The Iron Arts Tradition in Spain is Focus of Online Course

Online course low res
The Puerta del Reloj (Clock Gate) of the Toledo Cathedral is the work of Maestro Pablo (1482). ©Photography : Herbert González Zymla.

The Friends of the National Museum of Decorative Arts Association (La Asociación de Amigos del Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas) has organized a six-session online course, Las artes del hierro y la forja artística, (The iron arts and artistic wrought iron ). Participants will learn about the significance of iron in the history of Spanish and European decorative arts, review leading examples of wrought iron works in Spain, and learn about tools to identify and catalog them.

The iron arts constitute one of the most relevant artistic traditions in Spain.  The magnificence of these works has gone beyond the purely functional to constitute works of great artistic expression. Herbert González Zymla will teach. An Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the Complutense University of Madrid, his research interests include classical and medieval iconography and artistic metalwork in the Middle Ages.

Program

The course will take place weekly from September 29 until November 3, from 5 to 6:30 PM Central European Summer Time. Participants will learn about the iron arts from a historical perspective.

September 29: The importance of iron arts in Hispanic culture.

October 6: Hispanic ironwork and iron arts during the Ancient and High Middle Ages. The grilles of the Romanesque period.

October 13: Iron arts in the late Middle Ages. Architectural railings of the Gothic period.

October 20 The golden age of Hispanic iron arts. The architectural ironwork of the late Gothic and early Renaissance periods.

October 26: The golden age of Hispanic iron arts. The architectural ironwork of the High Renaissance period.

November 3: The iron arts between tradition and innovation, from the Baroque to the avant-garde.

Registration Information

The deadline for registration is September 26, 2022. Participants can access the course on the Zoom platform. Upon completion, they will receive a certificate of attendance from the Association of Friends of the National Museum of Decorative Arts.

For additional registration information, contact La Asociación de Amigos del Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas.

The Friends of the National Museum of Decorative Arts Association is a private non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and supporting the conservation, study, and dissemination of the cultural heritage holdings of the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid.

©Photography by Herbert González Zymla, courtesy of Friends of the National Museum of Decorative Arts Association.