From "tabellae sacrae" to "poemata sacra". The case of the Portuguese Jesuit Manuel Pimenta

In the Poemata composed by the Portuguese Jesuit Emmanuel Pimenta (1542-1603), a long section entitled In varias Christi et Virginis tabellas is devoted to a collection of religious paintings and artefacts representing the Christ and Virgin at various moments of their lives (mainly the childhood of Christ and Saint John the Baptist). The epigrams, rooted in the learned tradition of Neo-Latin poetry, not only describe the physical paintings, but also the poet’s feelings and emotions while contemplating them. Among other features, the verses often portray the viewer/writer entering into a dynamic dialogue with the paintings’ characters. My paper, giving a first glance at this fascinating and little known corpus, proposes an analysis of the mechanisms at stake in the contemplation of sacred pictures, but also in the composition of poemata sacra, in the particular context of the Jesuit devotional tradition.