Museum of Arts and Traditions of Sevilla
Encyclopedia
The Museum of Arts and Traditions of Sevilla is a museum in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

, Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, located in the María Luisa Park
Maria Luisa Park
The Maria Luisa Park is a public park that stretches along the Guadalquivir River in Seville, Spain. It is Seville's principal green area.-History:...

, across the Plaza de América from the Provincial Archeological Museum. The museum had 84,496 visitors in 2007.

History

The museum occupies the Mudéjar
Mudéjar
Mudéjar is the name given to individual Moors or Muslims of Al-Andalus who remained in Iberia after the Christian Reconquista but were not converted to Christianity...

 Pavilion (Pabellón Mudéjar) designed by Aníbal González
Aníbal González
Aníbal Segundo González Espinoza is a retired Chilean footballer who played as a forward during his career...

 and built in 1914. It served as an art pavilion, the Pabellón de Arte Antiguo, for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929
Ibero-American Exposition of 1929
The Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 was a world's fair held in Seville, Spain, from the 9th of May 1929 until the 21st of June 1930. Countries in attendance of the exposition included: Portugal, The United States, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Republic of Colombia, Cuba,...

, when Aníbal González had the opportunity to design several additional permanent buildings for the plaza. The exterior is ceramic over brick, and has three doors with archivolt
Archivolt
An archivolt is an ornamental molding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch. It is composed of bands of ornamental moldings surrounding an arched opening, corresponding to the architrave in the case of a rectangular opening...

s adorned with glazed tiles (azulejo
Azulejo
Azulejo from the Arabic word Zellige زليج is a form of Portuguese or Spanish painted, tin-glazed, ceramic tilework. They have become a typical aspect of Portuguese culture, having been produced without interruption for five centuries...

s
).

The building originally consisted of two stories over an aeration chamber (necessary because of the humidity). In the 1960s, the main floor, originally over 12 metres (39.4 ft) high, was divided in two, with an intermediate level added by architect Delgado Roig. In 1972, as part of the preparations for the current museum, the various stories of the building were connected by a grand spiral staircase designed by José Galnares Sagastizábal.

The museum was established by a decree of 23 March 1972, initially as a section of the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville
Museum of Fine Arts of Seville
The Museum of Fine Arts of Seville or Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla is a museum in Seville, Spain, a collection of mainly Spanish visual arts from medieval period to the early 20th century, including a choice selection of works from the so-called Golden Age of Sevillian painting during the 17th...

. It opened its doors to the public 4 March 1973. For the next seven years, the museum fell under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Science, but the city government occupied more than half of the poorly maintained building. Neither institution took full responsibility. This situation led to a series of temporary closures. In 1976, the electric bill could not be paid, and the museum had to be shut until it could get power again. In 1979, heavy rains damaged the interior.

On 26 March 1980, the City Council agreed to allow the Ministry of Education and Science to use the whole building, for as long as it was used for the museum, on the condition that the Ministry would suitably restore it. On this basis, the Ministry hired architect Fernando Villanueva Sandino. The resulting restoration converted the primitive aeration chamber into a new lower-ground floor. The museum reopened 18 October 1984; at that same time the new Andalusian Autonomous Government
Andalusian Autonomous Government
The Andalusian Autonomous Government is the regional government body of Andalusia, one of the 17 autonomous communities which make up Spain...

 took over the museum, along with other museums in Andalusia that had been operated by the central government of Spain.

In 1990 the main floor was further fitted out for temporary exhibitions, and in 1994 the Díaz Velázquez Collection was permanently installed, with a little over a third of the building remaining for temporary exhibitions.

Facilities and layout

The public portion of the museum occupies the lower-ground floor, the main floor, and the additional floor (now "first floor") that was created by Delgado Roig. The permanent exhibition space amounts to 5496 square metres (18,031.5 ft). The upper floor contains the museum library (specialized in ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

 and museology
Museology
Museology is the diachronic study of museums and how they have established and developed in their role as an educational mechanism under social and political pressures.-Overview:...

). There is also a photo archive, audiovisual and conference rooms, as well as a restoration studio and a photography laboratory. Temporary exhibitions can be visited independently of visiting the rest of the museum.

As of 2010, the arrangement of exhibits is:
  • Main floor
    • Halls I–II: Díaz Velázquez collections of embroidery
      Embroidery
      Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....

       and lace
      Lace
      Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...

