May 6, 2009

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM NAVARRE

Navarrese prints by the Marquis of Santa María del Villar

Mr. Jorge Latorre Izquierdo
University of Navarra

D. Diego Quiroga y Losada (1880-1975), Marquis of Santa María del Villar, appears associated with Navarre as one of the itinerant photographers who devoted most importance to the Community throughout his photographic degree program . On the other hand, it is in Navarra, in the Institución Príncipe de Viana, where a large part of his photographic file is located; and also where important exhibitions and publications of his photographs have been held from July 1965 to the present day. For example, a exhibition- homage held in July 1973, thanks to the kindness of Mr. Francisco Javier Beúnza, definitively linked the Marquis of Santa María del Villar with Navarra, which would be confirmed with other subsequent exhibitions in Sangüesa and other towns in Navarra, up to the one entitled Historical Photographers of Navarra, held in Pamplona in June 1988, in which the photographs of Santa María del Villar were exhibited together with those of José Galle and Luis Rupérez. Other exhibitions took place in the association Fotográfica de Chantrea, in the CAN of Burlada, in the University of Navarra or in the Palace-file of the Kings of Navarra. 

The photographs of Santa María del Villar illustrate some old publications dedicated to themes of the region, such as guide histórico-artística de la Basílica de Uxué by R. P. Jacinto Clavería de Arangua (Madrid, 1936), or the book Por el Pirineo Navarro by Cayetano Enríquez de Salamanca (Madrid, 1978). In 1973, coinciding with the homage of Sangüesa, the association Fotográfica y Cinematográfica de Navarra, dedicated to the photography of the Marquis of Santa María del Villar its September bulletin . But the work that most influenced the knowledge of the Marquis of Santa María del Villar was Fotografías de Navarra, published in 1982 by the Diputación Foral through the Institución Príncipe de Viana, which served as a lure and reference letter for the realization of my thesis doctoral thesis, defended at the University of Navarra in June 1998, with the title Santa María del Villar, photographer-tourist (in the origins of Spanish artistic photography), which saw the light that same year in a deluxe edition published by the Fundación Príncipe de Viana.
 

"Almadía por el Esca", ca. 1910.
 

In one of his last interviews shortly before his death in 1975, Mr. Diego Quiroga claimed to know every corner of Navarre, a region he deeply admired "for its strong faith, its art, its people and, above all, for its beautiful Pyrenean valleys that had captivated him so much" . His first stay dates back to 1890, when as a child he used to spend the grape harvest season in his grandmother's ancestral home in Allo, known as "La Manchega" (where the winery was located), until phylloxera destroyed the vines and the estate was sold. Since then, his trips to Navarra were continuous, traveling from one part of the region to another, with a special dedication to the area average and the Pyrenees. He traveled the Camino de Santiago twice (1905 and 1907), photographing the landscapes and monuments of the route, and in 1916 he descended from Urzainqui to Tortosa in one of those almadías that he was so enthusiastic about, and of which he has left us some technically and aesthetically excellent photographs.

With José María Álvarez de Toledo, Count de la Ventosa, an illustrious amateur who would become president of the Photographic Society of Madrid, he made his first photographic excursion to Roncesvalles in 1910 through Zabaldica, Larrasoaña, Imbuluzqueta, Zubiri, etc. which would have several sequels later, until the most important excursion of 1920, of which there are abundant photographic and also written testimonies. Many other photographs of this time were lost in 1936, with the destruction of his file in Madrid, but he continued to travel to Navarre with great frequency from San Sebastian, which would be his residency program final after the War.

There are more than a thousand (of the 13,000 photographs that the file of the Fundación Príncipe de Viana holds) images dedicated to Navarre, with landscapes, types and monuments of both the Pyrenees and the rest of the region. This collection undoubtedly contains some of his best photographs, both for their documentary nature and their aesthetic quality. For all these reasons, without being from Navarre, he can be considered one of the most important photographers of the region, so it is not surprising that a monographic issue , the 35th issue of the Panorama collection, published by the Institución Príncipe de Viana, has also been dedicated to him.
 

"Sopa boba en La Oliva", 1936.