron a las Señoras seis ducados, pusiéronse casi seis mili ave marias en todas las calles . . . 66.20 But the important point in my view is that text was

not always required, for people could identify the Brotherhood just by looking at their images.

Apart from the poster campaign, these images were also distributed by hand. Prints given to the members

147. Anonymous Artist, detail from Virgin of Ave Maria, woodcut, 1723, whole 425 X 310 mm (Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional).

of the Brotherhood, nobles and members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy were distinct from those destined for lay folk. They were quite different in quality, production and distribution. The Brotherhood's account books confirm that prints were handed out during the two main festivals held annually in the convent of the Holy Trinity. The major feast was in September, to honour the Name of the Virgin,21 and the second one took place in the weeks before Christmas with the cel-

17. Cano, oto. cit., p. 71. 18. For a general view of Urban VIII's decrees on the cult of saints,

see C. Salotti, 'Canonizzazione' and 'Beatificazione', in Enciclopedia Cattolica: Ente per l'Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico , Vatican 1949, 11 (cols. 1090-99^) and m, cols. 570-607.

19. Included in AHN, C-C, leg. i. 20. 'For printing Ave Marias to fix in the streets as usual, and for the

fine prints that were given to the Ladies six ducados , almost six thousand Ave Marias were fixed in the streets ... 66'. AHN, C-C, leg. 52 ,f. 2i8ü. This is a very interesting passage, as it emphasizes the difference between the kind of prints distributed. It also gives

information on the price of the prints and, of course, gives the astonishing number of images posted in the streets. The information provided by the Brotherhood's documents on the costs of printing is quite valuable, even if fragmentary. I am currendy working on a research project focussed on the use of prints by the Brothers of Ave Maria, which includes some of the aspects just cited here, such as the prices and techniques used.

21. The name of the Virgin was the main feast celebrated by the Brotherhood on 17 September, since January 1623. On the work done by Rojas for promoting the cult of the Name of Mary, see Arcos, op. cit., i, pp. 341-49.




148. Anonymous Artist, detail from Simón de Rojas with the Expectant Virgin , engraving and etching, 314 x 220 mm (Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional).

ebration of an Octava (the Octave of a feast, that is, the eight days following it) commemorating the pregnancy of the Virgin. Celebrations for these religious ceremonies included a procession in the Church displaying the Brotherhood's titular image; the best preachers and musicians of the court were usually invited to take part in the festival. The distribution of prints always took

place during these times and they were always free. Although the Brotherhood never sold its prints, we cannot consider these as straightforward, disinterested gifts, because they were intended to create dependent relationships between religious institutions and the people.22 The prints were another means for attracting people to the religious acts practised by the Brother- hood, in addition to the indulgences announced in their posters.

The images distributed to the first group, that is, to members of the Brotherhood, the ecclesiastical hierarchy and nobles, were more varied that the ones placed in the streets. They included not only the latter, but prints promoting the Order of the Holy Trinity and portraits of Simón de Rojas. Although Rojas could not be venerated by the whole community of believers, he was venerated in his convent and within the Brotherhood. His images were therefore circulated among friars and ecclesiastics who knew that he was not an official saint, in spite of his depiction in engravings and paintings, and among members of the Ave Maria who were genuinely convinced of his sanctity, whether or not it had been approved by Rome. Aristocrats at court who joined in the festivities were also considered to be intellectually and spiritually pre- pared for receiving images of the friar. Moreover, this latter group was important since they were potentially able to bring pressure to bear for Rojas's canonization when his case would be reopened and, for this reason, the cult of the Trinitarian was actively promoted among them.23

Apart from iconographie differences between the prints, their quality also varied, depending on the audience for whom they were intended. The distribution of portraits of Simón de Rojas was first mentioned in 1637, when the account books reveal that 300 engravings were given to the members of the Brotherhood and 'people from the palace', who are most likely to have been courtiers and royal officials.24 This printing had a cost of 30 reales. Probably this image (fig. 149) was the engraving made by Marten de Woode, a Flemish engraver living in Madrid during these years, of whom few details are known. The image is included in a Chronicle of the Order of the Holy Trinity published the same

22. On the sale of religious prints in Spain, see Portús and Vega, op. cit., chapter three.

23. Since Pope Urban VIII's decrees of 1634, a period of 50 years after the candidate's death was an obligatory requirement for a beatification. Rojas had died in 1624 and the process had begun the same year, but it had to stop because of the new papal rules concerning the cult of saints. On the beginning of the process

and the Trinitarian's efforts for promoting the cult of Rojas among court circles, see M. Cruz de Carlos, 'Imagen y hagiografía en el Madrid del siglo XVII: La difusión del culto al Padre Simón de Rojas', in L'Hagiographie entre Histoire et Littérature (Espagne, Moyen Age et Siècle d'or), Toulouse 2002 (publication forth mm i neri.

