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Ricardo Fernández Gracia, Director of the Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art.

A exhibition to taste. The other Court. Women of the House of Austria in the Royal Monasteries of the Descalzas and the Encarnación.

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 10:32:00 +0000 Published in Navarra Newspaper

Throughout this summer and until Sept. 15, the Royal Palace of Madrid will be hosting this exhibition exhibition produced by Patrimonio Nacional, sponsored by the Banco Santander Foundation and curated by Professor Fernando Checa. It is a unique opportunity to approach facts and contexts through singular artistic pieces that have jealously preserved these two female cloisters of the capital of the Hispanic monarchy, which speak of patronage, iconography, techniques, artistic relationships and, of course, use and function.

The director of the film mission statement, Roland Joffé, has written that "storytelling is not only about showing, but also about making people feel". In line with this assertion, we can affirm that the iter de la exhibition, in its different sections, relates realities through talking objects so full of true iconographic and aesthetic emotions (background and form), that people who come to visit its thirteen rooms, will not only add knowledge, but will multiply it, if they are able to stop with an attitude of enjoyment in front of so much wonder. Its contemplation in sensory core topic reminds us of the enlightened Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, when he said: "He who cannot see, cannot feel, and he who cannot feel, does not enjoy. So why so many visitors to the Academies and Museums, when they can neither see, nor feel, nor enjoy what is in them?


Rich contents dictated by suggestive and outstanding works

The sample is testimony of the splendor reached by both monasteries of Poor Clares and Augustinian Recollect Nuns in the XVI and XVII centuries, in the time of the Austrias. The Descalzas Reales was founded by Doña Juana of Austria, Princess of Portugal, daughter of Emperor Charles V, and its church was consecrated in 1564. The one of the Encarnación was erected in 1616, on the initiative of Philip III and his wife Margaret of Austria and was linked to the neighboring Real Alcázar through a passageway.

Both were witnesses of a great artistic activity, partly due to the importance of the royal people who lived within its walls, such as Juana of Portugal or her sister the Empress Maria of Austria, or those who visited its rooms from Philip II to Charles II, along with prominent members of the court as the Duke of Lerma or Don Juan José of Austria. In both cases a political system was developed that has been defined as "another court", close to that of the Alcázar, mixing a political and feminine network that integrated places and courts (Lisbon, Brussels, Vienna, Prague and Florence) with a peculiar feminine devotion within "architectures for silence", in the expression of Professor Beatriz Blasco.

The different sections show us the collections of Princess Juana of Portugal, the Renaissance magnificence of Doña Ana of Austria, the idea of wonder that prevailed in her reliquaries, the world of devotions associated with Sister Margarita de la Cruz, the role of Rubens in the Descalzas and, of course, everything related to politics, dynasty and religion, the power of the image, as well as the rituals, in accordance with the orders to which they belonged.

In a review like this one, it is not possible to list the great artists and the pieces exhibited. We will mention a few that, due to their exceptional nature, speak per se of the quality of the sample. The tapestries made with designs by Rubens, the portraits of Antonio Moro, Alonso Sánchez Coello or the aforementioned Rubens, the Renaissance reliquary-chest of St. Victor, the work of Wenzel Jamnitzer, delicate pieces of goldsmithing such as the German chalice of the Infanta Ana Dorotea, a pair of Novo-Hispanic enconchados, Indo-Portuguese ivories, Renaissance and Baroque embroideries, objects of sumptuary arts, silverware with rich corals or enamels and namban art, give us an idea of the category and diversity of the exhibits. 

Spanish polychrome sculpture pieces could not be missing, specifically two of its great protagonists: Pedro de Mena and Gregorio Fernandez. Of the latter master, the Christ at the column of the Incarnation is exhibited, to which the textual sources of the time refer, to express its realism, pointing out that its arteries only lacked a pulse.  

As for the festive customs within the walls, some were inspired by those of the imperial and Madrid courts. That of the Nativity of the Virgin was introduced by the Infanta Margarita de la Cruz with the election of the queen and the distribution of offices that the nuns accepted with great pleasure, including among them those of the chief chambermaid, mistress of honor, ladies, meninas, chief guard, administrative assistant, hostess, chamber and toilet guards, cantora, canner, washerwoman, gardener, pantrymaid, baker, dwarf, washerwoman, cook and sweeper. The festival spread to several Spanish and Navarrese cloisters.

The published catalog includes programs of study referring to the great ensembles of both monasteries and to the contents of the exhibition. The latter offers the opportunity to take a guided tour of visit , which is always a good opportunity to see it before visiting it or to remember different pieces that, for different reasons, caught our attention. 

I end with a reflection by Professor García de Cortázar, in which he states that, for the construction of a Spanish nation project and its consolidation, in addition to social reforms and deepening of democratic values, it is necessary to accompany it with a cultural patriotism, inspiring cohesion among its citizens, based on heritage, made up of our literary and aesthetic manifestations, of which they feel proud. This exhibition is an example of how to revalue the heritage and make it available to the citizens with a correct diffusion, by the hand of an exquisite presentation, a meditated didactic and an excellent catalog.