De Arte. Revista de Historia del Arte

Centring the margins

2024-06-03T11:05:32+00:00

On the exterior of the medieval walls of Ourense Cathedral that have survived to the present day —from the original project of the temple (1157-1248)— we can see a series of abundantly sculpted cornices. The decorative richness of these cornices, from geometric to anthropomorphic images, allows a stylistic analysis of the sculpture in relation to other examples of the cathedral and to related buildings. This article will focus on the cornices in the period 1174-1218: a time when their ‘model’ appearance was established and destined for prolonged success, and when Ourense sculpture participated in the complicated and interesting period of the late Hispanic Romanesque.

The convent of San Francisco in Avila: contributions to its construction process and decorative elements

2024-04-15T11:47:39+00:00

The article offers unpublished data from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The date of its first documentary appearance is specified, linking it to the primitive construction of the temple. In the process of addition of chapels, special attention is paid to those in which Juan Guas intervened, proposing new relations that could help to clarify his intervention in other works like the convent of Santo Tomás. Data are provided on the disappeared cloister and its dependencies during the Modern Age, as well as on its transformation in the 19th and 20th centuries. The hypothesis of the belonging of a painting attributed to Sansón Florentino to the chapel of San Antonio is raised, and unpublished altarpieces that have disappeared are revealed together with their authors.

The study of the underdrawings by Fernando Yáñez de Almedina through four tables from the Museu de Belles Arts de València

2024-03-20T16:14:47+00:00

The works of the Hernandos in general, and those of Fernando Yánez de Almedina in particular, have been analysed from multiple points of view, but a study of his underlying drawings is still outstanding. The aim
of this article is to show that a close study of these drawings may be key to understanding the Castilian artist’s creative process. By subjecting the four boards preserved at the Museu de Belles Arts de València to infrared photography, it has been possible to identify some techniques that met the artists’ formal and expressive needs. They also show a certain hitherto undetected versatility in the transposition of the preliminary drawing to the final painting which contributes to an understanding of the artistic identity of this artist.

The Escorial as the “eighth Wonder of the world”. A lexical-terminological research of “wonder”/the “wonderful” in the Brief description of Father Santos (1657)

2024-03-13T18:32:29+00:00

The idea of the Royal Monastery of The Escorial as the “eighth Wonder of the world” (and superior than the remaining seven) constitutes one of the literary topics that has given the monument the most fame since its dawn, at the end of the 16th Century.

Because it survival nowadays, a monographic lexical-terminological research of the word “wonder”/the “wonderful” is proposed in one of the texts describing the Monastery that made the most use of it (thus demonstrated after previous comparative studies with other descriptions): the Brief description of the Hieronymite friar Francisco de los Santos (1657). Therefore, the present investigation, based on Digital Humanities methodology, sheds light on the meaning of the concept in this testimony, paradigmatic of the essence of the “wonder” of Escurial.

Rodrigo Francisco Vieira and the sculpture of glued fabric in Brazil

2024-01-09T09:53:15+00:00

In the 1990s, in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil), specifically in the Campo das Vertentes region, a group of images made in the 18th and 19th centuries using glued canvas as material was found. The authorship of the pieces is attributed to the workshop of the Portuguese sculptor Rodrigo Francisco Vieira (1712-1792), settled in the region, who would develop, as everything indicates, the only Brazilian school dedicated to the art of glued canvas. For a long time, it has been sought to relate the existence in America of sculptures made with trivial elements with certain autochthonous practices. However, in the Brazilian case, this "polymaterial" takes its influences at a technical level directly from the European context, where this type of sculptures had a notable reception as a result of its rapid production and affordable cost. The technical foundations identified in the elaboration of the Minera images lead us directly to the treatise of the Portuguese father Ignacio da Piedade Vasconcellos, Artefactos symmetriacos e geométricos, advertidos e descobertos pela industriosa perfeição das Artes, Esculturaria, Architectonica, e da Pintura, published in 1733, from which Vieira would make contact with the technique and would transfer the art to the "lands of gold".

Artistic testamentary donations of the urban clergy from Seville at the end of the Old Regime

2024-02-12T10:19:09+00:00

The analysis of testamentary orders referring to artworks allows us to grasp a better understanding
of the processes of donation of multiple artistic pieces to different institutions and third parties by the clergy of Seville.
Throughout legacy, the clergy could remove the main works from their collections, whether due to their quality or sentimental
value. Thanks to this work we will be able to know the flow of artistic pieces and the interest in these post-mortem
donations at the end of the Old Regime. This paper will be complementing parte of existing studies on art collecting or
the possession of works in private hands through the study of asset inventories.

Oviedo´s union headquarters: two projects, one powerful architecture.

2024-05-07T10:59:50+00:00

The Spanish Union Organization was among the most important institutions during dictator Francisco Franco´s regime. This meant its buildings were considered part of what is now called the “official architecture” of the time. Two projects for the Union Headquarters’ building were drawn up in Asturias in two very different contexts, providing an opportunity to analyze the evolution from an architectural and organizational point of view. The building of the final project, finished in 1954, confirmed the start of a new era for Asturian unionism.

New architectures in the Galician landscape: Antonio Tenreiro Brochón and the hydroelectric settlement at Os Peares

2024-06-20T16:48:47+00:00

From the 1950s onwards, architectural modernity was introduced in Galicia, thanks to a generation
of architects who broke away from historicist languages. One of the pioneers was Antonio Tenreiro Bochón who, with an eclectic training, designed a multitude of typologies and formal solutions: from single-family dwellings to factory or sports facilities, among others. Specifically, the following pages contain a study of his work within the team of technicians in charge of the construction of large reservoirs and dams on Galician rivers, especially in the Miño and Sil basins. Although the article focuses on the specific case of Os Peares, it aims to show his contribution to the shaping of the new landscapes and models of life generated by hydroelectric power stations in Galicia.

Julián Hoyos Alonso y María José Zaparaín (eds.), Mujeres, arte y patrimonio. Hilos de oro en el lienzo del tiempo, Madrid, Trea, 2024

2024-11-29T14:46:46+00:00

Silva Santa Cruz, Noelia; García García, Francisco de Asís; Rodríguez Peinado, Laura y Raúl Romero Medina (eds.). (In)materialidad en el arte medieval. Gijón: Trea, 2023

2024-11-29T15:03:05+00:00

Alonso Ruiz, Begoña. Juan Gil de Hontañón, arquitecto del tardogótico

2024-10-06T16:23:52+00:00

Review of the book Begoña Alonso Ruiz, Juan Gil de Hontañón, arquitecto del tardogótico (Madrid: CSIC, 2023).

Rabasco García, Víctor. La cultura artística del Reino Andalusí de Toledo: promoción e innovación en la corte de los Banū-Dū-L-Nūn

2024-09-09T10:10:22+00:00

Pazos-López, Ángel y Ana María Cuesta Sánchez (eds.). Las imágenes de los animales fantásticos en la Edad Media. Gijón: Trea, 2022

2024-09-16T16:09:29+00:00