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Daniel González Erices

Santiago de Chile

Research Project

In art history, increasing attention has recently been paid to artistic forms of marking, visualizing, and reflecting on spatial transition zones and social boundaries within space, or the division of space (e.g., doors and portals, curtains, geometric floor designs). This joint project examines decorated iron grilles, a previously unstudied yet functionally comparable group of objects, which were employed in the 12th century to separate the sanctuary from the lay area in churches. The grilles frequently feature doors that can be opened and closed by members of the clergy, a privileged group responsible for regulating access to the sanctuary. However, when laypeople look through the latticework at the altar, the saints, or the biblical scenes on the apse wall, these grilles inevitably obstruct an otherwise unobstructed view. Conversely, when the viewer’s gaze is directed towards the lattices and the ornaments attached to them, the elements situated in the background – altar and apse paintings alike – become blurred. In the theology of the Church Fathers, ornament was conceptualized in a spiritual context of ineffability. Therefore, we interpret the ornamental structure of the iron grilles as a medium of personal, social, and physical exclusion. At the same time, they also offer the experience of partial participation and can become a stimulating medium for the individual’s reflection on human knowledge of God.

Daniel González Erices

Vita

Daniel González Erices is Assistant Professor of Art History and Philosophy at the School of Liberal Arts, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (Chile). He holds a PhD in Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory from the Universidad de Chile, where he completed a dissertation on the influence of apophatic theology on late antique and medieval visual culture. He has been a visiting researcher at several institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as the Universities of Columbia, Poitiers, and Oxford. Among his publications is the study accompanying the facsimile edition of the Gott Hours, a research project he directed. His work has received support from organizations such as the Coimbra Group, the Getty Foundation, and the Government of Chile. His research interests also extend to modern architecture, as well as Latin American postcolonial and subaltern studies.

Research Areas
  • Medieval visual culture
  • Medieval aesthetics
  • Medieval Theology
  • Contemporary Philosophy
Publications (Selection)
  • A. Campos, R. Harris, D. González y R. Pacheco. “Independencia barrio jardín: permanencia de un modelo residencial y de espacio público de origen cooperativista” en Revista AUS - Arquitectura / Urbanismo / Sustentabilidad. 34 (2024), pp. 63-73.
  • R. Harris, D. González e I. Veraguas. “Carácter y composición de lugar en la arquitectura de Luciano Kulczewski: conjuntos residenciales de Providencia, Santiago de Chile (1929-1935)” en Astrágalo. 1/31 (2023), pp. 129-154.
  • A. Campos, R. Harris y D. González. “Una lectura biopolítica de la arquitectura del Seguro Obrero: colectivos residenciales en Arica e Iquique” en Revista de Arquitectura. 24/1 (2022), pp. 44-53.
  • D. González. “Abstraction and Ineffability in the Central Middle Ages. Visual Culture and the Intersubjective Apophatic Imagination: A First Approach” en Palabra y Razón. Revista de Filosofía, Teología y Ciencias de la Religión. 20 (2021), pp. 113-141.
  • A. Campos, R. Harris y D. González. “Artesanos La Unión y Emilio Delporte: barrio-jardín y cooperativismo en la primera periferia de Santiago” en Estoa. Revista de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Universidad de Cuenca. 20/10 (2021), pp. 129-140.
  • D. González, P. Corti, M. J. Brañes y C. de Hamel. Las Horas Gott: un manuscrito iluminado en Chile. Centro de Investigaciones Diego Barros Arana, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile, 2019.

Auerbach Lecture

Contact

Prof. Ass. Daniel González Erices
Art History
Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez Santiago de Chile

Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies
Fellowship: 01.01.–31.01.2026
E-mail: daniel.gonzalez(at)uai(dot)cl