Office: 4.21
marta.serrano(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat
Phone: 977559731
Marta Serrano Coll ' Universitat Rovira i Virgili - Academia.edu
SENIOR LECTURER
Marta Serrano Coll holds a PhD in History and is a senior lecturer in History of Art at Rovira i Virgili University. The central axis of her research is the study of the image of power through art, a subject on which she has published in national and international journals. This line of research, that revolves around the figurative representation of power, has also resulted in four monographies [2008, 2014, 2015, 2021]. The quality and diffusion of her work can be seen in the publication of various papers in journals such as: Speculum. A Journal of Medieval Studies [vol. 89, 2014], Anuario de Estudios Medievales [vol. 45, 2015], or Eikon Imago [vol. 14, 2024].
Besides the acceptance, as reports, of some works in congresses, internationals as well, and with written repercussion in the edition of the proceedings, another index that proves the quality of her research is the invitation, by several institutions, to write specific studies to be published in collective volumes in publishers of impact such as Brill, Brepols or Oxford University Press.
So is her participation as a blind peer reviewer in national and international journals and, likewise, her participation as a reviewer for the ANEP since 2015. Another item is the series of unpublished lectures she has given in Spain and abroad (Europe and the United States).
If the set of publications and conferences referred to above revolves around the use of the image of power and its consequences at the artistic and political level, in recent years she has opened up new lines of research, some of which stem from the research projects in which she has participated and led.
She has also focused her research on other areas, such as sacred or religious art, that began in 2000 when she was commissioned by Fundació La Caixa to write a series of files for an exhibition of movable property in the diocese of Tortosa. Shortly afterwards, she undertook a study of the Cathedral of Tarragona, an analysis that led to several conferences and publications, culminating in the collective book of Fundación Santa María la Real [2021].
She studied the Benedictine spaces in depth within a project led by J. Martínez de Aguirre, an argument that she was able to combine with her participation in other projects led by Gerardo Boto focusing on cathedral areas, from which several results were derived, including her incursion into the field of the archiepiscopal image. The development of her work culminated in the invitation as chercheur invité at the INHA (Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art) in Paris for two months [2017].
She has been part of a Recercaixa project entitled Landscape and Identitarian Heritage of Europe: Cathedral Cities as Living Memories which culminated in 2019. She is currently part of two projects funded by the Ministry, she is PI of the Consolidated Research Group Escenaris i Edificis Religiosos Medievals a la Corona d'Aragó and, since March 2025, leads the project signed between the Archbishopric and the URV Foundation “Taxonomía y conservación: análisis, evaluación y actualización del inventario de los bienes amuebles de la Archidiócesis de Tarragona".
Research
- SGR Escenaris i Edificis Religiosos Medievals a la Corona d'Aragó [2021 SGR 00212]
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Taxonomía y conservación: análisis, evaluación y actualización del inventario de los bienes muebles de la Archidiócesis de Tarragona [T25094S]
Last and most important publications (2021-2025):
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"Los sellos femeninos en la Corona de Aragón (siglos XIII-XIV): ¿elementos de identidad o piezas reivindicativas?", Eikon Imago, 14, 2025.
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"The Multisensorial Perception of the Expression of Mourning. Attitudes and Behaviours towards the Memory and Death of the Kings and Queens of Aragon", in Defining and Perceiving Feelings in the Late Middle Ages, Brill, 2025, pp. 306-360.
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"L'estel en la sigil·lografia dels reis d'Aragó: problemàtiques interpretatives i metodològiques", in La sigil·lografia medieval a Catalunya i a l'Europa mediterrània. Estudis comparatius, Viella, 2025, pp. 187-206.
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"The Royal presence of Pedro IV (r.1336-1387) in contemporary textual and iconographic sources", in Staging the Ruler's Body in Medieval Cultures. A comparative perspective, Brepols, 2023, pp. 185-209.
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"James II and his artístic patronage in Santes Creus: purposes, semantic content and the influence of Frederick II. Jaime II y su promoción artística en Santes Creus: propósitos y contenidos semánticos de raigambre federiquiana", Imago Temporis Aevum, XVI, 2022.
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With G. Boto, "Las yacentes episcopales como mecanismes de pronostico escatológico. Contextos teológicos de los sepulcres de Juan de Aragón y Arnau Sescomes. Episcopal recumbents as exchatological prognosis mechanisms. Theological contexts of the tombs of Juan de Aragón and Arnau Sescomes", Anuario de Estudios Medievales, 51/1, 2021.