Resumen

REYERO, Carlos. La ambigüedad de Clío: Pintura de historia y cambios ideológicos en la España del siglo XIX. An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2005, vol.27, n.87, pp.37-63. ISSN 0185-1276.

History painting occupied a key role in the consolidation of new ideologies: the visions of particular events of the past became irrefutable justifications of a particular dynamics of history. In nineteenth-century Spain one observes, behind an apparent continuity of comparable themes and messages, significant iconographic and semantic variations in relation with the specific political and ideological circumstances of each moment. A comparative diachronic study of arguments such as dynastic legitimacy, the death of Lucretia or the role of the enemy in the visual narrative enables one to recognize the changing values of history, making it clear that historical paintings are not permanent illustrations of an immutable past. Clío thus reveals herself as an ambiguous muse, and the art of painting likewise.