24. AHN, C-C, leg. 52, folio 155V.




149. Marten de Woode, Portrait of Simón de Rojas , engraving, 256 x 170 mm (Madrid, National Library).




150. Gaspar de Crayer, The Virgin Gives a Miraculous Belt to Simón de Rojas , oil on canvas, 3,130 x 1,777 mm (Madrid, Prado).




year, at the beginning of a hagiographical text dedicated to Simón de Rojas.25

As a means of promoting their religious order, the Trinitarian friars in whose convent the Brotherhood had its headquarters also gave out engravings depict- ing their founders, San Juan de Mata and San Félix de Valois. The Brotherhood's inventory in 1689 mentions a bronze26 engraving representing both saints surrounded by scenes of their lives. We can identify this image with the work by Jean de Courbes, a French engraver working mainly for religious patrons in seventeenth-century Madrid.27 Both of these examples demonstrate the use of high quality engravings made by French and Flemish artists living in the city, but we know that some of the images distributed by the Brotherhood were made in Flanders, cited in the documents as 'the Flanders plates'. Although we have no surviving examples, nor a description of them, I believe at least one of them to be an engraved version of a painting from the late 1630s made in Flanders by Gaspar de Crayer (fig. 150). The painting, originally in the brotherhood's chapel in the church of the Trinity and now in the Prado, shows Simón de Rojas receiving a miraculous belt from the Virgin, to help him in the struggle to maintain his chastity.28

We can be more certain about the iconographie differences (and therefore of the implied doctrinal message) between the images distributed by the Brotherhood. The documents show that only small popular images of the Virgin were given to the general public, by handing them out or by posting them on the doors of houses. There is an obvious difference between these and the ones given out to churchmen and courtiers.

But how were they distributed? During specific feast days, many small paper images were thrown into the air inside the church. This was a common practice in Spain, where on festivals such as the Corpus Christi, prints (the so-called Aleluyas) were tossed from proces- sional carts in the streets and inside the churches as

well.29 This took place at specific moments during the ceremonies, and in some cases - but not in ours - the prints were of different colours, which increased the festive character of the moment. While we cannot imagine friars and nobles trying to catch the sheets as they flew through the air, this was the means of distrib- uting small prints to the masses. Nobles and ecclesiastics received theirs on salvers during Mass, as in 1654 when 500 images of the Virgin were distributed to the Brothers on a silver tray.30 It can be deduced from doc- umentary sources that the delivery of prints took place at certain moments of the ceremony, such as during communion or the reading of the gospels.

The last point I want to emphasize concerns the patrons and the artists involved in making the images. The patrons who commissioned the images were, in fact, the friars of the Holy Trinity, who had very close ties with what should have been a lay organization. Indeed, the rule of the Ave Maria states that the Presi- dent should always be the Minister of the Trinity, and during his absences another friar (the Prefect) should act as President.31 The Prefect was responsible for commissioning prints, as is shown by documents from 1692, which state that this should be 4 in his care'. I should highlight here the rôle of Prefect Father Juan de la Torre, who took this charge from at least 1637. He held this position for a long time, with an interruption for a trip to Rome, and his care in making new plates, remaking old ones and recording with careful detail the accounts and inventories of plates is noteworthy. He seems to have been a thorough user of prints, and demonstrated his knowledge of their efficacy in spreading the Brotherhood's messages.

The question of prints is not mentioned in the minutes of the assemblies of the Brotherhood, which further supports the idea that the friars had a promi- nent rôle in their commissioning. Likewise, there were no private patrons for these prints and engravings in seventeenth-century Madrid. Rather, the costs were always defrayed by the Brotherhood, except in one

25. Fray Pedro López de Altuna (O.SS.T), Primera parte de la Coronica General de la Orden de la Santissima Trinidad, Redención de Cautivos , Segovia 1637, p. 452. Signed Marten RD Woode sculpsit en Madrid. On the engraving, see Iconografia Hispana: Catálogo de los retratos de personajes españoles de la Biblioteca Nacional publicado por la Sección de Estampas, edited by Páez Rios, Madrid 1967, iv, p. 135, no. 8934-2. I have followed this author in naming the engraver as 'Woode', instead of 'Droeswoode' as he is called by other researchers.

26. So cited in the document, but presumably an error for 'copper'. The inventory in AHN, C-C, leg. 52.

27. Altuna, op. cit., p. 77. 1,900 x 2750 mm. Páez, Repertorio de grabados españoles en la Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid 1981, 1, p. 225, no. 73. On Jean de Courbes, see J. Manuel Matilla, La estampa en el libro barroco: Juan de Courbes, Vitoria-Madrid 1991.

28. Prado Museum, inventory no. 3337. On the painting, see M. Díaz Padrón, El Siglo de Rubens en el Museo del Prado: Catálogo razon- ado de Pintura Flamenca del Siglo XVII , Madrid 1995, 1, pp. 410-13.

29. See Portús and Vega, op. cit., p. 290. 30. AHN, C-C., leg. 52,, folio 220. 31. AHN, C-C, leg. i.




151. Anonymous Artist, Glorification of the Name of the Virgin , copper plate, 257 x 154 mm (Madrid, Chapel of the Brotherhood of the Ave Maria).




