ROOMS GUIDE the Museo Cerralbo Is Special in That It Is One of the Few Examples in Madrid of a 19Th-Century Mansion Which Preserves Its Original Décor
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C M Y CM MY CY CMY K ROOMS GUIDE The Museo Cerralbo is special in that it is one of the few examples in Madrid of a 19th-century mansion which preserves its original décor. It was the residence of the 17th 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), 1st 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 19th century and the early 20th 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 20th 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. MEZZANINE FLOOR 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. 1 Summer Reception Area and Gallery This is the reason for which the exhibition proposal 2 Garden of this floor has been undertaken from a recreational 3 Red Room standpoint and not from the faithful recovery of 4 Yellow Room the spaces, as has occurred on the Main Floor. This 5 Pink Sitting Room recreation of atmospheres has been done, whenever 6 Bedchamber of the Marquis of Cerralbo possible, with the pieces which were originally 7 Corridor 8 Main Doorway and Main Staircase found in these rooms; however, the spaces have been 9 Winter Reception Area complemented with pieces from the Villa-Huerta 10 Parlour collection (coming from the Marquises’ mansion in 11 Dining Room Santa Mª de Huerta, Soria) or even, although to a lesser degree, with purchases on the antiques market. 6 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 17th 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 18th century 1600-1630 Iron, bronze Oil on canvas Inv. No. VH 4838 Inv. No. VH 1 The anonymous author of this work was This is an English model for an alarm clock inspired to paint the figure of the Child sleeping for domestic use, which works with weights, on the saint’s lap by a Madonna and Child done known as a lantern clock. It is the oldest of the by the painter Guido Reni, a master of the seventy clocks in the Museo Cerralbo. Those school of Bologna. that are part of the décor of the rooms still work perfectly. 9 2 3 Garden Red Room The garden’s current appearance is a recreation dating from 1995. Hardly any documentation This is the first in a series of three rooms with views to the garden which owe their names, pertaining to the original garden remains except a note by the Marquis of Cerralbo himself. following the custom of the time, to the shades of their tapestries and wall hangings. That project involved a transverse axis which divided the space into two triangles and joined The vivid colour of this room is completed in the lower part of the walls with a frieze of the façade of the home with the corner of the belvedere or pavilion-viewpoint, located at wallpaper, an alternative to the skirting board in fashion at the end of the 19th century. the corner of the fence and, in the centre, a large irregular space lined with curved paths. This room was used as an office, where the Marquis received administrators and suppliers The construction in the 1940s of a pavilion, identical to the home itself, for the internal without them having to pass through the rest of the house. The existence of these rooms, use of the Museum, broke the axis conceived by the Marquis. The garden thus underwent located on the ground floor, in which the owner worked on the administration of his an alteration from which it has been impossible to recover. However, the work which was properties, and managed his income and his business dealings, was common in the urban done enables us today to enjoy a landscaped space in a classical-romantic style, in which mansions of the nobility and haute bourgeoisie. 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 Fernando de Aguilera y Ericsson telephone atmosphere typical of certain Italian gardens adorned with classical elements, while the Gamboa, 15th Marquis of 1890-1900 curved paths and thick vegetation bring us closer to the melancholic English-style garden. Cerralbo Wood, bakelite, metal, silk Valentín Carderera Inv. No. 7262 1833 Oil on canvas Inv. No. VH 496 Bust of a Roman woman to the collection of classical sculptures of Per Italy, 18th and 19th centuries Afán de Ribera, viceroy of Naples. It is a copy Portrait of the great-uncle of don Enrique de A private intercom, model BC 1300 (405), Marble of the Roman wild boar from the Florentine Aguilera, founder of this Museum, painted in the which would most probably have been Inv. No. VH 1026 gallery of the Uffizi, which in turn reproduces same year he was appointed as Master Equerry connected to a similar telephone found in the an ancient Greek work. The classical busts which are exhibited in the at the beginning of Isabella II of Spain’s reign. tower where the archive was located, around garden are those which decorated the garden 1900, on the attic areas of the house. This of the palace of Santa María de Huerta (Soria), model appears in the 1897 Ericsson catalogue.