New Online Course: MOOC Burgos: Deciphering Secrets of Medieval Spain

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Roger Martinez is pleased to announce the launch of a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that specifically focuses on medieval Spanish paleography training. The course is called Burgos: Deciphering Secrets of Medieval Spain and it will be offered on a monthly basis on coursera.org at https://www.coursera.org/learn/burgos-deciphering-secrets-medieval-spain. The next class begins on 9 April 2018. This six-week course is intensive — it requires, on average, 10-12 hours of your time per week.

This is the first of three new MOOCs that offer intensive paleography training. Three additional MOOCs pertaining to the medieval/early modern history of Toledo, Plasencia, and Granada, will be launched over the next 3 to 9 months. These courses are in addition to an introductory course on medieval Spain titled, Coexistence in Medieval Spain: Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and another titled, Deciphering Secrets: The Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe.

Course Description: 
This advanced course focuses on two primary goals: (1) appraising how Jews, Christians, and Muslims shaped the history of medieval Spain and (2) mastering the craft of Spanish paleography, the skill of identifying Spanish handwriting in the 11th- through 15th-century manuscripts. Through the lens of the medieval history of Burgos, we dedicate 75% percent of our efforts to developing pragmatic expertise in the interpretation of Carolingian/French/Gothic handwriting.

Specifically, the course explores how the royal Castilian city of Burgos influenced, and was influenced by, Jews, Christians, and Muslims. We closely evaluate the Spanish Christian Reconquest, the Plague and the 14th-century Castilian civil war, anti-Jewish pogroms, the emergence of elite conversos (Jewish converts to Christianity), and the role of the king and Roman Catholic Church in the creation of Catholic Spain. Through onsite interviews in archives and museums in Burgos, we experience the medieval city, artifacts, and manuscripts. While we teach using Spanish manuscripts, very little or no knowledge of the Spanish language is necessary to complete the course.

Using an intensive array of paleography practices, exams, independent projects, and collaborative efforts, you will garner exceptional skills that you can apply to interpreting any medieval European handwriting. To demonstrate your mastery of paleography you will (1) create a 14th-15th-century alphabet, numeral, and abbreviation guide using manuscript images, and (2) transcribe one selection from a medieval manuscript.

Inquiries: rogerlmartinez@gmail.com

ARTES Glendinning Lecture: Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán, ‘The Spanish Patrimonio Nacional and the new Museum of Royal Collections at the Royal Palace in Madrid,’ Instituto Cervantes, London, 22 March 2018, 7pm

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Lecture: Edward Payne (The Auckland Project), ‘In the Shadow of Louis-Philippe: Building a Spanish Gallery in County Durham,’ Visual Cultures Forum, Queen Mary University of London, 22 March 2018

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The Backhouse Bank in Bishop Auckland, soon to re-open as the Spanish Gallery

On 22 March 2018 at 6 pm ARTES Committee Member Edward Payne will lecture on ‘In the Shadow of Louis-Philippe: Building a Spanish Gallery in County Durham,’ at the Visual Cultures Forum of Queen Mary University of London. The lecture will offer a glimpse behind the scenes of an exciting project in the North East of England. It will provide an introduction to the origins of an unusual endeavour—building a Spanish art gallery a stone’s throw away from a bishop’s palace—as well as a sneak preview of the gallery’s contents, including recent acquisitions and plans for potential loans and narratives.

To reserve a place, please click here.

Opens today: Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy at Tate Modern, London

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Pablo Picasso The Dream (Le Rêve) 1932, Private Collection © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2017

Co-organised by Tate Modern and the Musée Picasso, Paris, the exhibition Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy at Tate Modern chronicles an intensely creative year in the life of this artist. Focusing on representing his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, he produced some of his most innovative compositions.
Surprisingly, this will be the Tate’s first ever solo exhibition dedicated to Picasso. Featuring paintings, drawings, and archive documents, the exhibition will reveal the man behind the myth, allowing visitors to discover the full complexity of this famous artist and of his exceptional life.

Third meeting of the Maius Workshop: ‘Inside and Outside Geographical Boundaries,’ March 13, 6–7:30, Room G21A, Senate House, London

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Conference: Inmaculada Hispánica. Imaginarios visuales en una monarquía confesional, EEHAR, Rome, 6 June 2018

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The Catholic Church did not define the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of Mary as a dogma until 1854. Yet as early as 1616 Felipe III created the Real Junta de la Inmaculada and proclaimed the Spanish Crown as the greatest supporter of the doctrine. Ever since, the Spanish Monarchy was at the centre of an intense propaganda campaign intended to promote belief in the immaculate conception. Art played a key role in this project.

This seminar will explore the different aspects of this marketing operation in the Iberian kingdoms, in the Italian Viceroyalties and in Rome itself. From Madrid, Palermo and Seville, the speakers will unveil the images of one of the most striking campaigns of visual propaganda in history.

