Related Activities
The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries Celebrated with a Variety of Related Programs at the National Gallery of Art
Film still from Mysteries of Lisbon (Mistérios de Lisboa) (Raúl Ruiz, 2010, High Definition DCP, 270 minutes with intermission) to be shown at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday December 18, 4:00 p.m. and Wednesday, December 21, 12:30 p.m. Image courtesy of Music Box and Raúl Ruiz
The National Gallery of Art plans a dynamic array of programs to celebrate The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries, an exhibition of a set of four monumental 15th-century tapestries on view for the first time in the United States from September 18, 2011, through January 8, 2012. A lecture, film, Gallery Talks, a Conversations with Conservators and Educators series, and an in-depth online resource all consider the themes explored in the exhibition.
All programs are free of charge in the East Building Auditorium unless otherwise noted. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Lecture Program
Introduction to the Exhibition—The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries
Sunday, December 18, 2:00 p.m.
Barbara von Barghahn, professor of art history, The George Washington University
East Building Auditorium
Film Program
Mysteries of Lisbon (Mistérios de Lisboa)
Sunday, December 18, 4:00 p.m.
Wednesday, December 21, 12:30 p.m.
Raúl Ruiz's majestic adaption of Portuguese novelist Camilo Castelo Branco's 1854 romantic epic Mistérios de Lisboa—a brilliantly twisting tapestry of interlocking fates and identities—is reputed to be this master filmmaker's final work. Ruiz has crafted a beautiful, visually complex monument to the narrative cinema, telling a story of machinations and maneuvers that are never exactly as they seem. (Raúl Ruiz, 2010, High Definition DCP, 270 minutes with intermission)
Conversations with Conservators and Educators
The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries
November 14, 15, 29, 12:00 p.m.
December 6, 8, 12:00 p.m.
Julia Burke, senior conservator, National Gallery of Art, and Diane Arkin, lecturer, National Gallery of Art
East Building Information Desk
Online Resource
A downloadable brochure will include special graphics to help visitors identify the principal actors and actions depicted in the Pastrana Tapestries and will use maps and translations of the tapestries' inscriptions to elucidate the story they depict. An illustrated timeline will also help visitors situate these events in the context of 15th-century Portuguese history.
About the Exhibition
The Pastrana Tapestries—among the finest surviving Gothic tapestries—will be on view together for the first time in the United States at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from September 18, 2011 through January 8, 2012. The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries will feature the recently restored set of four monumental tapestries that commemorate the conquest of two strategically located cities in Morocco by the king of Portugal, Afonso V (1432–1481).
Since the 17th century the tapestries have been the property of the Collegiate Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Pastrana, Spain, just 50 miles east of Madrid. Because of their outstanding quality and historical significance, the Spanish government listed them as cultural patrimony to be safeguarded during the Spanish Civil War. Only one of the four tapestries has traveled previously to the U.S.; The Conquest of Tangier was included in the landmark National Gallery of Art exhibition Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration in 1991–1992.
Exhibition Organization, Tour, and Support
The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid, in association with the Embassy of Spain, the Spain-USA Foundation, and the Embassy of Portugal and with the cooperation of the Embassy of Belgium and the Embassy of Morocco in Washington, DC, as well as the Diocese of Sigüenza-Guadalajara and Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Pastrana, Spain.
After Washington, The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries will be on view at the Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas, from February 5 to May 13, 2012, in addition to several other U.S. cities, to be announced.
The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the government of Spain; the government of Portugal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Instituto Camões; and the government of Belgium, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 2008 the tapestries were sent to Belgium, where they originally had been woven more than five centuries earlier, for conservation treatment by the Royal Manufacturers De Wit in Mechlin.
The conservation of the tapestries was undertaken at the initiative of the Fundación Carlos de Amberes, with support from the Belgian InBev-Baillet Latour Fund, and the following Spanish institutions: Fundación Caja Madrid, Region of Castilla—La Mancha, Provincial Council of Guadalajara, and Diocese of Sigüenza-Guadalajara and Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Pastrana.
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