Page 196 - AC-3-2

Arts & Communication Spanish art and its enemies

Two British academics, Edgar Allison Peers (1891 – Nevertheless, Xavier de Salas also insisted that the British
1952) and Nigel Glendinning (1929 – 2013), devoted their had a long tradition of admiring Spanish art. According
careers to fostering a more tolerant public attitude toward to him, Richard Ford and Sir William Stirling Maxwell
Spanish culture. The first specialist journal, the Bulletin of were in many ways responsible for how the “taste for
Spanish Studies, was founded in 1923 by Allison Peers. This Spanish painting began to be developed in London.” 26(p.7)
scholarly review, dedicated to research on the language, However, he also admitted that Spanish art was not broadly
literature, history, culture, and civilizations of Spain, or popularly known in England, though he maintained
covered a wide range of topics. that increasing interest in Spanish art outside Spain had,
As a Professor of Hispanic Studies at Liverpool he asserted, been fueled by the growth of magazine and
University, Peers was well-positioned to influence the journal articles, as well as books.
taste for Spanish culture. His influence anticipates that It was through the article and the exhibition that
of the much later academic Nigel Glendinning at Queen lone voices speaking up for Hispanic art appeared in the
Mary, University of London, who saw the need for a new, 20 century. British Hispanist art historians to promote
th
slightly more specialized journal dedicated exclusively to Spanish art were especially linked to the writing of journal
the art of the Hispanic world. In 2007, Glendinning was articles. The contribution to British knowledge of Spanish
instrumental in founding a visual arts special issue of the art history by the academic journal was crucial since
already established Hispanic Research Journal at Queen the foundation of the Connoisseur and The Burlington
Mary, University of London, with the hope that: Magazine in the early 1900s, and the foundation of the
A surge in research among scholars working on the Bulletin of Spanish Studies in 1923.
visual arts of Iberia and Latin America prompted The “Introduction” to the 1976 exhibition catalog was
discussions about how best such research could be written by Glendinning; in which he stated his aim to put
published. While many established and emerging Spanish art into context. This was part of his dedication
art historians and scholars write for discipline- to promoting the Spanish artistic vision in Britain. “The
specific journals, there appeared to be a need to fortunes of artists are linked to their country’s economy,”
create an outlet that would bring together the he wrote, 27(p.11) and he went on to demonstrate the varied
richness and heterogeneity of work being done in range of subject matter among Spanish painters in the
the field of Iberian and Latin American art. 24(p.387) 17 century, matched by the adventurous tastes of collectors
th
This hope may have contained memories of another and patrons. He continued to display his skills in citing
London exhibition, the spring show at the Royal Academy statistical surveys as well as analyzing compositional traits
that opened in 1976. Entitled the Golden Age of Spanish in Spanish art. Always open-minded regarding different
Painting, it consisted of 88 paintings but no sculpture. types of stylistic developments in Spain, he demonstrated
Written by the director of Madrid’s Museo del Prado, this in many subsequent essays, articles, and books. His
Xavier de Salas, the Foreword to the catalog stated that aim was to demonstrate that there was no single character
this was the first survey exhibition of Spanish Golden Age of Spanish art, but a wide variety of styles and subjects.
painting since the Burlington House exhibition of 1921, However, the response to the 1976 exhibition clearly gave
Ancient and Modern Spanish art, which had established him a challenge he never forgot.
the pivotal position of Goya as a Hispanic art-historical In his last book, published in 2010, 3 years after the
canon. Unlike earlier British opinions of this artist in the foundation of the Hispanic Research Journal Visual Arts
1920s, it was now believed that Goya had produced work, issue, Glendinning looked back at the trajectory of efforts
particularly in tune with the modern age. In the post-war to make Spanish art more popular in England. In this
years, many more enthusiasts in Britain had come to know context, he remembered the exhibition he had helped
and admire Spanish art and the art of Goya. In 1964, the curate and promote in 1976, The Golden Age of Spanish
Royal Academy had displayed a major show, Goya and His Painting, which had attracted little public attention and
Times, but the 1976 Golden Age of Spanish Paintings was some public censure. He wrote:
not a notable success. In the “Preface” to the catalog, W.T. Yet British resistance to the darker side of Spanish
Monnington, President of the Royal Academy, made the art and its more violent realism, which was
point: “Apart from that magnificent exhibition devoted to apparent in the writings of Richard Ford and,
“Goya and His Times” in 1964, there has been no major above all, John Ruskin in the nineteenth century,
show of Spanish painting of any kind at the Academy since dies hard. It could certainly still be sensed in the
1920/21, and comparatively few of major importance in response to the Royal Academy’s Golden Age of
this country at any time in the intervening period.” 25(p.5) Spanish Painting exhibition of 1976. 19(p.22)

Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 7 doi: 10.36922/ac.3604