Coordinator: Rafael Valladares (EEHAR-CSIC)

Director: Pablo González Tornel (Universitat Jaume I)

Participants:

Pablo González Tornel (Universitat Jaume I): Inmaculada Hispánica. Propaganda y persuasión en la España del Seiscientos.
Piers Baker-Bates (Open University, London): Inmaculada Hispánica in Rome: visual propaganda in the service of doctrine.
Maurizio Vitella (Università degli Studi di Palermo): Iconografia della Purissima Regina nel Viceregno di Sicilia.
Benito Navarrete Prieto (Universidad de Alcalá): La Inmaculada como instrumento político desde Murillo al nacionalcatolicismo.

Location: Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma. Via di Sant’Eufemia 13. 00187 Roma.
Date and time: miércoles 6 de junio de 2018, 16:00 horas.

Click here for the programme in Spanish and Italian.

Symposium: ‘Collecting Murillo in Britain and Ireland’; The Wallace Collection, London, 14 May 2018

 

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Bartolomé-Esteban Murillo, The Marriage of the Virgin, c.1660-1670, The Wallace Collection

‘Oh wonderful Spain. Think of this romantic land covered in Moorish ruins and full of Murillos’

Benjamin Disraeli’s 1830 letter attests to the prominence of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in the minds British travellers and collectors. In celebration of the 400thanniversary of Murillo’s birth, the Wallace Collection, in collaboration with the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, will be exploring this further by hosting an international one-day symposium on 14th May 2018 entitled ‘Collecting Murillo in Britain and Ireland’.

Speakers include Thierry Morel, Veronique Gerard Powell, Xanthe Brooke, Hugh Brigstocke, Isabelle Kent, Xavier Bray, Claudia Hopkins, Thomas Bean, Hilary Macartney and Philip McEvansoneya. We are delighted to have this group of acclaimed scholars coming together to discuss new research surrounding the collecting of Murillo in Britain and Ireland.The seminars delivered will form the basis of a new volume on the subject to be published by CEEH.

Please follow this link to buy tickets for the conference.

Programme*

09:30 – Registration

09:50 – Welcome

Session 1) Early Displays of Works by Murillo in Britain

10:00 – Sir Robert Walpole’s Spanish Pictures. Thierry Morel (Director and Curator at Large, Hermitage Museum Foundation)

10:30 – From Lord Godolphin to John Blackwood and Lawrence Dundas: the first British purchasers of Murillo. Véronique Gerard Powell (Honorary Senior Lecturer, Sorbonne University)

11:00 – tea and coffee break

Session 2) British Collectors in Seville and Madrid

11:30 – Collecting Murillo in Seville: the case of Julian Benjamin Williams (d.1866) and Frank Hall Standish (1799-1840). Xanthe Brooke (Curator of Continental European Art, Walker Art Gallery)

12:00 – William Eden: the discovery of Murillo with his friends in Spain. Travel and collecting. Hugh Brigstocke (independent scholar)

12:30 – The curious case of General Meade (1775 – 1849): his collection in Madrid and its dissemination. Isabelle Kent (Enriqueta Harris Frankfort Curatorial Assistant, The Wallace Collection)

13:00 – Break for lunch (not included)

14:00 – William Buchanan and James Irvine: In-situ talk in the Great Gallery. Xavier Bray (Director, The Wallace Collection) and Isabelle Kent

Session 3) Artists and Scholars travellers to Spain

14:30 – ‘All softness’ – Murillo through British artists’ eyes. Claudia Hopkins (Lecturer, University of Edinburgh)

15:00 – Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain and Richard Ford. Thomas Bean (private researcher)

15:30 – Accessing Murillo: Stirling Maxwell’s contribution to scholarship, collecting and taste in Britain. Hilary Macartney (Lecturer, University of Glasgow)

Session 4) Other Major Collectors

16:00 – Collecting and displaying Murillo in Ireland. Philip McEvansoneya (Lecturer, Trinity College Dublin)

16:30 – Close

Third Meeting of The Maius Workshop: “Inside and Outside Geographical Boundaries,” Senate House (Room G21A), 13/3/2018 from 6 pm to 7.30 pm

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Picasso portrait to lead Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale, 28 February 2018

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Pablo Picasso, Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (marie-Thérèse Walter), 1937 © SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS 2018. 

Pablo Picasso’s Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) (1937) will be the star of Sotheby’s evening sale tomorrow. It is one of Picasso’s last paintings of his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, whom he represented countless times in the 1930s. Several paintings of Marie-Thérèse will feature in the exhibition Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy, opening on 8 March 2018 at Tate Modern, London. While works in the exhibition chronicle the romantic highpoint of their relationship, the painting auctioned by Sotheby’s marks its end. Indeed, the dark shadow surrounding Marie-Thérèse’s face may evoke Picasso’s growing passion for Dora Maar, his lover between 1935 and 1943.