PONERE ANTE ÓCULO: IMAGE AND WORD IN THE SERMONS OF FATHER ANTONIO VIEIRA

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between image and word, especially in the context of seventeenth-century Iberian culture and in the sermons of Antonio Vieira. It brings a reflection on the image, which plays a crucial role in culture and goes beyond mere visual representation, being intrinsically linked to ideologies, symbolic values and the human search for the representation of the divine. Dialoguing with authors such as Etienne Gilson and Jean Claude Schimitt, the place of the image in the Middle Ages is analyzed, as well as with Didi-Huberman and João Adolfo Hansen, the focus is on the exegesis of the image and its primordial connection with the word. This foundation allows an accurate reading of Antonio Vieira and the dimension of the motivated word in his sermons.