For all interested, below is an advertisment for an upcoming lecture from the Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art.

We are delighted to announce three online lectures by distinguished scholars exploring the visual and material heritage related to the development of silk in Spain, starting with the pioneering production of silk in medieval Iberia and going on to the new uses and meanings of silk in contemporary society. The lectures will be hosted by the Zurbarán Centre and are organised in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes, the University of Leeds, the Universidad de Valencia and the member institutions of the European SILKNOW research project.

Please see the flyer here

Friday, 7 May at 6:00 PM | Dr Maria J. Feliciano: Staging Medieval Silk in Iberia: Treasure, Ritual, and Ornament.

Dr María J. Feliciano is an independent scholar based in New York City. She specializes in the visual culture of the late medieval and early modern Iberian worlds. She has published extensively on the influence of the arts of Islam in the artistic developments of Peninsular and Viceregal societies. She is the director of the Medieval Textiles in Iberian and the Mediterranean Research Project and a member of Material and Visual Cultures of Religion in the Americas (Yale University) and The Medieval Iberian Treasury in Context (CSIC), among other research groups

The lecture will be followed by a brief demo of the digital tools developed by the SILKNOW research project, in connection with the subject of Dr Feliciano’s lecture. The presenter will be Jorge Sebastián, Professor of Art History at the Universitat de València

Friday, 14 May at 6:00 PM | Dr Ana Cabrera Lafuente: Revisiting Sericulture and Silk Production in the Kingdoms of Spain, circa 1300-1700: local and global networks

Dr Ana Cabrera is Director of the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España (IPCE) since 2020. Previously she was curator of historical fashion at the Museo del Traje in Madrid (2018-2020), Marie S.-Curie Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum (2016-2018), and curator at the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Madrid (2002-2016). She has curated the exhibiton Alfombras y tejidos del Museo de La Alhambra in Granada in 1997 and Extra, Moda. El nacimiento de la prensa de moda en España with Maria Prega at the Museo del Traje. She is the author of four books, several book chapters and articles about museum documentation, the history of the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, and historical textiles.

The lecture will be followed by a brief demo of the digital tools developed by the SILKNOW research project, in connection with the subject of Dr Cabrera’s lecture. The presenter will be Mar Gaitán, Research Technician, Universitat de València.

Monday, 17 May at 6:00 PM | Professor Cris Carr: Silk in contemporary society, beyond its ornamental use

Cris Carr is Professor in Textile Technology at the University of Leeds, with a key focus on Healthcare Textiles, and he was Head of the School of Design until September 2020. He has published widely through research publications and conference presentations and is a member of several Editorial Boards for international research journals. In 2015 he was awarded the Society of Dyers and Colourists Gold Medal for his outstanding contribution to Textile & Colour Education and is currently a Trustee on the Society of Dyers and Colourists.

The lecture will be followed by a brief demo of the digital tools developed by the SILKNOW research project, in connection with the topic of Professor Carr’s lecture. The presenter will be Cristina Portalés, Ramón y Cajal researcher, University of Valencia.

Booking is essential. To register and receive a zoom link, click here.

For further information, see our events page: https://www.dur.ac.uk/zurbaran/news-events/events/