Why do human beings produce images? And what do these images actually accomplish? Now as before, art historians and a range of theorists work under the weight of these basic questions. In this book, I hope to illuminate the complex, dynamic processes that were foundational for the global movement of images at a specific time. My historical focus will be on the 1640 Lisbon coup d’état and its visualization in Portugal and its overseas colonial territories. What image worlds emerged in connection with this political caesura? How were these worlds intertwined? What agency could they develop?

On 1 December 1640, a group of Portuguese higher nobility (fidalgos, the “sons of someone,” fils d’algo) put an end to Spain's rule of Portugal, which had begun in 1580. In the early morning hours, we read, a group of allegedly exactly forty conspirators gathered to execute the long-planned coup. They killed and then defenestrated the hated state secretary, Miguel de Vasconcelos, imprisoned the Spanish vicereine of Portugal, Margaret of Savoy, and declared the powerful Duke John II of Braganza (1604–1656) as the new king. He entered Lisbon on 6 December, and on 15 December he was sworn in as King John IV of Portugal.