Shaping an observant identity: narrative and image in the service of reform in the Portuguese Dominican nunneries

Abstract

Under the Observant reforms –a pan-European movement that aimed to reform Christianity by enforcing observance of its pristine ideals– the reformist environment in late medieval Portugal contributed to the formation of a number of new convents, most of them female. Especially in the case of the Dominicans – analysed here – the majority of the new convents stemmed from lay religious communities of women experiencing gradual processes of institutionalisation. As will be analysed in this paper, in accordance with the Observants’ strategy of using text and image to promote their reformist ideals, the surviving accounts and artworks produced and commissioned in these newly Observant communities reflect their efforts to shape, and embrace, a Dominican and Observant identity.