This thesis explores through the creation of four artworks, the nature of the sublime ruin. To facilitate this it examines the disintegration of selected religious feminine metaphors. The artworks are rendered through a multiplication of layers bound by translucent/transparent resin. These are produced to examine the potentials between traditional craft and contemporary digital mediums, thus creating sites where eroding fragments may express an excess of meaning through enigmatic construction.

This thesis explores through the creation of four artworks, the nature of the sublime ruin. To facilitate this it examines the disintegration of selected religious feminine metaphors. The artworks are rendered through a multiplication of layers bound by translucent/transparent resin. These are produced to examine the potentials between traditional craft and contemporary digital mediums, thus creating sites where eroding fragments may express an excess of meaning through enigmatic construction.

Drawn from examples principally of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this article analyzes the importance which feminine monasteries enjoyed in the cities of New Spain because they administered religious images which were considered miraculous. The images attracted numerous faithful, which resulted in increased economic benefits for the monasteries, thanks to the alms, and the social prestige of the monasteries. Finally, the article argues that, for the cities which housed these monasteries, the presence of the nuns who administered the images was fundamental for constructing their local identity. / A partir de ejemplos tomados fundamentalmente de los siglos XVII y XVIII, el presente artículo analiza la importancia que tenía para los monasterios femeninos en las ciudades de la Nueva España el administrar imágenes religiosas reputadas como milagrosas. Estas últimas atraían a numerosos fieles, lo que aumentaba tanto el beneficio económico de los monasterios, gracias a las limosnas, como el capital social de los mismos. Finalmente, el artículo sostiene que, para las ciudades, la existencia de dichas imágenes y la presencia de las monjas que las administraban eran fundamentales, pues ambos factores eran centrales en la constitución de la identidad local.

This thesis analyzes the destruction of imagery dedicated to Saint Thomas Becket in order to investigate the nature of sixteenth-century iconoclasm in Reformation England. In doing so, it also considers the veneration of images during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Research involved examining medieval and sixteenth-century historical studies concerning Becket's life and cult, anti-Becket sentiment prior to the sixteenth century, and the political circumstances in England that led to the destruction of shrines and imagery. This study provides insight into the ways in which religious images could carry multifaceted, ideological significance that represented diversified ideas for varying social strata--royal, ecclesiastical and lay.