Jean Andrews, Associate Professor, University of Nottingham.
This is the first major monograph in English on one of the greatest religious painters of Renaissance Spain. Andrews richly illuminates key paintings spanning Luis de Morales's decades-long career in relation to Spanish devotional culture before and after Trent. Traversing disciplinary boundaries, she brings together exquisitely close analysis of the works themselves with considerations of liturgical theatre, sermons, and spiritual treatises. She also moves beyond national narratives of art history to consider Morales as an Iberian painter who lived and worked at the geographical and artistic crossroads of Portugal and Spain. --Laura R. Bass, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island Luis de Morales was long considered a shadowy figure, but that perception has changed--and Jean Andrews explains why, exploring the context in which Morales's work was produced (the popular culture and religious life of Badajoz and Portugal), and examining the art in light of this. The result is a study of paintings that reveals their beauty, subtlety and depth. --Terence O'Reilly, University College Cork