The visitor cannot suppress an “Ohh!” When entering the Habsburg room, he is received by four columns of 5.65 meters and weighing 600 kilos. Do not suffer thinking about how they handle magnitudes here: there are even elevators for groups with a capacity for 120 people. Here is the Gallery of the Royal Collections, and to get to this moment it has taken more than a few elevators, in fact, the inauguration by the Kings scheduled for June 28 was delayed due to the electoral call. Now, to enjoy it with a visit that includes a piece of the recently discovered Arab wall of Madrid.
Yes, history is always present, in this case in the best way, because as Ana de la Cueva, president of Patrimonio Nacional, explains, when touring the Gallery one realizes that we are here “because many wise decisions were made before ”. We are talking about the Kings of Spain, about Felipe II, who decided that upon his death his collection would not be dispersed, but would be maintained and linked to the monarchy and not to his personal inheritance. National Patrimony is the organism that is in charge of these assets accumulated throughout centuries and reigns. The 650 works selected for the opening of the Gallery – a third will be renewed – are a drop in an ocean of jewels.
Royal collecting began to have luxury goods and household trousseau that would serve the needs of kings and also to visualize the dignity of the monarch, explains Leticia Ruiz, director of the Royal Collections of National Heritage and the Gallery. “A good example is the commissions and purchases of tapestries from the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th. A court without a fixed headquarters made use of these rich textile pieces to turn any space into a warm place endowed with artistic and cultural references that filled a reign with content”, she remarks. A tradition, that of having objects and artistic assets endowed, has been “a continuous reality since the time of Isabella the Catholic, a woman with very solid religious and dynastic criteria when choosing artistic works.”
The Gallery, a magnetic building by the architects Emilio Tuñón and Luis M. Mansilla, is organized through the Habsburg, Bourbon and temporary exhibition rooms. Is there a collector criterion of the two dynasties? “I think that one of the interesting things about this museography is that each monarch has the things they collect around them, and going through them in chronological order allows you to see their tastes and concerns and how the objective of this collecting changes over time”, adds Ana de la Cueva.
“The differences come mainly from the changes in taste that were imposed. Also the meaning of the court, its needs and ways of making itself visible. The court portrait formulas are good examples of dynastic changes: the severity of the Habsburgs, with an imposing but restrained presence, gave way to the colorful theatricality and decorative elements of the Bourbons”, in the opinion of Leticia Ruiz.
And so, from Isabel la Católica, whose portrait by Juan de Flandes dialogues with a helmet of Fernando el Católico, her husband, we arrive at Carlos V, focused on the Empire, magnificence, armor, fabrics, “he saw in art a unique opportunity to trace his profile as a Christian emperor”, Ruiz adds. His son, Felipe II, “because of his humanist training and his family contacts, was a first-rate collector, full of varied interests and infinite curiosity. He traced the great lines of later collecting. Felipe IV picked up on that drive and became one of the greatest collectors in Europe, especially in terms of his pictorial background ”, concludes the director.
What role did the queen consorts play? “In most cases they were women full of judgment and artistic and cultural training, and they were often decisive in understanding the collecting of their reigns. Juana de Austria was a fundamental example for the women of the Habsburgs, and we can cite Isabel Farnesio, Bárbara de Braganza or María Luisa de Parma as singular artistic protagonists”, according to Ruiz.
The collections were the combination of taste and exhibition, “a way of showing the power, the resources to commission these works that took so long to be done by the best in the world,” adds De la Cueva, who also highlights the role of the real manufactures, “which gives an idea of ??the objective of professionalizing quality crafts and systematizing the trades, and that is very good and that has allowed us to have many of these professions have arrived, when you see the Royal Tapestry Factory, the different specialties, that was seen around this royal collecting, exquisiteness, professionalism, luxury craftsmanship developed, and since we had the best artisans, who were the kings who commissioned and who in turn trained others.
Thanks to “wise decisions” we can walk among masterpieces by Caravaggio and El Greco, but also among fans and crockery and clocks and fabrics and even a portable altar from 1734 that closes like a kind of chest and gives an idea of ??what then represented a journey. Also of the personality of the monarchs, to the point that, explains Ana de la Cueva, a portrait of each one could be made based on the objects they surrounded themselves with. An example is Felipe II, whose concern for universal knowledge led him to found the Royal Library, “in which we can find books in Hebrew, in Arabic, on travel…”.
But other pieces were lost before, because as the president of National Heritage explains, when the kings died their collections were dispersed and sold in auctions, until they were aware of the treasure, in all the senses they represented.
The descendants of Felipe II maintained their decision to maintain their collections, and for this reason, from Isabel la Católica to Alfonso XIII, the country’s heritage has this richness. “Because even if tastes changed, they were aware of the importance of maintaining history and things that had been of previous use were not discarded. There have been experts who have been taking care of this heritage and since the arrival of the Second Republic the professionalization of the management of these collections is something magnificent”, concludes Ana de la Cueva.
