February 6, 2008

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

DECORATIVE ARTS AND ARTISTIC TECHNIQUES

The decorative arts and their role in artistic heritage

Dr. Carmen Heredia Moreno.
University of Alcalá de Henares

The lecturer began her presentation exhibition with a brief summary of the concept and meaning of the decorative arts based on the definitions of Santiago Alcolea and Antonio Bonet, and a evaluation on the same supported by documentary testimonies of the artists themselves from the Age average.

He then made a historiographical synthesis of the Spanish panorama, dividing it into three stages. The first one centered in Madrid and in historians related to the Institución Libre de teaching (1871...). The second, from 1907 in connection with Barcelona (Institut d'Estudis Catalans), Madrid (board de Ampliación de programs of study) and Seville (laboratory de Arte). In this period, the work of professors Francisco Murillo in Seville and Angulo in Seville and Madrid was highlighted as undisputed pioneers in many areas of the decorative arts through their teaching and research activity staff, as well as the continuity of their work through Hernandez Perera, a disciple of Angulo, which links with the following period. In the third stage (1968...) the creation of the Specialties and Degrees in Art History with the incorporation of the decorative arts as an academic discipline and the consequent development of the programs of study and research was highlighted.

An extensive section was devoted to analyzing the uses and functions of the decorative arts in the religious and civil context of each period and in the panorama of Spanish artistic heritage, to conclude the exchanges between profane and religious pieces throughout history, both for the symbolic character of precious metals and for the persistence of ambivalent typologies that allow their adaptation to different uses.

Set of ewer. Cathedral Magistral Alcalá de Henares (left).
Still life Massaveu collection (right).