The apariencia, a typically Iberian special effect, is defined in 1611 as ‘a mute representation shown by drawing a curtain in front of people, and immediately hiding it again’ (Covarrubias, Tesoro lexicográfico). In other words, it is a performance of unveiling, used mostly in theatre, but also in liturgy – where it displays relics and sacred images – and in royal ceremonies – both in public pageants and inside the royal chapel. The Apariencia also innervates private collections of paintings, where some masterpieces or religious pictures are shown by pulling a curtain and closing it soon thereafter. This topos links back to Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, which gives a model of interpretation: the victory of Parrhasius over Zeuxis is based on the illusionism of a painted curtain, that everyone would want to unveil. In his definitions of apariencia and cortina (curtain), Covarrubias describes this visual device, and he mentions spectacular unveilings in theatrical performances, in collections of paintings, in ceremonies of the royal chapel, and even in the common language, where unveiling is associated with wonder. Theatrical apariencias, which sometimes imitate ritual ones, corroborate these various fields of unveiling, adding liturgy to the list. Therefore, a concept emerges: the apariencia becomes a visual effect used to unveil something striking for a few moments, in the fields of theatre, painting, royal ritual and liturgy. This PhD dissertation investigates these spheres of the apariencia, and it combines the history of theatre and cultural history in order to understand the emotional and symbolic connotations of this act of unveiling in early modern Iberia.