Sculpture Collections in Early Modern Spain

Abstract

Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio and Rosario Coppel have amassed and worked through an astonishing quantity of primary documents and have organized and synthesized the contents of those rich resources in this valuable publication. Their project focuses on collecting habits in Habsburg Spain, ranging roughly from the importation of Charles V and Maria of Hungary’s collections in the 1550s and their inheritance by Philip II through the inventories of the troubled Charles II (d. 1700). The book begins with an overview of their findings that works through the circumstances behind a boom in sculpture collecting, including the influx of wealth due to the Madrid-based court, travel to and from Italy by diplomats and artists, and archeological excavations of Spain’s Roman imperial past. Given the resources and artists at their disposal, the Habsburgs’ collections set the standards to which the Spanish aristocracy would strive. Di Dio and Coppel highlight a number of key sites for collectors and types of sculpture which emerged from extant archival sources. They explore garden statuary, portraiture, religious sculptures, modes of acquisition including gift-giving, travel, and inheritance, dramatic examples of the difficulties surrounding the transport of objects, and characteristics of display practices gleaned from archival documents.

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