Lingering over Graphic Descriptions of Grand State Ceremonials and Festivities: Stirling Maxwell and the Role of the Artist in Golden-Age Spain*

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the remarkable contribution of Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818–1878) towards a modern understanding of the interdisciplinarity of the arts which was fundamental to the multi-faceted role of the artist in Early Modern Spain and the Habsburg empire. As the first chronological history of Spanish art, which contextualized art by demonstrating the close links—indeed interdependence—between the visual arts, literature and theatre, and the patronage of Church and State, Stirling’s Annals of the Artists of Spain (1848) earned a pioneering place in the emerging discipline of art history. We trace the evolution of Stirling’s interest in both festivals and art, and their interrelationship, citing evidence from his early travels on the Continent, his published works, and his outstanding collections of Spanish art and of festival books, focusing especially on the multiple copies of Torre Farfán’s Fiestas de Sevilla (1671–1672) which he conserved and prefaced. Thus, although he was criticized at the time for ‘lingering over’ descriptions of the role of artists in ephemeral festivals and celebrations, it is argued here that Stirling can now be seen as an important nineteenth-century link between current art historical approaches and Early Modern mentalities of theatricality and performativity.