A celebration of the music and art of Toledo in the 16th century will held at the Church of St James – London’s ‘Spanish Church’ – in the West End on Tuesday 16th September. The event is the being organised by the BritishSpanish Society.
At the time of El Greco, Toledo was a major centre for sacred music and for centuries Spanish sacred music was known as Canto toledano. It still houses one of the richest libraries of sacred music in Spain as well as an outstanding collection of Flemish Renaissance music.
Music will be performed by the Coro Cervantes, the UK’s only chamber choir dedicated to Hispanic and Latin American classical music. Exploring these connections between music and art will be the choir’s musical director Carlos Fernández Aransay and Chief Curator of the Dulwich Picture Gallery and longtime supporter of ARTES, Xavier Bray.
Xavier has curated or co-curated all the major exhibitions of Spanish Golden Age art in London over the past 10 years: El Greco (National Gallery, 2004), Velázquez (National Gallery, 2006) and Murillo (Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2013); and is currently working on an exhibition of Goya’s portraits for the National Gallery in October 2015. In 2009 he conceived and curated the groundbreaking exhibition The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600-1700 (2009), which was instrumental in bringing audiences in the UK and beyond to a greater understanding and appreciation of sacred Spanish art. The legacy of this exhibition continues. This summer Sotheby’s London held its first selling exhibition devoted exclusively to sacred paintings and sculpture; seventeen of the twenty-six works were Spanish. This exhibition, Contemplation of the Divine was masterminded by Alexander Kader, Senior Director & Head of Sculpture & Works of Art and ARTES member James Macdonald, Senior Director & Head of Private Sales, Old Master Paintings, both of whom were kind enough to take ARTES members on a private tour.
For more information see: ARTES post 24 Aug 2014, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge on Fundraising Drive to purchase a Pedro de Mena Mater Dolorosa. Particularly for the historic reception of Spanish art in the UK: Spanish Art in Britain and Ireland, 1750-1920. Studies in Reception in Memory of Enriqueta Harris Frankfort, edited by Nigel Glendinning & Hilary Macartney, Tamesis, 2011.
Tickets: £22 for non-members of the British Spanish Society, available from their Events Secretary or the Society’s website, www.britishspanishsociety.org. Membership of the Society is open to all (£25) and an application form can be found on the website. Tickets for members are £17.
Date Tuesday 16 September 2014 at 6.30pm, followed by a reception
Venue The Church of St James, Spanish Place, 22 George St, London W1U 3QY (near to the Wallace Collection). NB: Bond Street tube is not fully operational. Please check before using.
ARTES 