The Museo Cerralbo Is Special in That It Is One of the Few Examples in Madrid of a 19 Th -Century Mansion Which Preserves Its Original Décor
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The Museo Cerralbo is special in that it is one of the few examples in Madrid of a 19 th -century mansion which preserves its original décor. It was the residence of the 17 th Marquis of Cerralbo, don Enrique de Aguilera (1845-1922), and his family, comprised of his wife, doña Inocencia Serrano y Cerver (1816-1896), widow of don Antonio del Valle, who brought two children to the marriage, don Antonio del Valle y Serrano (1846-1900), 1 st Marquis of Villa-Huerta, and doña Amelia (1850- 1927), Marquise of Villa-Huerta upon the death of her brother. As a House-museum it is a must-see for learning about the lifestyle of the aristocracy in Madrid in the late 19 th century and the early 20 th century. Moreover, as a collector’s Museum it reflects the artistic tastes of its time, a collection that was considered, at that time, to be one of the most important private collections in the country and, without a doubt, the most complete of its time. THE MUSEUM The building, built between 1883 and 1893, was designed from the outset as a residential home and as a place to exhibit art, antiques and curiosities in a harmonious way, which were brought together due to the owners’ liking for collecting. The former mansion, now a museum, has four floors: lower ground floor, mezzanine, first floor and attic areas. The lower ground floor and the attic areas, which were once the service areas of the home, such as kitchens, larders, the carriage garage, stables, harness rooms, boiler rooms and servants’ quarters, are now the auditorium and the areas for the internal use of the Museum: offices, restoration laboratories and storerooms. The tour covers the two other floors: the mezzanine, devoted to the everyday life of the Marquis and Marquise, and the first, or main, floor devoted to social life. The seemingly unchanged nature of the house over time is misleading, since alterations were naturally made to the residence due to changes in family circumstances, which occurred first with the terrible events of the Spanish Civil War and, later, with the museographic refurbishment of the 20 th century. Since 2002 detailed work centred on the recuperation of the original atmospheres of the mansion in its day has been carried out. This means the sacrifice of the individual appreciation of the works of art in favour of the global interpretation of the rooms, now considered to have artistic interest in themselves. 5 MEZZANINE FLOOR It was on this floor that the everyday life of the family transpired; where visits from family and good friends took place. Its domestic use and family and historical circumstances resulted in successive transformations to the floor. The first took place after the death of don Antonio, in 1900, and affected, fundamentally, the left wing. A large number of the rooms comprising his private chambers were transformed into studies and summer sitting rooms. However, the most radical change without a doubt took place in the 1940s and meant the sacrifice of the bedrooms and other everyday and service rooms, at that time lacking in museographic interest, in favour of several galleries where, in a clear and educational way, artistic collections could be displayed. This is the reason for which the exhibition proposal of this floor has been undertaken from a recreational standpoint and not from the faithful recovery of the spaces, as has occurred on the Main Floor. This recreation of atmospheres has been done, whenever possible, with the pieces which were originally found in these rooms; however, the spaces have been complemented with pieces from the Villa-Huerta collection (coming from the Marquises’ mansion in Santa Mª de Huerta, Soria) or even, although to a lesser degree, with purchases on the antiques market. 6 MEZZANINE FLOOR 1 Summer Reception Area and Gallery 2 Garden 3 Red Room 4 Yellow Room 5 Pink Sitting Room 6 Bedchamber of the Marquis of Cerralbo 7 Corridor 8 Main Doorway and Main Staircase 9 Winter Reception Area 10 Parlour 11 Dining Room 7 1 Summer Reception Area and Gallery The reception area in the summer wing was, before the death of don Antonio del Valle, the place to receive guests which was connected to his private rooms. From 1900, this area of the home came to be used by the Marquis of Cerralbo and his step-daughter Amelia, due to the advantage that its positioning and opening onto the garden gave, in spring and early summer, before the annual move to the stately home of Santa Mª de Huerta in Soria. The reception area extends to a gallery with a door to the garden in which paintings of a