A symposium on Spanish Art will take place from 23-25 October in Co Durham, highlighting collections in the area and launching a book on treasures of Spanish Art in Country Durham. The three-day event will include exclusive access to view Zurbarán’s Jacob and his Twelve Sons and a conference dinner at Auckland Castle.

Below is a provisional programme for the event (the pdf is available here: Spanish Art Symposium Programme – Co Durham – 23-25 Oct 2014

To book a place, or for further information, please contact:

Rosie Bradford
Groups and Events Co-ordinator
The Bowes Museum
symposium@thebowesmuseum.org.uk
01833 694615

Thursday 23 October 2014
Auckland Castle, Market Place, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, DL14 7NR

Friday 24 October 2014
The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 8NP

Saturday 25 October 2014
Palace Green, Durham University, Durham, County Durham, DH1 3RN

Jointly organised by Auckland Castle, The Bowes Museum, and Durham University, this three-day symposium aims to highlight the outstanding collections of Spanish art held in County Durham. Internationally renowned academics and museum professionals will present a wide range of papers that will place these significant collections within their artistic, cultural, and historic context. The symposium will also be an opportunity to consider the reception of seventeenth-century Spanish art in Britain, marking the bicentenary of the arrival of Velázquez’s The Rokeby Venus in Teesdale (now in the National Gallery, London).

County Durham has historically been a hot spot for the collection and display of Spanish art, which fascinated influential figures such as Bishop Richard Trevor, John and Joséphine Bowes, and Frank Hall Standish. Today the results of this interest are to be found in the collections at The Bowes Museum and Auckland Castle, which together represent the most significant UK holdings of Spanish Golden Age art outside of London.

The symposium heralds a wider, long-term vision shared by Auckland Castle, The Bowes Museum, and Durham University, to establish County Durham as a centre for the study of Spanish art in the UK, and as a world-class visitor destination.

El Greco (1541-1641), The Tears of St Peter, 1580-1589, oil on canvas, The Bowes Museum

PROGRAMME

23 October 2014
Auckland Castle

09.30 – 10.00   Registration
10.00 – 10.30
Welcome Remarks
Jonathan Ruffer, Chairman of the Auckland Castle Trust
10.30 – 11.30
Zurbarán and Britain (Title TBC)
Gabriele Finaldi, Associate Director of Curatorship and Research, the Museo del Prado, Madrid
11.30 – 12.00   Coffee Break
12.00 – 13.00
Francisco de Zurbarán’s representations of Saint Francis in the National Gallery
Letizia Treves, Curator of Italian and Spanish Paintings 1600-1800, The National Gallery, London
13.00 – 14.30   Lunch – Tours of proposed Spanish Art Gallery site in Bishop Auckland Market Place
14.30 – 15.30
The Sons of Jacob: the first dysfunctional family why did Zurbarán paint them?
Alastair Laing, former Curator of Pictures and Sculpture, The National Trust
Thomas Gainsborough’s response to the work of Spanish masters
Anthony Mould, Fine Art Agent and Dealer specialising in British Art
15.30 – 16.00   Refreshments
16.00 – 17.00
The Museo del Prado and the visual construction of the history of Spanish painting in the nineteenth century
Javier Portús, Senior Curator of Spanish Painting, Museo del Prado, Madrid
17.00 – 17.45     Concluding Remarks
18.00 – 19.00     Drinks Reception and Book Launch
19.00 – 22.00     Conference Dinner                            

Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), Levi, 1640-45, oil on canvas, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham

24 October 2014
The Bowes Museum

09.30 – 09.45
Welcome and Introduction
Adrian Jenkins, Director of The Bowes Museum
09.45 – 10.25
Art collecting as a language of friendship and affinity between England and Spain
during the seventeenth century
Toby Osborne, Senior Lecturer in History, Durham University
10.25 – 11.05
Spanish masters and the spoils of war: the circulation of Spanish art in the era of Napoleon
Tom Stammers, Lecturer in History, Durham University
11.05 – 11.30   Coffee Break
11.30 – 12.10    
Preliminary thoughts on materiality and spirituality in the works of Francisco de Zurbarán 
Cordula van Whye, Lecturer in History of Art, University of York
12.10 – 12.50
Madrid’s monastic, artistic, and cultural heritage before the Confiscation of 1835. Report by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando
Itziar Aranna, Research Fellow, Academia de San Fernando,
12.50 – 14.00   Lunch – optional tours of the Museum
14.00 – 14.30
Frank Hall Standish (1799-1840), Collector of Durham, Duxbury and Seville
Howard Coutts, Keeper of Ceramics, The Bowes Museum
14.30 – 15.00
Frank Hall Standish and his paintings acquisitions in Seville
Xanthe Brooke, Senior Curator (Continental European Fine Art), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
15.00 – 15.40
John Bowes and the sale of the Quinto Collection: an opportunity or a question of taste?
Véronique Gérard Powell, Senior Lecturer (Honorary) University of Paris-Sorbonne
15.40 – 16.15   Tea Break
16.15 – 16.45   Closing Remarks
17.00 – 18.00   Tours of Picture Gallery and Exhibition
18.00 – 22.00   Drinks Reception and Conference Dinner

25 October 2014
Durham University

09.30 ‒ 09.45   Arrival and Coffee
09.45 ‒ 10.15     
Sugar and spice and all things nice: José Antolínez and the Immaculate Virgin of the Bowes Museum
Lesley K. Twomey, Reader in Medieval and Golden Age Iberian Art, University of Northumbria
10.15 ‒ 10.45
Sacred skin: the martyrdom of St Bartholomew in Spanish Golden Age art
Andy Beresford, Professor of Spanish, Durham University
10.45 ‒ 11.10   Coffee Break
11.10 ‒ 11.40
The art of Seville and the collection of a scholar: Stirling Maxwell and the Fiestas de Sevilla
Hilary Macartney, Lecturer in Hispanic Art, University of Glasgow
11.40 ‒ 12.10
In the wake of Colonna and Mitelli: Quadratura in the Court of the Last Habsburg
Jeremy Robbins, Forbes Chair of Spanish, University of Edinburgh
12.10 ‒ 12.40
Spanish art and the Catholic Revival in Britain
Stefano Cracolici, Reader in Italian, Durham University
12.40 ‒ 13.30    Lunch
13.30 ‒ 14.30    Round Table Discussion
‘Engaging public interest in Spanish religious art’
14.45 ‒ 15.30    Optional Tour of Durham Castle Collection

Unknown artist, St Jerome, oil on canvas, Durham Castle Collection