The four scholarships offered by ARTES with the support of the CEEH have been granted:

Travel scholarships

Irini Picolou, Durham University (£877.52)
Female Martyrdom in The Altarpiece of Saint Engracia by Bartolomé Bermejo

Bartolomé Bermejo (active 1474–98), a painter in the Crown of Aragon, produced the Altarpiece of Saint Engracia (1474–78) in Daroca (Saragossa). The altarpiece has since been dispersed, with the central panel and Arrest of Saint Engracia displayed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and San Diego Museum of Fine Art, and the Flagellation in the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao. Only the predella, the Crucifixion, and the Imprisonment remain in the Museum of Daroca. The objective of this study is to trace the altarpiece’s production for a thesis chapter which examines female sanctity in relation to Engracia’s martyrdom.

Kirk Patrick Hilario Testa, Courtauld Institute of Art (£1000)
Tracing the Spanish Roots of the Santo Niño de Cebu

Testa’s Courtauld MA dissertation focuses on the contemporary articulations of a sacred object called the Santo Niño de Cebu. This Flemish-style statue was brought to the Philippines in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan. Current scholarship on the Santo Niño de Cebu focuses on what happened after Spanish-Filipino contact. His goal for this research project is to trace the history of the object in the Spanish context before it was brought to the Philippines.

Scholarship for UK PhD students

Nausheen Hoosein, University of York (£3000)
From Umayyad Madinat al-Zahra to Almohad Seville: The Reuse of Architectural Spolia in al-Andalus during the 12th century

The plunder and re-use of Umayyad spolia, particularly capitals, in Almohad architecture remains understudied — although much has been written about the re-use of antiquities in the West, the same cannot be said of Islamic Spain. This project deploys an integrated text- and material-based analysis to examine two significant Almohad sites, La Giralda and Alcázar, in Seville. The project situates the sites within the renewed field of medieval Islamic spolia studies and proposes that the Almohad reuse of Umayyad marble was not a practical or triumphant one, but instead a deliberate programme of religious and political assertion of Almohad rule.

Scholarship for PhD students or post-doctoral scholars in Spain who wish to conduct research in the UK

Paula Martín Rodríguez, Universidad de Sevilla (£3000)
Isidro Gálvez: A Botanical Artist from 18th-century Spain

Martín Rodríguez’s thesis examines the figure of Isidro Gálvez, a Spanish botanical artist who dedicated his life to illustrating the Flora peruviana et chilensis, one of several Spanish botanists and draughtsmen in the project. They produced a great number of botanical illustrations that are mainly kept in the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid. She aims to complete her research and achieve a holistic vision of the work of Gálvez and his colleagues in an expedition to Peru and Chile by conducting a research in several English archives.

More about these scholarships