Arte, Ciudad y Culturas Nobiliarias en España (siglos XV-XIX)

Abstract

Luis Sazatornil Ruiz and Antonio Urquízar Herrera (Eds.), Arte, Ciudad y Culturas Nobiliarias en España (siglos XV-XIX), Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2019, 481 pp., ISBN 978-84-40010-548-8. The volume brings together 33 contributions originating from a seminar held in Madrid in 2018, funded by five projects of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; its chronological scope spans from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, organized in three major sections devoted to the Early Modern period, the Enlightenment, and the nineteenth century. The studies examine how Spanish noble and bourgeois elites transformed cities through the construction of palaces, artistic patronage, collecting, the creation of leisure spaces, and the defense of heritage as instruments of social distinction and legitimation. The reviewer considers the work a significant contribution to the understanding of the relationship between art, city, and elites, particularly highlighting the unprecedented attention given to the nineteenth century.