McIntire Department of Art Continues Spring Lecture Series

March 18, 2010 —The University of Virginia's Carl H. and Martha S. Lindner Center for Art History spring lecture series continues April 1 with "Architecture and Good Government in Baroque Madrid," a lecture by Jesús Escobar of Northwestern University.

The talk begins at 6 p.m. in Campbell Hall, room 153, and will be followed by a reception in Fayerweather Lounge.

Escobar's talk will explore the symbolic meaning of public architecture in early modern Spain with a focus on one of Madrid's best surviving 17th-century buildings, the Cárcel de Corte, or Court Prison. Considering archival documents about its construction and visual images representing the monument, as well as the building's prominent placement at the center of a rapidly expanding city, the talk offers an interpretation of the Court Prison as a built manifestation of justice and good government.

Escobar explores the ways architects relied on executor-assistants who contracted with sculptors, painters, gilders and others to create a government building – both in its exterior character and interior decoration – of great coherence in design and singularity in message. More significantly, his research seeks to measure the success of the project for Madrid's residents who lived with the building in their daily lives.

For information, contact the McIntire Department of Art at 434-924-6123.

— By Jane Ford

Media Contact