It is said that he inspired Machiavelli’s work “The Prince” (among others, ).īoth Ferdinand and Elisabeth exploited the royal image and increased its prestige through court ceremonials, panegyrics, and iconography, for which they used novel, rich and varied artistic forms which were open to Renaissance trends, although without excluding the late Gothic, Islamic and Mudejar styles, which persisted in architecture, objects and everyday settings. It is surprising to learn that he was illiterate, although as a Renaissance prince he did much to promote culture, as did his wife Elisabeth. A-359), perhaps by the scribe Marc Bosquets, who details the event and the punishment suffered by the attacker (authorship proposed by analysis of drawings in ). The episode was recorded in the margin of two pages of the Dietari del Consell de la Ciutat de Barcelona (Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat, Barcelona. He enjoyed showing off his jewellery and on one occasion he even survived an attack in Barcelona on 7 December 1492 because the width of his necklace prevented the knife of his would-be assassin, Joan de Canyamàs, from penetrating deep enough to kill him. Some of these pieces were made by famous silversmiths, the records showing that there were as many as eight in his service, one of whom was Jewish. He was seduced by pieces of jewellery, especially if they had diamonds and rubies. Nobody else in the history of the Hispanic kingdoms had their image represented so many times and on such diverse occasions as did the Catholic Monarchs. All of the images are evidence of how King Ferdinand, at the end of the Middle Ages, wanted to be recognised by his subjects, who also used his image for legitimising and propagandistic purposes. He is a highly important figure in the history of Spain because, along with Elisabeth, he was one of the Catholic Monarchs and thus represents a new conception of power based on their joint governance, a fact that is reflected in the iconography found in his artistic commissions across all genres. Although in terms of artistic patronage Ferdinand II was not as active as his wife Elisabeth I, he was still aware that the wise use of artistic commissions in reinforcing ideas and concepts favourable to the institution of the monarchy. He was the fourth king of the Trastámara dynasty, which had first come to power after the Compromise of Caspe, reached after Martin I died with no living descendants in 1410.
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