The Marquises of Viana: building distinction through the past (1875-1927)

ABSTRACT

In turn-of-the-century Spain, Teobaldo and José de Saavedra embodied an understanding of an aristocracy with one foot in the past and the other in the present. As holders of a recently created marquisate, their lifestyle exemplified the challenge faced by aristocrats who adopted practices and customs that were alien to them, whilst seeking to preserve elements of distinction they considered inalienable, such as dynastic history and dense family networks. The aim of this paper is to study the process of building aristocratic notability from a non-patrician origin. To this end, the profiles of the first and second Marquises of Viana are explored, paying special attention to their financial situation, social relations – particularly at Court – and a lifestyle steeped in their modern context. A key theme is their attention to art as a symbol of distinction, conceived as an instrument to leverage them to the position of the social elite of which they were becoming members. At the same time, the Marquises of Viana’s careers also reveal clear connections with Europe’s elite as they sought an exclusivity that would set them apart as a social group in a turbulent world.

KEYWORDS:

• Collecting
• early 20th century
• Marquises of Viana
• Spanish court

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Letter from the dowager Marquise of Villaseca to Carlos García de Leconte, April 24th, 1874, Archivo Histórico Viana (AHV), correspondence section, L. 359 exp. 6.

2. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Joaquín Sorolla, 18 May 1906, Archivo Museo Sorolla (AMS), CS7095.

3. Letter from Emilio María de Torres to Joaquín Sorolla, 15 January 1905?, AMS, CS 5934.

4. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Joaquín Sorolla, 21 April 1907. AMS, CS7104.

5. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Joaquín Sorolla, 15 September 1907, AMS, CS7108. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Joaquín Sorolla, 27 October 1908, AMS, CS7113.

6. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Joaquín Sorolla, 2 December 1916. AMS, CS7093.

7. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Joaquín Sorolla, undated, AMS, CS7094. The dates refer to the Viana’s portraits by Sorolla.

8. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Joaquín Sorolla, 31 May 1916. AMS, CS7138.

9. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to the Marquis of Vega Inclán, 6 November 1918. Archivo Museo Nacional del Romanticismo (AMR), FD 2110.

10. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Francisco Aguilar, 18 June 1926. AHV, leg. 708, d. 1–4.

11. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Francisco Aguilar, undated, AHV, leg. 708, d. 44. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Francisco Aguilar, 24 October 1926. AHV, leg. 708, d. 130. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Francisco Aguilar, 3 November 1926. AHV, leg. 708, d. 127. Letter from the Marquis of Viana to Francisco Aguilar, undated, AHV, leg. 708, d. 122. Letter from Francisco Aguilar a Messrs. Benguria and Figuerola, 7 December 1926. AHV, leg. 708, d. 110.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the r&d project “Changing policies for noble legitimacy: memory and history in the collections and domestic settings of the Spanish nobility (1788–1931)” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy (AEI/Feder).