With the conquest of Granada in 1492, Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabelle of Castile became the first rulers of all Spain. The discovery of the New World in the same year put them in command of vast, previously untapped resources. When their Hapsburg grandson came to the throne in 1516 as Charles I of Spain―later to govern the Holy Roman Empire as Charles V―Spanish sovereignty expanded still further, for Charles brought with his as his paternal inheritance the duchy of Burgundy, including the Netherlands where he was born. A formidable power in Europe, endowed with a flourishing empire overseas, Spain in the sixteenth century was thus ideally placed to enjoy a Golden Age.
 Both Charles I and his son Philip II were monarchs of their time, acting as generous patrons of the arts. They were in a position to call on the best that Europe could supply, and with possessions in Italy as well as Flanders, they had ready access to the two mainsprings of the Renaissance. The collections they formed offer a uniquely privileged view of Renaissance taste and artistry.
 Although very different in medium, tapestries and armor exemplify the royal collections, designed not only for personal delectation but also as impressive displays of regal magnificence. Wool and steel were enhanced with precious metals, adding a luster that still dazzles the eye. Images harnessed from myth, religion, allegory, history past and present went into the creation of a world of art that is now timeless and accessible to all.
 Today the Patrimonio Nacional is the guardian of this priceless heritage. Visitors to Spain can admire the tapestries hung in the Royal Palace in Madrid, as well as in other reales sitios throughout the country, and the arms and armor housed in the Royal armory of Madrid. Here, presented in English for the first time, is a selection of these treasures: tapestries that eloquently reflect the range of the collection, and pieces of armor outstanding both for their associations and for their aesthetic interest. New color photography was undertaken in order to do justice to the originals. In a masterly introductory essay, Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, member of the Spanish Royal Academy of History, surveys the historical context. The tapestries are described and discussed by Concha Herrero Carretero, curator of tapestries at the Patrimonio Nacional, and the armor by José A. Godoy, curator of arms and armor at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva. The result is a richly informative and visually splendid work that speaks to expert and art lover alike. [This book was originally published in 1991 and has gone out of print. This edition is a print-on-demand version of the original book.]

Resplendence of the Spanish Monarchy: Renaissance Tapestries and Armor from the Patrimonio Nacional

Arts & Photography

Domínguez Ortíz, Antonio

Godoy, José-A.

Herrero Carretero, Concha

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1865 Édouard Manet first saw the great collection of paintings by Velázquez in Madrid's Museo del Prado. Enraptured, he wrote to a friend, "He is the painter of painters ... He has astonished me, he has ravished me." Velázquez, the preeminent Spanish artist of the seventeenth century, continues to enthrall viewers. His sublime works express the very essence of the painter's art—they join an immense intelligence and extraordinary psychological acuity to a matchless technical facility. His images are deeply rooted in the physical world, yet their complex stillness transcends time, pointing toward a truth that exists beyond the ephemeral. Velázquez's intense concern with empirical experience and his distaste for idealization lend an exquisite tension to his ceremonial portraits of Philip IV, his wives and children, and the members of his court. A highly placed courtier as well as an artist, the painter confirmed the elevated birth and powerful station of his royal subjects, but his portraits move beyond iconography into the shadowy area where individual identity and public role meet. From his earliest works, such as The Waterseller of Seville, to his last portraits of the royal children, Velázquez demonstrates both truth to objective reality and poignant compassion.  All of Velázquez's meditations—on the nature of power, on mortality, on human beauty and frailty—are rendered with incomparable painterly skill. The energetic daring of his brushwork and the magnificence of his palette are transfixing. Although masterworks by Velázquez can be found in American and European collections, the great majority are in the Museo del Prado. In an unprecedented gesture of generosity, the Prado has agreed to lend seventeen of these works to the landmark exhibition that this publication documents. For the first time the American public will be able to see the entire scope of Velázquez's oeuvre.  This catalogue is a worthy companion to such an extraordinary event. Elegant and substantive essays by Antonio Domínguez Ortiz and Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez examine the world of seventeenth-century Spain and the path that Velázquez followed in his courtly and artistic career. Julián Gállego has contributed important assessments of each of the pictures in the exhibition. A wealth of comparative illustrations shows all of Velázquez's major works and presents representative paintings by his contemporaries. Both the generalist and the specialist will find much of interest, and all will be elevated by their study of such a distinguished and satisfying painter.  Antonio Domíguez Ortiz, one of the world's foremost scholars of seventeenth-century Spanish history, is a member of the Real Academia de Historia in Madrid; Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez is Director of the Museo del Prado; and Julián Gállego is Professor Emeritus of the University of Madrid and a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. [This book was originally published in 1989 and has gone out of print. This edition is a print-on-demand version of the original book.]

Velazquez

Gállego, Julián

Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E.

Individual Artists

Shows and describes all of Velazquez's major works

Sánchez, Alfonso E. Pérez

Velázquez, Diego

Harry N.Abrams, Inc.

La clase social de los conversos en Castilla en la Edad Moderna

History

Asia

Editorial Universidad de Granada

Los judeoconversos en España y América.

ISTMO

Los judeoconversos en la Espana moderna (Colecciones MAPFRE 1492) (Spanish Edition)

Editorial MAPFRE

Orto y ocaso de Sevilla

Editorial Universidad de Sevilla-Secretariado de Publicaciones

Velazquez Museo Del Prado 23 Enero 31 Marzo 1990 de Dominguez Ortiz Antonio. Ministerio de Cultura, 1990.

Velázquez: Museo del Prado 23 enero/31 marzo 1990 (Spanish Edition)

Painting

Ministerio de Cultura

ESPAÑA, TRES MILENIOS DE HISTORIA. 2ª EDICIÓN TAPA DURA

Europe

Marcial Pons Ediciones de Historia, S.A.

Este libro, escrito por uno de los grandes historiadores españoles, conjuga el deseo personal de perfilar la imagen de una España madre de muchos pueblos y la aspiración del docente que querría transmitir esa imágen a un público amplio.

ESPAÑA, TRES MILENIOS DE HISTORIA (ed. bolsillo) (Spanish Edition)

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