Los dos cuerpos del artista. El cuerpo amado y el cuerpo político

Résumé

The present text analyses a number of images of artists created after their deaths. Like any other individual, their ephemeral bodies are destined to rot, while their public figures provide another body to be honored, setting them apart from others. In this way, their memories are kept alive. Firstly, the paper reviews the precedents of post-mortem imagery, and it then explores some photographs of deceased artists from the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on issues emerging from the national context of each and from and the double-layered meaning of these artefacts, which serve both as memorial objects and as signs of propaganda, the two dimensions coexisting in this type of document. Finally, the paper examines the burial of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, his postmortem images and the issues they raise.