152. Juan Bernabé Palomino, Four Ave Marias , copper plate, 120 x 90 mm (Madrid, Chapel of the Brotherhood of the Ave Maria).

case in 1676 when one of the members supplied the money. That year, however, the Brothers had financial problems and could only make prints of some images of the Virgin for their own use.32 There had been only one precedent of a private patron, dating from the time of Simón de Rojas. On at least one occasion it is known that a lay person paid for a number of small prints of the Virgin which afterwards were given to the Trinitarian, who distributed them in hospitals, prisons and to people who visited him at his convent.33

Different professionals were employed in the making of these images, and sometimes it is not easy to discern each one's task. Popular printing houses produced the Ave Marias posted in the streets and the other sheets combining text and images from the plates owned by the Brotherhood. The rest of the images, such as portraits of Simón de Rojas or scenes with the founders of the Trinitarian Order were made by more prestigious engravers. There is a clear distinction between the 'fine' Ave Marias, as they are cited in the documenta-

32. AHN, C-C, Book II, folio 105z;. The following year the Brothers continued to have the same problem, but the fact that they paid for remaking one of the plates indicates the importance given to the prints {f. 116). The plate they had to remake is cited in the documents as 'the big plate' and this cost 100 reales.

33. Portús and Vega, op. cit., p. 177, and Appendix I, doc. V-5-30, p.

445. The patron was Jacome de Gratiis, a layman but an important person in the spiritual circles of the court, where he sup- ported some religious institutions, sometimes with the aid of Simón de Rojas. Portús and Vega say that we cannot consider it as a 'gift', because Rojas wanted the prints to hand out and not for himself, but rather as a subsidy for his pious activities.




tion, and the ones 'made at the printer's house'. A good example of this comes from 1662, when the book pub- lisher Andrés de Paredes was paid for some works made for the Brotherhood, one of them being 'ordi- nary images for posting on the doors' and the other a poem with a portrait of Rojas at the top of it. On the same day, the image-printer Jacome Mañana was paid for 300 portraits of Rojas, 400 images of the Virgin of Ave Mana and Expectación and other images for courtiers, members of the Brotherhood and friars.34

But, as we have seen, some of the best engravers living in Madrid were employed as well, especially in the making of the plates. Their work was not limited to this, but extended to the reworking of old plates, which were so worn by continual use that they had to be retouched quite often. For example, in 1645 all the plates owned by the Brotherhood had to be retouched after that year's impressions, among which were 2,000 small portraits of Rojas. In the following year, many of them, including that for the small portrait, had to be retouched again, which is not surprising if we consider the number of images made yearly. In 1621, Jean de Courbes had contracted the making of the plates for a book on the Eucharist written by a Mercedarian friar, stating that each plate would serve for making 2,200 engravings, which gives us an idea of the number of impressions expected from each plate.35 The cost for repairing all the plates in 1645 was 3 ducados , that is to say, 33 reales. We don't know how many plates were repaired exactly, but the account books state that 'estavan todas gastadas' ('all of them were worn'), so we can assume that this refers to all the plates.36 We can compare this amount with that for 1677, when 100 reales were paid for repairing just one plate.

As mentioned, some of the plates used by the Brotherhood are still in its headquarters. Most of them date from the eighteenth century, but follow models created at the time of the Order's foundation. We can see this by looking at two of these plates, the first of which shows the Glorification of the Name of the Virgin (fig. 151). The original model of this was made in 1654 and the only difference with the extant plate is the inscription at its foot, which was originally in Latin but in the later print is translated into Spanish.37 The second plate was made by Juan Bernabé Palomino, a well- known engraver in Madrid in the mid-eighteenth century.38 This was one of the most popular plates, because it allowed four prints to be made at the same time, thus saving considerable time and money (fig. 152). We can see the Virgin at the top, with the Cross and the allusion to the 'slaves' that we saw in the 1669 poster. Both plates show a stylistic evolution, but demonstrate how the images remained basically the same, being the ones the people of Madrid identified with the Brotherhood.

In my view, this study provides useful information on some litde-known topics of seventeenth-century Madrid, such as the circulation of the printed religious images, and on the employment of visual resources by religious fraternities in the city. The latter involved a remarkably high number of people, and the distribution and reception of these prints provide a context for the discussion of the relationship between religious communities and the people. The Brothers of the Ave Maria used the images to promote the cult of their founder, while also promoting themselves and their spiritual and charitable acts. Above all, their campaigns involved the concerted use of prints, diverse in terms of quality, production and distribution.

34. AHN, C-C, leg. 52 , folio 2862. Very little is known about the printers of images living in seventeenth-century Madrid.

35. E. M. Vetter, Die Kupferstiche zur Psalmodia Eucarìstica des Melchor Prieto von 1622 . Münster iq72. dd. 100-02.

36. AHN, C-C, leg. 52,/ 176. 37. AHN, C-C, leg. 52 ,f 220V. It cost 200 reales, and we don't know

who the artist was. The plate was first published by Corral in 1972 as an illustration for his article, without any comment on details of the plate or its execution. Of this plate were made, immediately after its execution, 350 impressions valued at 11 or 14 reales a hundred, with the whole costing 49 reales.

38. bigned J. a Palom Sculp.



"The Prints of the Brotherhood of Ave María"

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