Thanks to the generous support of CEEH (Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica), ARTES, awards a number of scholarships each year to students working on any aspect of Spanish visual culture before 1900. The deadline for all applications is 30th April each year and the Scholarship Committee usually informs successful applicants by 31st May. Scholarship winners are normally invited to an awards ceremony at the ARTES AGM in June. Please read the guidelines for each scholarship, as well as the general guidelines below.
Final year undergraduates and postgraduate students registered for a full or part-time degree course at a UK university may apply for up to £1000 towards the costs of travel to Spain for research purposes (which may include field work, attendance at a conference, or other recognised forms of research).
£3000 scholarship for PhD students at a UK university
ARTES offers one scholarship each year to a student registered for a full- or part-time doctoral degree at a UK university. The scholarship is intended to contribute towards the costs of tuition, living and/or research, and therefore students with full funding are not eligible.
£3000 scholarship for PhD students or post-doctoral scholars who wish to conduct research in the UK
Doctoral students or those who received their doctorate less than four years before the application deadline may apply for this scholarship provided that they are that they were or are registered for doctoral study at a university in Spain.
Scholarship application guidelines.
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- In all cases applications should be made in English as a single MS Word or PDF file and sent to artesscholarships@gmail.com. References for students from Spain may, however, be sent in Spanish. Applicants should not expect acknowledgement of receipt
- All applications should clearly indicate for which scholarship they are directed and include: a) a project title, b) a max 100-word project summary, c) a max 600-word explanation of the research to be conducted (including, where relevant, explanation of the necessity of travel); d) a short breakdown of how the money will be spent, together with details of any other funding received; e) an academic CV. Applicants should ensure that an academic advisor sends a reference to the same email address by the 30th April deadline. Applications without a reference will not be considered
- Candidates may apply for more than one category of scholarship, but are unlikely to be successful in more than one category in any one year.
- Application is open to any student or scholar who can demonstrate compliance with the criteria set out above, other than employees of CEEH, ARTES Scholarship Committee members, or their immediate families. Scholarships are not awarded to students who have not yet begun their programme of study, are valid for one year only, and are not renewable. Travel scholarship applications may be submitted for travel conducted in the 12 months prior to the submission deadline, though funding for such trips is likely to be considered less urgent than for forthcoming trips that would not be possible without funding.
- Applications will be assessed according to the following criteria: Originality of research, significance of research, feasibility of successful completion, academic rigour (command of the field, spelling, fluency etc), potential of the applicant (an assessment of the strength of the CV, taking into account the student’s current status), financial need, value for money (where relevant), strength of reference, necessity of travel (where relevant).
- Successful scholarship winners are normally informed by 31st May, and are normally required to attend a presentation ceremony in the Summer. They are required to write a 600-word report on their funded research project, to be sent to artesscholarships@gmail.com within nine months of receipt of the scholarship.
- Any publications arising from research supported by these scholarships should include acknowledgement of ARTES and CEEH.
- The scholarships come with no institutional affiliation, and ARTES and CEEH cannot take responsibility for the support or welfare of scholarship holders.
- The decision of the Scholarship Committee is final. The Committee reserves the right to make no awards in cases where it deems that applications are not of satisfactory quality. CEEH and ARTES accept no legal responsibility to any applicant or third party arising from this notice, or the award or otherwise of a scholarship. The Scholarship Committee will not enter into correspondence with unsuccessful applicants or their academic advisors regarding its decisions.
2025 Winners
Lauren Mahany, PhD Candidate in the School of History of Art, University of Edinburgh.
Lauren’s research examines the work of the Catalonian Orientalist and costumbrismo painter Antonio Fabrés (1854-1938) within the context of Spain’s fin-de-siècle identity crisis and its renewed colonial ambitions in North Africa. With her ARTES/CEEH award Lauren intends to analyse and contextualise the works of Fabrés by exploring primary and secondary archival sources housed in Barcelona (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya), Rome (Real Academia de España en Roma) and Mexico City (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the San Carlos Museum). The art of Fabrés will be approached from both a new, theoretical perspective and within broader cultural contexts, engaging with postcolonial, and identity theories, including gender, race, sexuality, transcultural exchanges and dualities, while recognizing Spain’s paradoxical position in the Western discourse of ‘Orientalism’.
Juan A. González Delgado, PhD Student in Art History, University of Seville.
Juan’s research examines the Spanish Crown’s military engineers and the construction process of fortifications in the Viceroyalty of Peru in the Bourbon Period. With his ARTES/CEEH award Juan intends to expand the scope of his research through an analysis of how these fortifications were viewed by English professionals between 1700 and 1821, using documentation and plans present in the archives and libraries of institutions in the United Kingdom. In this project, a major objective will be to understand the implications for the British Crown of these Bourbon fortifications, seeing these works as part of a global process with impacts that stretched from the big empires of day to the inhabitants of a small villages in the interior of South America, and thereby establishing these fortifications as architecture of power and symbols of empire.
