Matilde Mateo is Associate Research Professor in the Department of Art and Music Histories at Syracuse University. Her research focuses on two different lines of inquiry. One is the manipulation of Spanish medieval art and architecture in historiography, rituals, and policies, in order to construct a national identity. The other is how the Gothic has been conceptualized, visualized, and manipulated over the centuries in art theory, literature and film, architecture, visual representations and fashion. She is the author of El Pórtico de la Gloria en la Inglaterra Victoriana: la invención de una obra maestra (1991). Currently, she is working on a book project on the España artística y monumental (Paris, 1842–50) as an instrument of cultural nationalism.