October 3, 2013

Conferences

Navarrese authors in the Marqués de la Real Defensa Photographic Collection

D. Ignacio Miguéliz Valcarlos
Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art

The Marquisate of La Real Defensa conserves an important collection of photography that spans from the emergence of this art form to the present day, and includes both national and international photographers. Within this collection, and despite the fact that they are only a small part of the collection, it is worth mentioning the works from Navarre, both those taken by photographers with an open studio in our community, as well as those anonymous works whose themes are urban landscapes, social events and characters from the old kingdom. The origin of this collection, a product of family inheritances and compilations, can be traced to the interest in photography of Don Tiburcio Mencos y Bernaldo de Quirós (1891-1969) and Doña Isabel Doussinague Brunet (1907-1974), Marquises of La Real Defensa.

Don Joaquín and Don Tiburcio Mencos y Bernaldo de Quirós
Emilio Pliego, c. 1896
 

This collection is made up of a set of pieces that retrace the history of photography in Navarre through the eyes of its protagonists, the Mencos family, and through them we can see not only the evolution of this art, but also the evolution of Navarrese society throughout this time. Thus, we see works by the first photographers who settled in Pamplona in the 19th century, such as Coyne, Ducloux or Pliego, of whom mainly studio portraits are preserved. They are followed by a series of masters who will monopolize the work in the capital of Navarre throughout the twentieth century, as Roldán, Galle, Gómez, Zaragüeta or Zubieta and Retegui, which are characterized by a documentary photography, direct, since their goal was not to make artistic shots, but to document the daily pulse of the life of the city through the events reflected in their images. In many cases these reports are intended for the graphic press, both Navarrese and national, for which they work. Along with these photographers, a series of anonymous photographs are preserved, some of them probably taken by different members of the family, which show the main events that took place in Pamplona throughout this time, as well as urban landscapes of the city and other towns in Navarre, in addition to various scenes from the San Fermín festivities.
 

Mr. Tiburcio Mencos and Mrs. Isabel Doussinague.
Photo Galle. 1958
 

Thanks to these images we can also see the rapid evolution experienced by photography throughout history, both in terms of technique and subject matter. Thus, among the photographs of Navarrese origin in the collection, the images taken on albumen by these programs of study during the 19th century coexist with the gelatines that prevailed in the 20th century. With regard to the subject matter, we can see that among the 19th century authors there is a predominance of studio portraits in carte format, both of visite, the most general, and of colibri, cabinet and imperiale, all of them with artistic stamps on the backs. While in the photography of the following century we can see how the studio portraits, which have undergone a technical evolution with respect to those of the previous century, coexist with photographs of other themes, from family celebrations to acts and public events, taken both indoors and outdoors, without forgetting the images with Sanferminera themes, which could not be missing in a collection of photography from Navarre and which constitute one of the main attractions of these photographers.
 

San Fermin Procession
Zubieta and Retegui