2024 Winners
Tanya Klowden, Courtauld Institute of Art – £3000 for a PhD student at a UK university
Interconnected Identities: Alonzo Sánchez Coello, Sofonisba Anguissola, and Portraiture in the Court of Philip II of Spain
From 1560 to 1570, Alonzo Sánchez Coello and Sofonisba Anguissola were the principal artists creating formal state portraits used to establish the image of Philip II and his heirs across his empire and for critical diplomatic efforts around the globe. Though prior studies have considered them independent of one another or as competitors, my research pairs computational analysis of the works of both artists with archival and contextual evidence to distinguish Spanish court workshop practices and explore the possibility of a more complex, collaborative working relationship between these artists than we currently interpret from the available record.
My initial research focuses on assembling contextual evidence of the presence and working practices of Sofonisba Anguissola and Alonso Sánchez Coello in the court of Philip II between the years 1561 and 1572, and on mapping networks of royal family members, courtiers, artists, diplomats, and government functionaries who have left a record of the day-to-day workings of the Spanish court and Philip’s government. The surviving records of the Spanish court artistic workshops reflect a pattern of compensation intended to strengthen relationships over the more common commission and contract-based accounting seen in other courts.
With losses of the royal collection resulting from various natural and man-made disasters, art historians are left with a fragmented visual record and it has been difficult to correlate individual surviving works with the archival records and establish patterns of artistic activity within the Spanish court. To address this challenge, my research applies methods of computational analysis to assist in identifying evidence of influence and collaboration and trace lines of relationship in this complex network of monarchs, artists, and courtiers.
A report of Tanya’s research can be found here.
Dr Francisco Mamani-Fuentes. Research Associate, ECERM-Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain) – £3000, for a PhD or postdoctoral student based in Spain.
Building with Wood: British and European Sources for a Comparative Study of Early Modern Spanish Carpentry at the John Rylands Library.
This research project draws upon British and European architectural sources from the Architectural Printed Works Special Collection at the John Rylands Library. For the first time, it will analyse early modern timber construction knowledge and techniques from a comparative perspective, aligning them with historical carpentry practices in Spain. The aim of this study is to identify commonalities between various British and European building cultures. This will facilitate the establishment of typological criteria intended to advance the study of historic carpentry beyond the traditional confines of national research frameworks. The project will culminate in the creation of a technical dictionary, enhancing communication among researchers focused on timber construction across Europe and the Americas.
A report of Francisco’s research can be found here.
Travel Scholarships
Isabella Inkip, The University of Edinburgh – £1000 for travel to Cordoba.
Art History of Early Islamic Córdoba: On-Site Archaeological Training to Support the Development of Digital Teaching Tools in Medieval Islamic Art History.
This June I am visiting Cordoba to take part in the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture and Collections annual research trip. During this trip I will focus on using different digital documentation techniques (photography, lidar scanning and photography) to document different elements of Cordoba’s Islamic heritage. My aim is to document aspects of the medieval city itself, the architectural remains of Islamic Villas as well as objects from this period. These digitalisations will then be used in the development process of the Digital Lab’s forth coming educational video game, Digital Munya 3, which will be produced with the help of Ubisoft’s Maxime Durand. As an Art Historian with a background digital arts and 3D scanning, I am excited to see how the digital documentation I gather on this trip can help us build a game that faithfully represents the architecture of Islamic Cordoba.
A report of Isabella’s research can be found here.
Daniela Castro-Ruiz, University of Durham, £1000 for travel to Madrid and Valladolid
Knowledge Representation in the Bestiario de Don Juan de Austria
My research examines the Bestiario de Don Juan de Austria (c.1570), written and illustrated by Martín Villaverde, an author about whom nothing is known. The only surviving bestiary in Castilian with extensive illustrations. It depicts various creatures against diverse landscapes, embedding symbols of society. It shares characteristics of medieval bestiaries, including moral elements. The manuscript serves as a cultural appropriation, adapting tradition to its historical context between the Battle of Las Alpujarras in 1568 and the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The aim is to study and analyse the historical and social conditions of the manuscript and its function in its original context, looking principally at questions of visual reception.
The Bestiario serves as a key subject due to its symbolic intricacies, showcasing a distinct Hispanic humanist perspective and emphasizing the significance of illuminated manuscripts in art history. To understand the milieu surrounding the Bestiary and its interpretative community, extensive archival research is essential. This includes exploring the exchange of woodcuts, text circulation, and the world of patronage and collecting, encompassing not only illustrated manuscripts but also cabinets of curiosities and scientific drawings. I will undertake a research trip to Madrid and Valladolid, enabling me to access essential documents and artifacts. This will facilitate an interpretative reconstruction of the context in which the manuscript was produced. The archives of Simancas, and of the Council of State and the Patronage Section will prove invaluable in this endeavour. Accessing the National Historical Archive, particularly its University Section, and the Municipal Archive of Alcalá de Henares is also vital for insights into don Juan de Austria’s education and the dissemination of intellectual and artistic knowledge during the period.
A report of Daniela’s research can be here.
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