Exhibiting the collections of the Spanish Crown and nobility for the nation: the Count of Valencia de Don Juan and the 1892 European historical exhibition

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the place and role accorded to the collections of the Spanish Crown and nobility at the Exposición Histórico-Europea organized in Madrid in 1892. It sets the exhibition in the political and cultural context of the Fourth Centenary of the Discovery of America and analyses the role of Juan Crooke y Navarrot, the Count of Valencia de Don Juan to understand how royal and aristocratic collections were instrumentalized in a bid to assert the place of the Spanish monarchy on the European and international scene and strengthen its prestige. Commissioner of Crown property, the Count of Valencia de Don Juan was one of the members of the nobility who exhibited their collections to the public. Therefore, his investment in the organization of the exhibition, as a non-professional curator, helps understand what the event meant for Spanish nobility. This enables us to gauge what role such exhibiting played in the construction of the national heritage and art historiography of Spain.

KEYWORDS:

• Collecting
• national exhibitions
• Conde de Valencia de Don Juan
• 19^th century

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. About the Spanish participation to international exhibitions see for example: Sazatornil Ruiz, Luis and Lasheras Peña, Ana Belén. 2005. “París y la ‘españolada’: caticismo y estereotipos en las exposiciones universales (1855–1900).” Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez 35 (2): 265–290 and Lasheras Peña, Ana Belén. 2010. “España en París. La imagen nacional en las Exposiciones Universales, 1855–1900.” PhD diss., University of Cantabria.

2. Royal Decree of 8 January 1891.

3. In total, eleven congresses were organized, including the 9th Congress of Americanists, hosted in Madrid for the second time.

4. See the Museo Arqueólogico Nacional de Madrid program entitled: Catálogo colectivo online de los fondos documentales de la Exposición Histórico-Natural y Etnográfica of 1893 led by Javier Rodrigo del Blanco.

5. After the Fourth Centenary celebrations, both exhibitions were combined in an Exposición Histórico-Natural y Etnográfica. Palacio de Biblioteca y Museos Nacionales housed in the Museo Arqueólogico Nacional and the Biblioteca Nacional. See Corrales’ photographic album: Corrales, S. 1893. Exposición Histórico Etnográfica de Madrid.

6. The effect was more the sum of the different exhibitions, with each country showcasing its own display inside the state rooms. They also published separate catalogues in 1892, which were then brought together in a general catalogue, published in 1893.

7. Don Diego Isidro de Gúzman y la Cerda (1776–1849) was the last to hold the titles of Valencia de Don Juan (22nd Count) and Oñate (14th Count). As a result of laws enacted in 1820 on the inalienability of property, his many titles were distributed among his descendants, and his daughter, Adelaida María del Pilar Guzmán y Caballero, was the Count of Valencia de Don Juan’s successor.

8. Madrid, Archivo General de Palacio, PER, Ca 16816, Exp. 8, Intendencia general de la Real Casa y Patrimonio, Expediente personal del Sr. Don Juan Crooke y Navarrot, conde de Valencia de Don Juan.

9. This was Room XI.

10. Madrid, Archives of the Museo Arqueólogico Nacional. Expediente 1892/29: Exposición Histórico-Europea, conmemorativa del IV Centenario del Descubrimiento de América (1892–93). IV. Cédulas de inscripción. Caja 55, Expediente 29-O 4.6.4.24.

11. Madrid, Archives of the Museo Arqueólogico Nacional. Expediente 1892/29: Exposición Histórico-Europea, conmemorativa del IV Centenario del Descubrimiento de América (1892–93). IV. Cédulas de inscripción. Caja 55, Expediente 29-O 4.6.4.17.

12. Madrid, Archives of the Museo Arqueólogico Nacional. Expediente 1892/29: Exposición Histórico-Europea, conmemorativa del IV Centenario del Descubrimiento de América (1892–93). IV. Cédulas de inscripción. Caja 59, Expediente 29-AF 4.17.

13. On the uses and meanings of painting in Madrid aristocratic collecting durig the 19th century see: Martínez Plaza, Pedro J. 2018. El coleccionismo de pintura en Madrid durante el siglo XIX. Madrid: CEEH.

14. The Barcelona Universal Exhibition of 1888 set a precedent.

15. Madrid, Archivo del Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan. Caja Catálogo de Tapices (under review). Extract from a note from the Count of Valencia de Don Juan entitled “Memorandum de los trabajos que he hecho para la Real Casa”.

16. Royal Ordinance of 25 May 1879.

17. The tapestries could be viewed in seven rooms.

18. The tapestry was exhibited in the center of the wall. Today they are held with the collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, as a result of a bequest by the Countess of Valencia de Don Juan in 1918.

19. The new premises were chosen after the fire of 1884.

20. The institution was created in 1856.

21. El Centenario. Revista Ilustrada. Organo Oficial de la Junta Directiva encargada de disponer las solemnidades que han de conmemorar el descubrimiento de América.

22. It is catalogued as Flemish by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

23. Madrid, Archivo General de Palacio, Sección Histórica, Ca 315/7.

24. Madrid, Archivo del Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, Caja Armería-Varios (under review).

25. The collection was on display in rooms XI to XIII.

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).