The Vierge Ouvrante of the Joy of Mary from the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection: transculturality and in-between spaces

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the Vierge Ouvrante of the Joy of Mary belonging to the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection, in São Paulo. The Vierges Ouvrantes of the Joy of Mary are large sculptures that have a type of frontal mechanism that allows them to open their bodies totally or only partially, revealing Marian scenes inside. There are three Iberian specimens, from the 13th and 14th centuries, which are found in collections in the cities of Allariz, Évora, and Salamanca. Despite the themes carved into its interior, the Vierge Ouvrante of the Yunes Collection was created in another temporal and geographic space (in some Iberian possession in the Far East). In the absence of similar examples that could lead the analysis, this research sought to glimpse it in the light of the imaginaries resulting from cultural encounters between Europeans and Asians, such as Indo-Portuguese, Sinhalese, Hispanic-Filipino or Chinese. The enigmas surrounding the factors of its production raised questions about the borders imposed by historiographies ― such as taxonomies and ethnocentric categories ― and pointed to the need to think about transculturality and “in-between” spaces.