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More than a guide for painters, Vicente de Carducho's Diálogos de la pintura has long been recognized to promote painting as a liberal art and to advocate for the creation of an academy of painting in seventeenth-century Madrid. But questions of patriotic belonging and prestige are also at stake in this erudite treatise. In his prologue, Carducho prioritizes his allegiance to his adopted city even while acknowledging his debts to his native Florence. The first part of this article argues that the treatise serves to showcase that allegiance as it participates in a project to make the young political capital a great cultural centre. The second part makes the case for Carducho as a practitioner who understood the debt he owed to the visual culture of his adopted homeland while remaining true to the aesthetic principles of his Florentine training. His late depictions of saints in adoration of the crucifix provide a focus for examining a religious sensibility subtly informed by Spanish devotional literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracing the devotional beliefs and practices of everyday people during the late Middle Ages through documents is tricky, as most were written with other purposes in mind. To make up for this, it is necessary to examine the abundant material culture that survives from this period. By analyzing a variety of finds and comparing them with well-known objects used by the upper classes, it becomes evident that ordinary people shared the same religious views and practices. Both classes were interested in pieces that inspired active devotional and amuletic practice. They were intended to be gazed at and handled, then rested on a tabletop or nailed to a wall. Some folded, some rang, some could be blown through, while others were gazed upon. Lower quality materials and production of pieces had no impact on their ultimate use in the home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]