In this artwork, how is the Significance discussed?
Velázquez's painting is significant in detailing the nun's aged physical features while simultaneously capturing her sainthood. Vicente Carducho writes in his 1633 treatise on art, Diálogos de la Pintura, that Jerónima "evokes the legitimate love of parents, siblings, relatives, or friends" and would help ease the pain of absence felt by the "house of nuns" in Toledo. The religious imagery in Jerónima, in particular the presence of the crucifix, alludes to her "rigorous imitation of Christ's passion" – according to a fellow nun Ana, Jerónima would display "penitence with a cross", sometimes even to the extent of crucifying herself for hours. Similarly, the Latin inscriptions in the portrait reference her piousness and adherence to the Poor Clares' practice of not speaking excessively or unnecessarily. The depiction of Jerónima's well-documented and radical practice of self-mortification, however, is conspicuously left out in the portrait; contrary to contemporaneous accounts of the nun that speak of her "dry and denigrated" body "full of scars and wounds", Jerónima in Velázquez's portrait is not scarred or wounded. In fact, she is seen as "unscathed" and standing upright with an "unyielding" gaze, which reinforces her "authoritative presence".
self-mortification Vicente Carducho Poor Clares crucifix Toledo