The artistic production of the late Gothic period is the focus of the first session of the Fundación Amigos Museo del Prado's lecture series in Pamplona

Nearly 300 people gathered at the University to delve into the secrets of 15th century art, the period to which the Francisco Calvo Serraller lecture series was dedicated. Francisco Calvo Serraller lecture series the Friends of the Museo del Prado Foundation organized in Pamplona, in collaboration with the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the academic center.

The opening ceremony, held yesterday, Wednesday, January 24, was chaired by Ángel J. Gómez Montoro, president of the Board of Trustees of the Museo Universidad de Navarra; Julia Pavón, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters; Alberto Pancorbo, Director of Activities of the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation; and Iñigo Martínez, General Director of Viscofan Spain, sponsor of the series, which also has the collaboration of the Diario de Navarra Foundation. Joan Molina, Head of the Department of Spanish Gothic Painting at the Prado Museum, was the first speaker of the series, which has now been held eight times in the Navarrese capital. His presentation was given by Javier Azanza, Professor of Art History at the University of Navarra.

As the speaker explained at the beginning of his speech, "the last stage of the Middle Ages was a particularly fertile period in terms of artistic production, but it is little known, as it has been obscured by the Italian Renaissance". However, he pointed out that "in the works conceived during this time we have the door to the renovation that the masters of Flemish painting and some of the most outstanding artists of the Italian Quattrocento will bring about".

During the session, entitled "Between reality and dream. Court art in the twilight of the Middle Ages", the expert showed the attendees some of the most relevant artistic productions of the international Gothic developed for courtly residences and palaces. "In this period there was an explosion of courtly sophistication, with artistic proposals marked by heraldic and chivalric exaltation, by symbolic naturalism, where the religious and the profane merge". He also explained how the creations of the period went through multiple aesthetic options: "The autumn of the Gothic period cannot be interpreted as a metaphor of decadence or death; quite the contrary; it was a fertile, exuberant, exaggerated art, where the real ends up becoming fantastic," he concluded.

The next session will take place on Wednesday, January 31, at 7:00 p.m., at the theater of the Museo Universidad de Navarra. It will be given by Josefina Planas, Professor of Art History at the University of Lleida, who will talk about the courtly leisure reflected in "Las muy ricas horas del Duque de Berry". On Wednesday 7, Fernando Gutiérrez Baños, Professor of Art History at the University of Valladolid, will give the lecture "Kings and nobles. A look at the Gothic painting of the Prado Museum". The series will end with the intervention of Javier Barón, Head of Conservation of 19th Century Painting at the Prado Museum, whose session will focus on "The fascination for the late Middle Ages in 19th century painting".

Tickets are still on sale on the website of the cycle, where the dossier of this edition is also available for download, and at the box office of Museo Universidad de Navarra.