Propaganda y mitifi cación del príncipe: el mausoleo de Martín el Joven de Aragón 1

Prince Martin of Aragon, known as “Martin the Younger”, died during the conquest of Sardinia in 1409. He was buried in the cathedral of Cagliari, capital of the island. In the second half of the seventeenth century the church was rebuild and a magnificent mausoleum was commissioned for Prince Martin. The new tomb was executed in a difficult time in Sardinian political history, as tension broke between the local aristocracy and the Spanish monarchy. We propose here a political interpretation of the baroque tomb based on the analysis of the iconographical program, the laudatory inscriptions and the historical context of the work.