religious subjet are exhibited. This gallery used to be a long corridor which included an internal staircase communicating with the Main Floor and which disappeared during the refurbishment of the 1940s. Allegory of the Eucharist Saint Augustine and Saint Spanish school Monica Second half of the 17 th century Girolamo Muziano Oil on canvas 1580-1590 Inv. No. VH 939 Oil on canvas Inv. No. VH 4905 The Spanish and Italian schools predominate in This painting is very similar to the one in the the Museum’s painting collection. The Spanish church of Sant’ Agostino in Perugia, the work works are mainly religious paintings from the of the same painter who did two versions of 17th and 18th centuries. This painting shows a this composition for Saint Peter’s basilica in mystic vision, the apotheosis of the Eucharist, Rome and three more which were destined which has been associated with the painter for other Italian churches. from Córdoba, Acisclo Antonio Palomino. Saint Joseph with the Wall clock Child Jesus J. Wats. London Italian school 18 th century 1600-1630 Iron, bronze Oil on canvas Inv. No. VH 4838 Inv. No. VH 1 The anonymous author of this work was inspired This is an English model for an alarm clock to paint the figure of the Child sleeping on the for domestic use, which works with weights, saint’s lap by a Madonna and Child done by the known as a lantern clock. It is the oldest of the painter Guido Reni, a master of the school of seventy clocks in the Museo Cerralbo. Those Bologna. that are part of the décor of the rooms still work perfectly. 9 2 Garden The garden’s current appearance is a recreation dating from 1995. Hardly any documentation pertaining to the original garden remains except a note by the Marquis of Cerralbo himself. That project involved a transverse axis which divided the space into two triangles and joined the façade of the home with the corner of the belvedere or pavilion-viewpoint, located at the corner of the fence and, in the centre, a large irregular space lined with curved paths. The construction in the 1940s of a pavilion, identical to the home itself, for the internal use of the Museum, broke the axis conceived by the Marquis. The garden thus underwent an alteration from which it has been impossible to recover. However, the work which was done enables us today to enjoy a landscaped space in a classical-romantic style, in which the intention of the Marquis can be imagined. In the central space is a pond, acting as a mirror of water, in which different sculptures are reflected which, along with the busts of Roman emperors adjacent to the garden walls and those of the home, manage to create an atmosphere typical of certain Italian gardens adorned with classical elements, while the curved paths and thick vegetation bring us closer to the melancholic English-style garden. Bust of a Roman woman to the collection of classical sculptures of Per Italy, 18 th and 19 th centuries Afán de Ribera, viceroy of Naples. It is a copy Marble of the Roman wild boar from the Florentine Inv. No. VH 1026 gallery of the Uffizi, which in turn reproduces an ancient Greek work. The classical busts which are exhibited in the garden are those which decorated the garden of the palace of Santa María de Huerta (Soria), the property of the Marquise of Cerralbo and her children, where the family lived during the summertime and where the Marquis studied Roman capital the archaeological material he had excavated Arcobriga (Monreal de Ariza, st from the sites in the Alto Jalón region. Zaragoza), end of the 1 century AD Carved sandstone Inv. No. 6143 Wild boar Florence, 16 th century This Corinthian capital belongs to a corner Marble pilaster situated in the portico of the courtyard Inv. No. VH 894 of a Roman house. It was found in the first excavations done by the Marquis of Cerralbo This piece comes from the Medinaceli palace between 1908 and 1911 in the Celtiberian- in Madrid, demolished in 1890. It belonged Roman city of Arcobriga . 10 3 Red Room This is the first in a series of three rooms with views to the garden which owe their names, following the custom of the time, to the shades of their tapestries and wall hangings. The vivid colour of this room is completed in the lower part of the walls with a frieze of wallpaper, an alternative to the skirting board in fashion at the end of the 19 th century. This room was used as an office, where the Marquis received administrators and suppliers without them having to pass through the rest of the house. The existence of these rooms, located on the ground floor, in which the owner worked on the administration of his properties, and managed his income and his business dealings, was common in the urban mansions of the nobility and haute bourgeoisie.