National Gallery during Hispanic Heritage Month
Posted by Elena del Valle on September 14, 2011
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Probably produced under the direction of Passchier Grenier, tapestry merchant, c. 1471-1475, wool and silk tapestry, overall: 400 x 1082 cm (157 1/2 x 426 in.), Collegiate Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Pastrana (Guadalajara). Fundación Carlos de Amberes.
Photos: The National Gallery, Paul M.R. Maeyaert, Dennis Brack/Black Star
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a series of events that began last week and last through October including The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries, a visiting exhibition the result of the collaboration of a number of organizations, as well as several Spanish masterpieces in the Gallery’s collection. The Pastrana Tapestries will remain at the museum from September 18, 2011 through January 8, 2012. The Pastrana Tapestries, considered to be among the finest Gothic tapestries in the world, commemorate the conquest of two strategically located cities in Morocco by the king of Portugal, Afonso V (1432–1481).
The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery and the Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid in association with the embassies of Spain and Portugal, the Spain-USA Foundation, and with the cooperation of the embassies of Belgium and Morocco in Washington, DC, as well as the Diocese of Sigüenza-Guadalajara and the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Pastrana, Spain.
From Washington, the Pastrana Tapestries will travel to the Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas (February 5–May 13, 2012); the San Diego Museum of Art (June 10–September 9, 2012); and the Indianapolis Museum of Art (October 5, 2012–January 6, 2013). The exhibition was made possible through the support of the governments of Spain, Belgium and Portugal.
The conservation of the tapestries, undertaken at the initiative of the Fundación Carlos de Amberes, with support from the Belgian InBev-Baillet Latour Fund, Fundación Caja Madrid, Region of Castilla—La Mancha, Provincial Council of Guadalajara, and Diocese of Sigüenza-Guadalajara and Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Pastrana, received the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Awards 2011.
Julia Burke, senior conservator, and Diane Arkin, lecturer, at the Gallery will discuss the Tapestries November 14, 15, 29, and December 6, 8. Sunday, December 18 Barbara von Barghahn, professor of art history, The George Washington University will discuss an Introduction to the Exhibition at the East Building Auditorium.
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Probably produced under the direction of Passchier Grenier, tapestry merchant, The Conquest of Tangier, (detail) c. 1471-1475, wool and silk tapestry, overall: 400 x 1082 cm (157 1/2 x 426 in.), Collegiate Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Pastrana (Guadalajara). Fundación Carlos de Amberes.
December 18, at 4 p.m. and Wednesday, December 21 at 12:30 p.m. the Gallery will show Mysteries of Lisbon (Mistérios de Lisboa), a 2010 270-minute film adaption by Raúl Ruiz’s of Portuguese novelist Camilo Castelo Branco’s 1854 romantic epic Mistérios de Lisboa described as a “brilliantly twisting tapestry of interlocking fates and identities” and perhaps the filmmaker’s final work.
During Hispanic Heritage Month gallery talks will include Goya: Portraits of France and Spain, a 30-minute presentation by Giselle Larroque Obermeier October 1 at 2 p.m. in the Rotunda of the West Building Main Floor; and Untitled Composition by Joaquín Torres-García, a 20-minute presentation by Marta Horgan September 22 (12 noon), September 27 (2 p.m.) and October 13 (1 p.m.) in the East Building Concourse Auditorium.
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El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), Laocoön, c. 1610/1614, Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Tours of the West Building in Spanish will be offered at 12 p.m. September 15, 17 and October 4, 13, 15 at the West Building Main Floor Rotunda. Tours of the East Building in Spanish will be offered at 2 p.m. September 15, 17 and October 4, 13, 15 at the East Building Ground Level Information Desk. A Spanish Tour of American Art will be available at 12 p.m. September 24 at the West Building Main Floor Rotunda. A self guided tour with 24 stops of The Director’s Tour: Highlights in Spanish will also be available at the West Building Mall Entrance.
The Gallery offers Spanish-language (and other foreign language) guided tours, audio guides, and printed guides to the art collection free of charge and subject to availability. Regular tours of the permanent collection are offered in Spanish as well as in Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, and Russian. Small groups may arrange tours in Dutch, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Portuguese, by calling (202) 842-6247 at least three weeks in advance.
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View of the West and East Buildings of the National Gallery of Art (1941) looking east towards the U.S. Capitol along Constitution Ave., NW
Guides in Spanish about the Gallery’s permanent collection are available online at nga.gov/collection/ggpdfsp.htm. and a guide containing a brief history of the Gallery, visitor information, and map is available at the information desks and online at www.nga.gov/pdf/map_spanish.pdf.
The Gallery, created for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress accepting the gift of Andrew W. Mellon in 1937, has 4.7 million visitors a year. The organization does not gather demographic and ethnic data about visitors. In its collection of 123,000 artifacts displayed in 25,176 square meters of space are masterworks by renowned European and American artists, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Western Hemisphere and the largest mobile ever created by Alexander Calder.
