Court and courts in late Gothic Hispano.
The research project: "Cuts and Cuts in Late Gothic Spain. Narrative, Memory and Synergies in Visual Language" [PGC2018-093822-B-100] was funded by the FEDER/Ministry of Science and Innovation - State Research Agency funds. It arose as a continuation of the R&D&I project "The Training of the Painter and the Practice of Painting in the Hispanic Kingdoms (1350-1500)" [HAR 2012-32720], both thematically and in terms of the group of professionals involved. This group comprises specialists with diverse academic backgrounds in art history, archaeology, restoration, fine arts, heritage, philology, chemical sciences, biology, and museology, belonging to the Complutense University of Madrid, the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute, National Heritage, the Prado Museum, the Higher School of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Assets, and the Center for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Assets of Castile and León, the Ignacio Zuloaga Foundation, and the Centre for Flemish Painting Studies of the Royal Institute of Cultural Heritage in Brussels (KIK-IRPA).
Using the interdisciplinary study of the altarpiece and chapel of Álvaro de Luna in Toledo Cathedral as a testing ground, we recognize the need to focus our efforts on studying how "Flemish tastes" penetrated the evolution of Spanish painting in the late Middle Ages. This topic will be approached as an example, both to outline the guidelines established by royalty, specifically John II and Isabella I of Castile, and their relationship to/emulation developed by the nobility, especially following the patronage of the Mendoza lineage. The study will focus on a comparative analysis of the social structure of the royal household and court and that of the high Castilian nobility. This provides a working foundation that considers figures such as John II, Isabella I, Pedro González de Mendoza, and María de Luna, court artists (Michael Sittow, Juan de Flandes, and the Master of Miraflores), and emblematic works of art (the Duran Madonna, the main altarpiece of Nájera, the altarpiece of San Juan de Miraflores, and the altarpiece of El Muyo).
However, the stated objectives do not include a taxonomic and inventory-based approach to a pictorial collection, but rather a causal and reasoned analysis of the development of Late Gothic painting through the networks of the art market and the circulation of works and masters. The different horizons of these supply and demand currents will be addressed, culminating in the study of codes of conduct and social advancement through art, with their specific translation into workshop practices, thanks to the phenomenon of artistic copying—and its potential role as a collector's mark—and the participation of highly skilled foreign masters.
The ultimate goal is the study of Late Gothic art in Spain, particularly within the Crown of Castile, focusing on visual culture as expressed especially in pictorial language, both in its aesthetic—technical and visible—and political and propagandistic interpretations. This holistic communication program adheres to a recent research methodology that addresses the problem of communication as a relevant historical reality in the analysis of political uses.
To achieve these objectives, we will combine theoretical discourse centered on art-historical analysis, the visual and literary rhetoric of the period, and strictly material analysis derived from physical, chemical, and photographic studies. Similarly, we will seek connections with other areas of the Iberian Peninsula to understand the specific landscape of the period from the perspective of diversity and influence.
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