      .
    • Halls III–V: Temporary exhibitions
    • Halls VI–VII: Recreation of the Díaz Velázquez family dwelling
  • First floor
    • Halls I–II: Apparel, personal adornment, and religious objects
    • Hall III: Musical instruments and popular literature
    • Hall IV: Cultivation of wheat
    • Halls V–VI: Goldsmithing and embroidery
    • Hall VII: Fittings and furniture
  • Lower-ground floor
    • Hall I: Functions of domestic furniture (mobilario)
    • Hall II: Functions of domestic furniture (ajuar)
    • Hall III: Types of domestic containers
    • Hall IV: Traditional offices
    • Hall V: Ceramics and tilemaking
    • Hall VI: Ceramics workshops. Popular use of ceramics
    • Hall VII: Winemaking
    • Hall VIII: La Cartuja (?) and Japanese ceramics
    • Hall IX: Knives and firearms
    • Hall X: Metalwork
    • Hall XI–XII: Various techniques of processing
    • This floor also includes storage areas, archives, audiovisual space, and the restoration studio.
Sources:

Collections

Most of the items in the museum date back to its original collection. The museum was founded as a section of the Museum of Fine Arts, and the largest and most significant portion of the collection came from that museum. Particularly notable are the Aguiar collection of costumbrista paintings; the Soria collection of Oriental porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

 and ivory
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...

; and some pieces from the Orleans and Gestoso collections. Other pieces have been donated by other museums, such as a collection of Sevillian azulejos (glazed tiles) donated by the Archaeological Museum of Sevilla, and other donations from the Museo del Pueblo Español (Madrid), the Museum of Fine Arts Valencia, and from various smaller museums in Andalusia. Various people of Seville have also made important donations, filling gaps in the collections; for example, they have donated textiles, agricultural tools, household utensils, and musical instruments. Other pieces were purchased in the 1970s, when the museum came under the aegis of the Ministry of Education and Science. The largest donation after the founding was the 1979 Díaz Velázquez legacy, one of Europe's best collections of embroidery and lace, with nearly 6,000 pieces. Acquisitions since 2000 include the Loty collection of more than 2,000 glass panels depicting details Andalusian cities and life from roughly 1900 to 1936, and the 168-piece Allepuz ethnographic collection.

The collection of Andalusian popular ceramics has developed over time, and is rivaled only be the collection at the Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg
Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg
The Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg , founded in 1879, is today of the largest museums of ethnology in Europe. The approximately 350,000 objects in the collection are visited every year by about 180,000 visitors. It lies in the Rotherbaum quarter of the Eimsbüttel borough in Hamburg.-History:The...

. The city donated the originals of the posters for the annual Seville Fair
Seville Fair
The Seville Fair is held in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain. The fair generally begins two weeks after the Semana Santa, or Easter Holy Week....

 (Feria de Abril). The Department of Culture supplemented this with the Mencos collection in the museum, the most complete known collection of lithographs and color photographs of Feria and Semana Santa (Holy Week in Seville
Holy Week in Seville
Holy Week in Seville is one of the most important traditional events of the city. It is celebrated in the week leading up to Easter , and is one of the better known religious events within Spain...

) posters.

Other acquisitions were the outgrowth of fieldwork: the research of Carmen Ortiz led to the donation of the cooperage workshop of Claudio Bernal, the city's last cooper
Cooper (profession)
Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...

; Andrés Carretero's work similarly led to the donation of the workshop of guitarmaker Francisco Barba; Esther Fernández work added a gilding
Gilding
The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...

 workshop; other workshops donated included those of Filigrana, master maker of castanets, and of goldsmith
Goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...

 Fernando Marmolejo. Marmolejo was the last in a four-centuries-old family profession, and some of his tools dated back centuries. The museum now has eight workshops on exhibit.

Use as a film set

The building has been used several times as a set for films or television shows, including the 1974 American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film The Wind and the Lion
The Wind and the Lion
The Wind and the Lion is a 1975 adventure film. It was written and directed by John Milius and starred Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith and John Huston...

and the 1985 French Film Harem
Harem (film)
Harem is a 1985 French film starring Nastassja Kinski and Ben Kingsley. Directed by Arthur Joffe, the film was not rated in the U.S., but contained nudity, violence, and profanity. The film also starred Dennis Goldson....

, where it was used as the British Embassy.

External links

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