Title: Treasures from the House of Alba : 500 years of art and collecting /
Authors: Checa Cremades, Fernando,; Matthews, Wade; Meadows Museum; Fundación Casa de Alba,; Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, Tenn.)
Year: 2015
Subjects: Alba, Dukes of Art collections Exhibitions.; Alba, Dukes of Art patronage Exhibitions.; Álvarez de Toledo,; Alba, Dukes of.; Art Private collections Spain Exhibitions.; Art Collectors and collecting Spain History Exhibitions.; Mäzenatentum; Kunst; Sammlung; Art Collectors and collecting; Art museums; Art patronage; Art Private collections; Spain
Abstract: The treasures of the Alba family represent more than five hundred years of patronage and collecting of European art. The exhibition organized by the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University presents 140 objects from the Alba family's collection. Both the exhibition and this companion publication explore the family's wealth of paintings, sculptures, furniture, tapestries, and other objects, as well as the Alba archives and library. The artists represented in the exhibition include Fra Angelico, Titian, Rubens, Mengs, Goya, Ingres, Renoir, and Sorolla. The relationship of the Alba legacy to America is highlighted in decorative objects and in a selection of documents from the Alba library related to Columbus and his voyages. The essays in this publication shed light on the dynasty's particular interest in collecting tapestries; its patronage of writers such as Garcilaso de la Vega; the influence of Eugenia de Montijo, empress of France, who was directly related to the Alba family; the pivotal roles of the Seventeenth Duke of Alba and his daughter, the Eighteenth Duchess, in the twentieth century; and the three palaces--Liria, Monterrey, and Las Dueñas--that house much of the collection today. Finally, there is one biographical essay covering the life of the Albas as well as an article that discusses their artistic legacy.
Contents: The glory of the Albas: a journey through the history of Europe / Fernando Checa -- The Alba family. Family sketches / Jacobo Siruela ; House of Alba family tree ; The glory of the Albas: five centuries of aristocratic collecting / Fernando Checa ; The Alba family and its archives: five centuries of history / José Manuel Calderón Ortega -- The Alba homes. The Alba family's palaces in Madrid: Liria and Buenavista / Carlos Sambricio ; Las Dueñas Palace in Seville / Vicente Lleó Cañal ; Monterrey Palace, Salamanca / Miguel Ángel Zalama -- Patrons and collectors. The Alba family in the poems of Garcilaso de la Vega / Rosa Navarro Durán ; Flemish tapestries of the Alba family / Miguel Ángel Zalama and María José Martínez Ruiz ; Empress Eugenia de Montijo: art of the second empire and the Alba family / Leticia Azcue Brea ; More than a collecting tradition in the twentieth century: Don Jacobo and Doña Cayetana de Alba / María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco with the collaboration of Blanca Uría Prado.